The Human Factor by Ishmael Jones

[Joseph S.]

I'm about to finish the Human Factor. I'd say it was a pretty good read. The writing style was quirky and occasionally annoying. Some of the anecdotes were meaningless and some were based on hearsay which made them seem like fillers.

That said, what the hell is going on in the bureaucracy? Jeez. My youth sometimes equates to ignorance but I cannot even imagine having to deal with the nonsense that is described in the book. "Killing Time Kills Marines!" Apparently many of the bureaucrats don't understand what government service is all about. When I think about working for the Man I don't imagine sneaking out of work early, team building exercises, gossip, et cetera. Go work for an insurance company or the local auditor if you want to slack of and do nothing for the policy makers and the policy enforcers.

The information about intelligence gathering was extremely intriguing and educational. The last book I read about the CIA was the Dick Kessler book from the early 90's. That book, from my recollection, was more about the history and structure. This one was about the intelligence gathering which was a great relief.

[bourbon]

The information about intelligence gathering was extremely intriguing and educational. The last book I read about the CIA was the Dick Kessler book from the early 90's. That book, from my recollection, was more about the history and structure. This one was about the intelligence gathering which was a great relief.

Ronald Kessler? He's written a few books about CIA. Last I read of his was The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror (2003), and found it lackluster. He went overboard in his flattering treatment of Tenet and Krongard.

There have been a handful of other books by former operations officers since 9/11. Bernsten and Schroen's are very good, but exclusively about Afghanistan. The Moran and Waters books are terrible - both of them had little experience to write about anyway, and Mahle's Denial and Deception is fair. IMO Bob Baer's See No Evil is excellent, and though less entertaining than Baer, A Spy's Journey by Floyd Paseman is very good.

That's just stuff that came out in the last eight years. Obviously a large body of work about intelligence gathering stands before it, to help navigate it, The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments is useful.

[Joseph S.]

Yeah, it was Ron Kessler. It was the only interesting thing I could find at my town's dinky public library and it was from the 90's. Thanks for the info in your post, I'm definitely going to be using the link.