NBN FL W08 p081-120 8-6.qxd - National Book Network

MARCH
Failure of Intelligence
The Decline and Fall of the CIA
Melvin A. Goodman
This is a time for serious soul-searching regarding the role
of the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence
community in general. The recent intelligence failures regarding
the unanticipated collapse of the Soviet Union, the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the run-up to
the Iraq war demonstrate a CIA and a $45 billion intelligence
enterprise that has utterly failed to provide strategic warning
to policymakers. Even worse is its efforts to boldly falsify intelligence
to suit political purposes. It will not be possible to
reform the enterprise until we understand and debate the
link between intelligence and policy, the important role of intelligence,
and the need for an intelligence agency that is not
beholden to political interests. Failure of Intelligence will inform
such a debate and suggest a reform agenda.
The author has interviewed several former directors of
central intelligence to get a better understanding of their reform
ideas in the wake of their stewardship over the intelligence
community. The book challenges the conventional
wisdom on clandestine collection, arguing that there needs
to be fewer clandestine agents, not more; that the best spies
are rarely recruited, but are more typically walk-ins; that the
failure to have diplomatic relations has led to the inability to
collect intelligence in such central threat areas as Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, and North Korea. This book is as timely as it is provocative.
Melvin Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International
Policy and an adjunct professor of government at
Johns Hopkins University. He has more than 40 years of experience
in the CIA, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, and the Department of Defense. He
lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
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March • Current Events/Politics
256 pages • 6 x 9 • Carton qty: 24
ISBN13: 978-0-7425-5110-7
0-7425-5110-5 • $27.95 cl. • [ T ]
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
National Book Network • 1-800-462-6420 Winter 2008 121