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James Risen

State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration Hardcover – January 3, 2006

by James Risen (Author)

4.2 346 ratings

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With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we still might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history -- a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of current debate.

This hidden history involves domestic spying, abuses of power, and outrageous operations. It includes a CIA that became caught in a political cross fire that it could not withstand, and what it did to respond. It includes a Defense Department that made its own foreign policy, even against the wishes of the commander in chief. It features a president who created a sphere of deniability in which his top aides were briefed on matters of the utmost sensitivity -- but the president was carefully kept in ignorance. State of War reveals this hidden history for the first time, including scandals that will redefine the Bush presidency.

James Risen has covered national security for The New York Times for years. Based on extraordinary sources from top to bottom in Washington and around the world, drawn from dozens of interviews with key figures in the national security community, this book exposes an explosive chain of events:

Contrary to law, and with little oversight, the National Security Administration has been engaged in a massive domestic spying program.
On such sensitive issues as the use of torture, the administration created a zone of deniability: the president's top advisors were briefed, but the president himself was not.
The United States actually gave nuclear-bomb designs to Iran.
The CIA had overwhelming evidence that Iraq had no nuclear weapons programs during the run-up to the Iraq war. They kept that information to themselves and didn't tell the president.
While the United States has refused to lift a finger, Afghanistan has become a narco-state, supplying 87 percent of the heroin sold on the global market.

These are just a few of the stories told in State of War. Beyond these shocking specifics, Risen describes troubling patterns: Truth-seekers within the CIA were fired or ignored. Long-standing rules were trampled. Assassination squads were trained; war crimes were proposed. Yet for all the aggressiveness of America's spies, a blind eye was turned toward crucial links between al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia, among other sensitive topics.

Not since the revelations of CIA and FBI abuses in the 1970s have so many scandals in the intelligence community come to light. More broadly, Risen's secret history shows how power really works in George W. Bush's presidency.

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Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Free Press
Publication date

January 3, 2006
Dimensions

6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0743270665
ISBN-13

978-0743270663
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Customer reviews

346 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book readable and informative. They appreciate the good information about the Bush administration leading the US into war. The story is described as thrilling, interesting, and shocking. Readers praise the writing quality as well-crafted and easy to understand. However, opinions differ on accuracy - some find it accurate and readily understood, while others mention inaccurate statements and lack of credible references.

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Readability Information quality Storytelling Writing quality Accuracy

32 customers mention "Readability"29 positive3 negative

Customers find the book informative and entertaining. They say it provides solid background on the subject.

"...The book is an excellent read and provides those of us who saw destruction and sacrific and moreover finalizes a question I had for some years...." Read more

"...What a list. What a book! This is a must read book, one that will help the reader make sense of so much and make the reader quite angry..." Read more

"Good, but long winded on some issues...." Read more

"...Overall still an excellent book with lots of details that connect with what we knew happened on the outside." Read more

28 customers mention "Information quality"23 positive5 negative

Customers find the book provides valuable insights into the Bush administration's leading up to the Iraq war. They say it provides answers to why certain war strategies were developed and provides context for the events. The book offers insider information and sources that shed light on how decisions were made.

"This book provides quite a few nuggets of information about the workings of Bush and his gang...." Read more

"...It creates context...." Read more

"...It is a short read but drips with insider information...." Read more

"The book is well crafted and offers insights into how decisions were made, where the wheels began to fall off the plan for Iraq..." Read more

9 customers mention "Storytelling"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's storytelling engaging and informative. They describe the story as thrilling, interesting, and shocking. The book provides eye-opening facts about corruption and democracy.

"...Even though it is providing an excellent narrative on the mechanism of how the CIA functioned and why it lost its ïmpact"within the US..." Read more

"...There are some interesting and disturbing facts in it that every citizen should be aware of." Read more

"Appreciate the story. More confirming than really enlightening. Don't really understand why all the fuss...." Read more

"Was really looking forward to this book. The story told to well told, but by the time I got around to reading the book, most of the story was no..." Read more

6 customers mention "Writing quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written and easy to understand.

