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xi Acknowledgments THIS BOOK IS THE PRODUCT of a decade of research and writing, based on interviews with officials and experts from five continents, declassified intelligence reports, court documents, and much more. Some people spoke on the record, but more spoke on background or not for attribution, either because they still work in government or because they feared putting at risk their future access to people in Lebanon. Many people also helped me obtain documents that, though unclassified (or declassified), were not necessarily accessible to the public. I have thanked these people privately, and do so again here—the reader will not know their names, but they know who they are and will recognize themselves in this acknowledgment all the same. Special thanks are due to my friends and colleagues at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where I am a senior fellow and direct the institute’s Stein program on counterterrorism and intelligence. I am especially grateful for the support of the institute’s executive committee, board of trustees, and executive director Robert Satloff. The institute’s senior research staff was a constant source of support, and I am a wiser person for having the opportunity to be a part of this truly remarkable intellectual community. I owe a special thanks and acknowledgment to the various research assistants and interns at The Washington Institute who at some point over the past few years put their hearts and souls into this study, including David Bagby, Ben Freedman, Shoshana Haberman, David Jacobson, Julie Lascar, Jake Lipton, Julia Miller, Michael Mitchell,JonathanProhov,AaronResnick,GuiveRosen,GabrielaRudin,NickShaker, Melissa Trebil, and Kelli Vanderlee. As researchers, data organizers, fact checkers, editors, formatters, sounding boards, and partners in crime, the institute’s cadre of researchers have been second to none throughout this project. But among the research assistants who worked on this book with me, four stand out for the amount of time and energy they invested in the project. Samuel Cutler, Stephanie Papa, and Becca Wasser each spent over a year organizing material, scheduling interviews, drafting timelines, and so much more. These three saw me through the long haul of organizing the massive quantity of material I collected into xii Acknowledgments a coherent, usable archive so that I could start drafting chapters. All told, Divah Alshawa will have spent over two years on this project, including many rounds of “final” editing, fact checking, and formatting. I often had to kick her out of the office at the end of the day, only to find that she’d gone home and worked on the manuscript there too. Any errors or typos that may have slipped through are mine alone, but the reason there will be so few, if any, is that Divah made sure that would be the case. Special thanks to Jason Warshof, editor extraordinaire, who invested countless hours working with me on each draft chapter. When the final manuscript submission came out well over the expected word count, Jason stepped in to help trim the fat and keep the book as lean and focused as possible without losing key content. I want to thank the academic peer reviewers selected by Georgetown University Press who gave generously of their time to review the manuscript in its entirety and offered tangible comments and guidance. A host of other, informal readers reviewed sections of the book, and I am very grateful to them as well. My editor at Georgetown University Press, Don Jacobs, was a calming influence when I needed him to be and gently prodding when he had to be. Always supportive and with the patience of Job, he encouraged and supported me throughout the project as it crept along, sometimes at a snail’s pace. Once submitted, the manuscript was expertly prepared and promoted by the press staff. It was a stroke of genius on the part of my literary agent, Robbie Hare, to match me with Don and Georgetown University Press. Robbie is a valued friend and an exceptional agent, and from the moment she read the early proposal that became this book was its most ardent supporter. Finally, I recognize how tremendously blessed I am to be a part of such a loving, supportive family. I am truly grateful to my family—including my parents, in-laws, children, and my incredible wife, Dina—for their love, support, and patience. ...

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