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At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA Kindle Edition

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 204 ratings

#1 New York Times Bestseller: The former CIA director’s “remarkable” personal account of the mistakes and failures that led to 9/11 and the Iraq War (Bob Woodward, The Washington Post).

In this candid memoir, George Tenet recounts his time at the Central Intelligence Agency in the dramatic years between 1997 and 2004. With unparalleled access to the highest echelons of government and raw intelligence from the field, he illuminates the CIA’s painstaking attempts to prepare the country against new and deadly threats, disentangles the interlocking events that led to 9/11, and reveals information on the deliberations and strategies that culminated in the invasion of Iraq.

Tenet unfolds momentous events as he experienced them: his declaration of war on al-Qa’ida; the CIA’s covert operations inside Afghanistan; the worldwide operational plan to fight terrorists; his warnings of imminent attacks against American interests to White House officials in the summer of 2001; and the plan for a coordinated and devastating counterattack against al-Qa’ida laid down just six days after the attacks.

Tenet’s compelling narrative then turns to the run-up to the Iraq War, including a firsthand account of the fallout from the inclusion of “sixteen words” in the president’s 2003 State of the Union address; the true context of Tenet’s own famous “slam dunk” comment regarding Saddam’s WMD program; and the CIA’s critical role in an administration predisposed to take the country to war. In doing so, he sets the record straight about CIA operations and shows that the truth is more complex than many believe.

Throughout, Tenet paints an unflinching self-portrait of a man caught between the warring forces of the administration’s decision-making process, the reams of frightening intelligence pouring in from around the world, and his own conscience—in a moving, revelatory profile of both an individual and a nation in crisis, and a revealing look at the inner workings of the world’s most important intelligence organization at an extraordinarily challenging time.

“Tenet does not shy away from acknowledging his own responsibility in controversies involving terrorism and the Iraq War, but he also takes several key political leaders to task for scapegoating the intelligence community in the wake of unpopular policy.” —
Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former CIA director Tenet leaves the main vocal duties for this audio in the capable hands of Conger (who also recently narrated The Reagan Diaries). Yet in reading both the brief introduction and lengthy-but highly compelling-afterword, Tenet demonstrates a command of the spoken word that makes one wonder why he did not handle his own narration. However, the two men project a compatible style and tone, conveying deeply personal emotion within the boundaries of professionalism and decorum. Tenet does not shy away from acknowledging his own responsibility in controversies involving terrorism and the Iraq War, but he also takes several key political leaders to task for scapegoating the intelligence community in the wake of unpopular policy. The musical interludes at the start and end of each CD serve to maintain the cloak and dagger ambience. Those who prefer to skim the surface of news events may find the length taxing, but listeners ready to move beyond the headlines and into a wider world of nuanced complexity will be more than satisfied.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Tenet, former director of the CIA, has finally delivered his long-anticipated book. It was supposed to provide background and insight into the events of September 11 as well as the lead-up (and fall down) of the Iraq War. But most readers will find that Tenet's hodgepodge of facts tangled with homey anecdotes, excuses, and mea culpas will leave them as confused as ever. Alternately presenting himself as the folksy Greek American kid from Queens and the high-charging power broker, Tenet is proud of the many things the CIA did right under his charge, such as disrupting terrorist attacks leading up to 9/11 (while, of course, missing the big one), and he writes feverishly about successes in Afghanistan and elsewhere during the trying months afterward. The book is at its best painting just how dangerous, confusing, and exhausting those days were. Then comes the distraction from terrorism that was Iraq, and according to Tenet, common purpose disappeared in Washington, and interagency warfare reigned. Cheney comes out looking bad, and Rice worse, but much of the blame for the ill-preparedness goes to the slightly lower-level neocons: Wolfowitz, Libby, et al. As for the president, Tenet likes him––a lot. But in a telling few pages, Bush keeps trying to get neocon favorite Ahmed Chalabi off the payroll, and no one pays a bit of attention to him. Turning these pages is like walking through mirrors. Cooper, Ilene
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000QUCNX6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Illustrated edition (October 13, 2009)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1929 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 596 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 204 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
204 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting and helpful, giving unity to a series of tragic events. They also describe the reading experience as great and well written.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

21 customers mention "Intellectual level"21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting, helpful, and informative. They say it masterfully provides a first-hand account into the decision making process that two Presidents undertook. Readers also find the narrative entertaining and well-written. They mention the book provides excellent insight into the CIA and the government.

