Inside the CIA

Rating:
Summary: There are no secrets revealed. That's expected, though.
Review: The CIA is a secretive organization. So it comes as no surprise that a book that states that it reveals the top secrets of the CIA is merely a hodgepodge of technical mumbo jumbo relating to how the agency works. It is not very informative, but what can you really expect? No one is really going to get to the bottom of what the CIA knows presently and what they are telling the president. It is better that way. Policymakers are able to surprise our enemies. At the same time, because the agency is secretive, we are able to benefit from novels and movies that probably exaggerate the day to day life of a CIA spy. If you're really interested in knowing secrets, I'd suggest reading a crime novel or joining the CIA itself. But this book does not help.

Rating:
Summary: interesting and entertaining, starting to become dated
Review: This 1992 book by Kessler is quite similar to his more recent book on the FBI, but without the quantity or quality of interesting inside stories. Not surprisingly, despite having excellent access to the CIA, there are fewer details. Again, however, he comes across as remarkably fair-minded--quite critical of failings of the agency, and not afraid to point out flaws and foibles of its leadership--but also sympathetic, refuting some inaccurate charges that have been made. The book has a very amusing and horrible typo in the title of Chapter 24: it is given as "X-Rated Chowder" in the table of contents, at the beginning of the chapter, and at the top of every page in the chapter. In fact, it was supposed to be (as you learn when you read the chapter) "X-Rayed Chowder." A good introduction to the CIA, but it's now over a decade out-of-date.

Rating:
Summary: interesting and entertaining, starting to become dated
Review: This 1992 book by Kessler is quite similar to his more recent book on the FBI, but without the quantity or quality of interesting inside stories. Not surprisingly, despite having excellent access to the CIA, there are fewer details. Again, however, he comes across as remarkably fair-minded--quite critical of failings of the agency, and not afraid to point out flaws and foibles of its leadership--but also sympathetic, refuting some inaccurate charges that have been made. The book has a very amusing and horrible typo in the title of Chapter 24: it is given as "X-Rated Chowder" in the table of contents, at the beginning of the chapter, and at the top of every page in the chapter. In fact, it was supposed to be (as you learn when you read the chapter) "X-Rayed Chowder." A good introduction to the CIA, but it's now over a decade out-of-date.

Rating:
Summary: Quick overview, lacks substance and gets repetetive
Review: This book gives a good overview of the CIA structure, depicting each department individually. In doing so, the author jumps chronologically and repeats himself. This book had very few accounts of what CIA actually does, apart from a lot of references to the Inran-Contra affair (not exactly explained in the book). Apart from explaining how CIA is structured and giving a couple of semi-bios CIA directors this book leaves you wanting to read something else on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: momentum fizzles towards the end
Review: This book got off to a great start and was very intriguing, but the momentum fizzled towards the end. The last section about the director of the CIA is a boring summary of William Webster's accomplishments. One chapter lists a typical week of his schedule that literally reads like, "at 7am he did this and met with this person, at 8am he did that, at 9am he had to do this...blah blah blah." I think this book is average. I would recommend reading all the sections except the last about the DCI. It completely fails to "reveal the secrets of the world's most powerful spy agency." The other sections do have some small interesting parts, but this book is not as revealing as it claims to be.

Rating:
Summary: Good overview
Review: This book is an excellent overview of the C.I.A. It presents an excellent picture of exactly how the C.I.A. works and how the various departments work. However due to its length (it is somehwat short for such a broad agency) it is not able to go into great depth concerning the great and not so great history of the C.I.A. If you are interested in a book which traces the C.I.A. from its very beginnings i would recommend "The Secret History of the C.I.A. which gives much more detail about the history of the C.I.A.

Rating:
Summary: Very good overview of the agency
Review: This book offers a good overview of the agency, from top to bottom. I especially appreciate that it clears up a lot of misconceptions about the CIA's role and mission. Very good and well-written book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Factual
Review: This is a fantastic book that carefully steers away from the over-zealous and tired conspiracy theory that one might expect to read in any book about the CIA. For those interested in American political process, this book simply tells you how the CIA is structured and how it works to carry out its legal mission. In an unbiased way, it also highlights some of the successes and failures of the CIA since its inception.

Rating:
Summary: informative but a bit tedious
Review: This is a well-researched book on the CIA. However, a CIA officer told me that Kessler tends to take topics he is ignorant of and speculate about them yet writting as if it were objective fact. This was the case with his book Moscow Station. If you ever speak with anyone who spent time in the American Embassy (which I have), you'll likely hear the same thing. However, this book is interesting but it leaves you to wonder if what is written is really true. As I said I used to work in embassies so I know for a fact SOME of it is very true, but I can't speak for what I have not seen. All in all I recommend this book if your interested in the CIA but read other books by different authors so you can compare and contrast.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the curious
Review: This was an all around excellent book - informative, humourous and entertaining. It is well balanced between the CIA's successes, failures and excesses. I really enjoyed it and got the feeling that this book is a creditable account of the CIA's history. The author is a well respected jouranlist and had unprecidented access to former agents.