I ordered this thing as soon as I heard about it and now I have it in my evil librul clutches. I will be cherry-picking the quotes, not more than 3 or 4.
So here we go.
Update: this is from 'The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals' by The New Yorker's (yes that one) excellent Jane Mayer.
Chapter 1:
"Some of those around Cheney wondered if the attacks...had exacerbated his natural pessimism"
"But instead of trying to learn from what had essentially been a collosal bureaucratic failure...the Bush White House deferred the focus elsewhere"
"As wilkerson, Powell's former chief of staff..., put it 'He[Cheney] had a single-minded objective in black and white, that American security was achievable. I can't fault the man for wanting to keep America safe. But he was willing to corrupt the country to save it."
Commentary on Ch 1:
Well being lead by a fear stricken warmonger does explain the behavior of this administration. He, Cheney and thus the whole administration, were traumatized by the 911 attacks to the point where they all thought that there was another imminent threat everyday. In this chapter it is pointed out that Cheney has no intelligence analysis expertise coupled with a suspicion of our intelligence agencies. Yet he appointed himself the president's intelligence advisor.
In summation, a man with exacerbated "natural pessimism", no intelligence-analysis expertise, and total access to all intelligence with no vetting process had the power to set policy. Now that's just a recipe for...what's been happening these past 7 years!
Ch 2:
"Buried in the CIA's files was the trail of two of the 9/11 hijackers. The records showed that the Agency had followed the AL Qaeda suspects in the US in 2000 and dropped the case...
Upon hearing the news, Tenet...reeled back in his chair and groaned. 'We're fucked!' is all he said."
"Doug Miller, one of these FBI agents on loan to the CIA, had access to what was called 'bigoted'-meaning not shared-information on the CIA's computer system. He wrote up a draft memo[relating the activities of a known terrorist soon to be hijacker] to be sent to the FBI and was ready to send it. But his boss [identified by the 9/11 Commision as 'Mike'] stopped him from passing it on."
"On August 6th the CIA's warnings indisputably reached both Rice and the President[in a memo titled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US]...
after listening to the CIA's warning that day, the President responded, "all right. You've covered you're ass now."
Ch 2 commentary
Another FBI agent named Cloonan said 9/11 was completely preventable. Oh and the guy who stymied the intelligence sharing 'MIke' was later promoted. I bet he's another one of those incompetent but loyal idiots that followed this administration into office. Another tidbit I learned is that Clinton was well aware of AL Qaeda and directed a lot of resources to foiling them. Stark contrasts in dealing with this threat are made apparent: Clinton kept a low profile but was on top of it and did NOT use terrorism as an excuse for anything; Bush, I mean Cheney, uses it for a political power grab and makes it high profile for obvious political points.
The author's style is rather plain, not eloquent, showing the focus on the facts surrounding the contraversial decisions that have marked this administration. It has a sense of urgency mostly because I have a sense of urgency about seeing Bush leave the White House. All in all, its a relevant well-organized and focused look at the Bush Administration.