Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class

Book Description

Written by one of its own graduates, Class 11 is a gripping insiderÂ's look at the first post-9/11 CIA training classÂ—the most elite and secretive espionage training program in the country.

Like all Americans, T. J. Waters was stunned, angry, and griefstricken by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. More than that, he wanted to take action to help prevent such an event from ever happening again.

Waters was not alone. In the weeks following the attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency received over 150,000 resumÃ©s from people wanting to serve their nation as spies. More than one hundred students were admitted to the CIAÂ's Clandestine Service to become Class 11, the first postÂ-9/11 CIA training class. It was the largest and most diverse class in the agencyÂ's history. Joining Waters were a World Trade Center victimÂ's fiancÃ©e, an NFL alumni, a New York City comedian, a college athletics coach, a hostage negotiator, and a single mother. Class 11 is the real story of how this band of everyday Americans joined together to endure the challenge of a lifetime and serve their country. Against the backdrop of Osama bin LadenÂ's videotaped taunts; the Washington, D.C., sniper attacks; and the loss of a CIA field officer in Afghanistan, Waters takes readers behind the scenes, where the trainees learned methods of subterfuge, mastering disguises, withstanding interrogations, and crossing into hostile territory without being detected.

Class 11 is a fascinating and moving portrait of an extraordinary group of Americans with the courage and resolve to make a difference in the war on terror.

Customer Reviews:

Self important but unique.......2007-08-23

The author is someone who seems very full of himself. He often takes time to tell the readers about how his class is the greatest in the Agencies history and likens them to Tom Browkaws "Greatest Generation." One does get the feeling that if he was really that good and that gung-ho that he would not have left the Agency this very quickly and run out, written a book and made a quick buck. That said the fact that I can get this book here at Amazon at a greatly reduced price makes it worth it, because it is along with maybe the book "The Big Breach," one of 2 books that gives a good idea of what the esoteric traing of a intelligence operative in recent times looks like. And so for that reason it is worth buying if you're an aficianado of the spy trade.

Eh........2007-08-18

I read a great deal of intelligence literature prior to reading this book. A college course taught by an old Intelligence professional interested me in the subject, so I sat down and read a few books on it. Perusing through Amazon one night, I came across this book in the "bargain" pile and decided to give it a shot. My response is a definite "eh".

The good first - this book delves a great deal, obviously, into CIA training. It discusses things I had not read in any of the dozen or so other books I had read on the subject. It does discuss the challenges of going through this training with family. The "family day" in particular was interesting to me. There are a few - not many, a few - moments where you might chuckle while reading it. Is it worth picking up at the bargain book price for this alone? Perhaps. I did so more to satisfy a bit of curiosity than anything else.

On to the bad - the writing is absolutely horrible. Childish beyond compare. The author delves into many portions of his personal life that the public could go without knowing and expresses his opinions in such a manner to make one wonder just how much thought - if any - he put into politics before signing up. He is obsessed over a silly t-shirt. His writing speaks of a person desperately trying to convince himself of his own determination when, in fact, we can see from how quickly he left the agency that it is all a façade - or he is no where near as talented as he portrays himself to be. He can scarcely go five pages without reminding the reader of his age. HIs platitudes will send your eyes rolling constantly. There is no sense of humility, no sense that the person we are reading about in all of this is genuine. He thumps his chest constantly, seeking to mix it up with the enemy, but appears to have bailed - or been shown the door - at the first possible opportunity.

The nuggets of information this book provides move it from a 1 to a 2 - but only barely. I constantly wondered how much of what he said here was true, and whether the information on his training was accurate. Still, with its legion of faults, the book is not entirely useless.

Great Insight.......2007-08-16

This book offers a compelling insight into the world's foremost intelligence agency. From a fledgling recruit to graduated case officer, this book examines one man's journey through that process. Class 11 reveals the camaraderie and dedication of the thousands of unsung hero's who answered their nation's call during a time of great trepidation following the Sept. 11 attacks.

TJ Waters makes friends, Wow!!!!!!!!!.......2007-06-29

Do not waste your time and money on the piece of garbage book. The book is filled with chummy sentiment about how close the recruits become, anyone that has served or went through military training/service will likely be annoyed by this theme. I have better stories through 10 years of military service than the a drunk dog-pile, I could barely contain myself.

Keep you money and dont buy.

not really that fascinating--must've did it for the money.......2007-06-10

It starts as a good book. You would think that this guy happens to be an expert or a veteran CIA analyst. When you pass page 80, you'll realize, however, that this man knows about the CIA as much as someone who likes to watch movies like Spy Wars, the Recruit, and Asyriana. Nothing in there was fascinating that makes the book special. It appears that he just got into the agency to brag about it and say the "I used to be in the agency," but decided to leave.
I'm giving two stars because the book could be interesting sometimes. His description of the training could be useful for people interested in working with the agency. I don't recommend the book for researchers, college students, or even high school students. It's just a personal account of his experience and how things worked out with his wife.

Average customer rating:

Good introductory book to the CIA's organization but not much else
The Inside scoop- for sure.
Good book
Good history, fair analysis, outdated
Horrible, uninformative book on the CIA

Inside the CIA
Ronald Kessler
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 067173458X

Customer Reviews:

Good introductory book to the CIA's organization but not much else.......2007-09-06

This book has a good introduction to the organizational structure of the CIA (when it was written) but little discussion as to operations, policies, successes, failures, background of personnel and the production of intellegence estimates. Very little analysis of these.

The Inside scoop- for sure. .......2007-05-12

Kessler managed to write a series of books throughout his literary career. It isn't his writing prowess that sells his books though- it is his ability to gather comprehensive information that is otherwise unavailable to the public regarding a very secret agency, and present that material to those with the curiosity about the CIA. Kessler writes much like a classroom notetaker, where organization is sometimes compromised by detail upon detail. But this is not a negative thing at all. There is just so much to tell and he leaves nothing out.

I have read many books on this field and Kessler is always good to go back to and be reminded about the basic construct that is the world's strongest spy agency. Granted, much has changed since the early fifties but Inside the CIA will give the reader the inside scoop of what began 50 years ago. Even more, how exactly the agency is run, who reports to whom, how information flows, how operations are carried out, etc... Enjoy this read. I know I did.

