Currently reading
Hieroglyph: Stories and Blueprints for a Better Future
Ukraine: Zbig's Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated
The Girl on the Train: A Novel
Our Souls at Night: A novel
Above the Waterfall
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction
The Homicide Report: Understanding Murder in America
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
The Gods of Mars
This is Tenet’s attempt to set the record straight. Of course, he uses the work to buff his resume of accomplishment at the CIA and to defend himself against criticism that the agency fell down on the job in several areas, including a lack of foresight into the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, and not preventing 9/11. I believe he has a case, certainly, for the latter. It has been written in many places how he was trying to raise the terrorism alarm for a long time before the big event, both under Clinton and then under the disinterested Bush. He decries the agency’s shortage of funding. He tells very personal accounts of diplomatic attempts with the Israelis and Palestinians, with a particular focus on Arafat and Tenet’s view that Arafat alone kept an agreement from happening. There is certainly disagreement about whether the deal was as good for the Palestinians as many of its proponent claim. Jimmy Carter has a different view. Arafat is shown both as a very human and interesting character and the major obstacle to mid-east peace. Well, maybe and maybe not.