“We have to go to battle stations.”“Cofer, it’s not Friday,” I joked. It had become something of a tradition that either Black or FBI Assistant Director Dale Watson would call on Friday afternoons with late-breaking news that would cause us to spend the weekend in the office. We called the regular Friday afternoon CSG meetings the “Friday Follies.”“No, Dick, this is the real deal,” Black insisted. “Jordan infiltrated a cell, planning lots of bang-bang for New Year’s. The Radisson Hotel, Christian tourist sites, lots of dead Americans. Deal is, Dick, I don’t think this is it. You know bin Laden, he likes attacks in multiple locations. They’re like cockroaches. You see one, but you know that means there is a whole nest of them.”Cofer Black was a hard-charging, get-it-done kind of CIA officer who had proved himself in the back alleys of unsavory places. He was what the CIA needed a lot more of, but had little of. I had urged George Tenet to find such a guy to run the Counterterrorism Center, someone who shared Tenet’s view and mine that we had to go on the offensive.
What do You think about Against All Enemies (2004)?