Good book.......2007-04-12

I should have read the published date, some of the material is a little out of date. It's good reading though.

Good history, fair analysis, outdated.......2006-10-19

The simple fact is that this book is outdated. Published in 1992, it is obvious that the absolute last world event dealt with in the author's research was the Gulf War of 1991. Even though it says it's been updated in 1994, there is definitely no mention of the Clinton years or the 1993 WTC bombing. In fact, in an ominous line, the authors writes to the effect that there has never been a major intel failure since the 80s (regardless of what side you believe, 9/11 would certainly get a full chapter under this category). It's time to update this book, or it will be totally obsolete very soon.

The entire structure of the CIA is outdated. The book was written in the days when there was a DCI, and the major directorates were Ops, Science & Technology, Intelligence and Admin. Now, there is a DNI/DDNI team as head of national intel, under whom is the DCIA (not DCI anymore). The directorates are different as well: Ops is now called the National Clandestine Service; S&T is the same, Intelligence is called Analysis, and Admin is called Support. Not to mention that the whole thing about visitors to Langley is laughably archaic in post-9/11 America.

Though some reviewers mention that Kessler doesn't "reveal any secrets," I found the book quite full of inside info. There are tons of examples of insider issues, operations that went well or badly, and myth debunks. What did you expect, that even if there is a captured UFO, the book would tell you? I didn't see TOPSECRET//NOFORN//SCI anywhere on the cover.

As a history, the book is wonderful. Unfortunately, it's the closest thing to a current tell-all of the Agency, which is sad. Even the Agency itself lists it at the top of their recommended reading for applicants. Untimately, how much can one read about the Soviets and their terrible, horrible threat and still take it seriously in the age of terrorism? In a history of the CIA, fine. But in a book that is supposed to (by the Agency's own admission!) let the average civilian in on the unclassified story of the CIA, Kessler has got to update this book.

Horrible, uninformative book on the CIA.......2006-01-23

Ronald Kessler's INSIDE THE CIA is among one of the worst books I've ever read, and the worst detailing the Central Intelligence Agency.

The material presented by Kessler is hardly informative, and never thought-provoking. Rather, the book is a cluttered, rambunctious compilation of CIA facts merged with Kessler's own commentary which, at times, entirely invalidates his initial claims.

Kessler spends one chapter depicting a CIA director as having been detrimental to the agency at critical times, and justly explains why. However, at the end of the same chapter, he spontaneously introduces his own commentary which contradicts his previous portrayl of the director. For three pages, he actually has the audacity to violate his role as an author and instead become a self-propelled menace to his own writing. Commentary in such books should elaborate on the research presented, and address the author's authentic view; not a repetitive rambling on information.

Furthermore, INSIDE THE CIA is poorly written. Kessler provides facts in short burts of words, sometimes in the most illiterate fashion. At times, Kessler repeats the same facts and commentary, sometimes within the same paragraph on the same page. Therfor, the book becomes irritating to read.

While the book pretends to illustrate the internal workings of each directorate in the CIA, Kessler spends the shortest of chapters on the Directorate of Science Technology, and provides absolutely noththing. The extent to which he describes this directorate is common sense; such as the utilization of satellites; spy devices, etc. He never describes either of those in detail.

Kessler's book succeeds with one function: presenting facts or views on the CIA that are already well known, or just common sense... There are plenty of books on the CIA, and I suggest you buy one that's more informative by an author that knows how to write.

The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB

Average customer rating:

Milt Bearden gives us the data dump
A curious discrepancy
Valuable insight into the climax of the Cold War
Great Read
I LOVE SPY BOOKS

The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
Milton Bearden , and James Risen
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The American Agent: My Life in the CIA
Inside the CIA
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ASIN: 0345472500
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Book Description

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the dramatic inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them.

Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose through the ranks to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War. The clandestine operations they masterminded took them from the sewers of Moscow to the back streets of Baghdad, from Cairo and Havana to Prague and Berlin, but the action centers on Washington, starting in the infamous "Year of the Spy"--when, one by one, the CIA’s agents in Moscow began to be killed, up through to the very last man.

Behind the scenes with the CIA's covert operations in Afghanistan, Milt Bearden led America to victory in the secret war against the Soviets, and for the first time he reveals here what he did and whom America backed, and why. Bearden was called back to Washington after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and was made chief of the Soviet/East Euro-pean Division—just in time to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions that swept across Eastern Europe, and the implosion of the Soviet Union.

Laced with startling revelations--about fail-safe top-secret back channels between the CIA and KGB, double and triple agents, covert operations in Berlin and Prague, and the fateful autumn of 1989-- The Main Enemy is history at its action-packed best.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the dramatic inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them.

Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow.

This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose through the ranks to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War. The clandestine operations they masterminded took them from the sewers of Moscow to the back streets of Baghdad, from Cairo and Havana to Prague and Berlin, but the action centers on Washington, starting in the infamous "Year of the Spy" -- when, one by one, the CIA's agents in Moscow began to be killed, up through to the very last man.

Behind the scenes with the CIA's covert operations in Afghanistan, Milt Bearden led America to victory in the secret war against the Soviets, and for the first time he reveals here what he did and whom America backed, and why.

Bearden was called back to Washington after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and was made chief of the Soviet/East European Division -- just in time to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions that swept across Eastern Europe, and the implosion of the Soviet Union.

Laced with startling revelations -- about fail-safe top-secret back channels between the CIA and KGB, double and triple agents, covert operations in Berlin and Prague, and the fateful autumn of 1989 -- The Main Enemy is history at its action-packed best.

Customer Reviews:

Milt Bearden gives us the data dump.......2007-03-27

My introduction to Milt Bearden came from reading "Charlie Wilson's War" by George Crile. A great book by the way, I would highly recommend it.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in Cold War history.

