num_pages: 480
description: Surviving two assassination attempts, Terrell lived to reveal an inside story of how the CIA &amp; other intelligence agencies are out of control, plotting against the president, defying federal court orders &amp; pursuing their own reprehensible military agenda. His story reads like a novel, with a fascinating mix of odd characters &amp; complicated subplots involving assassination plans, gunrunning &amp; drug dealing. Disposable Patriot is written from ground zero, not by a journalist who merely reviewed public documents, but by a combatant in a zone reeking with the smell of corruption &amp; death. Disposable Patriot is as much a personal tragedy, a story of lost innocence, as it's an adventure story. Terrell went to Central America to fight communists &amp; came back to wage war against Oliver North. A rugged veteran of America's dirty little wars, he provides a thrilling account of how the intelligence community recruits, programs, trains, uses &amp; disposes of civilians in backchannel dirty-work which is considered too politically sensitive for ordinary government operatives to handle. In the mid-80's he hooked up with an Alabama-based paramilitary group called Civilian Military Assistance, which was formed with the encouragement of the Reagan Administration, to provide illegal assistance to the Contras. CMA attracted a motley crew of misfits, loners &amp; good old boys, either in search of adventure or determined to combat mid-life crisis. He was tapped by Donald Fortier, the number three man at the National Security Council, who needed a plant within the CMA to act as its eyes &amp; ears in Central America. He was an essential part of Oliver North's campaign in Honduras &amp; Nicaragua, who with Fortier's assistance, acted as a conduit for cash &amp; weapons to the Contras. He became disenchanted with the US government &amp; the Contras because of widespread corruption, drug dealing &amp; violence.
language: English
title: Disposable Patriot: Revelations of a Soldier in America's Secret Wars
titlecomplete: Disposable Patriot: Revelations of a Soldier in America's Secret Wars
characters: Jack Reynolds Terrell, Oliver North
ratings_count: 5
publisher: National Press Books (DC)