Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA

This is one of those books you know people in high places should read, but of course they never will. If they actually do, they of course will be thwarted in their efforts to implement any corrections that are pointed out by the book, because the institutional forces that are involved are way too powerful, and way to attached to their perks and spheres of power to shift any, even for reasons of National Security. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was essentially the creature, or creation anyway, of J. Edgar Hoover, who was the director of the Bureau for a record 46 years (a record not likely to ever be broken). Hoover built up the organization from an obscure office in the Department of Justice into a behemoth that ran down the "moto-bandits" of the 20's and early 30's (Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machinegun Kelly) and then helped put the East Coast mob into retreat, at least temporarily, in the mid-30's. By then he'd become powerful enough that he felt his power and authority should be expanded. One of the directions in which he wished to extend his power was toward political dissent and disloyalty in the U.S. Hoover himself was apparently pretty apolitical, at least as far as partisan Republican vs. Democrat issues were concerned, but he was very disturbed by Communist influence, and possible Nazi influence, in the U.S., and he apparently felt that he should be in charge of rooting out the elements of these philosophies that were in the U.S. Tied up with this was the issue of espionage. For a while, Hoover had a clear field, but when the U.S. entered World War II, his FBI, clearly a law enforcement agency trained to catch criminals, wasn't very good at catching spies. Worse, their focus was on *catching* them, as opposed to feeding them bad information, for instance, or following them to see who they led authorities to. Hoover's own mindset, stubbornly provincial and conservative, ruled out the Bureau learning how to do these things: instead, he doggedly persisted in attempts to control how enemy agents were dealt with, who actually dealt with them, and most importantly, who got the credit. By the time the Office of Strategic Services was formed in 1942, the lines were already pretty clearly drawn. Hoover would oppose any expansion of intelligence capability outside of the Bureau itself, and doggedly continue to try and expand his power vis a vis intelligence matters. When he died 30 years later, he was still trying. The first half of this book lays out the problems this created when the U.S. first tried to deal with the threat of the Nazis, and later with the Communists. Hoover's death didn't end the bureaucratic rivalry that had sprung up: by then the institutional memory of the CIA and FBI was too strong to be killed off by the absence of one individual. The rest of the book deals with the post-Hoover era, with the last chapter and an epilogue added on later, which outline the current difficulties in the War on Terr

Although I know the CIA better than I do the FBI, I have spent time in the past ten years with law enforcement officers from over 40 countries including the US, and the bottom line is that the FBI bureaucracy (Supervisory Special Agents and the politically-motivated upper tiers of FBI management) are a worse threat to US security than individual terrorist groups, for the simple reason that as long as the FBI leadership remains in denial, in secret, and ineffective, the entirety of our homeland defense is incapacitated.The earlier version of this book focused on the decades of historical enmity between CIA and FBI--in the early years, Edgar J. Hoover was clearly to blame for a culture of hostility between the two agencies and between the FBI and military intelligence--in one instance he actually suppressed early knowledge of Japanese intentions on Pearl Harbor obtained from a German agent tasked to fulfill their targeting requirements.In later years the CIA took on more responsibility for shutting out the FBI, consistently refusing to brief them in to either internal counterintelligence failures, or foreign operations with a strong domestic counterintelligence matter.What the author has done in the aftermath of 9-11 is update the book and make it even more relevant to every citizen and every elected official and every bureaucrat. The earlier edition made me very angry about how the senior FBI bureaucracy can sacrifice the national interest at the altar of its own selfish agenda of self-preservation and aggrandizement--from Special Agent Rowley to Special Agent Robert Wright, the FBI leadership consistently spends more time censoring and punishing its own people for honesty, than it does chasing terrorists. This new improved edition should make every citizen, every voter angry, and they should instruct their elected representatives that the time has come for a National Security Act that finally reforms national foreign intelligence, military intelligence, and law enforcement intelligence, and in passing, creates the homeland security intelligence act to create a federated system of state and local intelligence and counterintelligence cadres that operate under the jurisdiction of governors and mayors rather than the federal government.Pogo had it right: we have met the enemy and he is us.