My only dissapointment with this book is that in the epilogue Milt doesn't approach the question of whether or not the rules have changed from when he was chief of the SE Division, and if those changes are for the better. For example, let's take "extraordinary renditions" - in the days when Milt was chief of SE Division the unwritten rule was that USA and USSR didn't kill or unduly rough up each other's spies. Now that we engage in those kinds of activities, are our CIA operatives in the DO more cautious? Are there more restrictions on their movements when they are overseas? And has the change in methods and attitudes affected our relationships with other intelligence agencies, and if so, for the better or for the worse?

A curious discrepancy.......2006-12-18

Much as I have enjoyed this fascinating book, I wish to point out a startling anachronism. Bearden makes much of the delivery of the "120 mm Spanish mortar" to the Mujahideen in 1987, and elaborates on how teams were trained in applying GPS readings to precisely deliver their ordnance beyond visual range. "It came...with a ranging system worked out by Langley...that fused the low-tech mortar with the high-tech world of satellite guidance." And "Once their exact coordinates had been calibrated, the leader of the team would feed the GPS data into a small computer, add the coordinates of the target, and then query the computer for the precise compass direction and elevation..." This procedure, GPS and all, supposedly led to devastating night attacks on the Spetsnaz battalion at Chagasaray on 28 Nov 1987 and 15 Dec 1987.
Problem: Although initial use of GPS was reported in 1990, it did not become operational until 1993. In 1987 the satellites had not been launched yet (this was during the Challenger stand-down).
We can only conclude that while the attacks and the mortars were real, the procedures and the "ranging" method used must have been invented by the authors for literary convenience. No doubt this is the ghost writer's shortcut, not Bearden's, but this does raise questions about technical accuracy throughout the volume.

Valuable insight into the climax of the Cold War.......2005-11-18

In a brief period of time between 1989 and 1991, the world changed dramatically. Several significant events transpired, each literally changing the way the world worked overnight. In The Main Enemy, Milt Bearden and James Risen provide a detailed and fascinating view into the struggle between the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Soviet security service, Komitet Gosudarstvenoj Bezopasnosti (KGB).

Anyone aware of the state of world affairs for the last half of the twentieth century would be hard pressed to believe any of the events that took place as the final decade of the century was poised to begin. Starting with the Soviet Union's withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989, we observed as one event followed another, each coming as a greater surprise than the previous. We watched the collapse of the Berlin Wall and saw the reunification of Germany shortly thereafter. Not long behind Germany's rejection of socialism, we saw revolutions in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and elsewhere. In the latter half of 1991, we watched a failed coup in the Soviet Union, and as that year drew to a close, the Soviet hammer and sickle was replaced with the Russian tricolor flag over Moscow.

These were not events that took place on their own. These were the highly visible climax of an ongoing struggle between the proponents of the Soviet Revolutskyj Mir ("World Revolution") and their counterparts in the West -- including Britain's MI6 and America's CIA. Such a conclusion wasn't always assured, and there were times when CIA was baffled by the tremendous success of KGB's operations against Western agents and interests. It is during these "1985 losses" that the book opens, providing a foundation that helps the reader to see just what was happening in the world of intelligence.

Milt Bearden is a career CIA officer, having spent a lifetime in the shadows and working for America's interests. James Risen is an accomplished journalist. The collaboration -- which also includes the input and assistance of many other players from many sides in this international game of strategy and intrigue -- is an admirable success. The story is gripping, compelling, and personal. The book is well-structured and the prose makes it easy to forget that The Main Enemy isn't a novel, but a book of real history.

For those of us whose understanding of intelligence is primarily from the technical side -- most likely through Bamford's glimpses into the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) -- The Main Enemy is instructive, helping us to see the value of human intelligence (HUMINT) and its role in world affairs.

While hardly the definitive work on the operations of CIA, The Main Enemy provides valuable insight into the climax of the Cold War. Hopefully its accessible style will help to open this important chapter of history to a wide audience -- not just spy buffs.

Great Read.......2004-07-04

For those of us who were a bit younger at the end of the Cold War and were more interested in girls and cars than politics, this is a great read about the spy games that went on between the CIA & KGB, both directly (eg. in Washington or Moscow) or indirectly (Afghanistan) and about the political changes that happened at the end of the 80's and early 90's. I have read a lot of Tom Clancy's novels, and this one has them beat for intrigue and insight. Anyone who enjoys books told from a truly inside perspective will love this one.

I LOVE SPY BOOKS.......2004-05-04

This is another terrific spy book that is worth reading. Was completeley drawn in by this one !!! Another Cold War era book I would recommend is the one by Benjamin Weiser titled " A Secret Life" about a Polish Colonel ( Ryszard Kuklinski ) on the Polish General Staff who passed on some 40,000 Warsaw Pact and Soviet documents to the CIA from 1972 to 1981.

The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror

Average customer rating:

So-So
CIA at War
Tantalising but unsatisfying
Best Reasoning Yet for Iraq War
boomer sooner

The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror
Ronald Kessler
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Inside the CIA
The American Agent: My Life in the CIA
A Spy's Journey: A CIA Memoir
Master of Disguise, The
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism

ASIN: 0312319339

Book Description

With the CIA at the core of the war on terror, no agency is as important to preserving America's freedom. Yet the CIA is a closed and secretive world-impenetrable to generations of journalists-and few Americans know what really goes on among the spy masters who plot America's worldwide campaign against terrorists.Only Ronald Kessler, an award-winning former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, could have gained the unprecedented access to tell the story. Kessler interviewed fifty current CIA officers, including all the agency's top officials, and toured areas of the CIA the media has never seen. The agency actively encouraged retired CIA officers and officials to talk with him as well. In six years as director, George J. Tenet has never appeared on TV shows and has given only a handful of print interviews, all before 9/11, but Tenet agreed to be interviewed by Kessler for this book. He spoke candidly and passionately about the events of 9/11, the war on terror, the agency's intelligence on Iraq, and the controversies surrounding the agency.The CIA at War tells the inside story of how Tenet, a son of Greek immigrants, turned around the CIA from a pathetic, risk averse outfit to one that has rolled up 3,000 terrorists since 9/11, was critically important to winning in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now kills terrorists with its Predator drone aircraft.The book portrays Tenet as a true American hero, one who overcame every kind of Washington obstacle and the destructive actions of previous director John Deutch to make the agency a success. As Tenet said in a recent speech, "Nowhere in the world could the son of an immigrant stand before you as the director of Central Intelligence. This is simply the greatest country on the face of the earth."The CIA at War discloses highly sensitive information about the CIA's unorthodox methods and its stunning successes and shocking failures. The book explores whether the CIA can be trusted, whether its intelligence is politicized, and whether it is capable of winning the war on terror. In doing so, the book weaves in the history of the CIA and how it really works. It is the definitive account of the agency.From the CIA's intelligence failure of 9/11 to its critical role in preventing further attacks, The CIA at War tells a riveting, unique story about a secretive, powerful agency and its confrontation with global terrorism.

