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Tyranny of Secrets: Why I Had to Betray My Country.

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“In 2018, former CIA case officer and station chief Carrie A. Mathison made what was in her mind the most patriotic move she could make: she outed an American spy to the Russian government…” (S04.E03 | S08.E12)

"Tyranny of Secrets" is Carrie Mathison's 2020 autobiography, whose revelations sparked a global debate about counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. (Homeland / Showtime)

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The 'Carrie Effect' is part of the reactions to the disclosures of counter-terrorism and counter-espionage operations by Carrie Mathison, the Drone Queen. Its disclosures have fueled debates about surveillance and espionage, government foreign policy, and the lack of balance between national security and information privacy, and have resulted in notable impacts on society and the technology industry, and have served as impetus for new approaches to address issues of American interests, such as black operations. Collectively, these impacts have been referred to by the media and others as the "Carrie effect."

1. “The Little Daredevil” (page 5) about Carrie’s early life (Frank’s nickname for her).

2. “Recruitment” (page 19) and “The Farm” (page 33) about joining the CIA (Homeland Novel: Carrie’s Run).

3. “Lost In Translation” ( page 39) about the death of Carrie’s translator overseas (Homeland Novel: Saul’s Game). And the rest are ep titles!

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The cover page of the book states, what is covered in this memoir. It tells about the entire fiasco with Warners helicopter and how she had to out an American asset for the flight recorder and labeled as a traitor. This was the most patriotic and brave move that anyone can do for their country in her opinion.

Then it mentions about her life in CIA and how she fought with Mental illness, Madrassa strike, Brody and Langley Bombing, Islamabad Embassy strike, assassination attempt on POTUS and overthrowing the president.

Then states about her her life, how she was recruited and what all she did, like working for During Foundation and consultancy for a fair trail institution and liaison to president.

This would also have a lot about her daughter, and I believe this will be a book where she speaks to Franny about her life, so that she can understand her.

Her book charts the untimely, premature deaths of colleagues, lovers, friends, and family. An alarming amount.

The CIA normalizes this kind of sacrifice. The sacrifice of a family, partners, friends, time. In the most extreme circumstances, you sacrifice your life. And what they offer in return is a star on a wall.

The “work” Mathison mentions brought her to far reaches of the world: Berlin, Beirut, Kabul, Baghdad, Islamabad, Amsterdam, Moscow, Iran, Venezuela.

She was never a spy. Carrie was a case officer: The person who recruits the spy.

She’s directly referred to her bipolar disorder. Still, Mathison concedes the incredible insights her illness has offered her.

The perpetually changing nature of her disease has caused her to seek electroconvulsive therapy treatment twice in the last ten years. She describes the treatment as a “brain reset” and one that has saved her life.

Mathison’s late father, Frank, was also bipolar. He was ‘manic-depressive,’ which is maybe a better way to describe the disease. She and her older sister Maggie, now a physician with a practice outside Washington, learned to cope with the instability on their own.

Throughout the book, Mathison disassembles the public’s understanding of several prominent figures and highlights others we had no idea existed. A significant portion of her book is dedicated to essentially rewriting the story of Nicholas Brody, the "Marine One" who returned home in late 2011 as a American Marine prisoner of war and just over a year later was implicated in the 12/12/2012 bombing of the CIA headquarters.

Of all the revelations in her book, her claim that Brody was in fact innocent of that bombing and that CIA brass knew it is one of the most shocking. After Wild Brody died in 2013 on a covert mission, she lobbied Andrew Lockhart, then CIA Director, for one of those stars on the Memorial Wall, the private memorial—one star for every CIA employee who lost their life—that greets everyone as they walk through the lobby of the Agency’s headquarters.

“He basically told me that despite whatever Brody had done at the end, his earlier actions disqualified him. That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. That he would always be the person who put on a suicide vest. The person who made that tape. It was completely lost on him that he was putting 219 stars on the Wall for people who’d died at a memorial for a man who dropped a bomb on a school full of children. That person was deserving of a star, but Brody wasn’t?” Once denied, she didn’t push it. “I was hyper aware of how this appeared to everyone, of course. I wasn’t completely oblivious.”

She’s referring now to another major revelation in her book: her years-long affair with Brody, which started a few weeks after he returned from captivity and lasted until his death.

her use of illegal surveillance to gather intelligence on Brody and his family; providing authorization to bomb a Pakistani wedding party; or setting a honey trap for the nephew of former Taliban leader Haissam Haqqani… to name a few.

