The Deniable Agent: Undercover in Afghanistan

This was an enjoyable enough read for what it is... And what is it exactly? Spoilers below, but I haven't ruined it if you do want to read the book...

As I see it, this is a non-fiction telling of an awkward situation that an ex-military fellow who has got himself involved in some spy work which he thought was managed by British Intelligence (well Customs & Excise), when it appears he was a subcontractor of a (dodgy) subcontractor, who was perhaps being managed by someone at Customs & Excise who was being investigated for corruption.

Basically the author ended up being caught up in a political situation where a faction of the Afghans had control of him, and neither the British or the Americans wanted to exert a lot of pressure to get him back - they didn't care enough, as he was effectively operating without support.

So assuming everything in the book is true, the author has every right to feel aggrieved with the fact that so little was done.

He primarily ended up in a mess when two Afghan informers visited him at his hotel, and pulled a gun on him, attempting to rob him. The result was the author got shot in the side, and the two Afghans got killed. Having fallen out with the dodgy Cypriot guy he was working for (with??) the author made the decision to call the Americans he had been working with, as the British Consulate were already at arms length. Given the dodgy Cypriot was selling information to the Americans where in theory he was working for the British, this was probably not ideal.

He openly suggests that he doesn't believe he was set up, it was just a bad situation, and the assistance he was given by the Americans (who wouldn't take him to the US base, or a neutral hospital, dumped him at an Afghan hospital (run by foreign aid, but where the Afghan authorities could claim jurisdiction, which wouldn't have happened otherwise). The Americans also handed over his gun, luggage, and most crucially briefcase with his surveillance notes over to the Afghans - which effectively hung him out to dry (they removed everything incriminating the US first, of course).

The UK embassy were either incredibly incompetent, or unwilling to step in. They met with him several time and made some low level reassuring comments that they were sorting it out, meanwhile the author is being starved and tortured in an Afghan jail.

Another reviewer has indicated the facts are not all accurate, but provides no grounds for doubts. It is feasible there are some things missing or mis-reported, but as always in these books how can most of these things be corroborated, but what is the motivation for writing a book and covering up? Who knows.

I said above ‘assuming everything in the book is true...' and I have no reason to doubt the content. The author is not a writer - the book is not startlingly well written - it doesn't have a building up of pace, it doesn't set up startling revelations - but it is not fiction (where writing techniques are expected), and to me, the calm, organised and thorough explanation of events (and really the authors whole life story) lends the book much more legitimacy than involving a ghost writer to spice things up, or write an Andy McNab / Chris Ryan book which embellishes the story and later gets disproved by the others involved.

Three and a half stars, rounded down, but still an interesting read.