The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror

I read this book to give me an overview of the CIA's history. I felt that the book did a great job of providing both the problems within the CIA as well as the triumphs. I certainly learned a great deal about the CIA through this book and found the prose easy to comprehend and thrilling to read. Kessler's work provides a new respect for the difficult and risky nature of intelligence gathering. He provides just cause for U.S. international espionage through countless examples of how intelligence was obtained and generated to protect the nation. In addition to this new respect, Kessler also discusses some of the CIAs past embarrassments such as extensive intelligence leaks from Agency officials, etc. I would definitely recommend the book to someone trying to uncover the history of this organization from the early days of the OSS to 2003 in the post-09/11 years.

The book was recommended by a high school colleague who worked for the CIA. He said "I don't know his sources but it is the most accurate portrayal of the agency that I have read". I wasn't disappointed. The book came in excellent condition.

As other reviews have noted, this book is partisan toward George Tenet's Directorship, but in my opinion this is most welcome at a critical time when there are many calls to scapegoat one the CIA's most effective directors.Tenet followed a series of failed Directorships (no less than 5 in 7 years!) and has revived a cultural of confidence and intelligent risk taking in the Agency that is crucial to prosecution of the War on Terror. If the feckless (and invariably insubstantially supported) calls to fire Tenet are heeded it will not only be a crushing blow to morale within the CIA and the intelligence community generally, but will also send a message that the (all too recent) bad old days of political scapegoating have returned, and that operatives, agents and analysts should revert to C.Y.A. mode.Tenets accomplishments are considerable. To relate just a few:He began the process of reviving HUMINT after it had been gutted by his predecessors; he literally pounded the witness table in hearings urging policy makers to take the offensive against al-Qaeda, and identifying Bin Laden as the country's single most important covert threat, years before 911; he promoted Coffer Black, the Khartoum station chief, to head the CIA's Counterterrorism Center precisely because of his expertise on al-Qaeda and his aggressiveness; he increased the staff of the Counterterrorism Center from a few dozen employees to over 300, again years before 911, while also integrating FBI employees on special assignment and actively addressing institutional infighting that undermined the center.Unlike the technophobic Freeh at the FBI (who probably DID need to be fired) Tenet has been a consistent booster of modernization and innovation. He supported and pushed development of the Predator drone, for instance. With a less far sighted Director (who would have deferred to the Defense Dept's plodding development of similar but ultimately overly complex and less effective systems) we wouldn't have had that vital resource available, which has been responsible for "smoking" many al-Qaeda operatives.Another example of Tenet's embrace of effective innovation is his promotion of In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit org established in '99 that funds and develops CIA technology and software projects, incorporating and co-opting private sector innovations. Prior to this, private firms with cutting edge technologies avoided the CIA because of it's cumbersome procurement procedures.Along the same line, Tenet installed the ex-marine and retired millionaire investment banker A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard as the CIA's executive officer with a charge to cut through the Agency's bloated bureaucracy. Among other bold reforms, Krongard eliminated an entire directorate -- the powerful but bloated and sluggish fourth directorate, of administration -- so that (as in a private firm) the CIA's various divisions now report directly to higher management.As other reviews have also noted, the treatment of CIA directors previous to Ten

Anyone interested in learning how the CIA operates (and for Americans that should be all of us) will find this book fascinating. Choc-a-bloc with anecdotes and infomation that is both scary and amusing, it's hard to put down. Did you know that former CIA director John Deutch place l7,00, that's right, THOUSAND, CIA files, some of which were classified as top secret on his unclassified home computer? Did you know that since 9/11 certain Arab countries such as Yemen have actively cooperated with the CIA in its' war against al Qaeda? Do you want to know what the CIA is doing to try to insure there is never another 9/11? Do you (as I do) question whether we should have invaded Iraq? Read Kessler's analysis of the information amassed by the CIA demonstrating that Sadam Hussein was concealing a program dedicated to developing weapons of mass destruction and then decide what you think about the decision. Clearly a fan of George Tenet, whose achievements are impressive by any standard, Kessler is nonetheless critical of the CIA in many respects, as well he should be. Don't criticize the CIA without understanding something about it. This book will help you do just that.

Ronald Kessler continues his illuminating series of spy non-fiction with THE CIA AT WAR, picking up where he left off with his last CIA book and including new information concerning the post-9/11 agency. Kessler, always a balanced and insightful writer, delivers a solid sense of context before broaching subjects including the CIA's hunt for Bin Laden, the agency's work in advance of the Iraq invasion, and the technology used during operations (most fascinating: the Gnat and Predator surveillance aircraft). At times critical, at times laudatory, the book is always respectful and fair. The author's trademark anecdotal style guarantees that the subject remains fresh and new stories -- often with an unexpected human element -- come up with each turn of the page. Highly knowledgable, highly recommended.