Dana Priest

A little harsh in its blanket condemnation of everyone with a security clearance, and at times a bit factually inaccurate, but a fairly useful overview of the leviathan that is the modern military-industrial-intelligence complex. No getting around it; it's too big to handle and far larger than it need be. The threats we face are NOT existential.

While the subject matter of this book is one of real interest to me, i almost gave up on this book a few times, purely on account of the writing style. Priest starts of with a dry academic introduction to the increasing role of the US military in International Relations, then soon into the book starts to write descriptions that are more like a fanzine, gabbling on about the individuals in the special forces. Every major character throughout the book is defined by physical characteristics show more (definately in no way adding to the narrative and which really has no relevance), and most non-Americans are described in stereotypical, depreciating terms.

That said, Priest does do a good job of critiquing how the US has come to use its military for operations that it really is not designed or suited for. She manages to cover both the macro and the micro, giving examples of both strategic and tactical failure. While i believe that in some places she went a little easy on individuals that should be held more accountable for their actions (and often failure to act), this is an engrossing account of the subject matter. And by the end, i had overcome the writing style and came to admire the book. show less

Documents the gross post 9/11 build-up of the American intelligence sector. Topics that stand out are the unplannedness of the whole ("information if useless if you can't make connections"), the general waste of resouces, the disregard for privacy and absence of rules of what information and on whom can be gathered, the revolving doors/corruption between the official security sector and private contractors, all the way from top management and down, and the failure to secure the gathered data show more properly. show less

Old news now. Useful as background.