A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies

Despite the weighty subject, this book reads like a novel. Some reviewers pan it as a work of fiction. You owe it to yourself to read this book and decide for yourself. James Bamford asserts that the current Bush administration commenced its service with an agenda to topple Saddam Hussein, end involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and rearrange the dominoes in the Middle East. Bamford's premise is that the Bush administration, with the able assistance of its neo-conservatives previously employed by the Israeli government, manipulated the inadequate intelligence it received to increase public support for its war on Iraq. Along the way, tax dollars were used illegally to propagandize American citizens while the inept US media mutely watched. Additionally, the NSA spied on the UN Security Council and Hans Blix, the chief of the Iraq weapons inspectors. Despite the complexity of the story author James Bamford writes, A Pretext For War is very readable and in fact is very interesting. Initially, Bamford follows the 9/11 terrorists and then the President and other US officials. The second section of the book traces the intelligence gathering. The third and final section of watches the Bush administration as it weaves the events, gathered intelligence and speculation into a tapestry of its own designI recommend the well written reviews posted by Robert D. Steele and "autonomeus".In the "how I would improve this book" category, I would like to have read more on the FBI / CIA turf battle over the terrorist investigations. In particular, more details about John P. O'Neill who headed the bureau's Counterterrorism Division. Finally, the noted fact that George Tennet, as Director of the CIA only controlled 15% of America's intelligence empire while Donald Rumsfield as Secretary of Defense controlled 85% of the intelligence was mentioned twice in the book (p 214 & p 353). Once would have been enough.

Bamford's "A Pretext for War" is a solid indictment of the Bush Administration's lies. I find it hard to imagine that anyone who actually reads it would vote for Bush this November. The title of the book is somewhat misleading in that the longest section is not on Iraq, but rather on 9/11 and the failure of the intelligence agencies. There is not a lot new here for anyone who's been paying attention, and especially with the official investigation now reaching a conclusion, but it's still invaluable documentation. Bamford's coverage of the CIA's "Alec Station," which focused exclusively on Osama bin Laden (UBL) after the Kenya bombing of 1998, is shorter than Coll's in "Ghost Wars" (see my review), and is more critical. Bamford seems to side with the FBI against the CIA, criticizing the UBL unit for focusing on paramilitary covert operations, none of which came to fruition, and not systematically gathering intelligence. This led directly to 9/11 when the CIA failed to notify the FBI when some of the future 9/11 operatives entered the U.S. Another group of 9/11 operatives lived just miles from the NSA HQ in Laurel, Maryland and used internet chat groups in Kinko's to communicate with Atta, the 9/11 plot leader! This leads to Bamford's indictment of the intellligence agencies: 1) The NSA is no longer effective with the rise of the internet, the widespread use of encryption, and the rise of transnational networks instead of centralized governments as the enemies. 2) The CIA is no longer effective, partly because it was shaped by fighting the USSR, and has not adapted to the new threat environment, but mainly because it has no HUMINT -- human intelligence. Bamford makes the point that John Walker Lindh managed to join Al Qaeda, but the CIA has had absolutely noone inside it or any other Islamic terrorist groups. Pages 283-381, the chapter called "War Room", is the most important part of the book, the part focusing on the systematic abuse of intelligence that created the pretext for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This story too has been told before (notably in "The Lie Factory" in Mother Jones), but is conveyed here at length in an accessible form. As Richard Clarke emphasized, Rumsfeld, Cheney & the Bush NSC focused on Iraq immediately after 9/11, despite the lack of evidence. As Rumsfeld said (in transcribed meeting notes): "get best info fast; judge whether good enough to hit S.H. at same time. Not only UBL. Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related, and not." Then unfolds the story, grounds for impeachment, of the creation of the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon, manufacturing bogus intelligence, much of it from Chalabi & the INC, to do an end run around the CIA & State Department. Douglas Feith, David Wurmser & Abram Shulsky were the operatives who ran this op, reporting to Wolfowitz & Rumsfeld at the DOD, Libby & Cheney in the White House, and Perle's neocon advisory group. This led to the creatio

This is a very important book which makes clear precisely how and why we are bogged down in Iraq. Contrary to what some of the other reviewers have written, the book is not anti-Bush or (getting really ridiculous) anti-semitic. Bamford is a fine historian/journalist who describes the public officials responsible for leading Bush to a war he would not have chosen if he had the facts. But he didn't have them because certain officials cooked them to suit their own agendas. This needs to be exposed and Bamford does it in a cool, moderate tone with ample back-up. Call names if you will. But read this book, and learn.

Much better than "Plan of Attack" and "Against All Enemies", etc. You want the truth?" Bamford has the courage to tell the part of the story that no one else will. We should all be able to handle the truth now and wake up to who pushed us into this Iraq mess and why. Soldiers and civilians are dying for this "elite" group. They should be brought to justice for their lies and deceptions.

bamford provides a riveting and gravely disturbing pictureof how ideology blinkers the critical evaluation of the worldas it is and leads to the propagandistic abuse of a trusting populace. this is, of course, a general theme with reliably anti-democratic consequences for every politically and theologically monolithic ideology. it happens that america is presently experiencing the predictably unhappy consequences of ideological leadership, so it is a story of american opportunities missed and american lives imperilled (to terrorismand war in iraq) because of the adoption and craftily calculated propagation of the neo-conservative agenda by the present administration. this book is, among things, a compendium of detail for those who doubt the reach and effect of this ideology. it also provides enormous insight into american intelligence gathering communities with respect to their own intrisic,historical failings as well as to how these failings have been compounded by bush administration desires and policies. those who were confronted with a moral dilemma concerning how to explain clinton's wagging finger and televised lies about his sexual dilliance(s) to their children, should be absolutely stupified by the task of explaining to a new generation the catalogue of orchestrated talking-points recited by dozens of people in the bush adminstration who wittingly led americans to sacrifice their children and the lives of others in a warknown to insiders to be indefensible on the basis of evidence, but declared all the same, because its adherents sincerely believed it was necessary, despite all credible evidence. if this is not frightening, then you're probably incapable of being scared. if this book doesn't encourage you to re-evaluate your support for the present adminstration, as have numerous lifelong republicans in the intelligence community, then the administration's propaganda as described by bampton has no better example of its success. i'm sure that administration apologists will trash this book (after all, they are ideologues), as they've done to many recent investigative books, but don't let them discourage you from a captivating and mind-opening read.