Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11
- ISBN-10
- 1400830273
- ISBN-13
- 9781400830275
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 336
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2009-02-17
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Author
- Amy B. Zegart
Description
In this pathbreaking book, Amy Zegart provides the first scholarly examination of the intelligence failures that preceded September 11. Until now, those failures have been attributed largely to individual mistakes. But Zegart shows how and why the intelligence system itself left us vulnerable. Zegart argues that after the Cold War ended, the CIA and FBI failed to adapt to the rise of terrorism. She makes the case by conducting painstaking analysis of more than three hundred intelligence reform recommendations and tracing the history of CIA and FBI counterterrorism efforts from 1991 to 2001, drawing extensively from declassified government documents and interviews with more than seventy high-ranking government officials. She finds that political leaders were well aware of the emerging terrorist danger and the urgent need for intelligence reform, but failed to achieve the changes they sought. The same forces that have stymied intelligence reform for decades are to blame: resistance inside U.S. intelligence agencies, the rational interests of politicians and career bureaucrats, and core aspects of our democracy such as the fragmented structure of the federal government. Ultimately failures of adaptation led to failures of performance. Zegart reveals how longstanding organizational weaknesses left unaddressed during the 1990s prevented the CIA and FBI from capitalizing on twenty-three opportunities to disrupt the September 11 plot. Spying Blind is a sobering account of why two of America's most important intelligence agencies failed to adjust to new threats after the Cold War, and why they are unlikely to adapt in the future.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Blind Spy
By Alex DrydenA story almost literally ripped from the headlines, The Blind Spy is a gripping, smart adventure that crackles with authentic modern spycraft—an absolute must-read for fans of John le Carré, Alex Berenson, Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady ...
-
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage
By Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drewphoto courtesy of Harris M. Austin Cochino 's commander . . . : U.S. Navy photo, courtesy of Rafael C. Benitez Red Austin, 1939...: courtesy of Richard M. Austin Cochino's men survived ... : photo and back note courtesy of Harris M.
-
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence
By Amy B. ZegartIn Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology.
-
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
By Sherry Sontag, Christopher DrewIncludes a new afterword describing submariners' responses and reactions and a new appendix of all award-winning subs honored for service in Cold War espionage operations. With 16 pages of black-and-white photos
-
Blind Glory: Colonel Bo's Middle East Spy Assignment
By Heath BottomlyA riveting and remarkable Cold War narrative with a fascinating patch on the complex Cold War quilt that, until now, has been cloaked in secrecy.
-
Double cross blind
By Joel N. RossBritain's one trump card in the war against the German spy network is the Double Cross system - and there is only one man who can keep it alive.
-
Blind Fall: A Novel
By Christopher RiceSean Connery's friend. The whole movie he's talking about how he wants to see Montana. Then he gets shot at the end and before he dies he says, 'I would have liked to have seen Montana.' Just like you did right now.
-
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of Cold War Submarine Espionage
By Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, Annette Lawrence DrewTwo investigative reporters and a researcher tell the epic story of American espionage from the early Cold War Years to the Clinton Administration, showing how the Navy and CIA have used submarines to gather intelligence and launch covert ...
-
Blind Man's Buff
By William R. PolkThis is a fictional account of an episode in the in the modern Great Game -- the story of an Anglo-American-Russian espionage venture in which a young American intelligence agent carries on in the spirit of the old Great Game.
-
The Kingdom of the Blind
By Edward Phillips OppenheimAn espionage novel set during World War I. "You think I'm brutal, dear," Conyers went on, as he patted her hand.