--- product_id: 424181428 title: "Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior" price: "₨46" currency: SCR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sc/products/424181428-black-ops-the-life-of-a-cia-shadow-warrior store_origin: SC region: Seychelles --- # Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior **Price:** ₨46 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior - **How much does it cost?** ₨46 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sc](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/424181428-black-ops-the-life-of-a-cia-shadow-warrior) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric’s legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm. After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA’s headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror. A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency’s Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press Review: DO NOT PASS THIS UP - It is rare I write a review on a book purchase from desertcart. If you run across this book DO NOT pass it up. It's a great read, with insight to the CIA and how these men and women devot themselves to assure our safety and virtues. Thank you Enrique for your service. You are a true patriot. May God bless you and family along with the ones who work tiresly at the CIA. I JUST ORDERED 2 OF STEVE COVELL'S BOOKS. LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THEM. Review: A one of a kind story, from a one of a kind intelligence officer. - In the past few years, there have been a series of works by former senior officers of the Central Intelligence Agency: “Undaunted”, by former CIA Director John O. Brennan, “At The Center of the Storm”, by former CIA Director George Tenet; “From the Shadows”, by former CIA Director Robert Gates. Each of these officers rose to the pinnacle of the CIA, either from within the Directorate of Analysis (Brennan and Gates) or from without, via the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Others, like “Company Man”, by John Rizzo; “See No Evil”, by Robert Baer, or “The Art of Intelligence”, by Hank Crumpton recount their tales from within the working elements of the Agency (Rizzo, the Office of the General Counsel; Baer and Crumpton, the Directorate of Operations). Each took a substantially-similar path to the Agency: born in America, raised in America, college-educated in America, each felt the pull towards national service and each ended up surviving through the screening process to be hired as an Agency employee (with the sole exception of Tenet, whose entry into the Agency came at the top). And then there’s Ric Prado. Born in Cuba, emigrated to the US solo as a child, lived initially in a Colorado orphanage until his parents could join him in the US. His initial education came via the public school system and the United States Air Force, in which he excelled in the most un-Air Force-yet-still-Air-Force role there was: a pararescueman – a PJ, as they’re known – whose primary role was to descend into a hot battlefield to rescue a downed, and quite likely wounded, airman. PJs were trained both as combat medics – to a very high standard of proficiency – and as infantrymen. No university education for Ric (at least, not at first). His education came via heavy life experiences, starting with the Communist revolution in Cuba, the mean streets of Miami, and the rigorous challenges of PJ training. Hired as a short-term contractor to support CIA’s Special Activities Division, Ric so impressed SAD’s paramilitary staff that he was later hired to lead the CIA’s efforts to support Nicaragua’s contras in the jungles of Honduras. And thus began one of the most remarkable publicly-documented careers of any CIA officer: not an analyst, like Gates and Brennan (though Ric is possessed of a keen analytical mind); not what CIA calls a “core collector”, like Baer and Crumpton (although Ric would excel in the collection course, and operate successfully in some of the most challenging operational assignments CIA had to offer); not as a policy-maker or policy-shaper, like Tenet, Gates, and Brennan. Ric was a paramilitary officer at his core, a counter-terror officer in his heart, yet also a supremely talented core collector - the kind of officer that foreign intelligence services, or terrorist organizations, discounted at their, considerable, peril. Black Ops details Ric’s career from three years in the jungles of Honduras (where a photo of him, shirtless and riding a donkey, would attain major persuasive power in CIA Director Bill Casey’s efforts to keep the contras funded), through an accelerated undergraduate degree program at George Mason University and subsequent field assignments in Hispanic America, the Philippines, East Asia Division, and counter-terror targets, to his assignment as Chief of Operations for CIA’s Counterterrorist Center. The tales it tells reflect the realities of a working case officer, capable at a moment’s notice of conducting paramilitary activities, with both the working-level and the national