"A brilliant current history, written by a careful, talented and accurate journalist...." Read more

"This is the most accurate and most readily understood book on the falsehoods and crimes of the Bush II administration...." Read more

"Eye opening and shocking. Well wrote." Read more

"Darn good book. Well written book." Read more

5 customers mention "Accuracy"3 positive2 negative

Customers have different views on the book's accuracy. Some find it accurate and understandable, while others mention rumours, lack of credible references, and false statements. The author's insistence on sources is criticized as unnecessary.

"The author, James Risen attempts to write a fair and accurate account of the secret history of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration...." Read more

"...The books is riddled with false statements, unsubstantiated rumours, and the lack of credible references...." Read more

"A brilliant current history, written by a careful, talented and accurate journalist...." Read more

"...Seemingly "authentic" information, but insisting on sources is uncalled for...." Read more

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05/11A
CIA, Bush Administration, Rumsfelt, Cheny, Iraq
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014
Verified Purchase
Those of us who served in Iraq (2005, plus Afghanistan..plus 3 tours HOA) often ask the question of who in the Bush Administration disbanded the entire Iraq Army and the total civilian infrastructure (Ministries of Transport, Water, Electrical, etc).

In Tom Rick's book.."Fiasco", Bremer's aid was an Army Colonel (06) who had the displeasure of telling the three Iraq generals waiting in Bremer's office their 400,000 trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers were to be disbanded. That same day, the entire Iraq civilian infrastructure was also disbanded. The insurgency commenced that day..

The end result of this horrific decision (emphasis added) was in part the causation of a runaway insurgency in Iraq killing not only several of my friends of some nearly 4500 other men and women of the US military....plus another 30,000 wounded requiring medical attention in country and out.

The CIA "insider" that Risen is now being questioned as to his/her identity indicated in the opening chapter that President Bush did not know nor was told of this decision. Risen's insider indicates the decision-maker was Rumsfelt (and no doubt Cheney). Bush was the Commander In Chief, yet apparently Rumsfelt and Cheney without authority became the de facto Commander in Chief. I only hope these historical facts are validated not only in this book, but by further investigation by Congress.

The families of those lost in Iraq should know the truth as to why Cheney's phrase of "they will greet us with sweets", became more of greeting us with 155 and 105 mm shells concealed as IED's. The families deserve the truth and over time perhaps those directly affected will call out for making history and the ground truth reality.

There should be a Congressional inquiry as to who made this decision..apparently without the knowledge of the Commander in Chief. Not only do we know who was really in charge, but that the war was managed by those who had little or no accountability.

I only hope the faces of those lost in Iraq visit Rumsfelt and Cheney in the darkest hours of the night to remind them of what they did and how those that died suffered..both them and their families.

The book is an excellent read and provides those of us who saw destruction and sacrific and moreover finalizes a question I had for some years.

RH/LTC US Army

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John
A Worthwhile Political Treatise of the Post-Cold War CIA
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2024
Verified Purchase
Whatever negative assessment you had of the lead-up to the Bush-Iraq War, the political details of this book will reveal it was much worse. The political-centric focus of the author’s narrative provides a clear picture of the misalignments of the CIA and the executive branch that led the US into two wars. However, this politically focused approach also leaves readers with more crucial questions than answers. The overall narrative tends to present most of the CIA rank and file as a cadre of do-gooders out-maneuvered by those with purely political ambitions. The domestic political players are identified and scrutinized. However, the book never really attempts to answer the question of who the mysterious third-party players were, on several occasions, who seemed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory regarding several critical overseas operations.

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Louis DiMento
Good insights into the Bush Administration and the CIA
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2006
Verified Purchase
This book provides quite a few nuggets of information about the workings of Bush and his gang. It makes clear just how powerful Rumsfield is and indicates that Tenet was haplessly trying to please everybody. It gives further evidence of Powell's marginalization and it demonstrates how the CIA has been co-opted so that it no longer seems to be a professional organization.

A question remains about Bush himself. In Paul O'Neill's book, Bush asks if we need another tax cut for the rich, and Cheney tells him to get with the program. In this book, Bush says it's a good idea to try to eradicate the heroin trade in Afghanistan and Rummy ignores him. Now in his SOTU message Bush says we are addicted to oil, and his energy secretary says he didn't really mean it. Is Bush really being led around by his gang or are his statements just a ploy?

