At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA | George Tenet

At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA | George Tenet | Best Al Quada Account in Print

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At the Center of t...

	At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA George Tenet HarperCollins, 2007 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Tenet's CIA

In what is probably the best Washington insider book of recent years, George Tenet documents the intelligence and policy screw-ups leading up to 9/11 and the invasion of iraq. The story has been told by others, but Tenet tells it especially well, spreading the blame widely for these awful fiascos, but accepting some himself.

The book is inadvertently revealing about the Tenet CIA's priorities and shortcomings. For instance, little mention is made of Russia and China and of the multiple challenges that these countries' emergent economic and military strength poses to U, S global leadership. Tenet stresses that CIA recruitment was expanded and democratized during his tenure, but intelligncee is not a numbers game--CIA doesn't need more analysts and spies as much as it needs smarter ones. The CIA and the intelligence community generally are consumed with short- range problems and success targets, while sometimes missing the bigger picture. On this latter point, Tenet portrays Afghanistan as a CIA success story, but modern-day Afghanisttan is a catastrophe in the making--comprising a patchwork of narco-principalities, a resurgent narco-funded Taliban and a government that can't exercise its writ much beyond Kabul. Of course, Tenet's CIA was a product of the times--an obsessive national focus on terrorism---but the Agency needs now to recalibrate its priorities and move on.

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Best Al Quada Account in Print

While some of Tenet's observations should be read through a political filter, his discussion of how we were successfully tracking bin Laden's activities prior to 9/11 are exceptionally fascinating and captivating. Overall, he describes a contentious political environment in Washington that hasn't changed all that much. I think we'd been better off if Tenet had Gates to work with, rather than Rumsfeld.

The Truth Is Told

You have to wonder after reading the book if Bush is the President or is it Chaney? Why Bush has not been impeached is a mystery. I guess that sex in the White House is a greater Offense than having innocent people die and bankrupting the country.

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Interesting Read

Although some my say that Mr Tennet uses the book to make excuses for CIA short comings leading to the 9/11 catastrophe and the Irag war, the book is an interesting read. It cannot, however be read in a vaccum. Readers should compare it to works in a similar vein and to news stories and articles prevalent during the time period covered in the book.

At the Center of the Storm