policy-level perspective. He started his career at the lowest possible level – a contractor – and ended it as the civilian equivalent of a two-star general. Books about CIA are all too often either filled with figments of the author’s imagination, recriminations about past slights (real or imagined), or feats of administrative derring-do. Ric Prado’s story needs no embellishment; the stark portrayal of his CT role over the years is imaginative enough. Under investigation by a civilian police agency gunning for one Ric’s friends from his youth, his tale is one of graceful perseverance under pressure. While others may preen in the hallways of CIA Headquarters about what they would do in the field, Ric took every opportunity he could get to get out of Headquarters, back into the field and do what others would scarcely dare dream of. Ric’s tale is worth reading from several standpoints. While there have been many books from the leadership of the Agency, and several from the functional areas of the Agency, Ric’s is the first from the paramilitary side of the Agency. That alone makes its reading worthwhile. Black Ops details a most unusual, yet typical, path into the CIA: officers needing a capability found it in Ric, nurtured it, and when conditions permitted brought it aboard as a full-time officer. In that sense, Ric’s story exemplifies the best of the CIA writ small, and the IC writ large: creativity, and a willingness to employ the unconventional. Finally, Black Ops exemplifies the burning passion that intelligence officers feel for their country, but have such difficulty expressing in terms the layman can understand. Ric, as all PJs, lives by their motto: “That Others May Live”. Black Ops, the story of one paramilitary officer yet also the story of all who labor within the Directorate of Operations, personifies the IC version of that motto: “That Others May Live in Peace and Security.” The American Dream teaches that it doesn’t matter where you start; all that America has to offer can be yours if you’re willing to work for it. Ric Prado worked in ways that few of us can understand in conditions that most of us wouldn’t want to understand, let alone experience. His service, while in many ways unique to him, in other ways exemplifies all who serve in the shadows, working to ensure that the American Dream remains alive, and well, and available to future generations. Ric provides a bridge out of the shadow world into ours, making it easier for those who have never been in his world to understand it – appreciate it – and ultimately respect it. ## Images ![Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71O5BUXH-FS.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ DO NOT PASS THIS UP *by J***. on June 10, 2026* It is rare I write a review on a book purchase from Amazon. If you run across this book DO NOT pass it up. It's a great read, with insight to the CIA and how these men and women devot themselves to assure our safety and virtues. Thank you Enrique for your service. You are a true patriot. May God bless you and family along with the ones who work tiresly at the CIA. I JUST ORDERED 2 OF STEVE COVELL'S BOOKS. LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THEM. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A one of a kind story, from a one of a kind intelligence officer. *by V***R on March 23, 2022* In the past few years, there have been a series of works by former senior officers of the Central Intelligence Agency: “Undaunted”, by former CIA Director John O. Brennan, “At The Center of the Storm”, by former CIA Director George Tenet; “From the Shadows”, by former CIA Director Robert Gates. Each of these officers rose to the pinnacle of the CIA, either from within the Directorate of Analysis (Brennan and Gates) or from without, via the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Others, like “Company Man”, by John Rizzo; “See No Evil”, by Robert Baer, or “The Art of Intelligence”, by Hank Crumpton recount their tales from within the working elements of the Agency (Rizzo, the Office of the General Counsel; Baer and Crumpton, the Directorate of Operations). Each took a substantially-similar path to the Agency: born in America, raised in America, college-educated in America, each felt the pull towards national service and each ended up surviving through the screening process to be hired as an Agency employee (with the sole exception of Tenet, whose entry into the Agency came at the top). And then there’s Ric Prado. Born in Cuba, emigrated to the US solo as a child, lived initially in a Colorado orphanage until his parents could join him in the US. His initial education came via the public school system and the United States Air Force, in which he excelled in the most un-Air Force-yet-still-Air-Force role there was: a pararescueman – a PJ, as they’re known – whose primary role was to descend into a hot battlefield to rescue a downed, and quite likely wounded, airman. PJs were trained both as combat medics – to a very high standard of proficiency – and as infantrymen. No university education for Ric (at