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Michael V. Hayden

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Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror Hardcover – February 23, 2016

by Michael V. Hayden (Author)

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An unprecedented high-level master narrative of America's intelligence wars, demonstrating in a time of new threats that espionage and the search for facts are essential to our democracy

For General Michael Hayden, playing to the edge means playing so close to the line that you get chalk dust on your cleats. Otherwise, by playing back, you may protect yourself, but you will be less successful in protecting America. "Play to the edge" was Hayden's guiding principle when he ran the National Security Agency, and it remained so when he ran CIA. In his view, many shortsighted and uninformed people are quick to criticize, and this book will give them much to chew on but little easy comfort; it is an unapologetic insider's look told from the perspective of the people who faced awesome responsibilities head on, in the moment.

How did American intelligence respond to terrorism, a major war and the most sweeping technological revolution in the last 500 years? What was NSA before 9/11 and how did it change in its aftermath? Why did NSA begin the controversial terrorist surveillance program that included the acquisition of domestic phone records? What else was set in motion during this period that formed the backdrop for the infamous Snowden revelations in 2013?

As Director of CIA in the last three years of the Bush administration, Hayden had to deal with the rendition, detention and interrogation program as bequeathed to him by his predecessors. He also had to ramp up the agency to support its role in the targeted killing program that began to dramatically increase in July 2008. This was a time of great crisis at CIA, and some agency veterans have credited Hayden with actually saving the agency. He himself won't go that far, but he freely acknowledges that CIA helped turn the American security establishment into the most effective killing machine in the history of armed conflict.

For 10 years, then, General Michael Hayden was a participant in some of the most telling events in the annals of American national security. General Hayden's goals are in writing this book are simple and unwavering: No apologies. No excuses. Just what happened. And why. As he writes, "There is a story here that deserves to be told, without varnish and without spin. My view is my view, and others will certainly have different perspectives, but this view deserves to be told to create as complete a history as possible of these turbulent times. I bear no grudges, or at least not many, but I do want this to be a straightforward and readable history for that slice of the American population who depend on and appreciate intelligence, but who do not have the time to master its many obscure characteristics."

Print length

464 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Press
Publication date

February 23, 2016
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

1594206562
ISBN-13

978-1594206566
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Hayden is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy founded by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Hayden also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press; First Edition (February 23, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594206562
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594206566
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,402 in Political Intelligence
- #5,194 in Political Leader Biographies
- #8,164 in United States Biographies

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David J Rogers

Important years, as seen by someone who was there and on the inside.

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2016

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I started reading this on Friday morning and couldn't put it down until I finished it Saturday afternoon. It's a fun read. It appears that Gen. Hayden wrote it himself without a ghostwriter. He has an entertaining and readable writing style, even if he sent me scrambling to a dictionary several times to keep up with his vocabulary. No big new secrets are revealed of course but there's quite a lot of inside baseball of what -actually- was going on regarding some things that have been widely reported already. Widely reported, that is, not necessarily understood or always true. Seems there have been a lot of agency people who've been just itching to finally tell their side of the story. And it's a good story. And he names names (where he can). It may sometimes be a little too fair to some true weasels (IMO) but he doesn't pull any punches when punches need to be thrown.

As somebody with an IT background maybe it is of particular interest to me to peek behind the curtain at NSA. It's long been the stuff of rumor and fanciful speculation. A strong urban mythology persists and probably will endure but in this book many popular (i.e. Hollywood) assumptions about what goes on at NSA or CIA are fairly well obliterated. Some things turn out to be true but some things are just nonsense. A few things commonly believed simply turn out to be beyond the laws of physics, let alone Federal law. In a sense this book liberally applies some strong tinfoil-hat remover. Some people will actually be disappointed that they don't actually do some of that stuff. Additionally there is a theme throughout the book regarding obeisance to constitutional protections that is (surprising to many, I'm sure) actually seems pervasive in the corporate culture at both NSA and CIA. Some will choose not to believe that. But there it sits. Read their stories and see if you still think what you think. I would advise only to be open to the idea that what is written by outsiders (even Intel beat journalists) on intelligence issues is often just wrong. Sometimes in small ways but sometimes in very big ways.

The book is about the last couple of decades in the intelligence community. These years have turned out to be among the more intense and controversial times in our history and both agencies were right in the thick of it. Big Things happened. The Soviet Union fell and Europe reshaped. Newly energized, savage enemies shocked our senses. Sweeping events pushed any preexisting ideas about this new century into a different place than may have been guessed. There have been catastrophic losses, failures and missed opportunities. There are monumental risks that persist in the world and some of the well-intended but tragically mistaken steps that have been taken and are being taken will have costs we cannot yet measure. There have also been tremendous successes and inspiring, even heroic actions, many of which can't be reported. Not even in this book. But some of them are.

