Customer Reviews

Intelligence Matters: The CIA, The FBI, Saudi Arabia, and The Failure of AMerica's War on Terror

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Edit of 20 Dec 07 to add links.

The negative reviews on this book are by people that have not read the book carefully (one appears to have not read it all, having only seen the author on television). I am comfortable, on the basis of my career in intelligence, my three published books on intelligence (two with forewords by Senators, one Democratic, one Republican), and my 1100+ reviews on non-fiction about national security issues, is saying that this book is easily one of the top five books on the topic that most Americans should consider reading. The other four are the Webster Tarpley's book 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Fourth Edition which displaced the utterly imcompetent and unethical 9-11 Commission Report, the Aspin-Brown Commission Report (1996), Jim Bamford's book, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies and George Allen's book on the failure of intelligence in Viet-Nam, None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam There are many others, but for 9-11 and the urgently needed reforms to intelligence after 9-11 (three years ago, still no reforms of note), these are the five.

The book is most important as an unclassified record of what can be known about our failures--in both intelligence and in policy--as understood by the then serving Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). It does have gaps--it is much less detailed than the 9-11 Commission Report, harder to read than Jim Bamford's book, and suffers from considerable gaps in both what went wrong and what needs to be fixed, as covered by my own books as well as the many other intelligence reform books that I have reviewed in their own Amazon spaces. That does not diminish its relative value as a "touchstone" for all Americans.

There are, in my view, three compelling bottom lines in this book that cannot be ignored:

1) Senator Graham recognizes better than most that in the absence of public pressure for reform, there is little incentive for Congress or the Executive to take action. As one Member is reported to have told Amy Zegart "America still does not get it--it will take another 5,000 body bags." It is my view that the combination of intelligence community leadership misrepresentation ("its all better now, no need to make major changes" and the White House denial that there was an intelligence failure at all, which defies understanding, have led the country to fall asleep again--a point that "Anonymous" makes in Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror.

2) Page 243 covers both of the other two points. The first is that the Department of State has become a neglected orphan in US intelligence and US policy making about global threats, and this needs to change. It is worthy of note that the Department of State got it right on Iraq despite its small numbers and tiny budget, and I agree completely with Senator Graham--State has to get back in the business of being America's *primary* foreign and national security policy strategist. I put together THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest but State leadership at this time is intellectually and morally challenged (2007).

3) Although disappointing in its brevity, especially since both the Aspin-Brown Commission and the 9-11 Commission found cause to note the importance of open sources of information, Senator Graham also notes on page 243 that a primary corrective measure to the failure of the intelligence community to "connect the dots" and related "incestuous amplification" lies in combining a renewed primary by the Department of State with greatly increased investments in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) such as Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02) is planning to put into the House Armed Services Committee legislation addressing 9-11 deficiencies.

Senator Graham joins Dick Clarke (whose book, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror I strongly recommend) in condemning both Saudi Arabian sponsorship of terrorism, and the bi-partisan Clinton-Bush pandering to the Saudi's, accepting despicable sustained actions by the government of Saudi Arabia against the government and people of the United States of America, for the sake of cheap oil (see also the book by Michael Klare, and by Robert Baer). While I distinguish to an extent between Saudi intelligence, which sponsors terrorism, and Saudi royalty, which tried to deny its roots in Arabia, the bottom line is that both governments knew that Bin Laden was being nurtured by Saudi intelligence, and both chose to ignore the danger.

Senator Graham ends his book by lamenting the lack of accountability in both intelligence and policy. He is completely correct. George Tenet failed to resurrect the clandestine service in the seven years he served as Director of Central Intelligence, and then had the audacity to tell the 9-11 Commission that he needed seven more years to do this, now that he realized it was broken. No way, Jose. It is time to fire all the losers that have been testifying to Congress on how they would do things differently, and bring in the people who resigned their commissions in order to go public from 1985-2001. It is noteworthy that both the House and the Senate have failed to ask the latter to testify--virtually all of the witnesses on 9-11 are from the crowd that allowed 9-11 to happen in the first place.

Intelligence matters, indeed. It is clear from this book that the public does not yet grasp this, and it is not clear from this book that Congress ever will. The current legislative proposals are still in lip-service, cosmetic mode. The Members are still too reliant on ignorant staff and still too prone to substitute press conferences for deep discussions with the top 15 practitioner-authors who know what is needed.