least, not at first). His education came via heavy life experiences, starting with the Communist revolution in Cuba, the mean streets of Miami, and the rigorous challenges of PJ training. Hired as a short-term contractor to support CIA’s Special Activities Division, Ric so impressed SAD’s paramilitary staff that he was later hired to lead the CIA’s efforts to support Nicaragua’s contras in the jungles of Honduras. And thus began one of the most remarkable publicly-documented careers of any CIA officer: not an analyst, like Gates and Brennan (though Ric is possessed of a keen analytical mind); not what CIA calls a “core collector”, like Baer and Crumpton (although Ric would excel in the collection course, and operate successfully in some of the most challenging operational assignments CIA had to offer); not as a policy-maker or policy-shaper, like Tenet, Gates, and Brennan. Ric was a paramilitary officer at his core, a counter-terror officer in his heart, yet also a supremely talented core collector - the kind of officer that foreign intelligence services, or terrorist organizations, discounted at their, considerable, peril. Black Ops details Ric’s career from three years in the jungles of Honduras (where a photo of him, shirtless and riding a donkey, would attain major persuasive power in CIA Director Bill Casey’s efforts to keep the contras funded), through an accelerated undergraduate degree program at George Mason University and subsequent field assignments in Hispanic America, the Philippines, East Asia Division, and counter-terror targets, to his assignment as Chief of Operations for CIA’s Counterterrorist Center. The tales it tells reflect the realities of a working case officer, capable at a moment’s notice of conducting paramilitary activities, with both the working-level and the national policy-level perspective. He started his career at the lowest possible level – a contractor – and ended it as the civilian equivalent of a two-star general. Books about CIA are all too often either filled with figments of the author’s imagination, recriminations about past slights (real or imagined), or feats of administrative derring-do. Ric Prado’s story needs no embellishment; the stark portrayal of his CT role over the years is imaginative enough. Under investigation by a civilian police agency gunning for one Ric’s friends from his youth, his tale is one of graceful perseverance under pressure. While others may preen in the hallways of CIA Headquarters about what they would do in the field, Ric took every opportunity he could get to get out of Headquarters, back into the field and do what others would scarcely dare dream of. Ric’s tale is worth reading from several standpoints. While there have been many books from the leadership of the Agency, and several from the functional areas of the Agency, Ric’s is the first from the paramilitary side of the Agency. That alone makes its reading worthwhile. Black Ops details a most unusual, yet typical, path into the CIA: officers needing a capability found it in Ric, nurtured it, and when conditions permitted brought it aboard as a full-time officer. In that sense, Ric’s story exemplifies the best of the CIA writ small, and the IC writ large: creativity, and a willingness to employ the unconventional. Finally, Black Ops exemplifies the burning passion that intelligence officers feel for their country, but have such difficulty expressing in terms the layman can understand. Ric, as all PJs, lives by their motto: “That Others May Live”. Black Ops, the story of one paramilitary officer yet also the story of all who labor within the Directorate of Operations, personifies the IC version of that motto: “That Others May Live in Peace and Security.” The American Dream teaches that it doesn’t matter where you start; all that America has to offer can be yours if you’re willing to work for it. Ric Prado worked in ways that few of us can understand in conditions that most of us wouldn’t want to understand, let alone experience. His service, while in many ways unique to him, in other ways exemplifies all who serve in the shadows, working to ensure that the American Dream remains alive, and well, and available to future generations. Ric provides a bridge out of the shadow world into ours, making it easier for those who have never been in his world to understand it – appreciate it – and ultimately respect it. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good story about a good man *by D***E on March 6, 2025* What a great story. The book takes you from Rics humble beginnings to his retirement from the CIA. Not shy in telling of both his failures, challenges and many accomplishments the book provides an honest look into a very secret profession. Easy to read and hard to put down --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sc/products/424181428-black-ops-the-life-of-a-cia-shadow-warrior](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/424181428-black-ops-the-life-of-a-cia-shadow-warrior) --- *Product available on Desertcart Seychelles* *Store origin: SC* *Last updated: 2026-10-08*