Customer Reviews

The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found the book to be frightening in its accuracy and detail. What we are slowly finding out is that the Bush Administration literally tried to float a world war on pure ideology and to heck with public advisement. Each chapter is meticulously footnoted and and cross-referenced. There can be no other conclusion than that crimes were committed. The author has tremendous courage to reveal these facts as others like him have become targets of a vindictive Administration out for retaliation.

I'm a news junkie, read several news websites, watch CNN, read the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Still there were surprises for me in this book regarding the misuse of intelligence by both the White House and the intelligence agencies themselves. It also offers excellent insight as to the workings of some of our allies' intelligence agencies. Trust me, you WON'T be bored. The authors interviewed current and former US intelligence personnel and the book appears very well sourced.

I have read most of the books on how and why the US went into Iraq and how badly we botched it up once we got there. I found this book interesting and there was some valuable new information, but I came away knowing little about the Italian letter I hadn't already read elsewhere. The central question of who wrote it and why went unanswered, beyond the belief that it originated within SISMI. It's an interesting book if you don't know the story, but unsatisfying if you do and desire to know more.

At the core of the disaster of the Bush presidency lies a fabricated "intelligence" document used to justify pre-emptive military invasion.

You wouldn't know it by watching the mainstream press.

This book fills an important role, similar to the 9/11 commission report or the Iraq Study Group. It fills in many of the details necessary to understand how and why such a colossal and embarrassing "intelligence failure" could find it's way into the most important State of the Union address in decades.

It doesn't answer every question, but it answers enough to make it a very worthwhile read, and it does so with just the right touch of humor and lighter prose.

This book really opens your eyes to what exactly this administration has done to push the war in Iraq. It is very indepth and very accurate. While I was reading this book, at times, I would forget that I am reading about something that is going on right at this moment because the crap they have pulled sounded like something in a movie. It's frightening that this is real. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what the hell is going on.

Blow by blow account of how to construct a lie and get it delivered to the public by a president. Very well written account of the infamous `sixteen words' in Bush's 2003 state of the union address. This is the way the Mafia would use our intelligence agencies.

It also includes a quick reference time line of events for those amount us who do not posses great faculties of memory.