Product Description
Examines the deleterious effects of the U.S. failure to focus on protecting the Iraqi population for most of the military campaign in Iraq and analyzes the failure of a technologically driven counterinsurgency (COIN) approach. It outlines strategic considerations relative to COIN; presents an overview of the conflict in Iraq; describes implications for future operations; and offers recommendations to improve the U.S. capability to conduct COIN. ... Read more

Product Description
The untold story of how the 9/11 Commission overcame partisanship and bureaucracy to produce its acclaimed report.

From the beginning, the 9/11 Commission found itself facing obstacles — the Bush administration blocked its existence for months, the first co-chairs resigned right away, the budget was limited, and a polarized Washington was suspicious of its every request. Yet despite these long odds, the Commission produced a bestselling report unanimously hailed for its objectivity, along with a set of recommendations that led to the most significant reform of America’s national security agencies in decades. This is a riveting insider’s account of Washington at its worst — and its best.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent Report on How Our Government 'Sort Of' Works
We have established a whole industry in this country of refusing to believe anything the government says about Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy conspiracy, UFO's, and it was inevitable that the same would be applied to the 9/11 commission report. In fact, it was predictable that whatever they found, whatever they published it was going to be immediately considered a whitewash, cover-up, fraud. The scream louder people in the media, the books written by 'independent investigators,' the movies that will be produced will all point to some unknown direction. They will all be different directions than the official report, and different directions than each other.

This book is not about what happened on 9/11, instead it is on how the 9/11 commission worked. It's a story of how our government works. The commission was put together with both democrats and republicans (the Bush administration had the power to only put republicans on the commission but didn't). The next election was approaching. Government agencies were seeking to cover their own blame. The media was eager to report on stumbles and mistakes. On the whole, they seem to have done pretty good.

It isn't pretty, but this is the way our government works. It's an excellent and most interesting book.

Whitewash. A rewrite of history
To best judge the 911 commission it is logical to look at the commissioners themselves. As chief executive Philip Zelikow was the chief architect of the report. Zelikow is a personal friend of Condoleeza Rice one of the chief witnesses called to testify. He is also a rabid neo con who worked under Bush at the National Security council.

The families of victims wanted him removed. One of the commissioners Max Cleland resigned calling the commission a 'scam' and a 'disgrace.' Only Zelikow and Jamie Gorelick were allowed to see all the documents and then had to get clearance to even consider them within the confines of the 'investigation.' There is no mention of WTC7 ; a 47 story building that came down without being struck by a plane.

The vast majority of the questions given by the victims families were never answered. Important witnesses were never called. Only those who could support the 'official conspiracy theory' were ever called to testify and many of those did so not under oath. The commission was only given 15 million dollars; a measly sum.

All in all the report is a useless document that serves only to perpetuate the myths that surround the event, myths a large portion of the American people no longer believe.

I almost bought this
untill Kean was involved the ABC 9/11 show. The absolute lies involved in the film and Keans explaination of them is an insult to any intelligent people left in America. Blame Clinton? I never voted for him but try googling executive order 12947 or CNN july 30 1996 bill waters down terrorist bill. Or August 22 1998 Clinton freezes bin laden assets. ABC is backpeddling like crazy but Kean who was intrusted by the people of The United States of America to give the truth about 9/11 thru the 9/11 commission, gives us this. Have you no shame, sir?

A rare inside look at Washington political process
I found this book fascinating.There are rarely Washington insiders with the narrative talent and an appreciation for process, and in this case, we have a book that provides both.The careful negotiations, resistance and calculations by federal agencies, the push and pull of partisan politics and the unique friendly-adversarial role of the 911 families provide for absorbing reading.If nothing else, the use of careful diplomacy by the authors in knowing when to wheedle and when to subpoena is a lesson unto itself.The delicacy of diplomacy and the ham-handedness of security considerations provide a rare insight into the difficulties of maneuvering inside the beltway, and the differences amongst and amidst the commission itself are more than simple sniping -- they are in many ways a laboratory for American political struggles.Recommended for policy wonks and aspiring diplomats, and for those, like me, who'd rather get the inside scoop on the White House than Hollywood.

The Day We Will Never Forget & Its Lingering Rancor.
Millions of words have been written about the personal devastation of the attacks on our country on 9-11-01.We've been inudated with pictures, books, accounts of suffering, and the coverup by the Pentagon.It's been almost five years, and we all remember where we were and what we were doing on that terrible day, as we did when John Kennedy was killed.Now, with the publication of this 20-month investigation by Congress, we learn of the inaccurate information, confidentiality claims, and repeated misstatements by the pentagon and FAA.

Personally, I am familiar with the name of Lee Hamilton as he has been instrumental in airing the facts on other tragedies.None were quite as devastating as this tragic day in September.I was at the hospital waiting for a test on my liver, and could not believe that America (the land of the brave) would have a suicide bomber.After my test, when I learned that I was not going to die so soon, I was made cognizant of that fact that it was not just one, but three flights of passengers who lost their lives on the day mine was given back to me.It was a scary aspect of this whole terrorist business.

The new movie is mostly about two rescuers who get trapped in the rubble and have to work hard to survive, but it gives a quick montage of people around the world, including the Arabs, watching t.v. reports in stunned disbelief.It is impossible to understand another's sorrow, but this indepth official report can help us to understand what happened on that fatal day, and why they happened in three different places simultaneously.It was well planned.Thank God, the fourth plane did not work out.

A panel of five Republicans and five Democrats were assigned to work out this report.We all know that the two parties are not exactly compatible and will automatically have opposing opinions on any subject.They were directed to investigate government missteps, but were thwarted from the presidency on down.They wrote: "We did not get all the information we needed to put on the public record."That's typical of the government's need to hide relavent facts from the public -- always has and always will.They were given access to government documents and worked from there to make it understandable for the general populace.We're not all geniuses but most can smell a coverup of a large porportion.After all, we don't want the same group to know what we know, as they will (and have) try again and again.They obviously have no respect for life, even their own, and use ploys to die in their places.Such is the way of a barbaric society.

This finding shows no collaborative relationship between Hussein and al-Quida, so let the man go.They will deal with him their own way.This trial has been a farce and he lost all his respectability and humanity by having to hide in a bunker underground and then be treated as he was in the courtroom.He was the leader of a country.How would we feel if our president was treated thusly!

The New York firefighters were indeed heroes, but so were the victims who were brave enough to fight back.Their rancor has caused a setback on the amount of evidence and public accessibilty to all the facts.We never will know the full story because some had to made such an issue.My town even bought and took a brand new, special fire truck and presented it to Mayor Guilani, a bad mistake.He just wanted the attention and adulation to cover up his messy divorce.Some people in politics will always take advantage to make show a false image of themselves. Mr. Hamilton and Thomas Kean did a remarkable job of correlating the mass of information they were given.It could have taken another year or so if they had been able to obtain more relevant reasons why it happened in the first place.We will always wonder. ... Read more

Product Description
Advances in information technology have led us to rely on easy communication and readily available information--both in our personal lives and in the life of our nation. For the most part, we have rightly welcomed these changes. But information that is readily available is available to friend and foe alike; a system that relies on communication can become useless if its ability to communicate is interfered with or destroyed. Because this reliance is so general, attacks on the information infrastructure can have widespread effects, both for the military and for society. And such attacks can come from a variety of sources, some difficult or impossible to identify. This, the third volume in the Strategic Appraisal series, draws on the expertise of researchers from across RAND to explore the opportunities and vulnerabilities inherent in the increasing reliance on information technology, looking both at its usefulness to the warrior and the need to protect its usefulness for everyone. The Strategic Appraisal series is intended to review, for a broad audience, issues bearing on national security and defense planning.Amazon.com Review
The ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu once wrote about the "acme of skill" allowing generals to win wars without fighting. Perhaps he was referring to the 21st century: technological advances have made recent conflicts in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans almost bloodless for the United States, if not its enemies. Yet many of the authors contributing chapters to The Changing Role of Information in Warfare are far from sanguine about technology forever insulating Americans from war. Technology, in fact, may become a kind of Achilles heel. "The United States may become increasingly vulnerable to disruption--perhaps catastrophically so--because of its heavy reliance on advanced information systems in both the civilian and military sectors," write editors Zalmay M. Khalilzad and John P. White in their introduction.

Adversaries are likely to rely on modern information operations, such as computer hacking or network attacks--in addition to traditional means, such as communication jamming and physical attacks--as an asymmetric strategy to compensate for their own weaknesses and for conventional U.S. military preeminence. They may value information attacks as a new type of guerilla warfare against U.S. conventional weaponry--but one with a very long reach.