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22 people found this helpful

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Rhio9
Too little. Too late.
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2014
Verified Purchase
It was a coincidence that I started reading “State of War” the very same week that the “Senate Select Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program” was released to the public (Dec. 2014), providing the most comprehensive public accounting of the interrogation techniques used by the CIA after the terrorist attacks in New York on 9/11. In light of that report, most everything in Risen’s book, published in 2006, is all well known by now and extremely documented and expanded upon by other writers, journalists, reporters and confidential “unnamed” sources. But Risen’s book is still a good addition and complement to any serious student’s library of books on war history, US spying programs, surveillance, intelligence and foreign policy. It creates context.

Incidentally, perhaps the most interesting footnote to this book is the legal case the US government brought against Risen because he refused to disclose his sources for parts of the book. Fortunately, as of Dec. 13, 2014, US Attorney General Eric Holder has decided not to subpoena Risen in an effort to force him to reveal the sources for his book, “State of War”. Risen has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source revealing the CIA’s efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Risen was facing the difficult decision between revealing a source or jail time for contempt of court.

In Risen’s last chapter, he writes about “checks and balances” to weaken the Bush Administration's lawless use of warrantless wire taps, unlawful imprisonment, torture, executive orders that circumvented the US Constitution, etc. However, eight years after Risen’s book was published, these so-called “checks and balances” are laughable and absurd! Since “State of War” was published, Edward Snowden has exposed the vast and powerful NSA program that dwarfs anything Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld knew about; the CIA torture report has been released and confirms everything and more that the country thought about CIA torture programs; Osama bin Laden is dead but now ISIS and other home-grown terrorists are on the scene fighting harder than ever and using Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan as staging areas; and America “ended” the war in Iraq only to send more troops back in 2014.

Risen’s book has significance and importance as a reporter’s true account of history and an attempt to offer an explanation. But in the final analysis, this so-called “explosive book on the abuse of power of the Bush Administration” was back in 2006 and is now, in 2014, too little, too late.

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aaron
Four Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 26, 2017
Verified Purchase
very informative.

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himmelhund
Whitewash
Reviewed in Germany on August 4, 2019
Verified Purchase
Risen makes it clear that Rumsfeld and Cheney with their neocon cohort bear the responsibilitly for the fiasco that Iraq has become.
He places the blame squarely on the CIA for its lack of preparedness. He also makes it very clear that the George W. Bush administration, ruled as it was by Cheney, the president-behind-the-scenes, was not interested in anything except destroying Saddam Hussein and his Baath government.
To this I say, "Tell us something we didn't know already."
Risen, like so many authors today, simply ignores the obvious fact that the New Pearl Harbor (WTC) was a false flag attack.
No author who glosses over this fact will earn my respect.
Risen is covering for the Bush family and he lauds GHW Bush as a "centrist" and moderate, when the senior Bush was himself a CIA monster and a coke dealer.

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John Alexander
The realities of...
Reviewed in Japan on August 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
...the relationship between Bush and the CIA. But I think an important sub-theme is the relationship between Bush and Rumsfeld, and Bush and Cheney. I think the hijacking of the security apparatus by these two men is more significant to explain how things went wrong than anything done by the CIA.

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Plym Carol
The item was in good condition for the price and I received it within ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2015
Verified Purchase
The item was in good condition for the price and I received it within the stated time. Would use again. Thank - you..

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Nocturne
希望的観測　見たいものを見る
Reviewed in Japan on March 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
見たいものに合わせて物を見る、というのは何も日本軍の専売特許ではない、とつくづく思わされた本書でした。組織というものがそもそもそういうものなんでしょうか。不確かな情報でも都合のいいものは信じ、真実を口にするものを遠ざける。こんないい加減な国家に振り回される他国はたまりません。巨大国家であるばかりに米国は今でも大きな顔をしていますが、その本質はならず者国家そのものです。James Risenは本書では911はアルカイダが起こしたという立場をとっているようですが、これもアメリカの防諜活動と関連して、そんなに簡単に考えられるようなものではない気がします。

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