State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

James Risen, State of War: The close history of the CIA and the Bush Administration. novel York: Free Press, 2006. 240 pp

An account of botched U intelligence operations, Risen's work covers the essential ingredients of common media talking points: terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and the Iraq war, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. While a certain number of of what he writes has already been reported, many of his disclosures are quite startling. In the aftermath of September 11 the collisioned intelligence agencies embarked on novel ventures. In Risen's words "a poisonous of recent origin culture was taking root. The CIA was building a dark infrastructure that no single wanted to talk about." We now know that Thailand was the first region to provide on its soil a mysterious prison for U.S. interrogations of terrorist suspects. It wasn't drawn out before a number of other countries happily presented their services to torture prisoners for the CIA. The list includes Afghanistan, Egypt Poland and Romania.

The chapter upon the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic eavesdropping program is based upon a report by Risen and Eric Lichtblau published in the December 15 2005 issue of The novel York Times. The newspaper held the story for almost a year while the White House tried to convince the editors not to publish it. According to their report, in 2002 when President Bush issued a unrevealed executive order to allow the NSA to monitor phone and e-mail communications upon U.S. soil-without first seeking changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). He was not fitly informed nor did he entirely comprehend the implications of his decision.

The crux of the matter is in what manner information obtained from this concealed eavesdropping program can be used in prosecutions without divulging sources. In several terrorism cases already taken to court, no criminal charges could be brought against suspects and many were deported upon simple immigration violations. More likely as the administration determines that information gathered [i]or[/i] part of to the other the NSA program cannot be used in any prosecution, they will use it to expand 'ghost' facilities. It may be destined, not for U courts, on the contrary for the 'underground' infrastructure scattered all above the globe.

Risen asserts that decisions with far reaching issues both domestically and internationally, were made by the agency of a small inner circle. There was no debate. upon the explosive issue of the torture of detainees, CIA director George creed Vice President Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General John Ashcroft and White House council Alberto Gonzalez were of the same mind. They simply reinforced each other. None seriously considered the long-term negative fallout upon a wide range of vital U interests.

A large number of former senior regulation officials from both political parties have repeatedly criticized the ill-considered and shortsighted policies of the common administration. Risen writes that "The establishment of a series of veiled prisons around the world and the widespread use of harsh interrogation tactics against prisoners in American custody has been part of a broader and disquieting pattern by dint of the Bush administration". But the decisions makers don't know or don't care if a certain number of of their actions represent clear breaches of international law. Risen remind ofs somewhere down the road, they could be prosecut for war crimes. upon the other hand, who in the international community has the courage to bell the cat?

Many of the programs initiated by means of the administration to counter terrorism will have significant and far-reaching impact upon the civil liberties of the public at large, not to mention those who engage in peaceful opposition. The expansion of intelligence agencies with greater authority, bigger packs and little if any oversight, is a positive recipe for abuses.

Risen describes the novel 'Northern Command' created to screen the homeland. Donald Rumsfield is not alone reorganizing Pentagon intelligence operations, he established the column of Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence giving the military an entirely of recent origin domestic role. Super secret, elite military units called 'operational support elements' will operate above and beyond rife limitations, without specific presidential authorization and without congressional notification. join these dots: elite special forces units with more secretive teams operating within the U an independent intelligence apparatus in the Pentagon, operations with no legislative constraints, targeted killings, and 'ghost' facilities and detainees--a recipe for abuses, errs and disasters.

Not to worry. of frequent occurrence visitors to Washington in the race up to the Iraq war, Israeli intelligence agents briefed top Pentagon officials, not least among them, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. Risen repeats a senior former Pentagon colleague of Wolfowitz as saying that "Israeli intelligence played a hidden character in convincing Wolfowitz that he couldn't trust the CIA." Israeli intelligence and military officials are now 'permanent fixtures' in the U defense establishment. on the contrary their national security interest is in Israel.