Customer Reviews (1)

Hi level RAND study for those in the right position
This book should not be read by those who only have a low-level interest in information warfare, and more specifically, information in warfare.This is an academic document for policy makers and the defense establishment, as commissioned by the Air Force.The focus is on the information-based processes and weapons and their interaction.I found valuable concepts and ideas throughout the book, especially in one of last chapters about lessons the DOD can learn from business.For those in defense with a need to discover the wide aspects of IIW, this is for you.But only if you are in a mid- to high-level position or thirst for knowledge of greater concepts. ... Read more

Product Description
All terrorist groups eventually end. But how do they end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that most groups have ended because (1) they joined the political process (43 percent) or (2) local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members (40 percent). Military force has rarely been the primary reason for the end of terrorist groups, and few groups within this time frame have achieved victory. This has significant implications for dealing with al Qa?ida and suggests fundamentally rethinking post-9/11 U.S. counterterrorism strategy: Policymakers need to understand where to prioritize their efforts with limited resources and attention. The authors report that religious terrorist groups take longer to eliminate than other groups and rarely achieve their objectives. The largest groups achieve their goals more often and last longer than the smallest ones do. Finally, groups from upper-income countries are more likely to be left-wing or nationalist and less likely to have religion as their motivation. The authors conclude that policing and intelligence, rather than military force, should form the backbone of U.S. efforts against al Qa?ida. And U.S. policymakers should end the use of the phrase ?war on terrorism? since there is no battlefield solution to defeating al Qa?ida. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Growing Consensus
There appears to be a growing consensus within the U.S. Counter-Terrorism Community that the strategy formulated under the rubric, "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT) has been a costly failure.As this latest Rand Corporation study makes clear, the al Qaeda movement against which the GWOT was in theory directed has actually grown stronger since 9/11 in spite of or because of the GWOT.

In this monograph Jones and Libicki have made a study (as the title implies) of how various terrorist movements over the last thirty years have actually been shut down. Realizing that each terrorist movement has many unique features unlike any others,they still maintain that the majority of such movements have been either assimilated into various political systems or destroyed by means of police and intelligence work. Indeed the serious damage done to the al Qaeda movement's Iraqi Branch in Anbar Province through a combination of local policing operations supported by U.S. and Iraq Army operations is one of the few examples they site where military force was effective against terrorists. On the whole they maintain that countering terrorism is essentially a law enforcement operation supported by effective intelligence collection and analysis not a military problem.

Having made this point, They then outline the elements of what they think would be a successful strategy against the al Qaeda movement. Their strategy reflects the strategic thinking of probably the majority of anti-terrorist experts in 2008. This does not mean that they are right, but suggest there is a consensus growing on what would constitute an effective U.S. Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

Among the several common threads running through this consensus is the need for a broad range of actions to counter the al Qaeda ideology, a better understanding of the structure and principals of al Qaeda through better intelligence, the use of local police and security services rather than U.S. forces. Some of the enablers for this strategy would clearly be more relevant U. S. diplomatic operations, better police and intelligence liaison operations with foreign security services, and above all a viable U.S. Intelligence System. Such strategy may be well worth a try since the GWOT has apparently failed to achieve its primary goal.
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Product Description
In Spies for Hire, investigative reporter Tim Shorrock lifts the veil off a major story the government doesn't want us to know about -- the massive outsourcing of top secret intelligence activities to private-sector contractors.

Running spy networks overseas. Tracking down terrorists in the Middle East. Interrogating enemy prisoners. Analyzing data from spy satellites and intercepted phone calls. All of these are vital intelligence tasks that traditionally have been performed by government officials accountable to Congress and the American people. But that is no longer the case.

Starting during the Clinton administration, when intelligence budgets were cut drastically and privatization of government services became national policy, and expanding dramatically in the wake of 9/11, when the CIA and other agencies were frantically looking to hire analysts and linguists, the Intelligence Community has been relying more and more on corporations to perform sensitive tasks heretofore considered to be exclusively the work of federal employees. This outsourcing of intelligence activities is now a $50 billion-a-year business that consumes up to 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget. And it's a business that the government has tried hard to keep under wraps.

Drawing on interviews with key players in the Intelligence-Industrial Complex, contractors' annual reports and public filings with the government, and on-the-spot reporting from intelligence industry conferences and investor briefings, Spies for Hire provides the first behind-the-scenes look at this new way of spying. Shorrock shows how corporations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, CACI International, and IBM have become full partners with the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Pentagon in their most sensitive foreign and domestic operations. He explores how this partnership has led to wasteful spending and threatens to erode the privacy protections and congressional oversight so important to American democracy.

Shorrock exposes the kinds of spy work the private sector is doing, such as interrogating prisoners in Iraq, managing covert operations, and collaborating with the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mails. And he casts light on a "shadow Intelligence Community" made up of former top intelligence officials who are now employed by companies that do this spy work, such as former CIA directors George Tenet and James Woolsey. Shorrock also traces the rise of Michael McConnell from his days as head of the NSA to being a top executive at Booz Allen Hamilton to returning to government as the nation's chief spymaster.

From CIA covert actions to NSA eavesdropping, from Abu Ghraib to Guantánamo, from the Pentagon's techno-driven war in Iraq to the coming global battles over information dominance and control of cyberspace, contractors are doing it all. Spies for Hire goes behind today's headlines to highlight how private corporations are aiding the growth of a new and frightening national surveillance state. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Book the Wash Post Ripped Off
I first learned about Spies for Hire from various people I follow on Twitter, who were amazed Dana Priest and William Arkin didn't cite it in their Top Secret America series.I decided to see (or rather, read) for myself, and can now say having read both the book and the Priest/Arkin articles that yes, Shorrock was all over this story years ago, and in far greater depth than the Post piece, which functioned largely as an update of what Shorrock had already reported in this book and elsewhere.I don't have a problem with the Post updating Shorrock's reporting, but it's pretty lame of them to pretend they weren't in his debt.Anyway, if you care about the corporatism that's slowly strangling our democracy, there's no better book I know of than this one.The conclusion was especially powerful.Highly recommended.

Spies for Hire
Though I haven't read the book yet, it was in great condition and priced right for a hardback.I look forward to reading as it's a timely, interesting topic.

Shockingly Biased
You know, I tried extremely hard to enjoy this book.I am fascinated with the idea that so much of our nation's intelligence collection and analysis is outsourced, and I think that the idea behind this book is sound.Unfortunately, it fails on many counts.

First, it's pretty poorly written.Even with startling facts and a solid, intriguing premise, it failed to keep my attention.I literally had to buckle myself into a seat and force myself to keep reading.

Second, the anti-government and anti-contractor bias that permeates this book is astonishing.I expected some sort of leaning, sure, but as much as I consider myself fairly open-minded with regard to this sort of thing, I read through it with a sour look on my face the whole time.It's really appalling.

I just wonder why someone can't write something expository without imposing such a harsh personal view?Whatever happened to letting the reader decide for themselves using FACTS?

At the end of the day, I think that Tim Shorrock did a good job researching, and there are certainly some statistics and facts that he reveals in this book that are enough to really make you shudder.But for a lack of good writing and objective discussion, this book could have been really important.As it stands, it's just another rant.

much hype & conspiracy theory
By his own admission, the author is not an expert in the intelligence community (IC). Rather he seems to be writing a book geared for people who have little understanding of the IC, defense contracting or national security issues.Given the type of magazines he writes for, his political leanings are very obvious and this comes out in the book.

He uses the term outsourcing of intelligence in a very broad sense. For example he considers buying computer hardware & software services as a form of outsourcing of intelligence.He seems to imply the fact that the CIA does not build its own computers or write all its own software is a threat to people's liberties and security.

He also seems to dwell extensively on the relationships between companies and the IC with no real evidence that something nefarious is going on.The fact that people move between the IC & contractors is strength rather than a weakness.Highly insulated intelligence organizations are rarely very effective in the long term.

Overall, this book does little more then reinforce the conspiracy theories that people may have about the IC without really adding much to the discussion.

"Spies for Hire" is one reason I avoid books written by journalists with a political agenda and no real experience working with the organizations they are writing about.

Excellent Subject, Many Facts, But Not Impartial
Author Shorrock does the nation a great service in providing a basis for discussion of the out-sourcing of intelligence and IT support functions to private industry by federal agencies.For this I would have given him five stars, but it is evident his theme is that such out-sourcing is generally a subversion of the proper function of government and its control by representatives of the people.To this end, he seems to select those incidents that favor his viewpoint, rather than presenting the situation in an impartial manner for the reader to draw his own conclusions.By this I do not mean that the author should not present his own analysis and conclusions -- only that the facts should not be presented with perjorative adjectives and snide comments concerning personal and corporate motives.As an ex-intelligence officer, I certainly would have moved into a private corporation where my skills could have been used to help fulfill the security mission of the Federal Government had personal circumstances not intervened, and I like to think my motives would have been more aligned with satisfaction in accomplishing the mission than for personal profit.