Customer Reviews:

So-So.......2007-08-31

You can tell this is written from an outsider. No matter how much access he had to "secrets" he doesn't understand what he is talking about like someone who has done it as their career and written about it from the inside. The beginning of the book is very hard to follow and repeats information, often in random order. Names are thrown in so fast it is hard to keep track of who he is talking about or what the person's job is/was. It does settle out toward the middle and becomes pleasantly readable until the end.

CIA at War.......2006-09-22

Detailed look at the workings of the Agency and the influence of its Directors on work and morale; however, the author presented an uncritically positive characterization of Tenet and an equally rosy portrayal of President Bush's handling of foreign affairs. The author ignores lingering questions and concerns (e.g. where are the weapons of mass destruction, statements by the Administration linking Hussein and al Qaeda), frequently uses partisan language and soundbites to describe President Clinton, and, overall, comes off as an apologist for the current Bush Administration.

Tantalising but unsatisfying.......2006-07-13

Ronald Kessler, a New York Times journalist and best-selling author, gained impressive access to the CIA and recorded interviews with many of its highest officers, past and present. The result is the CIA at War, a tantalising journey into the organization, its history, secrets, travails, and successes.

From a Cold War operation run by Ivy League East Coast insiders to an enormous apparatus of human and technological counterterrorism headed by a son of immigrants, the CIA has chalked up remarkable successes (identifying the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba) and astonishing failures (being hoodwinked by a brace of double agents, many of whom continued in their ruinous ways after failing polygraph tests).

What emerges is a CIA that suffered long bouts of institutional atrophy, congressional hostility, and public lack of confidence, all of which made for staggering lapses in national security. A long period of patient reconstruction and success in the post-September 11 war on militant Islam has since followed. Kessler's access to contemporary officials, not least the media-shy George Tenet, makes by far for the book's greatest interest.

Allowing for Kessler's clear partisanship for Tenet, this book makes for a corrective to the view of the CIA as napping while dangers multiplied. The CIA's failure to preempt Al-Qaeda is located in a combination of Clinton administration uninterest, legal and technical shackles, and a prevailing mood of complacency in Washington.

Kessler offers teasing glimpses, interesting anecdotes, and occasionally absorbing testimony, but in the end, these fail to satisfy as the author ultimately is limited by his sources. Whether they have truly been forthcoming and whether he has given due weight to the variables involved are matters for judgment. Kessler's story is additionally fitful and riddled with digressions (for example, five pages on the CIA's public image immediately following the September 11 attacks).

Best Reasoning Yet for Iraq War.......2006-06-26

I've read other books by Ronald Kessler, and I like his style enough to have bought this one. I'm glad I did. I wanted to learn more about intelligence and it's application in government and military decision making, and this book takes an inside look at just that.

The most striking element of the book is the well-reasoned and compelling justification for the war in Iraq. I've been military for over a quarter of a century, but didn't understand the argument for attacking Iraq until after reading Kessler's book. President Bush never made so cogent a presentation to the American people, but the logic and moral imperitives Kessler lays out may open the eyes of all but the most blindly critical reader. Before conservative/liberal loyalties comes survival as a nation, and Kessler makes it clear that such are the stakes on the table today.

A quick and extremely relevant read, this book is for anyone who has an interest in intelligence and the much-debated war on terror.

boomer sooner.......2006-05-01

Instead of providing great insight into the "secret campaign against terror", the author decides to give a very pro-republican view of american leadership with respect to intelligence. The author keeps his train of thougt for about one page, then gives a page of background or set-up, then another page of his original thought, then another of background...you get the picture. While the book contains some interesting facts there are definitely much better books available about the CIA.

The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It

Average customer rating:

How to Connect the Dots
Opportunity Lost
Sleeping Giants
Left Leaning Hoosier- Thank You for being a Hysterical Moron
No ZERO stars option?

The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It
John J. Miller , Michael Stone , and Chris Mitchell
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Law Enforcement | Criminal Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

September 11 | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror

ASIN: 0786887826
Release Date: 2003-05-14

Book Description

n The Cell, John Miller, an award-winning journalist and coanchor of ABC's 20/20, along with veteran reporters Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell, takes readers back more than 10 years to the birth of the terrorist cell that later metastasized into al Qaeda's New York operation. This remarkable book offers a firsthand account of what it is to be a police officer, an FBI agent or a reporter obsessed with a case few people will take seriously. It contains a first-person account of Miller's face-to-face meeting with bin Laden and provides the first full-length treatment to piece together what led up to the events of 9/11, ultimately delivering the disturbing answer to the question: Why, with all the information the intelligence community had, was no one able to stop the 9/11 attacks?

Download Description

ABC's John Miller has been tracking this story since his coverage of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. He was the first American journalist to interview Osama bin Laden. He has a sophisticated knowledge of the structure and workings of bin Laden's and other extremist organizations. And he has extensive sources within the federal and local law enforcement communities now conducting the investigation into the September 11 attacks. In The Cell, Miller and veteran crime reporter Michael Stone will narrate the behind-the-scenes story of this unfolding investigation. Following a handful of key agents and detectives, they will not only describe the step-by-step process of identifying and linking up suspects, but the politics and pressures, the magnitude and feel of the greatest manhunt in the history of the world.