"...Bottom line: this a great narrative on how the CIA operated during some of its most challenging times...." Read more

"...The book masterfully provides a first hand account into the decision making process that two President used to combat terrorist: pre-911 and Post 9-..." Read more

"...Every chapter is a lesson in intelligence, analysis, and the tough work which must be done to protect America daily by this agency...." Read more

"...That being said, I thought the book offered many tidbits of insider information not found in the deluge of information already available on many of..." Read more

20 customers mention "Reading experience"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book a great read, saying that the CIA did a good job with it. They also appreciate the honest assessment of the Agency's performance.

"...Mr. Tenet provides an amazingly honest assessment of the Agency’s performance. He accepts blame in those instances where the CIA truly fell short...." Read more

"Very good read...." Read more

"...Great job--loved the book--highly recommend this to students and anyone interested in foreign policy or intelligence matters." Read more

"...It's a frustrating and exciting story and a very good read." Read more

8 customers mention "Readability"6 positive2 negative

Customers find the book well-written and enlightening.

"All I all, this is an outstanding book. It flows well and is an easy read. It is, however, a long book in that it is over 500 pages...." Read more

"...incredible. The writing is compelling, and the given all the material he must cover--it rates A plus!..." Read more

"...Overall the book is poorly written and edited. Nothing really new is exposed...." Read more

"...The book's narrative is entertaining and well-written and I felt as though Mr. Tenant was attempting to give a fair anyalysis of events and the..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016
All I all, this is an outstanding book. It flows well and is an easy read. It is, however, a long book in that it is over 500 pages. The author, George Tenet, takes the reader through 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the events surrounding the Iraq war. His recollection of the U.S. Government’s actions in post invasion Iraq are extremely insightful.

Mr. Tenet provides an amazingly honest assessment of the Agency’s performance. He accepts blame in those instances where the CIA truly fell short. That said, he also defends the Agency where it was incorrectly criticized. He does this by providing the rest of the story to specific events. For example, he effectively debunks the erroneous story that he claimed the justification for invading Iraq would be a “slam dunk.” By providing the back story, he is able to showcase the errors cited in other publications like Bob Woodward’s book on the Iraq war.

Bottom line: this a great narrative on how the CIA operated during some of its most challenging times. It provides a true insiders look at the how the Intelligence Community and the CIA in particular operated during 9/11 and the Iraq war. A fascinating read.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2007
It does not take a very careful read of this book to infer that George Tenet loved his job as Director of CIA. He also, apparently, holds the men and women who work at CIA in very high regard. During his seven year tenure at CIA he unquestionably improved the morale of the CIA workforce. Unfortunately reading this book one also has to infer that he was not a very good director of that agency. Although he dealt with intelligence issues during his years as a congressional and National Security Council (NSC) staffer, he really had no experience in the actual processes involved in the collection of data and the production of intelligence. Further he had no management experience and never had to learn how to transform decisions into actions or ensure that subordinates did so. However, if one reads between the lines of this book one can see that what really did Tenet in as Director was that he was extremely ill-served by CIA's senior management.

For example there is the on going issue of the al Qaeda movement and Usama bin Ladin or Osama bin Laden. In the wake of the al Qaeda inspired attacks against the U.S. Embassies in East Africa, Tenet tells the reader he was frustrated with the "quality and depth of our intelligence regarding al Qaeda and Bin (sic) Ladin." Apparently as a result of this frustration, the Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) of CIA developed a so-called `operational plan' and the redoubtable CIA veteran Charlie Allen pushed the rest of the Intelligence Community, namely NSA and the NGA, to step up their collection and processing efforts to support that plan. Tenet was told that as a result the amount of data on al Qaeda and bin Ladin had `exploded' and many terrorists were identified and their linkages to other terrorists were documented. According to the head of the CTC of the plan had "damaged UBL's (sic) infrastructure and created doubt within al Qaeda...", although it is difficult to determine how he knew this. This of course was all prior to the events of 9/11. In point of fact, the result of all this effort was what one would get by kicking an ant hill and little substantive intelligence resulted from all the uproar. Indeed by 2004 CIA apparently was still uncertain if the al Qaeda movement should be treated as a transnational or geographic issue. After 9/11, the response by CIA to the Bush administration's interest in finding ties between al Qaeda and pre-invasion Iraq was a masterpiece of bureaucratic opaqueness. President Bush and Director Tenet both deserved better. The problem is that as Tenet stated in another context, "We are all prisoners of history" this could be the epitaph of his directorship and perhaps CIA itself.
28 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2007
Contrary to what the book's back cover might have you believe, George Tenet does not use this book as a means to deflect criticism. Instead, he recaps his experience as DCI (1997-2004) in the most honest way that he can.