At any rate, this is an important work, and my views of Shorrock's book are almost isomorphic with those contained in the reviews by Steele and "Retired Reader."

With respect to the issue of private corporations being restricted to not breaking the law (either international, US, or any any other country's), one must realise that the gathering of covert HUMINT essentially ALWAYS involves breaking someone's laws.If a contractor is expressly forbidden to do this or is to be held accountable for such trangressions, then contractors cannot perform positive intelligence gathering functions.Unfortunately, at the present time the CIA and all other agencies involved in covert intelligence gathering are clearly incapable of fulfilling their missions in this regard without using private contractors.Regardless of the reasons for this lack of in-agency capability, to eliminate private contractors as the author seems to desire, would be to put America's security at grave risk.

There are solutions to this problem, but the author seems more intent on promoting his leftist agenda than in addressing the issues with the clear goal of improving America's intelligence.Yes, the use of private contractors has gone too far, but what level of private contracting and for what functions would be appropriate?And how do we get to that appropriate level?Alas, these questions were missing in this book, and unfortunately I have not found them yet in any other.

Lastly, allow me to register my disappointment with the reaction to this book.To date, there have been only six reviews and judging from the ratings pro and con on the reviews, I would estimate that the number of readers of the reviews are not more than forty.That's pretty insignificant when one considers the importance of the book's topic, and shows the lack of public interest in this subject.Something is terribly wrong with the US reading public when banal books like those by Friedman and Zakaria promoting the U.S.'s submission to international organizations and globalism receive thousands of reviews and ratings and books on the condition of the CIA and intelligence out-sourcing draw almost no interest. ... Read more

Product Description
U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to exploit information power, which could be a U.S. advantage but instead is being used advantageously by insurgents. Because insurgency and counterinsurgency involve a battle for the allegiance of a population between a government and an armed opposition movement, the key to exploiting information power is to connect with and learn from the population itself, increasing the effectiveness of both the local government and the U.S. military and civilian services engaged in supporting it. Utilizing mostly available networking technology, the United States could achieve early, affordable, and substantial gains in the effectiveness of counterinsurgency by more open, integrated, and inclusive information networking with the population, local authorities, and coalition partners. The most basic information link with the population would be an information technology (IT)-enhanced, fraud-resistant registry-census. The most promising link would come from utilizing local cell phone networks, which are proliferating even among poor countries. Access to data routinely collected by such networks can form the basis for security services such as enhanced-911 and forensics. The cell phones of a well-wired citizenry can be made tantamount to sensor fields in settled areas. They can link indigenous forces with each other and with U.S. forces without interoperability problems; they can also track the responses of such forces to emergencies. Going further, outfitting weaponry with video cameras would bolster surveillance, provide lessons learned, and guard against operator misconduct. Establishing a national Wiki can help citizens describe their neighborhoods to familiarize U.S. forces with them and can promote accountable service delivery. All such information can improve counterinsurgency operations by making U.S. forces and agencies far better informed than they are at present. The authors argue that todayÂ's military and intelligence networks-being closed, compartmentalized, controlled by information providers instead of users, and limited to U.S. war fighters-hamper counterinsurgency and deprive the United States of what ought to be a strategic advantage. In contrast, based on a review of 160 requirements for counterinsurgency, the authors call for current networks to be replaced by an integrated counterinsurgency operating network (ICON) linking U.S. and indigenous operators, based on principles of inclusiveness, integration, and user preeminence. Utilizing the proposed ways of gathering information from the population, ICON would improve the timeliness, reliability, and relevance of information, while focusing security restrictions on truly sensitive information. The complexity and sensitivity of counterinsurgency call for vastly better use of IT than has been seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is a practical plan for just that. ... Read more

Product Description
Corrupt White House officials sell out to the American and Russian mobs to re-elect a weak President Corgan at all costs. American ambassadors and Russian KGB officers who get in the way are killed. Diplomat Bob Innes stumbles into this conspiracy of political intrigue and murder. He and a young aide, Colleen McCoy, become the targets of hired assassins and Russian mafia hitmen. On the run, they seek to expose the cover-ups. And they fall in love. With Lydia, a beautiful Russian escort to powerful men, they work with the FBI to bring down the President's men and the Russian mob's Godfather. Al Malandrino, a colorful New York mob boss, becomes their unexpected ally. The story climaxes with a plot to assassinate a popular presidential rival known as the "Cajun Kennedy." PERMANENT INTERESTS authentically captures political intrigue, greed and treachery in the highest levels of government. And it all comes crashing down in face of relentless pursuit of the truth by the system's would-be victims.
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Customer Reviews (6)

An excellent thriller
This is one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. It was a real page turner, a notch above a lot of the stuff I've seen on the bookstore shelves lately.

I would reccomend Permanent Interests to anybody who wants to read a good book.

More Than a Thriller
Other reviewers have already noted the great verisimilitude in Bruno's thriller story-lines and descriptive detail.Indeed, there is very little requirement to willingly suspend disbelief as the reader gets carried into the rush of a story that looks and feels familiar and real.

In addition, I was struck by the quality of the writing and Bruno's deft ability to handle the most difficult of creative challenges, that of sex and love.Bruno illuminates the passion without unnecessary pandering to mammalian mechanics."...The denial made so delectable this moment.They were impatient, but loved slowly, savoring every second...Her delicate fingers undid the top button of his shirt, then the second and on down to his belt buckle."See the book for the rest.This is a good read all around.

Great summer reading
Permanent Interests is a roller coaster experience -- past-paced intrigue that will entertain to the last.At every step Bruno's book pushes the reader to wonder how much of the story could be true and how much is merely fiction.I read this book a few months ago but I still find myself thinking about it, especially when I pick up the newspaper and read about the latest scandal.With recent revelations of a real-life Washington madam, Bruno's work came to life again for me.This fun read is provocative for its insight and candor.

Permanent Interests
James Bruno's Permanent Interests is a real thriller.Don't start this book when you go to bed unless you're prepared to be engaged in a page-turner until the wee hours of the morning.
Bruno's strong hand in this game is his knowledge of diplomacy, the U.S. Foreign Service, and the U.S. National Security Council Interagency process.Bruno simply knows his stuff, and unlike some national security thrillers, his writing is realistic and credible. In terms of credibility and knowledge, his writing and knowledge is similar to that of Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters, an Army Foreign Area Officer, who, like Bruno, spent more time in the field on the front line defending our country than behind a desk or "managing."If Peters was the type of officer that you would trust taking your children into battle with him, it is obvious from his writing in this novel that Bruno was the type of Foreign Service Officer whom you would want looking after your most precious interests overseas and within the Beltway.
What is really refreshing is that James Bruno knows how to criticize some of the failings of our government without the polemic whining and bitterness of the typical "expose" written by disgruntled and burned out ex government employees who couldn't cut the mustard in their careers and then turned to writing.To those of us who have served with him and his like, it is obvious that Bruno is a patriot and a hands on and articulate foreign service officer who cared little for the coiffured hair and expensive suit bureaucrats that he so aptly slams and pillories in this thriller!He realistically portrays Post-Soviet Russians who are adrift without the Soviet ideal; self-serving Washington careerists who have forgotten the people they serve, and the everyday American heroes of the Foreign Service and the Intelligence Community who are dedicated to our country and its service.
Also, Bruno's book is entertaining, witty, and fun to read.His portrayal of loutish gangsters pretending to be "legitimate businessmen" rivals The Godfather.The pace of his writing kept my attention throughout.
My only nit-pick is that he makes one error on the lineage of the Hungarian Secret Police, confusing some Romanian organizations with similar evil-doers in Budapest.But that error is only a passing reference, and as neither Budapest nor Bucharest are central to the plot of this thriller, one shouldn't find too much fault with it as his descriptions of other locales are detailed, accurate, and interesting.
I would make this book required reading for many undergraduate and graduate courses in foreign affairs or national security, and hope that it becomes familiar to the students at our service war colleges in Newport,Carlisle, and Maxwell Air Force Base.Although fiction, it should remind those in the public service in the fields of national security to constantly keep their bearings, as do the heroes of Bruno's book, as to where they come from and who they serve.Tom Clancy, Ralph Peters, and Pete Deutermann step aside!James Bruno is under way at flank speed!- Mark Carolla, Retired LCDR, USNR

A Great Read!
I really enjoyed Permanent Interests! James Bruno does a great job of developing strong characters and weaving a compelling story which ties the Russian and Italian mobs with a corrupt American government. It makes the reader consider whether politicians are by nature paranoid and dishonest, and that the next election is really what matters most to them. Bruno goes beyond that by suggesting that those in power grab what they can get "and screw everybody else, but gloss it over through the mythology of hype".I got a kick out of the fancy French meals the White House heads would gluttonize over, plotting their next move. There's humor, sarcasm, and love (gotta have that!) and I think this would make a great movie! Anybody buying? ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Insightful, Well Researched, and Highly Recommended
In her book, "Flawed by Design," Amy Zegart attempts to explain the origin and organizational flaws of the CIA, JCS and NSC, all falling within the newly created Department of Defense of the National Security Act of 1947.Up front, she compares them to domestic regulatory agencies and dispels the notion that the national security agencies work reasonably well and work to serve the national interest as they were designed.She describes the lack of authority of the now defunct Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) over the non-CIA parts of the intelligence community, as well as cites the bumbling bureaucracy of the JCS prior to the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1947).She asserts that Congress intentionally designed these bureaucracies not to work, in order to protect the interests of other congressionally favored bureaucracies.For example, the Navy preferred not to have the Joint Chiefs interfering with its affairs, and the War Department (renamed the Department of Defense following the National Security Act of 1947) along with the State Department, did not want the DCI to interfere with their own intelligence-gathering and analysis.