Customer Reviews:

How to Connect the Dots.......2007-09-03

Excellent non partisan narrative that takes you from an assasination plot in 1990 through the events of 9/11 and shows you how to connect the dots between the numerous events in between.

Many in our law enforcement and government were aware of the connections but were unable to convince the bureaucracy to take action. Decades of relative peace changed the makeup of the organizations tasked to protect us. Their focus shifted from those who would harm us to those who would challenge their budgets and power.

Essential reading to understand how large organizations can miss the obvious. A great primer on Osama and the Islamist threat.

Opportunity Lost .......2007-07-28

This is a great read, perhaps written too much from the FBI side of the house but nonetheless at the top of the list.

It is tough to read the book while knowing what would happen on 9-11. Monday morning quarterbacking always looks brilliant. However, the authors document the flaws at the FBI, CIA national leadership and other agencies, plus the many times that sound instincts were overruled by bureaucratic blunders and second guessing. Colin Powell in his excellent brief on leadership (prepared as the storm gathered) notes that both military and corporate leadership should start with the assumption that the people in the field know more about reality than headquarters staff.

The effectiveness of young, results oriented organizations too often matures into process oriented organizations where results are subordinate to process, career advancement and political correctness. One small example was the CIA leadership refusing authorization for a low risk intelligence field operation, but offering to send a 4 person team to the field office to provide sexual harassment training, to a 2 man field office deep in the Muslim world.

The authors note the seemingly endless stream of lost opportunities to break or at least slow the chain, some incredibly lucky events such as the fire that lead Philippine authorities to the master bomb maker. Warriors and coaches emphasize that winners make their own good luck. As a nation we did a great job of making bad luck with tragic results.

There are heroes, many of them and the authors take the reader into the daily struggle as they attempt to prevent what would become 9-11 but which might have ended with an even more deadly attack.

This would have been an easy 5 stars were it not for some troubling issues. The first is information available to both our leadership and the press in the decade leading up to 9-11 clearly showed that to be a serious threat. When my phone rang shortly after 6 am (Pacific Time) on 9-11, the first words I heard were, "You were right" from a very distraught and close friend. The tragedy was not that we had no information; but rather that so many public warnings over the prior 12 years had been ignored by both the press and our top leadership.

In the late 80's the revised "Great Reckoning" devoted a substantial portion of the book to the rise of militant Muslim fundamentalists, the challenges of asymmetrical warfare with stateless groups whose weapons were made vastly more deadly by the expansion of technology. In the following years the terrorists had struck every continent with the exception of Antarctica. There was within much of the military leadership the shared, unclassified opinion, that the "big one was coming." And finally, as is so often the case, fiction writers like Tom Clancey understood and wrote about the potential of using airliners as weapons.

The authors also note the debilitating impact of restrictions and bureaucratic roadblocks placed on the CIA's use of sources. They fail to note that the restrictions and procedures helped Ames to compromise virtually every US asset in the USSR. The rules and procedures increased the threat to those who would help us and discouraged our agents from recruiting sources.
The authors also gloss over the damage done by Adm Turner who pushed the CIA away from human sources and effective action. They do note the sign over one CIA officer's desk which summarized the Turner/Carter CIA - Big operations, big problems - Little operations, little problems - No operations, no problems. Boldness succumbed to bureaucracy and risk aversion.

The authors note that Clinton did not meet with the CIA Director for years, but offer the comment that he read the reports. However, in the world of very sensitive information, leaked documents and Freedom of Information requests there is no substitute for personal briefings. If the FBI, DOJ and CIA were not working together as a team it is a reflection of both the problems within the organizations and the leadership above.

With these issues noted the book is highly recommended. Also recommended is I.C. Smith's "Inside" which presents another view of many of the same issues and makes a great companion.

Sleeping Giants.......2006-11-12

The authors of "The Cell" provide the reader with a step-by-step on how the terrorist's cells evolved and developed. The terrorist cells had its beginnings not in Pakistan or Iran but in the United States of America in the heart of the city of New York!

The authors write in detail about the catastrophe of the World Trade Center on September 26, 1993. They provide inside information on the worst tragedy of September 11, 2001. The authors show how all could have been averted if it had not been for the sleeping giants, the FBI, NYPD, JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and the CIA. Not only were those powerful agencies asleep, but they were, in every way, trying to be the number one and all-powerful individual agency. This was mistakenly done by not sharing important and critical information. Moreover, the different agencies failed to act on the clandestine information, each one had about the Muslim immigrants from Pakistan. The agencies knew ahead of time a large group of immigrant Muslims were busy gathering bomb-making materials and being trained in American soil to bring the twin towers down and kill as many American people as well.

I compare the way the authors of "The Cell" present the reader the story much like paint-by-number's painting. Once the reader finishes painting all the numbered pieces the reader wind up with an extremely disturbing painting of how the terrorists managed to accomplish doing the inconceivable in the heart of America.

As American's we continue to believe in the fallacy that we are a giant that cannot be touched. We see ourselves as a giant elephant and the terrorist as a gnat buzzing on our giant elephants' ear. We fail to give that gnat more attention and instead gently try to swat it off our ear.

The reader might have seen the incidents of the World Trade Center tragedy on TV. The reader might have witnessed the pulverizing of the twin towers on 9/11 on TV is well, but the authors of "The Cell" provide the inside story never seen and or witnessed by the public at large, and they paint the catastrophically numbered slots in a factual, but disturbing way.

"The Cell" is necessary read for everyone.

Left Leaning Hoosier- Thank You for being a Hysterical Moron.......2006-09-13

any leftish baffon who writes comments like yours proves that i need to read the book. i look forward to a terrific read.

No ZERO stars option?.......2006-09-12

Does anyone even care that the "Author" John Miller, formerly of ABC's 20/20 and then the head of counterterrorism for the LAPD, is currently the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the FBI in the BUSH regime...I mean...Administration.

This book is Propaganda. Period.