There *will* be another 9-11, and there *will* be a "nuclear hell-storm" in America, courtesy of Al Qaeda. You cannot have smart spies in the context of a dumb Nation.....

See also, with reviews:
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World

I spent an entire night reading this one. It simply boggles the imagination. I can't think of another sitting senator who's ever written such a book. Graham, who has served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for 10 years and chaired it for 18 months, contends that there's a Saudi Arabian connection to 9/11 that the Bush whitehouse is deliberately concealing.

Just one of many examples: it seems that a retired Saudi professor in California was enlisted by the FBI as a paid informant to keep tabs on Saudis in his area. Two of the 9/11 hijackers boarded with him. But when the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the FBI for information relayed by the professor, the White House ordered the FBI to refuse to give the info on the grounds of 'national security.'

From beginning to end, the White House has blocked public information about the Saudi connection to terrorism. Graham documents this bizarre resistance, and speculates that the reasons for it are complex. At least two factors play heavily: the national alliance with Saudi Arabia since WWII, and the oil dependency upon which that relation is built; and the Bush dynasty's personal relationship with the Saudi ruling family.

A chilling account of official misinformation. If even half of what Senator Graham says is correct, the country we now live in is different from the country we lived in four years ago.

Similar to an anonymous CIA officer's account of intelligence lapses in "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror", this book is a sizzler almost told as a morality tale with sadly no ending to echo the moral the author espouses. Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida), former 2004 Presidential hopeful, has joined the growing ranks who have written well-timed books to reflect their disgust and confusion over the constant deceptions that seem to entangle the Bush administration in its bid for re-election. Graham has much in common with Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), who similarly derides the current administration in his recent book, "Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency". That book places more focus on the President's complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution and uses historical references to back up his claims. However, Graham, joined by former Gore speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum, has a more immediate target in mind, the allegedly close and protective relationship between the Bush family and the Saudi government. The consequences of this connection, according to Graham, have now resulted in over one thousand casualties in Iraq. In particular, he assails the Bush administration for the charade that is the Iraqi war, for failing to address the real war on terrorism and for ignoring a Saudi-funded al-Qaeda network that remains largely intact here in the U.S. Damning charges but ones he meticulously backs up in this book.

This Bush-Saudi connection is the same subject that Michael Moore emphasizes during the middle portion of "Fahrenheit 9/11". In both cases, it is difficult to deny that much of what he does claim is at minimum strangely coincidental and at worst immoral. Whereas Moore is mainly flippant in his approach, Graham is quite sober and provides a perspective commensurate with a conscience-stricken political insider tasked almost impossibly with investigating the full impact of the terrorist threat. After all, he was the co-chair of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11 prior to the formation of the broader commission that resulted in the phenomenal "9/11 Commission Report". Interestingly, that book claims no connection exists between the Saudis and the 9/11 terrorists. Graham, however, provides compelling evidence that proves otherwise, in particular, the funding of two of the 9/11 hijackers by the Saudi government and the abrupt movement of forces from the bin Laden manhunt in Afghanistan to the more nebulous political landscape of Iraq, a move that surprised even General Tommy Franks.

The most intriguing and explosive charge in the book is the U.S.-based support network for al-Qaeda, as the war with Iraq has provided a helpful distraction to the detection of these individuals. Even members of the 9/11 Commission acknowledge that Graham may be right when he says the FBI never fully unraveled a support network that helped the hijackers. This book, coupled with "Imperial Hubris", gives as complete a picture as possible on the whole terrorist issue. "Intelligence Matters" is essential reading as it represents a wake-up call to those from President Bush downward to respond to the crisis of poor intelligence in the face of a serious terrorist threat. No matter how you vote in November, you need to read Senator Graham's account to be more fully informed.

I bought this book the day it hit the shelves and read it in hours. It reveals how vulnerable we remain to terrorism and why the Bush administration is not to be entrusted with our security.

Bush blocked every meaningful investigation into the real network of connections that funded and aided the 9/11 killers, and especially he blocked a probe into the involvement of Saudi Arabia.

