Robert Young Pelton first became aware of the phenomenon of hired guns in the War on Terror when he met a covert team of contractors on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in the fall of 2003. Pelton soon embarked on a globe-spanning odyssey to penetrate and understand this shadowy world, ultimately delivering stunning insights into the way private soldiers are used. Enter a blood-soaked world of South African mercenaries and tribal fighters backed by ruthless financiers. Drop into Baghdad’s Green Zone, strap on body armor, and take a daily high-speed ride with a doomed crew of security contractors who dodge car bombs and snipers just to get their charges to the airport. Share a drink in a chic hotel bar with wealthy owners of private armies who debate the best way to stay alive in war zones. Licensed to Kill spans four continents and three years, taking us inside the CIA’s dirty wars; the brutal contractor murders in Fallujah and the Alamo-like sieges in Najaf and Al Kut; the Deep South contractor training camps where ex–Special Operations soldiers and even small town cops learn the ropes; the contractor conventions where macho attendees swap bullet-punctuated tales and discuss upcoming gigs; and the grim Central African prison where contractors turned failed mercenaries pay a steep price. The United States has encouraged the use of the private sector in all facets of the War on Terror, placing contractors outside the bounds of functional legal constraints. With the shocking clarity that can come only from firsthand observation, Licensed to Kill painstakingly deconstructs the most controversial events and introduces the pivotal players. Most disturbingly, it shows that there are indeed thousands of contractors—with hundreds more being produced every month—who’ve been given a license to kill, their services available to the highest bidder.

Official, original James Bond from a writer described by Len Deighton as a 'master storyteller'. Bond has lost his licence to kill. After he took revenge on the CIA agent who handed his friend over to the master criminal, Sanchez, M revoked his double 0 status and he's considered a rogue agent. With MI6 trying to bring him in and only the support of Q behind him Bond goes after Sanchez. Boarding his ship, Bond tricks his way into Sanchez's inner circle and discovers the secret of his wealth. But Bond is walking a tightrope and it is surely only a matter of time before he slips ...

Your soul is a war zone. Know your enemy. Learn to fight. Rather than aiming at simple moral reformation, Licensed to Kill aims at our spiritual transformation. This field manual focuses on the most critical information regarding our enemy, and gives practical instruction concerning the stalking and killing of sin.

Examines the nuclear power plant constructed at Shoreham, New York, and the accumulated miscalculations and mishaps that eventually forced its deconstruction. An intricate study of the groups, policies and regulatory issues involved in a historic legal battle.

This is the true-life, roller coaster-ride story of a multi-talented, Earth-toned American singer, musician, and comedian, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, who survived a bullish upbringing that left him with a sense of unworthiness and not belonging, which metastasized into a wall of hopeless resentment and led to a rebellious, systemic journey of grapefruit-sour relationships, including a bogus military-based marriage, followed by a dysfunctional relationship in college, which led to a disastrous internship with the Portland Fire Department. He recognized early on his susceptibility to alcohol, and fell in love with a succession of women well-versed in the art of manipulation, relationships he respectfully describes as strange grapefruits. Having become involved in a biracial romantic entanglement, he relocated to the City of Seaside on the Pacific Northwest Oregon coast, working his way up to the position of supervisor of that city's most popular beachfront hotel. However, he bites off more than he can chew as he is a convenient and continuous target, of police brutality, and endemic, rural-region bullying racism for eleven consecutive months. While attending the post-nuptial reception of a friend, he and the newlywed bride find themselves cornered by an invading gang of racist bikers with murder on their minds, which turns into an all-out melee in the host's kitchen. After forcefully subduing the leader of the pack, he is elevated to instantaneous-hero status by the Seaside Police Department, who do a one-hundred-eighty degree turnabout regarding their treatment of a civilian they now hold in high regard. Despite this newly developed dEtente with the town heat, our plucky protagonist is still faced with another two-and-a-half years of constant death threats from the remainder of the notorious biker gang out of Portland, Oregon, who try to exact their racist revenge when they corner our hero once again. He escapes their clutches through a strange twist of fate, is arrested, charged with another infraction, goes to trial, and is found not guilty, twice, for acting in self-defense; Double jeopardy in a court of law, due to racism in the State of Oregon = Justified License To Kill in the eyes of the law.

Jo, Caylin, and Thresea have nothing in common—until they’re handpicked to form the intensely cool trio known as the Spy Girls. Now they’re jet-setting all over the criminal world in search of truth, justice, and a really choice hairstylist. And on their first mission, the girls head to London to keep keep the superfoxy son of an American ambassador from blowing up the world!

'It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society' Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism Over the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things. And, asserts Jonathan Aldred in this revelatory new book, it's economics that's to blame. Licence to be Bad tells the story of how a group of economics theorists changed our world, and how a handful of key ideas, from free-riding to Nudge, seeped into our decision-making and, indeed, almost all aspects of our lives. Aldred reveals the extraordinary hold of economics on our morals and values. Economics has corrupted us. But if this hidden transformation is so recent, it can be reversed. Licence to be Bad shows us where to begin.