The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology

Average customer rating:

Needs more wizardry
Dry text with a few gems of info
The "Bureaucrats" of Langley
Interpretation at its best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Researched but Poorly Written

The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology
Jeffrey T. Richelson
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0813366992

Amazon.com

For many, the CIA conjures up a shadowy world of spies, international intrigue, and secret corridors of power. While this image may be partially accurate, the primary function of the agency is less romantic: the collection and analysis of information. To this end, the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is indispensable. As the group responsible for creating the tools that allow the spymasters to do their jobs, the DS&T has been "a key element in the history of both the CIA and the entire intelligence community," writes Jeffrey Richelson, a specialist on American intelligence operations. In The Wizards of Langley, he traces the directorate from its inception in 1947 to the present, analyzing each aspect of its activities and responsibilities in exhaustive detail, along with the infighting and political wrangling that have accompanied its growth.

As Richelson points out, there were some missteps, such as administering LSD to scientists without their knowledge (one committed suicide as a result), employing cats as bugging devices, and the use of psychics, but overall the DS&T has made "an enormous contribution to U.S. intelligence capabilities and national security." Notably, the directorate has developed the U-2 spy plane and some of the U.S.'s most important surveillance satellites, and has been a pioneer in photointerpretation, the collection of signals intelligence, and foreign missile and space programs analysis. Some innovations have even had significant effects beyond the intelligence community, such as lithium batteries for pacemakers and methods for the detection of breast cancer. The book also offers a wealth of anecdotes, giving readers a rare look at top-secret operations and spy games of the cold war. Though the sheer amount of detail sometimes bogs down the narrative, this is a gold mine for those interested in the largely unsung heroes who have enabled the CIA to work so effectively. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

A uniquely detailed and engrossing look at the individuals, scientific innovation, and bureaucratic warfare behind the scenes at the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology.

In this, the first full-length study of the Directorate of Science and Technology, Jeffrey T. Richelson walks us down the corridors of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and through the four decades of science, scientists, and managers that produced the CIA we have today. He tells a story of amazing technological innovation in service of intelligence gathering, of bitter bureaucratic infighting, and sometimes, as in the case of its mind-control adventure, of stunning moral failure. Based on original interviews and extensive archival research, The Wizards of Langley turns a piercing lamp on many of the agency's activities, many never before made public.

Customer Reviews:

Needs more wizardry.......2006-07-28

If you go into reading this book with the idea that you are going to be learning about amazing gadgets and strange experiments you might finish the book disappointed. If you go into reading this book hoping to learn about the bureaucracy of the CIA than you'll probably leave satisfied. While Richelson does spend a portion of the book talking about technical wizardry such as spy satellites, spy planes, and other James Bond fare, much of the book is spent talking about directorate organization and hierarchy, and the political infighting that comes along with it.

This wouldn't be a problem if the book were billed as such. However, the book's back cover and description lead you to believe otherwise. The crazy directorate experiments using hallucinogens and telepathy are mentioned in the description but they take up less than a chapter in the book.

The book is incredibly well researched and can at times be an enjoyable read. However, a disproportionate amount of book space is taken up talking about organizational structure and agency politics. Two subjects that I find little interest in. If this book had stressed wizardry over policy it would be a five star selection, as the technical talk is incredibly interesting, well done and enlightening. However, this book focuses is on bureaucracy and suffers because of it.

Dry text with a few gems of info.......2006-06-01

Richelson has written a very complete, documented, book on the Directorate of Science and Technology. However, unless you are looking for how government organizations function, or don't function, there isn't much new information on the technological accomplisments of the CIA that hasn't been written about elsewhere. I found the detailed reporting on who hated who, and how the defense department fought with the CIA for control of programs only slightly interesting. The technological achievements of the CIA were really interesting but sometimes amounted to a half page of good stuff, then back to the petty infighting within the government. I don't recommend this book unless you are doing a research paper.

The "Bureaucrats" of Langley.......2005-03-11

If I had read Andrew S. Rogers's review of this book (see below), "The Wizards of Langley" would have moved to the back of the queue of unread volumes on my bookself. While Richelson does an excellent job researching and documenting the organizational history of the CIA's Directorate of Science & Technology (DST), he drags the reader through a morass of details regarding the bureaucratic battles among various organizations within the U.S. Intelligence Community.

When Richelson manages to take a break from the tedium of bureaucratic infighting, he spends most of his time describing the development of reconnaissance aircraft (such as the U-2) and various signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities, with a focus on satellite programs. For a much more captivating history of SIGINT programs, I (like Rogers) would recommend James Bamford's "Body of Secrets".

One of the more interesting anecdotes in "Wizards" occurs toward the end of Chapter 7, where Richelson describes how Antonio Mendez orchestrated the escape of six American diplomats out of Iran after the fall of the Shah. Although Richelson only devotes three pages to this story, he succeeded in piquing my interest enough to purchase Mendez's own book, "Master of Disguise".

If it wasn't for Richelson's excellence as a journalist and historian, I would have given this book a lower rating. If you are writing a research paper on the history of the DST, look no further. However, if you seek enthralling tales of technological wizardry or derring-do, you would be better served elsewhere.

Interpretation at its best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2003-02-02

Dr. Richelson, who is a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, gives a highly recommendable interpretation of the Directorate of Science and Technology, at the CIA. His book is based mostly on declassified documents, making its stories highly believable and interesting.

Well Researched but Poorly Written.......2002-12-29

I must agree with previous reviewer comments. This book attempts to describe the Directorate of Science and Technology, yet it focuses on the bureaucracy of upper management and has little discussion regarding the programs and technologies created by the DS&T. This organization has played a cricial role in shaping modern history, yet the book is dull and uninteresting to read.

Inside CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency`s Internal Journal, 1955-1992

Average customer rating:

"Academic"
Internal Journals Declassified
No secrets, but a little window into how the agency operates
A Fascinating Peek into the CIA's World
"Best of the Best" from CIA Insider Think Pieces

Inside CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency`s Internal Journal, 1955-1992

Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300072643

Amazon.com

In 32 essays originally written for the Central Intelligence Agency's internal journal, Studies in Intelligence, authors, most of whom are CIA agents, talk shop. These recently declassified articles, written between 1955 and 1992, provide an offbeat internal history of CIA operations. Some delve into arcane areas of tradecraft, and could be considered essential reading for historians as well as spy buffs: CIA operatives detail secret operations, offer practical how-to advice, and critique themselves and their work.

