Promotional Information

Surveillance, technology, war, and the failed US policy of remote killing

About the Author

ANDREW COCKBURN is the Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine and the author of many articles and books on national security, including the New York Times Editor's Choice Rumsfeld and The Threat. He is a regular opinion contributor to the Los Angeles Times and has written for, among others, the New York Times, National Geographic and the London Review of Books.

Reviews

This brilliant book tells us how computers kill soldiers and civilians, and explains with bone-chilling clarity how generalship gave way to microchips from Vietnam to Afghanistan. A blood-curdling account of the rise of robot warfare, a great story, and a prophecy to be read and heeded.
*Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA*

A compellingly readable book that not only tells us why drones cannot live up to the overblown expectation of politicians but lucidly explains the vulnerability of intelligence, either robotic or human, better than any book I have ever read.
*Edward Jay Epstein, author of Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA*

Sharp-eyed and disturbing, especially Cockburn's concluding assessment that, nourished by an unending flow of money, 'the assassination machine is here to stay.'
*Kirkus*

In this first-rate history, Andrew Cockburn takes readers from the
Pentagon's mainframe-driven dreams of the Vietnam War era through
today's visions of stealth super-drones, exposing the dark realities of twenty-
first-century robotic warfare. Richly informative, superbly researched,
and utterly illuminating, Kill Chain shines much-needed light on the shadowy
theories and theorists, secret military and intelligence programmes,
and classified technologies that spawned our current age of remote-controlled
assassination.
*Nick Turse, author of Kill Anything That Moves*

Fascinating and original investigation.
*Times Literary Supplement*

In this riveting book, Cockburn puts the reader in the pilot's seat as kill
teams go on their deadly hunts before dashing home for their children's
soccer games. Wrapped in enormous secrecy, the only way past the armed
guards and cipher-locks and into this new world of Hellfire diplomacy is
Cockburn's great new read. Rather than voter IDs, people should prove
they have read this book before being allowed to vote in the next election.
*James Bamford, author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA frm 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America*

Provides the ammunition for believing that everything you ever feared or suspected about drone warfare is true.
*Scotsman*

Persuasive, punchy and revelatory.
*Irish Times*