One of the interesting things is the personal perspective. We regular people must settle for merely reading and watching the news to find out what's going on. We follow all these names of the people shaping the world: government leaders, public figures of one sort or another, terrorists, freedom fighters (“Rogues, Buffoons and Statesmen” as another book calls them)... all the who's-who in the world. General Hayden due to the career path he's had is one of those uncommon people who hasn't just seen them on TV. He's met them. He's talked with them, argued with them and otherwise gotten to personally know all of these people that are central to history as it is being made. He developed friendships with some, hostility with others and insight (at least) in all. More than anything, it's a history book written by somebody who was there.

General Hayden doesn't firmly stake out any particular partisan political stance. He claims to have mostly (small-l) libertarian personal views but tries to stay apolitical. He was of course first posted to head NSA in the Clinton administration and stayed through the Bush administration into (for a few weeks anyway) the Obama administration. After all-- partisan administrations come and go but career intelligence professionals have to serve both with the same focus. I enjoyed this insight into the work of some remarkable people that we usually never get to know much about.

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Eric C. Petersen

An exceptional individual, but not so much with some policies pursued.

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2016

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One comes away with great respect for Hayden after reading this book - an "organization man" in the best sense of the word who knows how to enhance morale at the agencies he ran (NSA, CIA), get the best out of his troops, and defend an agency under his command from endless sniping by members of congress out to play endless games of gottcha. Hayden relates a number of stories of how some members of the press/investigative authors continually probed for stories to cast aspersions on our national security complex, usually to gin up headline-grabbing stories lacking in context. One target of his wrath on several occasions is James Bamford, author (of among other books) The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets, books I read quite a few years ago and found informative, and (strangely) in the latter praised Hayden. As I recollect, in Palace Bamford was critical of the NSA because its capabilities had severely fallen behind the march of technology - it continued to rely on analog systems (mainly telephone taps) in an increasingly digital age it was unprepared to deal with, something Bamford attributed to very poor leadership at the agency, a problem Hayden alludes to at the start of the book. My review here is not to praise Bamford or criticize Hayden for finding fault with him (not specified), but the NSA did have serious problems and Bamford's revelations may have been in part responsible for turning the agency around, something it did with a vengeance post 9/11 when a tsunami of cash was directed at our national security organizations. Much of the book deals with the not unimportant subject of "how far" the intrusive policies of these agencies can go to enhance our national security vs. constitutional rights to privacy - at tricky subject that Hayden covers very well.

As a dedicated public servant I give Hayden five stars; however, some of the policies he supported under Bush II I'd give one star to, especially Hayden's view of the Iranian nuclear controversy, so I come up with a four-star overall rating. In his estimation, Iran "remains the duplicitous, autocratic, terrorist-backing, Hezbollah-supporting, Hamas-funding, region-destabilizing, hegemony-seeking theocracy," not exactly words of praise. Here is not the spot to debate these wide-ranging allegations (below I'll just stick to the nuclear issue), but just to mention Hezbollah: This organization didn't exist prior to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that went all the way to Beirut. The Shia of southern Lebanon greeted the IDF as liberators from the Sunni-dominated central government that - going back hundreds of years under the Ottomans - had severely repressed the Shia. After a few years of Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon the question arose with the indigenous inhabitants "When are you planning on leaving?" When it became obvious the answer was "never" Hezbollah was formed that ran a low-intensity insurgency against the IDF, finally forcing its departure 18 years later. (In more recent times, Hezbollah has successfully fought against ISIS, Al Nusra et al attempts to infiltrate Lebanon.) Hezbollah shattered Israel's long-held dream of extending its borders to the Litani River in Lebanon (a goal discussed by the WZO as far back as the post WWI Versailles peace conference) so its now gratuitously described as a "terrorist organization," a characterization seconded by Hayden.