Tenet never criticizes President Bush (43) explicitly. At times, he paints him as a man with good intentions. However, through much of Part III, Tenet implies that the President delegated (and abdicated) too much authority to his staff. Tenet vilifies Douglas Feith (undersecretary of defense for policy (2001-2005)) for promoting war with Iraq in advance of adequate supporting intelligence. He places Feith as a man who wielded a disproportionate amount of influence in the White House. It is left as an exercise for the reader to consider why President Bush was so willing to accept Feith's ideas in lieu of other credible viewpoints.

As articulated in the `Afterword' [p. 490-491, 499], Tenet constantly reminds the reader of the CIA's role in government:

"Often, at best, only 60 percent of the facts regarding any national security issue are knowable... Intelligence alone should never drive the formulation of policy. Good intelligence is no substitute for common sense or curiosity on the part of policy makers in thinking through the consequences of their actions... Intelligence does not operate in a vacuum, but within a broader mandate of policies and governance."

Here are some other highlights of the book:

- The CIA told the White House that Iraq likely possessed WMD (Chapter 17), but it never established a link between Iraq and al-Qa'ida (p.307).

- "In Afghanistan, we had started from the ground up, allowing the various political groups to legitimize themselves, then building to a central, representational government. In Iraq, the process couldn't have been more different... We were in charge, and by God, we knew what was best." (p.439)

- "Although CIA came to take everything we heard from [Ahmed] Chalabi with a healthy dose of skepticism, others, such as the vice president, Paul Wolfowitz, and Doug Feith, welcomed his views." (p. 397)

- "On one of his trips to Iraq, Wolfowitz told our senior [CIA] man there, 'You don't understand the policy of the U.S. government, and if you don't understand the policy, you are hardly in a position to collect the intelligence to help that policy succeed.'" (p. 430)

- The CIA suggested ways that the United States could establish peace in Iraq, but these suggestions were ignored (Chapter 23 and p. 441, 446).

- Brent Scowcroft was the only administration official who expressed public disapproval of the White House's plan to go to war with Iraq (p. 315).

- After the attack on the USS Cole, the U.S. "...Didn't need any additional excuses to go after UBL or his organization. But simply firing more cruise missiles into the desert wasn't going to accomplish anything. [The U.S.] needed to get into the Afghan sanctuary." (p. 128-131)

- "For years, it had been obvious that without the cooperation of the Pakistanis, it would be almost impossible to root out al-Qa'ida... The Pakistanis always knew more than they were telling us, and they had been singularly uncooperative in helping us run these guys down." (p. 139)

- Al-Qa'ida planned to attack the New York City subway in the fall of 2003. The attack was cancelled during the last stages of preparation "for something better". (p.260-261)

- "When I was with King Hussein, I always felt that I was in the presence of wisdom and history... I've often wondered what impact his wisdom would have had in helping all of us avert the mess we find ourselves in today." (p.71-72)
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
María Cristina Rosas
1.0 out of 5 stars El libro es usado
Reviewed in Mexico on February 21, 2021
Pagué por un libro nuevo y llegó maltratado y se ve usado. Me preocupa más eso en la pandemia porque muchos tienen la costumbre de hojear con salivazos
Nana Amoako -Atta
5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived on time
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2022
Good condition
Jamie Norris
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book on American Intelligence in lead up to 9/11 and the War in Iraq.
Reviewed in Australia on March 17, 2021
I would highly recommend this book as a source of knowledge about what the DCI George Tenet was thinking in the lead up to 9/11, where the CIA knew alQaeda was inside the US and ready to strike.
Fabian
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book
Reviewed in Germany on December 1, 2013
This book gives amazing insights on how intelligence politics work. But don't be blended by the strong subjective position tenet takes! Especially the perspectives on Israeli US relations are interesting to follow.
Amazon カスタマー
5.0 out of 5 stars 素晴らしい本です。
Reviewed in Japan on February 14, 2015
素晴らしい本です。また購入しようと思っています。
☆☆☆☆☆☆

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