In order to adequately analyze these American bureaucracies, she writes, "national security agencies are too domestic for students of international relations and too foreign for students of American politics." Zegart examines the forces thatshaped the initial design of the CIA, JCS, and NSC and identified ways that indicated they were handicapped by design.For example, Zegert asserts that due to weak interest group influence, pork barrel projects, casework, and other important district issues, Congresspersons have very little incentive to spend time and money involved with the national security agencies; besides, she adds, to whom would they use for accurate information, if not the bureaucrats themselves.The bottom line, according to Zegert, is that national security agencies are influenced heavily by executive branch political objectives within an environment of sporadic congressional oversight and sketchy interest-group politics.In contrast, domestic regulatory agencies receive regular congressional oversight with interest groups and legislative supporters influencing both agency design and daily operations.

Zegart explains the challenges of the NSC and JSC as they struggled to evolve, describing how the NSC overcame its initial handicaps as several presidents liberally retooled, and thus, continually reinvented the NSC staff.She also describes how the JCS remained mired in ineffective design allowing for self-interest politics and in-fighting amongst the service chiefs and foot-dragging or "shirking" unpopular orders for nearly forty years.She goes on to explain how the CIA suffered from its inception as a result of President Truman's desire for military unification and intelligence reform.Those goals were secondary to his main desire to refurbish the nation's feeble defense structure. But the military services resisted any plans for change, and with no political leverage, Truman relented.His efforts and legislative recommendations resulted in a central intelligence apparatus of coordination, evaluation, and dissemination, but incapable of collection.It is by design, the author asserts, that the CIA struggles with flawed systems of management and accountability within the clandestine agency, which may lead to corruption and espionage, and which also might explain why the agency struggles to this very day with chronic problems concerning accuracy of analysis and estimates.This design, however flawed to an outsider, has provided a valuable asset to Presidents who favor using the agency for various covert operations.

In Flawed by Design, Amy Zegart convincingly articulates her message:the agencies Americans count on most for protection from international threats are, by design, largely incapable of doing so.By arguing that U.S. interests have been compromised by the inferior design of our national security agencies, Zegart highlights the weaknesses and subsequent responsibilities placed on our President and the bureaucracies charged with overseeing U.S. foreign policy.The only criticism of the book is that her writing style challenges the reader-- it's not an upligting, inspiring book (hence, the title).In a doomed attempt to count the times Zegart uses a disparaging remark in her book, this reader quit at page two, about half way down, after realizing she had already used the words "handicapped," "crippled," "murky," "weakness," "failures," "poor," "problems," "scandals," "little incentive," "never," "illegal," and "subversion."

Zegart is very well informed of the origins and organization of our national security agencies, and she produces a scathing analysis of our country's highest government agencies.

Good Sale
The book arrived in the estimated time and in the condition advertised by this seller.

Interesting, important, and original
A fine political sciene academic book.A number of strengths:
- A well organized book.One looking to just understand the argument or theory of the book can read the first two chapters and the conclusion.
- A strong case is made on behalf of new institutionalism, as opposed to realism, in explaining the creation and development of the National Security Council, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Central Intelligence Agency.Bottom line is that foreign policy agencies are created amidst the politics of the day and are never created so as to achieve true national security objectives.Among the interesting findings is that Congress and the interest group community was not seriously involved in the creation or development of the three national security structures.New institutional theory regarding domestic areas does involve Congress and IGs.Worse for anyone hoping to fix initial design flaws is the fact that, as hard as it is to make agencies function from the get-go, it's even harder to fix them later on.
- The case studies are well written and interesting narratives.
Some weaknesses:
- Congress's involvement does not necessarily mean formal votes and hearings.Hence, influential folks can play a role in behind the scenes manners.
- Congress pushed through the Goldwater-Nichols Act in the 1980s with a SecDef who was opposed, a president who was not engaged.That's a heck of a piece of contrary evidence that Zegart does not dedicate enough time to.
- A tad bit too much repetition.
- Politics in the late 1940s is not the same as politics in the early 21st century.Globalization and the interlocking nature of domestic and foreign policies may weaken Zegart's findings.

More can be said.Overall, a fine book and well worth the time.

Too Hard to Fix on the Margins--Fix Big or Don't Fix At All
This is a very worthy and thoughtful book.It breaks new ground in understanding the bureaucratic and political realities that surrounded the emergence of the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, andthe Central Intelligence Agency.The CIA was weak by design, stronglyopposed by the military services from the beginning.Its covert activitiesemerged as a Presidential prerogative, unopposed by others in part becauseit kept CIA from being effective at coordinated analysis, for which it hadneither the power nor the talent.Most usefully, the book presents a newinstitutionalist theory of bureaucracy that gives full weight to theoriginal design, the political players including the bureaucratsthemselves, and external events.Unlike domestic agencies that have stronginterest groups, open information, legislative domain, and unconnectedbureaucracies, the author finds that national security agencies, beingcharacterized by weak interest groups, secrecy, executive domain, andconnected bureaucracies, evolve differently from other bureaucracies, andare much harder to reform.On balance, the author finds that intelligenceper se, in contrast to defense or domestic issues, is simply not worth thetime and Presidential political capital needed to fix but that if reform isin the air, the President should either pound on the table and put the fullweight of their office behind a substantive reform proposal, or walk awayfrom any reform at all-the middle road will not successful.

Powerful intellectual analysis by a dazzling newcomer
With Flawed by Design, Zegart makes a spectacular splash into the world ofprofessional political academic analysis.Trained at Stanford University,Zegart employs an approach that is both refreshingly "old school"in its historical approach and new school in its analytical rigor.Inshort, Zegart has offered up a piece of academic literature that is certainto become a classic.Look out for this rising star over the next 10 years. Let's only hope that the "rational choice" dogma of the fielddoesn't precluding Zegart from continuing her Tiger Woods-like path throughthe political science circuit. ... Read more

Product Description
What people are saying about Inside Cyber Warfare"The necessary handbook for the 21st century."--Lewis Shepherd, Chief Tech Officer and Senior Fellow, Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments"A must-read for policy makers and leaders who need to understand the big-picture landscape of cyber war."--Jim Stogdill, CTO, Mission Services AccentureYou may have heard about "cyber warfare" in the news, but do you really know what it is? This book provides fascinating and disturbing details on how nations, groups, and individuals throughout the world are using the Internet as an attack platform to gain military, political, and economic advantages over their adversaries. You'll learn how sophisticated hackers working on behalf of states or organized crime patiently play a high-stakes game that could target anyone, regardless of affiliation or nationality.Inside Cyber Warfare goes beyond the headlines of attention-grabbing DDoS attacks and takes a deep look inside multiple cyber-conflicts that occurred from 2002 through summer 2009.Learn how cyber attacks are waged in open conflicts, including recent hostilities between Russia and Georgia, and Israel and PalestineDiscover why Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Vkontakte, and other sites on the social web are mined by the intelligence services of many nationsRead about China's commitment to penetrate the networks of its technologically superior adversaries as a matter of national survivalFind out why many attacks originate from servers in the United States, and who's responsibleLearn how hackers are "weaponizing" malware to attack vulnerabilities at the application level ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Welcome to Cyber world war 1
In //Inside Cyber Warfare//, author Jeffrey Carr details how acts of violence are carried out via the Internet. What the reader gets are some examples of how cyber warfare has been carried out in the past, and how governments have used it against each other. Carr also discusses what types of cyber attacks constitute armed attacks. Carr also details state versus non-state (meaning carried out by an individual, not a state-sponsored) cyber attacks. Carr does a great job of explaining the various legal questions about cyber attacks and legal versus illegal retaliation by a government.

