Synopses & Reviews
James Risen has broken story after story on the abuses of power of the Bush administration. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; From warrantless wiretapping to secret financial data mining to the CIA's rogue operations, he has shown again and again that the executive branch has dangerously overreached, repudiated checks and balances on its power, and maintained secrecy even with its allies in Congress. In no small part thanks to Risen and andlt;iandgt;State of War,andlt;/iandgt; the "secret history" of the Bush years has now come partially into view. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; In a new epilogue for the paperback edition, Risen describes the two-front war that President Bush is now fighting: at home against Congress and the Supreme Court, as his administration is increasingly reined in from its abuses; and in the Middle East, where George W. Bush's great gamble to bring a democratic revolution is failing radically. We must learn the lessons of Risen's history now, before it is too late.
Review
"Risen's book is really about the secret of many things that have gone wrong in the administration of George W. Bush. The quantity, and apparent quality, of the secrets revealed in andlt;iandgt;State of Warandlt;/iandgt; distinguishes Risen's book from its competitors. What it represents is a profound hemorrhaging of information from within the corridors of secret power in Washington.... Risen becomes the mouthpiece for a U.S. intelligence community anxious to unburden itself of the mistakes and misdeeds of the recent past. He has not one, but many 'Deep Throats.'"andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;iandgt;Toronto Globe and Mailandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Domestic spying, demands for political loyalty in the name of national security, investigating a newspaper's sources: With andlt;iandgt;State of War,andlt;/iandgt; the Nixonian dand#233;jand#224; vu can give a reader whiplash."andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;iandgt;The Dallas Morning Newsandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Explosive.... James Risen may have become the new Woodward and Bernstein.... Fast paced, quite mesmerizing, colorful, and fascinating."andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;iandgt;The New York Times Book Reviewandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Illuminating and disturbing...a monumental job of reporting."andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;iandgt;The New York Timesandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Damning and dismaying...As a national security reporter for the andlt;iandgt;New York Times,andlt;/iandgt; Risen has produced some of this era's best journalism on the Central Intelligence Agency and the dysfunctional relationship between the White House and the U.S. spy community.... As one of the Washington press corps' best reporters on national security issues, Risen has a record of being right.... andlt;iandgt;State of Warandlt;/iandgt; is a welcome reminder that American journalism has a higher purpose than shallow pandering to the lowest pop-cultural denominator. Somewhere, beyond celebrity, there are issues and ideas that matter. James Risen's book is an urgent contribution to the country's common good by a skillful and courageous reporter."andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;iandgt;Los Angeles Timesandlt;/iandgt;
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;James Risenandlt;/bandgt; covers national security forandlt;Iandgt; The New York Times. andlt;/iandgt;He was a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2002 for coverage of September 11 and terrorism, and he is the coauthor of andlt;Iandgt;Wrath of Angelsandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;Iandgt;The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB. andlt;/iandgt;He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife and three sons.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
A note on sources
Prologue
1. "Who Authorized Putting Him on Pain Medication?"
2. The Program
3. Casus Belli
4. The Hunt for WMD
5. Skeptics and Zealots
6. Spinning War and Peace
7. Losing Afghanistan
8. In Denial: Oil, Terrorism, and Saudi Arabia
9. A Rogue Operation
Afterword
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index