But this book is not only a critique of the Bush administration. Graham delves into many other related topics, including the real threats in the Middle East and how those threats are mutating over time.

Graham has the goods. From his unique position on the Senate intelligence committee, he has a much better informed perspective than almost anyone else writing about this topic.

Read this book before Nov. 2.

Just as the 9/11 Report flew off the shelves into the hands of civic-minded Americans, so will Intelligence Matters. Sen. Bob Graham has always been respected for his expertise in the Senate in foreign affairs, and like John McCain continually eschews partisan politics. As he prepares to retire he shares a candid and sobering look at what happened with 9/11, including the Bush administration's cover-up regarding Saudi Arabia.
To honor the legacy of all of those who died at the hands of Saudi terrorists, honest, patriotic Americans everywhere should read this book and know the truth before they vote on Nov. 2.

This book details how George Bush has placed Saudi oil in front of our national security. The White House blocked investigations of two Saudi officials who funded and housed two of the 9/11 hijackers, allowed them to leave the US and insisted 28 pages in the 9/11 commission report e "classified".
Bush misled America with false claims to attack Iraq and then allowed the Pentagon to disregard international torture laws. This is a recruiting poster for budding terrorists.
Why has Bush avoided challenging Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's aid to Al Queda? Why has he prioritized "nation building" over avenging 9/11 and hunting Bin Laden? No answers justify his disregard for our security. This book tells us what the white house doesn't want us to know.

Senator Bob Graham's book documents the failure of US intelligence and security apparatuses leading to 9/11. It's a clearer and more authentic version of Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.
The style is entertaining as the author shifts between terrorists' preparations and the history of the evolution of America's clandestine information-gathering agencies. Graham cites more than a dozen failures, which he says were missed chances to unfold the most evil of attacks on American soil ever.
The depiction of the 19 terrorists does not only show that these were brainwashed mostly under-25 kids, but also reflects how they were not as smart as many of us thought. They left a trace everywhere and many of them were repeatedly stopped and ticketed for overspeed driving. This highlights even more the failure of America's security people whose lack of coordination, bureaucracy and laziness made them fail to notice the stark danger.
Graham then describes how the administration had a preset agenda, which did not match the nation's security welfare but rather confirmed with the interests of some businessmen/politicians whose oversees interests mandated that they protect their overseas partners who happened to be - in one way or another - sponsors of these terrorists
The administration therefore politicized its response to 9/11 and squandered resources over the Iraq war instead of concentrating its energy on the Afghanistan war and counterterrorism.
The book is one of the best on this subject. Being an Arab myself, I think it should be translated to Arabic and exported to Arab countries since most Arabs still perceive of the 9/11 tragedy as the biggest conspiracy which they never committed but was malevolently ascribed to them as part of an effort to tarnish the reputation of Islam and invade Muslims countries.

Subject: "Intelligence matters.

This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in World Events.

What's more, it reads more like a novel than a public affairs tome-a real page-turner.

The depth of detail is awesome . I predict that someone will pick it up and make a TV mini-series out of it. Put it on your bookshelf, and you will have an encyclopedia of the events leading up to and through the events of 9/11-names, dates, etc. I have read most of the popular books in the genre, like Dick Clarke's well-written book, etc. This beats them all. Trust me.

Abe Schestopol
abe@schestopol.com

Intelligence Matters by Senator Bob Graham should be on the must read list of every citizen of the United States. As soon as I received my
copy from Amazon.com, I started reading and could not put the book down until I read the last page. Senator Graham presents a chilling
first-hand look at the grim landscape of our current foreign policy. This
alarming indictment of the Bush administration, the FBI and the CIA
reads like a spy novel with nail-biting intrigue and matter-of-fact clarity.
Unfortunately, we know that this report by such a great patriot is a factual
reality and not a fictional fantasy. I know that if every voter in this country
had read this book the outcome of the election would not have been the same. Senator Graham in his typical heroic manner has the nerve to ask the hard question. "Mr. President, what about Saudi Arabia?"
I challenge every citizen to read this book with an open mind, each
person asking himself, "Does intelligence matter?" I know the answer
will be, "you bet it does."

This is a scathing indictment of not only the intelligence community which failed to prevent the very preventable 9/11 attacks, but more incisively the Bush administration itself which is losing the war on terror through stupidity and incompetence.