Why is all this important? Readers will gain an understanding of how a victimized government can respond according to various U.N. resolutions. Carr also discusses the use of social networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, where there a lot of information is available that can be accessed anonymously and used for targeting individuals in the military who share their profiles on these sites. Carr's expertise is unquestioned. The book is very well written and researched and an informative read.

Reviewed by Marc Filippelli

Cyber Warfare Ripped From The Headlines and Explained
Seldom would I describe a guidebook from the excellent O'Reilly Technology Series as "Ripped from the Headlines"; but this fast-paced
news analysis and technology public policy book is just that. It describes the behavior methods and practices of "State" and "Non-State" Actors on the International scene as they exploit the weaknesses of the Internet and Web Infrastructure for Political and Criminal purposes.It describes in a moderate level of technical detail the exploits of political and criminal hacker teams, some working for their own profit and political purposes, others under the direct authority of a Nation State especially during the recent period of 2002-2009 in the Middle East, China and the states of the FSU. The author Jeffry Carr is a leading analyst of Cyber Warfare and Cyber Terrorism, the Principal of the Grey Logic Consulting firm that addresses the needs of large companies and governments, and author of the widely read IntelFusion blog.

Other reviewers may have been confused by the nature of the subject matter addressed by this short but excellent and well-written volume it is not a technologist's guide to hacking activities, nor is is it a spy novel, but it carefully and interestingly relates the dimensions of a current political and economic problem brought about by the activities of political entities, criminal and terroristic elements.It will enable the reader to become well informed about an important Technology and Public Policy issue which pervades today's headlines.

--Ira Laefsky
MSE/MBA IT Consultant and Former Senior Staff Member of Arthur D. Little and DIGITAL Equipment

Light and Over-Hyped
I bought this book trying to further my understanding of Cyber Warfare and how it has become integral force multiplier/enabler in today's digital battlefield.Unfortunately, I quickly realized that this book was basically a regurgitation of what is available on the Internet with a little "googling".The book itself is tiresome to read and feels like you are just trying to weed through so much "chaff" as you attempt to find something compelling to take away.Granted, I think if you have done no initial reading on the subject and it is totally new to you- this book may be a good primer.Seriously though, if you are a student that wants to gain a better understanding of how cyberspace plays a role in a geo-political strategic context- this is not the book for you.If Jeffrey Carr is an expert in Cyber Warfare- he needs to way up the ante on another book and make it more than just a conglomeration of articles that are pretty much freely available on the Internet.

A Scary, But Factual IT Security Book
This is literally the scariest book I have read in the last 25 years. It is well organized, well-written, up-to-date, and very well researched. If you work with computers in ANY capacity, especially IT Security, Information Assurance, etc., you NEED this book!

Enlightening and alarming
Mr. Carr's Inside Cyber Warfare is an informative and frightening glimpse into the dangerous realities of our global (connected) digital world. In form and function the book provides the layman a good taxonomy of methods, tactics, and strategies of governments [w/particular emphasis on Russia and China], criminal enterprises and hackers [in groups or on their own]. He does a very good job of describing the legal status of cyber warfare---exposing many holes which leaves most of the work exposed and without legal remedy/recourse. Most informative was his descriptions of the vulnerabilities of social media and how these everyday tools can be be used for mischief. This book is recommended for anyone curious about the state of our cyber world or information warfare. Well done, Mr. Carr. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description

A host of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, as well as some pleasant surprises--such as the sudden end of the cold war--have caught governments and societies unprepared in recent decades. September 11 is only the most obvious example among many unforeseen events that have changed, even redefined, our lives. We have every reason to expect more surprises in future.

Certain kinds of unanticipated scenarios--particularly those of low probability and high impact--have the potential to escalate into systemic crises. Even positive surprises can pose major policy challenges. Contemporary policymakers, however, lack the understanding and the tools they need to manage low-probability, high-impact events. Refining our understanding and developing such tools are the twin foci of this insightful and perceptive volume, edited by renowned author Francis Fukuyama and sponsored by The American Interest magazine.

Organized into five sections, Blindside addresses the psychological and institutional obstacles that prevent leaders from planning for negative low-probability events and allocating the necessary resources to deal with them. Case studies pinpoint the failures--institutional as well as personal--that allowed key historical events to take leaders by surprise, and other chapters examine the philosophies and methodologies of forecasting. The book's final section offers a debate and two discussions with internationally prominent authorities who assess how individuals, communities, and local and national governments have handled low-probability, high-impact contingencies. They suggest what these entities can do to move forward in a period of heightened concern about both man-made and natural disasters.

How can we avoid being blindsided by unforeseen events? There is no easy or obvious answer. But we first must understand the obstacles that prevent us from seeing the future clearly and then from acting appropriately. This readable and fascinating book is an important step in that direction.

Customer Reviews (1)

Playing with wild cards
"Prediction is very hard," Yogi Berra supposedly remarked, "especially about the future." It's hard to argue with that, but even skeptics must admit that such events as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the East Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s or the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 came as a shock even to most experts. Yet, for all its difficulty, forecasting matters. No one, whether in government or business, wants to be blindsided by oil shocks, declining stocks, environmental crises, global pandemics, natural disasters or any of the other nasty surprises that chance sometimes delivers. Can anything be done, or must humanity merely watch the wheel of fortune spin, hoping for the best? According to this modest book, something can be done. Even when specific predictions are hard, if not impossible, leaders can "plan for surprise" by developing scenarios, boning up on history, overcoming cognitive biases and learning to think about the types of significant disruptions that could arise. While this uneven collection of articles is understandably short on conclusions, getAbstract predicts it will help you think about the unthinkable. ... Read more

Product Description
Using exclusive access to key government insiders, Shane Harris chronicles the rise of America's surveillance state over the past 25 years and highlights a dangerous paradox: Our government's strategy has made it harder to catch terrorists and easier to spy on the rest of us.

In 1983, Admiral John Poindexter, President Reagan's National Security Advisor, realized that the U.S. might have prevented the terrorist massacre of 241 Marines in Beirut, if intelligence agencies could have analyzed in real time the data they had on the attackers. Poindexter poured technical know-how and government funds into his dream--a system that would sift reams of information for signs of terrorist activity. Decades later, that elusive dream still captivates Washington. After 9/11, Poindexter returned to government with a controversial program, called Total Information Awareness, to detect the next attack. Today it has evolved into a secretly funded operation that can gather a trove of personal information on every American and millions of others worldwide.

Despite billions of dollars spent on this quest since the Reagan era, we still can't discern future threats in the vast data cloud that surrounds us all. But the government can now spy on its citizens with an ease that was impossible-and illegal-just a few years ago. Drawing on unprecedented access to the people who pioneered this high-tech spycraft, Harris shows how it has moved from the province of right-wing technocrats into the mainstream, becoming a cornerstone of the Obama administration's war on terror.

Harris puts us behind the scenes where twenty-first-century spycraft was born. We witness Poindexter quietly working from the private sector to get government to buy in to his programs in the early nineties. We see an Army major agonize as he carries out an order to delete the vast database he's gathered on possible terror cells-and on thousands of innocent Americans-months before 9/11. We follow National Security Agency Director Mike Hayden as he persuades the Bush administration to secretly monitor Americans based on a flawed interpretation of the law. And we see Poindexter return to government with a seemingly implausible idea: that the authorities can collect data about citizens and at the same time protect their privacy. After Congress publicly bans the Total Information Awareness program in 2003, we watch as it secretly becomes a "black program" at the NASA, then engaged in a massive surveillance of Americans' phone calls and e-mails.

When the next crisis comes, our government will inevitably crack down on civil liberties, but it will be no better able to identify new dangers. This is the outcome of a dream first hatched almost three decades ago, and The Watchers is an engrossing, unnerving wake-up call.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Mixed bag of truth and hype & exaggeration
Knowing quite a bit on the subject, I felt my skin crawling reading the accusations and paranoia that liberals and the black-helicopter types LOVE to throw around.

This book could have been a collection of legal jargon peppered on a "OMGZ! A NEW CONSPIRACY!" blog

A Very Important Book That Should Not Be Ignored
Shane Harris' "The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State" is an important book that sheds light on our diminished privacy and Constitutional protections against government intrusion.Privacy, according to Harris, is a concept that is in jeopardy as "the government can now spy on is citizens with an ease that was impossible--and illegal--just a few years ago.In "The Watchers" Harris follows the career of Admiral John Poindexter to whom he ascribes the moniker "the creator of the surveillance state" and who for decades built up national security intelligence gathering to a level culminating in the Total Information Awareness program that monitors us today.Harris manages to balance the argument between tracking our national enemies and the loss of our individual liberties.Read with an open mind and understand the message being sent.Well done.Five stars without reservation.

