Monthly WIN Short-Form Book Review

Based on the book's title, I assumed it would provide a scholarly historical overview of the CIA's activities in recent years and its vital role and mission in protecting the United States' national security. This assumption was incorrect. After reading the book, I believe it is biased and partisan, as is evident from the beginning in the Prologue and throughout the publication to the Epilogue. On page 7 in the Prologue: "Among the CIA's greatest challenges in the days to come will be the man in the White House, an authoritarian leader who presents the clearest danger to the national security of the United States since the century began.”

The timeline covered in the book is from January 2001 to March 2025. It starts with the Bush administration. In the following chapters, the author discusses how the Bush administration failed to use intelligence effectively from 9/11 to the Gulf War and the “War on Terrorism.” Chapters sixteen through twenty-one cover the eight years of the Obama administration. In those chapters, the administration is looked upon favorably for its use of the intelligence services. One derogatory incident mentioned in the book was when the Obama administration authorized the targeting and killing of an American citizen outside the United States. 

Chapter twenty-two discusses Donald Trump's election and how the Obama administration reported that Trump was an agent for Russia. It also explores the CIA and the FBI's joint venture, Crossfire Hurricane, which attempted to show that Trump was an agent of Russia. Chapters twenty-three to twenty-four, titled “We are on the way to a right-wing coup,” are devoted to the national security threat the author believed the Trump administration posed during his first term. 

The remaining chapters positively cover the Biden administration. One flaw mentioned was the administration's failure to heed the Intelligence Community's warning about withdrawing from Afghanistan. The Epilogue, “Autocracy in America,” once again raises the author's view on the threat to national security with Donald Trump's return to the White House on January 20, 2025.

I looked forward to reading and exploring the book's content. To its credit, the publication describes many of the CIA's effective missions in the 21st Century; however, I was disappointed. The book, in my view, is not scholarly; it is a biased and partisan account of how various administrations used the CIA in the 21st Century.

Dr. Daniel J. Benny is a former naval intelligence officer and federal DOD/DON Navy Police Chief. He is also a private investigator, security expert, and tenured Associate Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Two of his eight books include The U.S. Intelligence Services and National Security, published by CRC Press in 2024, and  Industrial Espionage, published by CRC Press in 2014.