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October 7, 2008 in books, daily by Roger | 7 comments

Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA by Tim Weiner


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a must read for anyone interested in how the U.S got to where it is now with its foreign policy.

The book, dense with facts, is a sobering read. It will pull the scales from your eyes.

It broadened my historical perspective and, while I’ve never been subject to Bush Derangement Syndrome, it made me realize that Bush’s foreign policy is very much a function of the incompetency of the CIA, an incompetency which stretches back to its founding and thus has tainted the foreign policy decisions of EVERY president since Truman.

View all my reviews.

7 comments

  1. Paul’s avatar

    Paul on October 8, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    You’re forgetting to mention that CIA is also accountable to Congress via the Senate ‘Select Committee on Intelligence’ and the House ‘Permanent Select Committee’ .

    One thing is for sure, there’s lots of blame to spread around for it’s failures.
    Who would dare to expect more from our our federal govt. though?

  2. Roger’s avatar

    Roger on October 13, 2008 at 10:41 am

    The CIA repeatedly lied to that committee, with Casey the worst offender. If any blame can be laid at the feet of Congress, it is that they didn’t call ‘bullshit’ more often.

    In fact, based on his experiences as Secretary of Defence, Dick Cheney did not and does not trust the CIA.

  3. Paul’s avatar

    Paul on October 13, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    Wait a minute, wasn’t George H.W. Bush director of the CIA during the Carter administration? hmmm

  4. Roger’s avatar

    Roger on October 29, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    He was Director of Intelligence under Ford. Carter replaced him with Stansfield Turner.

    Bush was fairly popular at the CIA, mainly because he did his best to support the people in the field.

  5. Roger’s avatar

    Roger on October 29, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    But what does Bush 41 have anything to do with anything?

  6. Anonymous’s avatar

    Anonymous on October 29, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    Oh I was just trying to connect the dots going back to the Ford administration with Rumsfeld & Cheney I guess. Cheney having later went on to preside over the Gulf War as 41’s Secretary of Defense of course.

    I know guilt that by association is a weak case to make but I figured since it worked for Dick Cheney to make a case for pre-emptive war in Iraq (CIA intel re: al qaeda & sadaam ties) then why not? ;)

    I will give him credit for questioning CIA intel on WMD in Iraq though.

  7. Roger’s avatar

    Roger on October 30, 2008 at 8:14 am

    Actually, Cheney came to intensely distrust the CIA because of the bullshit it pulled while he was SecDef. You really need to read the book. The last two chapters deal with the intelligence failures over Iraq and Tenet’s big mistake. Basically, there was a stream of defectors who knew what the CIA wanted to hear and basically lied.

    I suspect that if it were solely up to Cheney, assumptions about Iraq might have been a bit different.

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