U.S. involvement in the Iranian nuclear situation is now in its 13th year, a complex story fraught with numerous unsupported stories of Iranian malfeasance - the "laptop of death," exploding bridgewire research, "secret" facilities, the mysterious large chamber at Parchin used to test nuclear triggers, and a host of other undocumented plants by the Mossad and Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) that received wide-spread (and unquestioned) media coverage here because of their sensational nature. Unnoted by Hayden, the U.S. during the Bush administration never negotiated with Iran, merely dictated total surrender of its nuclear program, the "no enrichment" policy Hayden falls into line with because "the starting point for all this was a series of UN Security Council resolutions that directed Tehran to suspend all enrichment activities," a position Iran was never willing to accept as by international law it was entitled to proceed with its centrifuge program as long as it complied with IAEA rules - which it did. The UN resolutions are worth reading - their sole source of censure is based on speculation Iran might be doing something the UN is unaware of, something that could be said of any country. The UN never accused Iran of any NPT violations, yet hit the country with Article VII sanctions that apply to countries that pose an "imminent threat to global security." Yet some nations that actually have nuclear weapons that are not party to the NPT (Israel, Pakistan, India) have not been subject to UN sanctions. Most curious. Hayden describes his (and other agencies) job as finding out what Iran was really up to with their nuclear program, implying little was known about Iranian efforts. I found this air of mystery unfounded as the IAEA knew, since 2003, exactly what Iran was up to with its nuclear cycle though endless inspections of all facilities accompanied by quarterly reports - the IAEA knew down to a tenth of a kilogram how much LEU Iran possessed, how much it was capable of producing, and "cheating" was impossible (for reasons we will not belabor here). As Hayden devotes some space to, the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) prepared by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies determined that in 2003 Iran ceased its lab-scale work that might have been pursuing a nuclear weapon - a finding that greatly disappointed Bush and the neocons advocating a more kinetic solution to Iran's nuclear program. Not noted by Hayden - or seemingly anyone else - was why Iran chose that year to cease this program? That was the year the United States invaded Iraq, eliminating Saddam as a threat to Iran. Written out of the endless coverage of Iran's nuclear program has been the Iraq-Iran War, a very nasty affair between 1980-1988 in which Iran suffered severe military and civilian casualties, Iraq bombed Iranian cities (perhaps a million fled Tehran) and chemical weapons were used by Iraq - their dispersal guided by U.S. satellite reconnaissance passed on to Saddam. Then Saddam invaded Kuwait. With a mad-dog neighbor like Saddam Iran certainly was tempted to develop nuclear weapons capability if only as a deterrent to future Iraqi ambitions; after 2003 this picture changed. The Shah wanted about 20 nuclear reactors to be in place by the year 2000 - fine by the USA that had supplied the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) in 1966. The Shah invested over $1 billion in a French uranium enrichment project (Eurodif) that would have supplied the required LEU nuclear fuel. The Reagan administration pressured the French to kill this deal - as well as the Germans to stop work on the Bushehr reactor. If this deal with the French hadn't been killed, Iran would not have had to pursue its centrifuge program - this whole kerfuffle would have been avoided. Actions have consequences, and in the Middle East, history seems to have shown us that those by the USA have resulted in less than optimal outcomes. As a final note, Hayden is far from critical of the Mossad's assassination of a number of Iranian nuclear scientists, the joint U.S.-Israeli cyber attack on Natanz (Stuxtnet) that destroyed or damaged about 1,000 centrifuges, and I recollect doesn't even mention the capture by Iran of the Lockheed Reaper drone that was spying on Iran. One wonders what the U.S. reaction would be to similar programs carried out by Iran against U.S. nuclear facilities?

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rahski

The global threat explained

Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2017

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This is excellent reading, it gives a first hand look at the state of global military affairs in 2016. It is a real eye opener. It left me better educated on the climate of terror and how it impacts us here. Frightening but worthwhile reading.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Kunde

Gut geschrieben, interessante Background-Stories. Vielleicht etwas "administrationslastig".

Reviewed in Germany on November 30, 2016

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Prinzipiell ein gutes Buch, vor allem weil der "böse Bube" im Gegensatz zum "Guten Amerikaner" auch mal zu Wort kommt. Immer gut, die Dinge aus anderer Perspektive nochmal zu hören.

Stellenweise sehr schwer zu lesen, da sehr viel Bezug auf die amerikanische Adminstration. Nicht jede der vielen TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations" ist auch erklärt. Eine Seite im Prefix mit allen Abkürzungen würde der Lesbarkeit helfen. Trotrzdem eine Empfehlung für jeden, der sich für das Thema interessiert.

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william albert woehr

Playing to the edge by mike hayden

Reviewed in Spain on April 10, 2017

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A insightful and true description of the world I worked in. Clearly written, well organized. General Hayden is to congratulated.

J Blake

A complex paradox of security vs privacy

Reviewed in Canada on May 9, 2017

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Hayden reveals how difficult the path is for a nation that values the individual above all else must accept the need to approach their respective security as "the many". I found the book quite informative about the tension between good intelligence within legal boundaries while wading through the quagmire of the public naivity fed by duplicitous politics and wacky conspiracies.

I would like to meet Michael.

peter banfield

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2017

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interesting, but bogged down in the history

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