High Tech Hijinks
It is unfortunate that the publisher chose the sensational "The Rise of America's Surveillance State" as the subtitle for Shane Harris' fine book, for this is hardly the red meat for privacy activists that the title would imply.Instead, Harris has compiled a fascinating chronicle of America's war on terror using electronic technology going back to the 1983 bombing of the US Marines barrack in Lebanon through the early months of the Obama administration.It is also an arms-length biography of retired US Navy Admiral John Poindexter, Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor who is best remembered for his role and conviction in the Iran-Contra affair and his loyalty to his boss.

When it comes to the age-old debate between security and privacy, author Harris clearly leans to the latter.But give him credit for spinning a well-balanced book that focuses on the facts, avoiding obvious temptations to allow politics - on either side of the aisle - while laying out the challenges, obstacles, personalities, and stakes involved as the convoluted maze of US agencies and bureaus run over themselves in trying to prevent another 9/11 - or worse.I don't think I was reading too much between the lines to guess that Harris started out wanting to dislike Poindexter, but ended up respecting and even liking the man - the tragically flawed hero who has dedicated his life, in private and public endeavors, to keeping America safe - a mission he continues today.Along with Poindexter, the wide supporting cast is well drawn and unvarnished in their accomplishments and foibles while trying to find the bad guys and keep US citizens' privacy mostly intact.

Despite the bits and bytes of subject matter that could lead to a sleep-inducing yawner of a book, Harris tells a dramatic - even suspenseful - tale, spinning his narrative with rare insight into infamous events including the Achille Lauro hijacking, the Kobar Towers bombing, and of course 9/11.Going back to 1983 and Beruit, the theme is constant: lots of ability to collect "data," but when it comes to recognizing patterns and connecting the dots, technology deployed by the alphabet soup of supposed defense agencies is widely inadequate.Making matters worse, maddening bureaucracies of influential people - of both noble and ignoble intent - continually hamper serious attempts to upgrade our nation's defenses to state-of-the-art electronic surveillance, detection, and analysis.

In short, put this one on my "must read" list - the rare non-fiction book that takes a complex and difficult subject and makes it understandable and, despite the serious content, entertaining.It is a great primer in the utter inefficiencies and intolerable rivalries between competing federal bureaucracies, a terrific character study, and a highly illuminating history of spies and spy craft in the era beyond James Bond.A well written and timely book - highly recommended.

Fun Reading

The watcher was a fun book to read. The most interesting thing about this book is that it talks about events that happened in this generation

Useful addition to the larger picture
This is an interesting, well-written, well-documented, and timely book that would, I think, work best as part of a longer reading list exploring the larger issues involved. Its strengths -- its tight focus and adroit mix of the personal and the technological -- are also the weaknesses that keep it from fulling telling the story it promises in its subtitle. Nevertheless, I found this most worthwhile reading for people interested in the topic, and to them I recommend it highly.

Author Shane Harris builds his narrative around the personality and career of Admiral John Poindexter. Poindexter may be best known, to the extent he is known, as a second-tier alumnus of the Iran-Contra affair who resurfaced, somewhat surprisingly, as the dark eminence behind the Bush Administration's data-mining "Total Information Awareness" scheme. Harris demonstrates that in fact, Poindexter never really went away, that he has been working on information-gathering and information-synthesis systems for several decades, and that he was, and remains, a central figure in developing the tools the government is using to search communication and other networks for evidence of terrorist activity. Other key figures emerge as the story progresses: as Harris notes in his Epilogue, "John Poindexter envisioned a world. Mike Hayden made it a reality. Mike McConnell enshrined it in law. And Barack Obama inherited it." But this is, by and large, John Poindexter's story. Indeed, if Harris is right, this is in many ways John Poindexter's world.

The story Harris tells in "The Watchers" is one of technological development and political inside-baseball. While I didn't find the narrative boring by any stretch, it's not really "exciting," in the sense of having a strong authorial opinion intended to generate a response from the reader. Instead, it is balanced, moderate, and factual in its tone, letting the reader interpret developments and revelations how she will. It's also slightly claustrophobic, with the focus so tightly on Poindexter and a handful of other key technological or intelligence professionals. That's partially why I would recommend reading this alongside something like, say, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman, in which the larger political context of the "surveillance society" is explored or, from there, any number of other titles about the growth of executive power and the rise of global empire. As part of that mix, as I say, this is a valuable and insightful addition.

By the way, I finally figured out why the cover of my "advance uncorrected proofs" Amazon Vine edition seemed so odd to me: the aerial photo of Washington, DC is inverted and reversed. Is this a metaphor of the new world in which we find ourselves, or just a production error? ... Read more

Product Description
Borrowing the words of former Idaho senator Frank Church, one widespread notion of the Central Intelligence Agency is that it tends to behave like a "rogue elephant" rampaging out of control, initiating risky covert action programs without the sanction of either Congress or the White House.In Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency, William J. Daugherty, a seventeen-year veteran operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, addresses these and other perceptions about covert action that have seeped into the public consciousness.Daugherty cites congressional investigations, declassified documents, and his own experiences in covert action policy and oversight to show convincingly that the C.I.A.’s covert programs were conducted specifically at presidential behest from the Agency’s founding in 1947. He provides an overview of the nature and proper use of covert action as a tool of presidential statecraft and discusses its role in transforming presidential foreign policy into reality. He concludes by detailing how each president conducted the approval, oversight and review processes for covert action while examining specific instances in which U.S. Presidents have expressly directed C.I.A. covert action programs to suit their policy objectives.

A former Marine Corps aviator with a combat tour in Vietnam, Daugherty’s first tour with the C.I.A. was in Iran, where he was one of fifty-two Americans held hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration. Daugherty combines unique inside perspectives with sober objectivity in judging the true nature and scope of C.I.A. covert actions during the last half century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Executive Secrets
I ordered this item over a month ago and have no confirmation of shipment to date. I am beginning to wonder if the item will ever arrive. I would not recommend this seller unless you do not care when your item arrives.

Poor storytelling even poorer scholarship.
We learn nothing new in this book (everything in this book is public record) nor do we get an interesting POV from the author. I hoped that at least the author would somehow have more info regarding clandestine operations/covert ops policy using NSC or personal the notes of the president's. But nope, just easily compiled research with weak supposition; makes me think if the publisher was duped by the author that the text would be either a comprehensive text or a critical study. Instead they received about 200 pages of recycled poo.

Abridged literature review: The author wishes to convince the reader and the general public that the CIA acts only when the President orders it to do so; and intelligence work is becoming more and more politicized, which compromises integrity from the DCI, down.

Should've been interesting. . .
This book had a lot of promise. Covert action? Very cool. The problem is, it's horribly written. There's an awful lot of sloppy mistakes and repetition. It's loaded with sentence fragments and poor grammer. (Or, "the sentences are fragments and bad, bad written with.") It doesn't interfere with the substance, and maybe I'm being too particular that I couldn't focus on the subject--but I couldn't. It was obnoxious, distracting, and I finally put the book down about three chapters from the end. I'm even a history major--I'll read anything.

Insider Hubris and the Blinders of Denial
"Executive Secrets" reviews the history of covert action since WW2 and provides information the general reader might not have had (contrary to other reviews, there are no "secret" secrets in this book, since the author limits his examples to declassified data approved by the CIA, which eliminates much information in the public domain that the agency can not or will not acknowledge, One good recent example of the impact of this policy is the an attempt by former CIA officer Melissa Mahle to deliver a speech at the 2007 conference of the International Ethics and Intelligence Association on rendition, prevented when the agency "gutted" her talk by removing information in the public domain which it did not want to give an imprimatur of official acknowledgement).

The author is a former ranking official of the CIA and the context of this book is apologetic and defensive. Itrepetitively makes these points: (1) the CIA acts only when ordered to do so by the President, which orders since 1974 have been reviewed by relevant Senators and Representatives - except when it does not, e.g. Iran-Contra, in which cases it is wrong and (2) the ability to reflect honestly and deeply by an experiencedintelligent career professional is compromised significantly by assimilation into the agendas of a complex organizational structure and the bureaucratic distinctions that become highly relevant inside, but not to the outside observer or citizen.

Because these two themes are the subtext of this book and the emotional energyof Daugherty's polemic,what is revealed is the impact of a lifelong career of assimilation to "insider" thinking and the blind spots and hubris that engenders.

Examples:

(1) The department or executive who did or did not approve particular actions is not, to the citizen, what is most important. Inside, it is. "Not on my desk" is a frequent defense, often heard. I once asked why a proposal was languishing inside one of the agencies and was told that it was being moved from desk to desk because no one wanted to go on record denying it. Thus has it always been; thus will it always be.