The 'Drone Queen' departed for Russia on a covert mission to exfiltrate Simone Martin, a French national who was involved in a Russian plot to discredit and ultimately oust former president Elizabeth Keane. It was on that trip, the same one that resulted in Simone Martin’s exfiltration, that Mathison ended up being imprisoned for seven months in retaliation.

Mathison uses the phrase in her book to describe her relationship to being a mother: I was an unenthusiastic mother. I loved—I love—my child more deeply and fully than I thought it was possible to love another person. At the same time, I did not love being a mother. I wrestled with these two halves of myself: the part that loves my daughter, that would die for her, and the part that knows if she didn’t exist, my life would be so much easier, so much cleaner.  

Almost every square inch of wall space is covered in paper: dozens upon dozens of news articles and the occasional image of major characters in her book (looking at the wall is like playing a game of I Spy). On the center of one wall, there is a giant, focus-pulling poster of a black cloaked figure with the headline LEGACY OF TORTURE, from a conference she attended in Moscow in 2019. Combined, it makes for an overwhelming collage. Mathison says it served as inspiration during the harder periods of writing.

In "THE STAR" (page 149), the Drone Queen reveals how Javadi puts the CIA in a position where he must choose between the life of an agent (the Marine One) or the success of the mission - and, if Saul even hesitates when deciding on the first option, the United States puts its finger on the wound by showing the rest of the agency's crowd making the second option happen with the US president's connivance, displaying the institutions' failed values ​​with regard to the “war on terror”.

Furthermore, this decision shows how little Brody means to everyone other than Carrie (his pregnant) or Saul, even if he has carried out a mission that is the government equivalent of winning the Super Bowl. And so it is, abandoned by his daughter Dana, by the country, forced to kill the leader of the only region that welcomed him with open arms (and being hated by those people in Iran and the US), exhausted by anything but the fight for survival, the ex-military man finds himself when he is rescued by Carrie. All this baggage makes Brody's outburst convincing, questioning what he did, what they are doing and, as he says, not even imagining a future for himself (no wonder, when looking in the mirror, half of his face is in the shadows).

On one of the window panes she’s placed rows and rows of sticky notes, each the title of a chapter in her book.

Some are more obvious, like “Beirut Is Back,” which chronicles her re-entry into the CIA in 2012—a journey that began in, you guessed it, Beirut. Others are complete mysteries.

Or “A False Glimmer,” which concludes with the foiled sarin gas attack at the Hauptbahnhof train station in Berlin in 2016.

What exactly does “Halfway to a Donut” mean? Or “glimmer”?

About Otto Düring, the billionaire philanthropist...  She worked for him for a period of about two years between 2014 and 2016, as the head of security at his global foundation.

When Mathison left the Düring Foundation in 2016, she moved to New York and set up a legal aid foundation for Muslims in the United States. The foundation ceased operations in 2017 but its still-accessible website lists Düring as a significant benefactor.

Snowden and Mathison are both Americans living in Russia in exile as a result of defying powerful forces in American intelligence. They are at turns identified as patriots and traitors. But most of the similarities end there.

Whereas Snowden quickly adopted a low profile after gaining temporary asylum in 2013, famously walking the streets of Moscow in disguise, Mathison has shown no such intentions.

The first words I ever read from Mathison are in the book’s dedication on its opening pages:

'For my daughter, in the hope that one day she will understand.'

I think of her daughter in ten or fifteen or twenty or thirty years reading those same pages, no longer a little girl in a yellow raincoat, the opposite of a ghost, and wondering to herself, but why didn’t you fight for me?  

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Things that this book will never mention:

The Vest - This will bury the CIA forever.

Brody is Frannie’s father - Although this book will help people see Brody’s other side but she will never disclose his relationship with Franny as that is gonna label her as a Brody, and he was a terrorist / traitor no matter what. That thing is personal and should not be outed to public

Majid Javadi - Will put everyone related to majid and his assets in danger.

Allison Carr - This will incriminate Saul.

She was responsible for capture of the team in Afghanistan that were bombed in the bus.

Anything about Quinn - she will not disclose about her relationship with Quinn as thats very personal and un related. She might give a few details about his role in thwarting attacks; now not their relationship.

I definitely don’t think it mentions how Walden actually died (wouldn’t this make her an accessory to murder and be self-incriminatory??). I think she kept out a lot of details about Brody, including that he is Franny’s father. Though I think she reveals that they had a romantic relationship and he was not the Langley bomber (12/12/2001).

I think she reveals her reluctance to become a mother; now doesn’t say anything about nearly drowning Franny. (S04.E02 She put Franny’s head under water for a second.)

The book is also very mum on her and Yevgeny’s relationship.

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