I found the World War II and the Cold War parts of this book pretty fascinating, and maybe the most enjoyable to read. The portrayal of Hoover is very nuanced and fair. The Epilogue about 9/11 is sobering and hits on some themes that I haven't read anywhere else. America was left virtually defensless, Riebling argues, because of the Clinton administration's fateful decision to elevate the FBI over the CIA -- to pursue a law enforcement approach to what had traditionally been intelligence problems. He shows how the Aldrich Ames spy case left CIA bureaucratically paralyzed, and how the FBI, under Louis Freeh, exploited the chance to become America's premier national security power. He traces the numerous interagency foul-ups which led inexorably to our national unpreparedneness for 9/11. He shows how the FBI's suspicion of a mole in CIA -- who turned out to be the FBI's own Hanssen -- sowed distrust which discouarged the sharing of information. This linking of 9/11 failures to the damage wrought by Hanssen and Ames is one of the most important labyrinths explored by Riebling, and I have the feeling that a whole book could be written about this aspect alone.

I read WEDGE when it was first published in 1994 and I just re-read it with the new Epilogue. I am stunned by how prophetic Riebling was and by how he shows so indisputably that 9/11 was caused by the same interagency conflict that has caused so many other tragic intelligence failures over 60 years. In places Riebling goes into a lot of detail, which can be a bit eye-glazing if you are not a spy buff; but if you are one, this is a gold mine of unearthed facts and totally original, highly persusaive, indeed compellingly logical interpretation. The writing is generaly good but uneven; sometimes flat, but sometimes nearly as good as anything in the Engish language. Would be very interested to see what Riebling produces next as I marked him a talent, perhaps a major talent, and it has been eight years between books for him. From what he has been writing at National Review Online about 9/11 and intelligence I take it he is still working these issues and clearly he is working them as well as anyone.

"A brilliant book. Outstanding research and superlative presentation of the dramatis personae. An anecdotal and extremely well written account -- as informative as any treatise and as entertaining as the best espionage novels." -- Kirkus Reviews."There are few books that adequately cover this subject. Much of what passes for 'the literature' is overblown, conspiracy-addled and fragmented. But Mark Riebling, a historian, has made a valiant effort to piece it all together in WEDGE.... The fact that he has taken great pains to avoid using anonymous sources is just one of a number of reasons why serious students of this nation's haywire-rigged counterintelligence effort should read WEDGE.... Refreshingly unlike most spy literature.... the cumulative effect of his tales is staggering." -- John Fialka, The Wall Street Journal."Any illusions that the two organizations simply mirror each other are thoroughly shattered. Riebling meticulously traces the continuing conflict and its consequences, which sometimes took the form of Keystone Cop episodes but more often were deadly serious." -- Houston Chronicle."A surprisingly fresh, coherent, well-written and persuasive analysis. Striking conclusions, a succession of colorful adventurers, and highly provocative speculations which have the unsettling ring of plausibility." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette."A lively and engaging narrative of interagency bungling, infighting, malfeasance and nonfeasance, providing fresh and well-rounded portraits of well-known (and ought-to-be-well-known) agents -- drawing on scores of original and rewarding interviews." -- Richard Gid Powers, front page, Washington Post Book World."Riebling successfully re-creates the life-or-death atmosphere of the half-century of American confrontation with the Soviet Union. Mr. Riebling succeeds as well in persuading the reader that the FBI-CIA conflict was a more important piece of the cold war mosaic than heretofore noted by historians." -- Michael R. Beschloss, New York Times Book Review."Incisive.... Riebling shows how personalities shaped the struggle between the agencies, and how the struggle hampered intelligence. There's much here to stimulate discussion." -- Tampa Tribune."Riebling brings forth many new angles, thanks to his entree to a web of retired agents. A well organized, engaging account." -- Booklist."Serves up some juicy insights. The book is full of colorful and strong characters as well as entertaining description and lucid writing." -- Toledo Blade."Meticulously researched yet entertaining... Persuasively identifies Woodward and Bernstein's mysterious informant Deep Throat." -- San Francisco Chronicle."An exceptionally readable and coherent account, exhaustively sourced. Riebling meticulously but engagingly takes his readers through CIA's operations [and] presents a most intriguing hypothesis as to the identity of the long-silent Deep Throat. True Watergate buffs will be titillated. I'd put my money on the one the author suspects