(2) The entire enterprise of how and why covert action is executed is the primary concern of the citizen, not the oft-repeated mantra that nothing is done without approval of the President. That matters, of course, but it is subordinate to the larger issues which are ignored in this book. To the citizen, what the nation is doing is critical, not simply the chain of command which exonerates intelligence agencies of responsibility by denying deniability to the executive branch. So focused is the author on pressing accountability back to the White House from Truman forward that he does not seem to notice that he is undermining the "plausible deniability" it is his sworn obligation to uphold. Therefore, the righteous indignation which suffuses so many pages is undercut by exactly the kind of CYA activities in Washington that cause citizens to become cynical and dismissive.

(3) The author fails to take fully into account, despite lip service to the fact of it, that the erosion of boundaries between foreign/domestic and our nation/other nation thanks to technological transformation of geopolitical realities (of which I have written extensively) means that "blowback" is not an incidental event but a chronic state of being for all of us. Actions and speech acts take place everywhere in the world at once, not just "here" or "there." Actions prohibited by the Constitution are now undertaken (the author would say - by order of the President! not independently by the agency! - and he would be absolutely right, but he would miss the point) from our ground and on our ground, obscuring former legal distinctions. As far back as the fifties, when the CIA appointed itself a Ministry of Culture and supported writers, artists, publishers, etc. to oppose Soviet "socialist realism" and propaganda, the hidden effect on America was immense. Writers favored by the agency because their works supported a covert political agenda prospered while those who wrote, for example, about the poor, like John Steinbeck, did not, or they made their way on their own without hidden financial and organizational support. Daugherty says of this and other efforts, "it is hard to imagine any American being upset over these actions of the CIA."

There perhaps is the essence of his blind spot. Those who matured during that era were victims as were all other unwitting people in the world of a false belief that a free market for art and literature and music as for other things evolved in an organic way, according to its own internal dynamics. This is, in fact, the essence of a principled conservatism, this respect for and love of the organic processes of society. But what was happening in fact was the emergence of a manipulated, leveraged, hidden structure of power - what Eisenhower called "the military industrial complex" in a warning that went unheeded and which now includes media, entertainment, academia, and all of the key components of a "free market" society - and thus the simple accepted truths of a generation of Americans were fundamentally betrayed by this radical inauthenticity at the core of our American enterprise.

That Daugherty and other apologists like him can not entertain this, can not understand why this betrayal of the marketplace of ideas in the body politic is key to the cynicism of many Americans is the real problem with this work. Insiders become so imbued with the righteousness of their cause and the territorial distinctions of bureaucracy that this wholesale shift is unseen or, if seen, ignored or, if not ignored, celebrated with what feels like a smirk of innate superiority. That the entire establishment in Washington, including the intelligence community, was not elected or authorized to do this except by its own secret and self-justifying machinations is exactly the point.Oversight by a few Congressional representatives who are assimilated into the process as insiders, the elusive quality of executives orders like EO12333 which can be changed without public notice on the fly, the hot potato game of who gave the orders (it is always mutual and collusive) - all this suggests why, when George Bush outlined at Camp David his intended responses to 9/11 and some advisors objected that at least some of them violated the Constitution, and the President replied, "The Constitution is nothing but a piece of paper" ... all of this suggests why we find ourselves, these days, with a cynical electorate, impatient with precisely the kinds of insider distinctions that for Daugherty are the end of the game.

Secret History of Espionage Revealed
The secret history of our undisclosed espionage and covert agents who defend our liberty ... Read more

Product Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

James Bamford has been the preeminent expert on the National Security Agency since his reporting revealed the agency's existence in the 1980s. Now, Bamford describes the transformation of the NSA since 9/11, as the agency increasingly turns its high-tech gaze within America's borders.

The Shadow Factory reconstructs how the NSA missed a chance to thwart two of the 9/11 hijackers and details how this mistake has led to a heightening of surveillance to insure that it never happens again. In disturbing detail, Bamford describes exactly how every American's data is being mined and by whom, and what is being done with it. Any reader who thinks America's liberties are being protected by Congress will be shocked and appalled at what is revealed here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

scary
books like this should be Halloween thrillers. It portrays how much the us intelligence services own allinformation- public or private- that can be seen to touch the shores of the usa or friendly countries.
Read it and weep for your privacy!

The Shadow Factory
I was in the ASA for many years and kind of knew what to expect from NSA and what it does to support the US in keeping our enemy's at bay.

A Must Have................in the event you run out of firewood!
Some books are difficult to put down once you begin. This is not one of them. Puzzle Palace was certainly an interesting read, but in this case, you can feel the authors disdain for the agency that creates a very nice living for him. I can sense the increasing pressure applied to the keyboard as Bamford spews opinions that would make anyone from Berkely quite proud. Drivel.It's time to move along.

NSA SLIPING
As I was part of ASA in Vietnam. The agency has slipped a little do to the overwhelming number of intercepts and the lack of more language translators. This book however does report both the good and bad.

Shadow Factory
This is the book on which PBS based its DVD 'The Spy Factory'. The Shadow Factory goes into far more detail than the DVD. ... Read more

Product Description
A gripping insider’s look at the post-9/11 CIA

In the weeks following the attacks of 9/11, the Central Intelligence Agency received over 150,000 résumés from people wanting to serve their nation. T. J. Waters became one of more than a hundred students admitted into the CIA’s Clandestine Service to become Class 11, the first post- 9/11 training class. Filled with more information about the CIA’s Clandestine Service Training Program than has ever been allowed into the public domain, Waters takes readers behind closed doors, where the trainees learned methods of subterfuge, mastering disguises, how to withstand interrogations, and how to cross into hostile territory undetected—and provides a moving portrait of ordinary Americans with the courage and determination to go to any lengths to protect their country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

AWESOME READ!!!!
This book was riviting and true to form!! I could not put it down and it brought back many old memories............. Buy this book!!

This is not a guide, It is one mans story!
I know that a lot of the other reviews report that this is practically a useless read. I have another view. I truly enjoyed reading this story. The book is about one mans experience, as told by him. It in no way is trying to give a full spectrum of the course. Tom highlights the events that HE experienced. The book is not an inside guide to the course, but it is rather a personal narrative. I felt like I was reading a fictional novel, a story of sorts, which is how it is supposed to be seen. It took me a moment to realize this, but when he went on his rant about personal problems I understood quickly that it was not a guide. Those who do not understand this cannot truly enjoy the story. Granted his decisions to leave the Agency afterward and the fact that he had no second language and he did not decide to go over seas may seem to detract from his credentials. None of that actually affects the story. If you are looking for a guide to the Agency, a step by step view of how to prepare and what each day is going to be like, then find a book that makes that claim. This book, however, is a story, and a damn good one at that.I give this book 4 stars.

A good read and rare insight into the CIA
The other reviews here are harsher than necessary.This author is not as gifted as many others, but writing is not his calling -- spy work is.The book offers more than a glimpse into how the CIA selects and trains operatives.

It's also a warm take on how some Americans responded to the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

Interesting subject matter / mediocre writing
Class 11 offers an interesting glimpse into the training at the CIA if one is willing to wade through the poor writing.The author is probably a likable enough dufus but his words ring false when he over-dramatizes each time the terror threat in the U.S. changes from yellow to orange; he offers cliched, simplistic and sometimes nonsensical characterizations of others in the class:"coach is our competition junkie. His sports and psychology background give him a considerable advantage in agent meetings." Huh?

Also, his teary-eyed patriotism offers nothing to the reader but another cliche about "the heroes who answer the call."Cliches can be true, but do us a favor and articulate them such that they offer some deeper insight.

On the bright side, the author does expose some bureaucracy in training and reluctance to forge new paths in response to new threats.He also explains the training in detail -- much of it is role-play and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.I'd say that approximately once every ten pages there is a cringe-worthy sentence or sentiment.Here's an example:"On the third week-end I fly home to see Cathy.I enjoyed my first few weeks in training, but as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz so elequently put it, "There's no place like home.""Really?!Was that supposed to be cute?

Anyway, for people willing to wade through sentences like that you may take something away from the read.I haven't yet finished the book; I have less than a third of it left to go...perhaps it's not fair to write a review when I have yet to complete the read.Thus far it reads like a likable yet slightly pompous dork's detailed explanation of CIA basic training.

