The secret history of US foreign intelligence

The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has riveted America's attention once again on the question of secret intelligence - how it is gathered and evaluated and how it is ultimately used to determine policies. To understand the current crisis of the CIA, we need to know how the intelligence business works, and no one outside it knows more about its culture than Thomas Powers. The essays collected in this volume range from the exploits of Wild Bill Donovan's OSS during the Second World War, through the CIA's long cold war struggle with its Russian adversary, to the failure to prevent the attacks of September 11. With a new preface and three new essays analysing the Iraq war and its consequences, this updated edition examines urgent questions for an age of terrorism and pre-emptive war. What role should secret intelligence have in the policy debates of a democratic society? Can we trust the CIA to resist White House pressure, give presidents their best estimate without varnish, and then stand by it.