Book Description

This engrossing book presents the most interesting articles from Studies in Intelligence-a previously classified in-house Central Intelligence Agency journal that was for CIA eyes only-and provides insights into CIA strategies and into events in which the organization was involved.

Customer Reviews:

"Academic".......2007-03-31

The book is too "academic" for the average reader. It feels like I am reading college research papers. Obviously, these articles are for academic purposes, but I was expecting more field-related stuff like front-line espionage stuff. Maybe I watched too much 007, but this was too slow of a read for me.

Internal Journals Declassified.......2004-02-08

A fascinating piece of history. It's not that we read important secrets, or even that the topics of these journal articles are current and relevant, but from a historical perspective, the insights and conclusions are a fun window into the CIA's world over the years.

No secrets, but a little window into how the agency operates.......2002-08-12

This Yale University Press publication is an insiders scorecard on how to collect information. Techniques for clandestine human intelligence gathering are reviewed in detail. The text even explores how internal CIA squabbling hurts U.S. intelligence gathering. The declassified articles from the agency's internal journal from 1955-1992 is mostly insider shop talk. My favorite chapter is VII, Counterespionage. Section eight of chapter three, psychology of treason is an ice-cold analysis.

A Fascinating Peek into the CIA's World.......2002-06-13

This series of essays shows CIA's thinking on a range of subjects that are eclectic and really interesting. Assessments of various forms of intelligence collection are included, trends in the agency's history, and many others. I especially found the chapter on the psychology of defectors and spies interesting and especially relevant. It's an older piece, but still current given the capture of Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames.

"Best of the Best" from CIA Insider Think Pieces.......2000-12-19

Brad, a respected scholar in his own right, was given unique access to all past publications of the CIA's internal journal, Studies in Intelligence, and has produced an absolutely lovely collection of the best thoughts inside CIA from 1955-1992, organized into sections for imagery intelligence collection, overt human intelligence collection, clandestine human intelligence collection, human intelligence and its consumers, the analysis function, analysis and its consumers, and counterespionage. I regard this book as an essential supplementary reading for teaching both students and practitioners.

Average customer rating:

The best book in the world..
Detailed but odious work
Best Cold Look at Day to Day Clandestine Operations
A must read. Shows the truth behind the CIA

INSIDE THE COMPANY: CIA DIARY
Philip Agee
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 055326012X
Release Date: 1984-01-01

Customer Reviews:

The best book in the world.........2006-02-24

Well, this book is tedious reading..But to my knowledge, it is one of a kind! Mr. Agee relates the REAL operations of the CIA.
Through painstaking detail he shows the day to day activities of the CIA in latin america. Due to its uniqueness, and depth of coverage I have to give it a 5..

Detailed but odious work.......2004-06-11

This isn't a thriller and it can be very dry and tiresome at times. However, from the academic standpoint , this is an interesting work on the CIA.
Good or bad, this book was a product of its times, and I understand that. It wasn't fashionable in the 1970s to spy, and there were some controls needed on CIA.
However, I think Agee goes too far in releasing secrets.
Agee takes the reader through recruitment, training and CIA life. If he had stopped there and left out designations, cover and agent names it would be a sort of dry but informative work.
He didn't.
Aldrich Ames sold names and operations for money to the Soviet Union. Phil Agee sold them to a book publisher. I see little difference.

Best Cold Look at Day to Day Clandestine Operations.......2000-04-08

I despise what Philip Agee did with this book, endangering the lives of real people and violating his oath as a commissioned officer in the clandestine service. I was also very surprised by the level of detail in the book, and concluded that he intended to betray the CIA well prior to leaving. I've served three overseas tours and three Washington assignments, and from all that time I can barely remember one cryptonym series and not a single true identity. I think Agee took notes and planned ahead to burn the CIA. This is a good diary, and I include it in this bibliography to represent the pedestrian side of the DO-the day to day monotony of going through the motions and doing agent recruitments and agent handling operations in third world countries where the bulk of what one does really does not contribute to U.S. national security or understanding.

A must read. Shows the truth behind the CIA.......1999-01-27

Philip Agee does a wonderful job of unmasking the villains and personel of the CIA. It is written in a diary format, with each occasion listed to the exact date. Philip Agee was a former CIA agent positioned in Ecuador. His story depicts how the Company goes about their business and describes what their business is.

The Politics of Truth: A Diplomat's Memoir: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity

Average customer rating:

Whether you lean left or right, read this book!
Fascinating & Frightening
The historical record
We owe a lot to Joe Wilson
Discount Bin Book

The Politics of Truth: A Diplomat's Memoir: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity
Joseph Wilson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Conservatives Without Conscience

ASIN: B000EMH5LQ

Amazon.com

While many former Bush administration officials published books airing their gripes and concerns in advance of the 2004 election, few were in a situation as personal as Joseph Wilson's. A career diplomat, he found himself working for an administration that apparently leaked information revealing his wife, Valerie Plame, to be a CIA operative soon after Wilson cast doubt on Bush's claims of Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger. When columnist Robert Novak named Plame, there was widespread speculation about who leaked the information. In The Politics of Truth, Wilson points a finger at Dick Cheney's chief-of-staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby and national security aide Eliot Abrams although Wilson never really presents smoking gun evidence against them. There is little here that breaks new ground in terms of hard facts being revealed, nonetheless, Wilson's account, personal and well written, maps out the human impact of the situation in ways that major newspapers never could. Wilson's animus toward the administration is made stronger by his support of the president in the 2000 election and he held out hope that a centrist conservative approach would help America's position in the world. That scenario withered, in Wilson's mind, when the plan to invade Iraq became increasingly inevitable and, like many traditional conservatives, Wilson mourns the rise of the ideological "neo-conservatives" who shaped foreign policy. But while a true-life secret identity/betrayal story is inherently fascinating, and Wilson's indignation and scorn is powerfully delivered, there is more to recommend his book. Wilson tells of being stationed in the Persian Gulf in the days leading up to the first Gulf War, a haunting encounter with Saddam Hussein, and years of efforts to establish democracy in Africa. The Politics of Truth provides a glimpse inside the high stakes world of international intelligence and, Joseph Wilson says, that world can be vicious. --John Moe

