Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack - Hardcover

Thiessen, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596986034 ISBN 13: 9781596986039

Verlag: Regnery Publishing, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen was locked in a secure room and given access to the most sensitive intelligence when he was tasked to write President George W. Bush’s 2006 speech explaining the CIA’s interrogation program and why Congress should authorize it. Few know more about these CIA operations than Thiessen, and in his new book, Courting Disaster, he documents just how effective the CIA’s interrogations were in foiling attacks on America, penetrating al-Qaeda’s high command, and providing our military with actionable intelligence. Thiessen also shows how reckless President Obama has been in shutting down the CIA’s program and releasing secret documents that have aided our enemies. Courting Disaster proves:

How the CIA program thwarted specific deadly attacks against the U.S.
Why “enhanced interrogation” was not torture by any reasonable legal or moral standard
How the information gained by “enhanced interrogation” could not have been acquired any other way
How President Obama’s actions since taking office have left America much more vulnerable to attack

In chilling detail, Thiessen reveals how close the terrorists came to striking again, how intelligence gained from “enhanced interrogation” repeatedly stymied their plots, and how President Obama’s dismantling of this CIA program is inviting disaster for America.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Marc Alexander Thiessen is an American Republican author, columnist and political commentator. He served as a speechwriter for United States President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

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Praise for Courting Disaster

"Marc Thiessen knows, in ways that few others do, just how effective, heroic, and morally justified were the interrogators who kept this nation safe after 9/11. If you want to know what really happened behind the scenes at the CIA interrogation sites or at Guantanamo Bay, you simply must read this book. It reveals how we foiled potentially devastating terrorist plots, and how the current administration is putting us at terrible risk by its misplaced liberal grandstanding."
?Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States

"Renditions. Enhanced interrogation. Waterboarding. Detentions. Guantanamo. Warrantless eavesdropping. These are not mere words or phrases. They re the Rorschach test of political discourse in today s America?and like ink blots, they evoke visceral reactions in place of reasoned discussion. Yet behind each of these words and phrases is a reality?a reality of great dangers, hard facts, tough decisions, and important lessons. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to confront these realities with knowledge and facts rather than rhetoric and headlines."
?General Michael Hayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

"It was only because of the unheralded efforts of CIA and military interrogators that many more Americans did not suffer the same fate my brother did on 9/11. They kept us safe?and for that they have been vilified, slandered, and threatened with prosecution. In this terrific and important book, Marc Thiessen comes to the defense of these courageous men and women. He explains, in stunning detail, how they protected us from danger, and how the good work they did is now being undone. This book deserves to be read by every American?and by our president."
?Debra Burlingam, sister of Charles ?Chic Burlingame, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, hijacked and crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001

"The military men and women assigned to the task of detaining and questioning terrorists at Guantanamo Bay have served our country with honor and professionalism. They have been maligned and slandered as having ?undermined our country s highest ideals. In Courting Disaster, Marc Thiessen sets the record straight. He approaches the tough issues with energy and reason. This is a valuable book for anyone who wants to understand the truth?the critical truth that the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay defended our nation s ideals and principles, even as the terrorists who were kept from returning to the battlefield and reaching America s shores were intent on destroying them."
?Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense

Aus dem Klappentext

Waterboarding Al Qaeda Leaders Prevented Terrorist Attacks and Saved Thousands of Lives…

Now Barack Obama Wants to Prosecute The Men and Women Who Kept Us Safe

Marc Thiessen knows more than almost anyone outside the CIA about what went on at CIA “black sites” and at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As chief speechwriter for President Bush, he was given unprecedented access to some of the most sensitive intelligence our government possessed on al Qaeda terrorists. He has since spent countless hours interviewing the men and women involved in the interrogations at every level—from Vice President Dick Cheney to the interrogators themselves. What he reveals is a shocking, thoroughly documented account of just how close we came to suffering follow-on 9/11 attacks, how so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” (including waterboarding) were directly responsible for unearthing the actionable intelligence that foiled them, and the extraordinary measures the Bush administration took to stay well within the bounds of what was not only legally but morally right.

Courting Disaster shows how America’s dedicated intelligence professionals went head-to-head with the world’s most dangerous terrorists, and won—only to have Barack Obama expose America’s secrets to the enemy, endorse smears against our intelligence officers, and put them at risk of prosecution for defending our country. In Courting Disaster, Thiessen reveals:

Why “enhanced interrogation techniques” did not qualify as torture by any objective standard
Specific terrorist plots foiled by the CIA, based on information that came from “enhanced interrogation”—ranging from attacks against Los Angeles and London to the breaking up of an al Qaeda cell that was developing anthrax for terrorist attacks inside the United States
New evidence that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about and approved CIA waterboarding
The real stories of abuse at Guantanamo—not of the detainees by the guards, but of the guards by the detainees, and how released detainees have returned to the jihad
How the Obama administration is giving captured terrorists more legal rights than are granted to legitimate prisoners of war—and denying our intelligence officers tools that police officers use everyday to question common criminals
How information released by Barack Obama has aided our enemies and put America at greater risk of another terrorist attack

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Regnery Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1596986034
• ISBN 13: 9781596986039
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 376
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar