Rating: 
Summary: The Truth, As Usual, Has Everybody Running
Review: This is a very objective, well-balanced, researched book, that can help us not repeat the pre-9/11 intelligence failures in the future. Why did our most prominent leaders and others, insultingly question the author's patriotism for coming out with this book? Answer: embarrassment and an attempt to deflect the publics' attention away from these failures. As for the intelligence community, bureaucrats are constantly trying to take credit for successes and pass blame to others for failures. Since every agency, and department within every agency, has failed to some degree in this matter, they are all running for cover. Egos and careers come first. What is the most common "Washington way" to do it? Attack the messenger.Not necessarily pointing the figure, but noting that human nature, organizational behavior, agency turf-disputes, overlapping roles, and a lack of communication within and between governmental agencies, were all factors that led to this surprise that shouldn't have been. These factors still exist today. The politically correct CIA director George Tenet, is still on the job. He should have been canned on September 12. This is a very well researched exploration into the many events that happened before, during, and after this tragic event. It's about the facts. It can only help.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, Informative & Important
Review: This is an important book about some major problems with our nation's intelligence community and intelligence infrastructure. Author Bill Gertz takes no prisoners and certainly points fingers in this book. He is abundantly clear in his assertions that intelligence failures failed to prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that had our intelligence folks been doing their job that those horrendous attacks would have been prevented.
One chapter is devoted to Osama Bin Laden and what U.S. intelligence forces knew about him and what they did and what they didn't do about him before 9/11. Other chapters deal with the FBI, the CIA and the DIA, respectively. Gertz also delves briefly into the history behind the problems with our intelligence agencies. He levels a great deal of criticism at the Church and Pike Committees, which ravaged our nation's intelligence in the 1970's. In addition, Gertz lays much blame at the foot of the Clinton Administration and looks more favorably upon the current Bush Administration. Nonetheless, he still criticizes many Republicans for failing to provide proper performance-based oversight over the intelligence agencies, since he concludes they felt it their duty to protect those agencies from further attacks.
Gertz's charges that the CIA was overcautious in the years leading up to 9/11 and was averse to doing counterintelligence, that the FBI had all but ceased its counterintelligence activities, that worries about lawyers had come to dominate national security, that our intelligence agencies were under-funded, that agencies did a poor job communicating with one another. He also claims that the bureaucracies in these agencies were too frequently concerned with political correctness, protecting their image in the media, and guarding their turf.
Interestingly, in the prologue of the paperback edition, Gertz states that both the Joint Select Committee and the 9/11 Commission were not given adequate time to investigate and prepare their reports. The 9/11 Commission Report had not yet been issued when the paperback edition of this book was published, so he does not provide any analysis or critique of the Report. (Interestingly, Gertz puts much stock in Czech accounts that 9/11 terrorist Muhammad Atta met with Iraqi officials in Prague, whereas the 9/11 Commission does not consider such accounts particularly reliable.)
Granted, this reviewer is not an expert on national security, and does not have the knowledge to provide in-depth critiques of all the author's assertions and conclusions. But this book does contain some very interesting and extremely startling information about our nation's intelligence apparatus. And according to Gertz, if we are going to truly be protected, some serious changes must take place.
At the time of this review, Breakdown's paperback edition is still more than a year old. Thus, it is not the most current publication. But if you are an American citizen who is concerned about our national security and have invested the time in reading the Joint Select Committee's Report and/or the 9/11 Report, then this is certainly one you will want to read.
Rating: 
Summary: if the only paper you read is the Washington Times . . .
Review: This is not a very good book. It has some interesting details, almost all from interviews, that some people might find worthwhile. But what Gertz is really trying to do is to serve up red meat for Clinton-haters, and he doesn't even deliver on this. If the only paper you read is the Washington Times and the only radio you listen to is Rush Limbaugh, then you'll find a welcome home in Gertz's angry book; but if you're seriously looking for answers to US intelligence failures, Gertz's relentless attacks on Frank Church, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, and John Deutsch will quickly become just plain contentious and unsatisfying, and you'll discover that Gertz has little else to offer but the kind of ideological firebombs you can find everyday on Rush Limbaugh or Fox News. Gertz's main argument is that US intelligence agencies should have anticipated 9/11, but they didn't because they are cowering bureaucracies interested only in self-preservation, political correctness, and kowtowing to the 'Clinton Agenda'. While self-preservation is of course a valid (and timeless) accusation to lay on these agencies, Gertz relies too much on the latter two issues--PC & Clinton--to make his arguments, and there's just not nearly enough evidence to support this. A partisan-fueled argument could just as easily be laid upon the Bush administration, which hardly paid attention to terrorism until 9/11, as it was too busy worrying about missile defense systems and isolating China. For example, Gertz angrily points to Clinton & Deutsch-led affirmative action in intelligence agencies as a cause of its 'Breakdown', but offers no proof that the incompetence of people so appointed ever played any kind of role in intelligence failures. Gertz's recommendations for reforming US intelligence agencies are fairly sensible, but also entirely commonplace. You certainly don't need to spend [money] to find out what this book has to offer. Unsurprisingly, Gertz doesn't address the damage that intelligence leaks published in his own Washington Times has done to the 'Breakdown' of US intelligence---Gertz's colleague Martin Sieff published an article on 21 August 1998 that tipped off bin Laden to US surveillance of his satellite telephone. Immediately after the article's publication, bin Laden stopped using this phone, and this has effectively removed him from intelligence observation ever since.
Rating:
Summary: Insight into the Damage during the Clinton Administration
Review: Well written though a bit tough to follow at times as he uses many sources. But the information provided gives a detailed blueprint into the damage Clinton and his administration did by misplaced politically moviated people into the roles which true intelligence experts are needed. The information only once again raises the question, How could this president have done so little to protect our nation and inflicted so much damage. A must read for both sides of the political spectrum. Politics should not matter when we are talking about national security.
Rating:
Summary: Bin Laden and Saddam Fooled Loverboy Clinton & Queen Hillary
Review: While Bill Clinton was busy turning the oval office into a sewer and Hillary was busy preparing to be the next Evita Peron, the radical Islamic terrorists were busy waging war on the U.S.
I don't think "the unusally good liar" (quote attributed to Bob Kerrey) met with the CIA director more than two times.
Clinton pin-prick bombed Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, but these were totally useless dog and pony shows.
The Clintons are of the McGovernite generation that held the Church committee hearings that weakened our spies and made sure weak intelligence chiefs were in charge.
Too many desk jockeys and not enough trained, professional killers who knew how to infiltrate terror networks and kill them.
True, it's easy to say all this now. The elite media, however, hates the pentagon and reports their leftist pre-conceived notions rather than the perspective of men working to defend the nation.
Gertz does not try to sandbag our defenders of freedom and therefore gets better sourcing.
We need the mentality of Bill Donovan and Bill Casey.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Wow! A short polemic, but it's chock full of information and observations I had not read before. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Read at your own risk.
Review: You have to read Breakdown by Bill Gertz because when you see his documented facts of all the dot's our intelligence failed to connect, when you see how politically correct bureaucracy tied the hands of hard working agents and when you see how two of our presidential administration's (Carter and Clinton), as well as some key congressmen and senators, handcuffed and weakened our intelligence apparatus' your blood pressure may go way the heck up. This book is a must read for all of us, so we can understand what went wrong. It is also important so that we can fix the problems. We all need to get educated after 9-11 and this book Breakdown is a good start.
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