Book Description

Through the last three presidential administrations and two wars with Iraq, no one has personally witnessed, influenced, or fueled news over more history-making events than Joseph Wilson. The last American diplomat to sit face-to-face with Saddam Hussein, he is a consummate insider who has the intelligence, principles, and independence to examine current American foreign policy and the inner workings of government and to form a candid assessment of the United States’ involvement in the world. In February 2002, Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium in that country. Wilson’s report, and two from other American officials, conclusively negated such rumors, yet all were brushed aside by the White House. Startled by the infamous words uttered by George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address: “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Wilson decided to reveal the truth behind the initiation of the Iraq war. The Politics of Truth is an explosive and revelatory book by a man who stands for the accurate recording of history against those forces bent on fabricating truth.

Customer Reviews:

Whether you lean left or right, read this book!.......2007-09-16

There's a little-known story about the Valerie Plame Wilson affair that has gone almost unmentioned in its aftermath. I have seen this story mentioned once, during congressional testimony on the part of one of her co-workers. The testimony never made it to the public outside of C-SPAN.

Here's how it works. A former covert agent is outed. Immediately, intelligence services in other countries go to work to identify all of the people they can who can be proven to have had contact with the outed agent, going back as far as possible and covering every possible contact, including everyone they can include. The list, which will be huge, is now slowly and patiently shaken down, and people who were formerly "trusted" are now considered "dirty" until proven otherwise. Twenty-year-old survillance photos are pulled from files and re-examined. Field operatives are pulled in for questioning. Possible double agents are identified, trapped and used to reveal more information.

Often when a single agent's cover is blown, even a non-active one, people die for years afterward and entire intelligence networks, networks that often cost many millions of dollars to create and involve years of work on the part of many dedicated people, are destroyed. A blown cover is like a large rock hitting a pool of calm water; the ripples last for a very long time.

There is no doubt that the outing of Wilson's wife caused mayhem at the very least and at the worst, many deaths. This fact goes unmentioned in news coverage, not out of conspiracy but out of ignorance. Most people just don't know.

Whether you are politically on the right or on the left, if you believe in our Republic and wish to preserve it, you should read this book and gain some insight into the mechanisms of politics. The GWB administration has been willing to go farther past traditional limits than any other in history to discredit its enemies and hit back hard, and truth is not (at all) a requirement. It's a Karl Rove tactic, and it has worked well to win elections against not one but three decorated war veterans.

If you are at all interested in the future of the United States, you should read this frank and well-written book, and then look for these tactics in future elections and congressional battles.

Fascinating & Frightening.......2007-07-08

Joseph Wilson has had a fascinating life and having worked as a diplomat in different African nations and Iraq in the run up to the first Gulf war, he is not naive, nor is he anti-war.
This is why it is all the more powerful to hear his side of how the White House has worked to discredit him, because he pointed out that claims they were making about Saddam trying to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger were false.
He never wanted a fight with the White House, but once they outted his wife as a CIA operatives the gloves came off.
All the more telling is the fact that George Bush Snr. invited Wilson to the oval office and warmly thanked him for all he had achieved in getting US citizens out of Iraq prior to the first Gulf war. This same man is being attacked and vilified by the current White House run by the son, simply because he asked for some untrue statements to be corrected.
Very indicative of the sorry state of the Office of the President of the US.

The historical record.......2007-06-08

Certain folks were all over the television last year claiming that Plame's status was never covert.

That's not the case. It's now official; beyond question she was covert.

It's amusing to see people cite the Washington Post as an authority, then turn around and claim the paper is nothing but liberal propaganda.

The truth is that top editors of the Post are noted conservatives Fred Hiatt and George Will. Their sympathy with the administration, and friendship with I. "Scooter" Libby, are apparent in the various editorials cited as authoritative in some of the book reviews that precede mine.

Remember, the same folks who argued that Plame was never covert, also pushed the exact same untruths you see in many of the one star reviews of this book.

For example, the congressional investigation supported Wilson's finding that there was no attempted purchase of Uranium from Niger. The document touted by the administration was a forgery, easily debunked by our allies (in fact it took them just *six hours* to do so).

And yet you still hear people mindlessly repeat that Wilson was proved wrong.

And that's kind of the whole point -- insult to injury -- out his wife, then smear the both of them.

We owe a lot to Joe Wilson.......2007-01-09

I couldn't put this book down. What an amazing life that Joe Wilson has lived, travelling to many different countries and learning so much. His experiences with our current government show that they are willing to defame anyone who speaks out against them, and I cannot believe how they have made him out to be a bad guy. He has done nothing but serve our country honorably, and I hope that someday he and his wife will be vidicated.

Discount Bin Book.......2006-09-02

The Senate Intelligence Com. proved Wilson a liar.

The Washington Post has now stated," Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger...It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously. "

The SF Gate/Chron. has now stated," ...it is now clear that all the hype about a Bush-inspired vendetta against the Wilsons is bunk...The outing of Wilson was not an act of treason. It was not a deliberate effort to smear an administration critic. It was not an act of revenge orchestrated by Bush political guru Karl Rove. It was not an effort to hurt anyone's CIA career. It was gossip."

JOE WILSON, PROVEN LIAR.

Average customer rating:

Modus Operandi 9/11
Hal Sisson
Manufacturer: Global Outlook
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0973110929

Product Description

Right from the get-go, Modus Operandi 9/11 is a spell-binding tale that draws in the reader by the intriguing idea that the story line could actually be true. Best-selling Canadian author Hal Sisson researched 100's of books, DVD's and articles to figure out what may really have happened on 9/11. He comes up with a Dan Brown type thriller that unravels a dastardly plot cooked up by a group dubbed the "Global Union." The cabal deliberately creates a false-flag disaster on 9/11 to shock and strongarm America into a war that won't end in our lifetime... and to bring about a world totalitarian government.

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