At the Center of the (Lib)(CD) [Audio CD]

This book helped me understand why the CIA took the blame for "intelligence failure" as part of the political process in Washington. Tenet had many successes during his long stint as Director of the CIA, especially in the early years of the war in Afghanistan. One could criticize him for seeming too eager to please the president and perhaps he should have positioned the CIA to be more independent. But as Tenet shows in this book, politics makes running an agency difficult.

Tenet used all his personal and professional resources to win allies to the U.S. cause. I think Tenet did remarkably well and displayed talent for this type of work. Apart from that I liked him based on his biography. His Greek-Albanian roots and parents' sacrifices to achieve the American dream for their sons inspired.

The CIA does not set policy nor does it have a seat among the cabinet officials. This agency is not in the inner power loop. Tenet's political position was weakened because he was of the Clinton administration and not among Bush's inner circle. The Bush administration looked to Tenet to provide cover for getting into the Iraq War. One must understand that the administration did this out of genuine beliefs and even ideology.

George Tenet did not share the ideology of Bush's inner circle. He felt that by remaining in his position as CIA Director, he could mitigate damage to the CIA. This was a very difficult position to be in. One could also take a critical approach to judging Tenet's tenure at the agency because his book shows that he and others at the agency perceived an impending disaster in the U.S. policy regarding Iraq. I do not feel as strongly critical of Tenet as some because he was in a horribly difficult ethical position.

Tenet's book is a really a detailed defense of his career. The first part covered the fight against terror. It showed that when there is less partisan bickering in Washington, the CIA can be extraordinarily effective and deliver fair returns on the public investment. The CIA is not so effective at influencing policy, and if policy is flawed, it can be rendered somewhat ineffective in its mission.

In the effort to win over the American people to go to war in Iraq, intelligence shaping became important to the administration. Douglas Feith, who reported directly to Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, spearheaded the effort to create intelligence that would be supportive of policy. Feith's reports supported the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Tenet got into trouble with the Bush administration for not sufficiently supporting Feith's intelligence projects in a team spirit. The most memorable part of Tenet's massive book is his detailed explanation of how he kept trying to keep the CIA from being too politicized to do its mission. At that time some of Tenet's most trusted friends advised him to resign to protect his reputation. Tenet stayed on. He's quite direct about regretting that decision for personal reasons.

The Bush administration apparently was not pleased with Tenet's attempts to hedge himself professionally in an attempt to remain blameless should the Iraq War not turn out well. This was hard on Tenet and his family, but nevertheless Tenet remained loyal to the president. One learns reading this book that while the public life of top government officials appears glamorous, it is actually gut-wrenching.

Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice made it clear to Tenet that he had to support policy. Tenet accommodated them either unwittingly or reluctantly. If you believe everything in his book, he supported the Iraq War unwittingly. The reality might be that he supported it reluctantly. This I believe is the fulcrum upon which history will judge Tenet.

The reason I gave this book 5 stars is that it gives an education in how the CIA works and how intelligence agencies in general work. We don't often get a former Director of CIA putting great effort into explaining the workings of the intelligence community. Tenet was highly motivated to provide this education because it was part of what he had to do to restore his reputation. We cannot properly assign responsibility to Tenet unless we understand how this agency functions.

Possibly American citizens will remain a bit confused about what led to the Iraq War. Intelligence failure is often cited as the cause. I think Tenet's book set the record straight on that particular issue.

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  5.0 out of 5 stars