Review: In ‘The Spymasters,’ C.I.A. Leaders Recount Tactics of the Post-9/11 Years

Leon Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, recounts an agency manhunt for the planners of a 2009 suicide bombing at a desolate base in southeastern Afghanistan that killed seven of its employees.

Hours after he attended the burial of one of his officers at Arlington Cemetery, Mr. Panetta gave the order for an armed drone to destroy a compound in Pakistan that was hiding a militant leader — killing everyone there, including the intended target’s wife and children.

If he hadn’t given the order, Mr. Panetta recalls, the man might have escaped and carried out future attacks. But later in the film, he admits that the action was also “personal.” NY Times