Written by Senator Bob Graham with help from speech writer Jeff Nussbaum this book details in a clear and readable manner twelve intelligence and governmental failures that allowed the September 11th attacks to take place. Graham's point is that had any one of the failures been instead successes, 9/11 would likely never have happened.

The failure of the intelligence community is now well known and well documented. Mainly it has been a case of not so much incompetence (although there was plenty of that) but of (believe or not) "a failure to communicate." That is, the CIA would not tell the FBI what it knew and vice-versa, and neither would tell other law enforcement and intelligence agencies what they knew. The reason: mainly turf control. Institutionally, the CIA never wants to tell anybody anything since any revelation may have the effect of revealing sources or methods, which would tend to lessen their ability to gather information in the future. The FBI on the other hand wants to arrest people and have them prosecuted--although of course they don't want to make an arrest if they think they can get somebody higher up. Furthermore, government agencies tend to withhold information to keep hidden incompetence or failure. The Bush administration is notorious for this tactic; indeed the Bush administration does not share with the American people one iota of information unless it has to, or unless, in the rare instance, such information is entirely flattering to the White House.

The failure of the Bush administration is unfortunately not so well known or understood as is that of the intelligence community. Part of the problem is a failure NOT emphasized in this book, that is, the failure of the press to report the news as it is rather than as the White House would have it. I'll skip the failure of the Fourth Estate for now, as Graham has, and concentrate on the most massive of all failures reported in this book, the failure to engage the enemy in the war on terror. As Graham makes clear, what Bush has done with his invasion of Iraq is divert resources from the war on terror, using our military and hundreds of billions of our dollars in an exercise in utter futility, an exercise in shock and awe, full of sound and fury, signifying exactly, as Shakespeare had it, nothing. Instead of going after Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda when we had them on the run in Afghanistan, Bush let bid Laden escape and instead went after the bogeyman Saddam Hussein. The direct result has not only been that the terrorists who actually were responsible for the murders of 9/11 are still free to direct more acts of terror, but in Iraq, Bush has created "a laboratory for terrorists" (p. 222) and "a giant recruiting poster for radicalized Islamists" (p. 219)

To put it bluntly, the Bush administration in effect is helping the terrorists. Why? The obvious reason is just sheer stupidity, ignorance and incompetence, but it is increasingly being hinted that George W. Bush is so much under the thrall of the Saudi princes who have the ability to one day make George W. a really, really rich man (instead of just a run of the mill millionaire) that he continues to allow them to financially support terror and does nothing about it. Graham of course does not say this, but it is only a step or two from what he does say to this conclusion.

Here's what Graham does say. Noting that "...a section of the report [from a declassified CIA report on terrorism] related to the Saudi government and the assistance that government gave to some and possibly all of the September 11 terrorists" had been blacked out, he writes, "Again, it was as if the President's loyalty lay more with Saudi Arabia than with America's safety." (pp. 215-216)

One also recalls, as Graham notes on page 106 that immediately following the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration allowed "more than 140 Saudis--including members of the bin Laden family" to be flown out of the United States. This despite the fact that the FAA had ordered all (other) private flights grounded, and despite the fact that none of the Saudis was interviewed by the FBI. Most of them were no doubt not involved in the attacks, but nonetheless they might have had information that would have helped the investigation. I'm sure the reader does not have to be reminded that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

I want to make two other points: One, if the Bush administration and the administrations that follow do not use America's resources wisely in combating terrorism (instead of increasing it), we will almost inevitably experience a nuclear attack on one of our cities, most likely Washington D.C. or New York. It is not enough to throw bodies and money at some perceived evil in the Middle East as if to puff out our chests in a macho manner. Fighting terrorism requires skill, knowledge, hard work and dedication. Bombs and troops on the wrong ground will not get it done.

Finally, why, oh why, have we not heard any more about who planted the anthrax in the mail immediately following the September 11th attacks? Graham reports only that "no connection has been established between the anthrax attacks and the terrorist attacks of September 11." (p. 134) I think he knows a lot more than he is letting on, and that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the anthrax attacks that is being covered up, perhaps so as not to alarm the public. See Cole, Leonard A. The Anthrax Letters: A Medical Detective Story (2003) for more details.