This book is bad!
This book was previously reviewed numerous times by various people who gave it very poor reviews.None of those negative reviews, however, is still posted.Bad for sales I guess.This author is a clown.The book is weak.He left the CIA after only a few years.Therefore, his knowledge is super limited and the patriotism he so loudly proclaims is greatly undermined.Anybody in the intelligence or law enforcement community will tell you this book is weak, poorly written, and self serving.He joined the CIA, got out, and wrote a weak book which will make him a quick buck.Save yours!! ... Read more

Product Description

All Enemies Foreign And Domestic

The NSA’s most lethal weapon is back. Code-named Devlin, he operates in the darkest recesses of the US government. When international cyber-terrorists allow a deadly and cunning band of radical insurgents to breach the highest levels of national security, Devlin must take down an enemy bent on destroying America—an enemy more violent and ruthless than the world has ever known.

"Michael Walsh is the new master of the political thriller. With the sophistication of Forsyth, the intrigue of le Carré, and the intensity of Ludlum, Early Warning is an incredible thriller.This book should be stamped Satisfaction Guaranteed! “ -- Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Foreign Influence

“Compelling, fast, dangerous” —Robert Ferrigno

“The Vince Flynn for the 21st century.” —John Fasano, Darkness Falls

“Hostile Intent kept me up most of the night. Hold on, is all I can tell you.” —Jay Nordlinger, National Review

“Walsh knows what he's up to.”—USA Today

Michael Walsh is an amazing gentleman and a wordsmith in several disciplines who has achieved critical and commercial acclaim for everything from music criticism to successful screenplays to novels. The latter, which Walsh writes all too infrequently, are memorable and unusual, each a bit different from the other. His latest novel, Hostile Intent, is in a class all by itself: a full-throttle, energy-packed thriller that slices across espionage and politics with enough explosions, fisticuffs and firepower to fill five books with a bit left over for the next.

The book begins about three seconds from now with a school hostage crisis in the middle of the heartland. Attempting to deal with the situation is Jeb Tyler, the hapless, inexperienced President of the United States --- elected after one term in the Senate --- and events are coming at him with a rapidity that do not permit the on-the-job training that he or his next-to-worthless Cabinet requires. Fortunately, there is still the Army or, more specifically, General Armond “Army” Seelye, who has a secret weapon at the ready. The weapon is “Tom Powers” (not his real name), code-named Devlin (not his real name, either). Seelye, the reader learns, is Devlin’s stepfather (and perhaps more), and has groomed him since childhood to be the go-to, last-resort weapon for the United States when all else fails, particularly the government itself.

The hostage situation, as it turns out, is devised by Emanuel Skorzeny, an enigmatic, brilliant and extremely dangerous billionaire with the power to topple governments or influence their elections by manipulating markets and controlling the media. Skorzeny employs a number of elements to draw the deadly Devlin out of his all-but-undetectable electronic cocoon, but his major tool is Milverton, a soldier of fortune who is Devlin’s equal in every way. Devlin and Milverton have fought each other to a deadly standstill before, and the temptation of settling the unfinished business between them is too much for Devlin to resist.

Holding a young girl as a hostage in a dangerous game where the fate of the nation hangs in the balance, Devlin follows a deadly and complex trail to a date with destiny with Milverton, despite the obstacles thrown into his path by both Skorzeny and his own government. In a cataclysmic conclusion where Devlin has to face both Milverton and Skorzeny, our protagonist must defeat not only his adversaries but also the ghosts that haunt his own past if he is to know any peace.

As fast-moving and action-packed as Hostile Intent may be, the real jewel of the narrative is Walsh’s backdrop presentation of the socio-political forces that have held sway over the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in the chickens that have come to ro... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

You like Vince Flynn? You will like this!
This guy can write! This is a great story and he mentions information that is actually interesting history in the back story. I won't spoil any of the story, but I can't wait for his next book.

Very good read
This was my first Michael Walsh outing, and I REALLY liked the action sequences. The writing style is very tight and the imagery is extremely vivid.

The characters were a little more fleshed out than your typical thriller, and I'm a sucker for "domestic threat" stories. I agree with one of the earlier reviewers that there are some big questions left unanswered at the end, but I have to say, I would pick up another Michael Walsh book just as easily as I might pick up another book by my favorite authors in this genre - Vince Flynn, William Tyree, Alex Berenson, etc.

Please proof before publishing!!!
This book was good but could have been shorter.It was 'wordy' which was confusing at times.Although it was obvious that a spellcheck was done, I was annoyed by the lack of proof reading.Words were often repeated (i.e. the the...). I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been proofed thoroughly.

Too enamored with his own intellect.
The authorseems to be too enamored with his own intellect. The story is good but seems to be a display of the author's elite and unusual knowledge, which in itself is OK, but the use of words such as - entrepot, tactus, phylogeny, inamorata, obloquy, dactylic, and this one used twice - simulacrum, seem to me to be showing off, and lend nothing to the story.
These unusual words threw a road block into the tale. I had to look them up. Luckily my iPad could highlight them for me and give me the meaning.

A sequal that makes you want to read the first book --
I loved this book.It's a gritty, realistic, fast-paced adventure that isn't for the politically correct, and offers a clear-eyed view of the world today.You needn't read the first in the series - Hostile Intent - before reading this book. But I guarantee you that after you finish Early Warning, you'll not only want to read the first book, but be hungering for the next in the series.

Walsh's Devlin is a clear-eyed, tough, unsentimental creation.He's the real thing, as opposed to the Hollywood version.

These are the men who allow you to sleep at night.And Walsh deserves kudos for opening a window into this world. ... Read more

Product Description
This book combines a humorous slam against the Republicans with a look at eight years of treason (2000-2008) against the USA by the Texan Oil Corporations and the Saudi Arabians. The American Oil Corporations have been illegally manipulating the US Federal Government for decades, but never so blatantly as during the Bush dictatorship. Through their control over the American Oil Corporations, the Saudi Arabians had almost total control over the US Federal government, the "democracy" in America being nothing more than an appearance for the comfort of the retarded 80% of the population. This book strips away the lies, and gives the reader a realistic look at what the USA has actually become. ... Read more

Product Description

The Bush-Cheney administration took office in 2001 determined to assert the preeminent authority of the executive branch and its immunity from congressional oversight and public transparency. Within months, Congress's Use of Force resolution on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks gave the White House the platform for launching an aggressive and successful campaign to gut the nation's open government laws, neuter congressional prerogatives, and shroud the presidency in privilege and secrecy. With military precision, the wartime executive targeted and struck down or flouted all the landmark sunshine laws enacted by Congress over the preceding decades.

With military precision, the wartime executive targeted and struck down or flouted all the landmark sunshine laws enacted by Congress over the preceding decades: DT Freedom of Information Act (1966) DT Presidential Records Act (1978) DT Budget and Accounting Act establishing the General Accountability Office (1921) DT Federal Advisory Committee Act (1972) DT Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978) Montgomery, who founded the world's largest academic repository of contemporary human rights documents, concludes with a summary of the aggregate impact of Bush-Cheney's attacks on open and balanced government and their implications for the future of constitutional and human rights in the United States.

Customer Reviews (2)

an essential episode in understanding the Cold War
If you're interested in espionage, you will be fascinated to read about the motivation and m.o. of the Walker family, and how investigations and interrogations were conducted at the height of the Cold War.

What it really means to be unpatriotic
For over 17 years John Walker, an ex-Navy warrant officer, led a spy ring that ruptured military security so gravely that the final repercussions were felt for many years. In an era when the notion of patriotism gets batted about like a ping-pong ball, it's interesting to take a look back on how the actual face of treasonous activities rears its head. Walker provided the then Soviet Union with the most sensitive of Naval intelligence concerning U.S. nuclear submarine communications and deployment. Moreover, the strategic ad-vantage the U.S. enjoys with its ability to monitor the exact whereabouts of each sub in the Russian fleet was also compromised when they were given the secrets to our tracking methods. The leaks forced the U.S. to spend $100 million dollars to rebuild secure communications. The shrinking and aging of their fleet may have ultimately been the best counter to the Walker's actions or at least made them moot by now.

So who was John Walker? How and why did he convince his friend, his brother and his own son to commit treason against their country? Why did his estranged wife turn him in and where did the security process fail in the first place?

Jack Kneece, a former Associated Press reporter, attempted to answer these questions with usually fascinating (but at times frustrating) results.

A story like this works best when we get under the skin of the main character - we want to know why he sold out his country. Kneece's approach to explaining Walker's behavior and influences are sometimes heavy-handed. For example, in describ-ing Walker's high school days as a movie usher he says: "The steady diet of movies fed his impressionable ego Johnny began to live in a dreamworld of heroic and daring accomplishments - the daring-do he saw on the silver screen"

There is also a seemingly endless stream of tales relating Walker's penchant for practical jokes and drunken exploits. Some of these stories have attribution, others do not. And that's the problem; one doesn't know if one's getting second-hand braggadocio or revealing insight into a man's behavior.

Aside from this, however, the book makes interesting reading when describing submarine life and the machinations of espionage and the difficult battle to stop it.
... Read more