Category: 1-7 Star Rating

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Review: The Craft of Intelligence

5 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of two required readings on intelligence for anyone,

April 7, 2000
Allen Welsh Dulles
This is the other required reading. This gem sits on my desk with my dictionary of difficult words and my synonym dictionary. We still do not have an equal to this book. Since Dulles testified to Congress that 80% of the raw material for finished intelligence came from public sources including diplomatic reporting, this book provides an interesting benchmark for understanding the rather pathological impact of technical collection on the larger process of all-source collection and analysis.

Strategic intelligence for American world policy
Strategic Intelligence & Statecraft: Selected Essays (Brassey's Intelligence and National Security Library)
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

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Review: Secret Agencies–U.S. Intelligence in a Hostile World

5 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Government/Secret)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Objective discussion of successes and failures,

April 7, 2000
Professor Loch K. Johnson
Loch is the dean of the scholars competent to address intelligence matters, and his experience as a member of the professional staff of both the Church Committee in the 1970's and the Aspin/Brown Commission in the 1990's uniquely qualify him to discuss and evaluate U.S. intelligence. His chapters on the ethics of covert operations and on intelligence accountability set a standard for this aspect of the discussion. This is the only book I have seen that objectively and methodically discusses intelligence success and failures in relation to the Soviet Union, with a superb three-page listing decade by decade being provided on pages 180-182.
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Review: Intelligence–From Secrets to Policy

4 Star, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Government/Secret)

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4.0 out of 5 stars A new standard elementary text,

April 7, 2000
Mark M. Lowenthal

This is an excellent elementary text for the average college student. Over-all it is strong on issues of analysis, policy, and oversight, and weak on collection, covert action, and counterintelligence. The chapter on collection has a useful figure comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the five collection disciplines, and but does not get into the detail that this aspect of the intelligence community-80% of the annual expense-merits.

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Review: The U.S. Intelligence Community–An Annotated Bibliography (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)

4 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Essential reference work,

April 7, 2000
Mark Lowenthal
Mark is arguably America's foremost intelligence historian, and especially strong on analysis and oversight. The seventy-page bibliography he has put together is useful. There are other much longer annotated bibliographies, but this one reflects value in its selection and conciseness.
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Review: CYBERPUNK–Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, Revised

3 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War

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3.0 out of 5 stars First and Interesting but Flawed,

April 7, 2000
Katie Hafner

Three case studies are provided, including one dealing with Robert Morris, son of a distinguished NSA scientist and the person who brought America to a standstill with an epidemic electronic virus. By two distinguished journalists who knew little about hackers but could recognize a great story when they saw one, this is one of the more important early books that erroneously labeled hackers as criminals and electronic criminals as hackers.

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Review: Accidental Empires–How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date

4 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Change & Innovation, Culture, Research, Economics, Information Society, Information Technology

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4.0 out of 5 stars Big Companies Can Be Really Stupid–Useful Review,

April 7, 2000
Robert X. Cringely
A gift from one of the folks he writes about, this is one of the earliest books about Silicon Valley, and is both enjoyable and useful because of its early focus on the mistakes made by IBM, Xerox Park, 3Com, and other “CIA-like” giants, its discussion of the hit and miss and perserverence nature of the early start-ups, and some really big things to avoid like letting venture capitalists or the marketing staff tell you what to offer the public.
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Review: The Devil’s Garden

5 Star, Corruption, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Threats (Emerging & Perennial), War & Face of Battle

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5.0 out of 5 stars Reality Hurts–Joint Chiefs Don't Want to Face It,

March 7, 2000
Ralph Peters
Ralph Peters, whom I know professionally, is a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia who has actually walked hundreds of miles through the worst of terrains, and deeply understands–at both a Ph.D. and gutter level, the reality of real war. The Joint Chiefs don't want to face this reality because it bears no resemblance to their nice clean air-conditioned CNN version of war. Devil's Garden is the real thing, and it is also a great novel.
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