READ THIS: HARD MEASURES HOW AGGRESSIVE CIA ACTIONS AFTER 9/11 SAVED AMERICAN LIVES By Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. with Bill Harlow
We are honored to celebrate Memorial Weekend with a book by such an admirable American, Jose Rodriguez. Every time we read a book like this about people that are in service to our great country, we feel just a little bit prouder to be an American, knowing how smart and dedicated these people are that do not seek out recognition and even surprisingly face adversity in their line of work from sources aside from the obvious enemy. Henry Crumpton's book was in line with this as well, also recently reviewed. Once we opened Jose's book we were pleased to see a portion of the proceeds are being donated to the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation, which set a nice tone. We also love the pictures in the center, especially of Jose riding his milkman's horse.
For thirty-one years Jose Rodriguez served us as an undercover officer in the CIA, and his experiences will enlighten you. The reality of being in the CIA is quite different from what we believe the average person would think-it is much harder on many levels than we might have expected. In the world that we live in today, the fields of terrorism and counterterrorism are of utmost importance to ensure the safety and security of our great nation, and you know it doesn't take a book about the CIA for us to say that intelligence is valued across the board here at Whom You Know, definitely over style, though we love that too, and probably above all else. If you're not safe, how can you enjoy any other aspect of your life?!
Alliances with Britain, airport screenings, and criticism by media sources that would have never been us are all part of what your eyes will be opened to in this work. And why did Jose write this? "The United States has chosen to unilaterally disarm itself in the war on terror; in writing this book, there is no more urgent message I want to convey." (p. 12) We agree that drones alone do not do the job! (page 255-56)
Critical thinking and direct communication with people is the most effective way to extract and deduce to acquire essential information, and of course you know that without reading this book, but as an American today, you need to know how politics influence decisions in regards to the CIA. And, when someone is a specialist in a field for decades don't you think politicians on both sides of the political spectrum ought to listen to them, especially when they have zero experience in intelligence? "The truth is that one of the best ways to disrupt terrorists is to know something about the group's organizational plumbing so that you can identify the critical nodes that, if attacked, will derail planning and plot preparations." (p. 58-59) You'll find the interrogation techniques fascinating and we found them to make a lot of sense as well. They prevented many disasters and hopefully continue to do so...we were not pleased to hear about planned attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf in 2002 particularly since Peachy used to live there.
"If Saddam could have been removed with a single bullet, might that not have been preferable to a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, cost thousands of American lives, created tens of thousands of amputees, and saddled U.S. taxpayers with estimated direct costs of nearly $1 trillion?" (p. 121) See what we mean about him making sense?! Being in the CIA is much more than what is portrayed in the Jason Bourne movies and reading this book will make you a much more educated citizen, and will enable you with your vote to make the best decisions for your own safety and the collective safety of our country.
Jose says quite a lot in these 269 pages that you'll want to read, and one of the most striking sentiments we found was on page 249: "I cannot tell you how disgusted my former colleagues and I felt to hear ourselves labeled 'torturers' by the president of the United States. To hear that we had acted contrary to American ideals was infuriating. The words of the president and of members of his staff have consequences. Members of the CIA and officials from the previous administration, all the way up to the former president, are threatened with arrest in some foreign locales as war criminals." To us, a lot of what they do seems to be thankless tasks but we are so grateful that they do it, and care about doing it well.
We highly recommend Hard Measures and feel you all should educate yourself about what is going on in the world around you; Jose Rodriguez is certainly someone who knows what he is talking about and it would be harder to get a much more inside story than this. If today was September 12, 2001 everyone would be glued to this book. What America is up against in terms of terrorism has not changed, particularly for those of us that live in targeted cities. If you see something, say something, etc, etc, etc and to really know what is going on, you must read this book. Don't be an uneducated armchair quarterback.
***
In his explosive new book, HARD MEASURES: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives (Threshold Editions; April 30, 2012; Hardcover; $27.00), former Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, Jose A Rodriguez, Jr., discusses his 31-year career with the Agency and the role he played as head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center which captured terrorists and collected vital intelligence from them. For the first time, readers can learn how the highly controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” were developed and how they were used.
Rodriguez describes in unprecedented detail undercover operations and tactics employed during the George W. Bush presidency – which were approved by the highest levels of the U.S. government, certified as legal by the Department of Justice, and supported by bipartisan leadership of congressional intelligence oversight committees.
While the American public is aware of the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” few know that Rodriguez was the man who, in the wake of September 11, led all U.S. counterterrorism operations and oversaw the use of those procedures – procedures that obtained vital and timely intelligence and helped safeguard the nation from future attacks. As Rodriguez writes in HARD MEASURES, “The result [of developing this interrogation program] was, beyond a doubt, the most effective and carefully managed program I was involved with in my thirty-one years at the CIA. But I also say that without a doubt it remains the most maligned, misunderstood, and mischaracterized mission in the Agency’s mystery-clouded history.”
As the shock of 9/11 faded, the support that the intelligence community enjoyed and deserved gave way to shortsighted and potentially dangerous political correctness. One by one, the tools needed to successfully fight terrorism were banished, and the men and women who volunteered to carry out our nation’s orders in combating al-Qa’ida found themselves second-guessed, hamstrung, and investigated – including Rodriguez himself. In effect, the United States has chosen to willfully and unilaterally disarm itself in the war on terror.
In HARD MEASURES, Rodriguez convincingly argues for the techniques used, and uncompromisingly details when these techniques were necessary, why they worked, and how.
Specific topics for discussion include:
· The establishment of secret CIA prisons known as “black sites”
· Exploding myths about “enhanced interrogation.” How rarely it was used and how productive it was. (Example: conventional wisdom that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times is wrong. The true number is five)
· With the one-year anniversary of Usama bin Ladin’s death on May 1st, how intelligence gained from terrorists who had been subjected to "enhanced interrogation" was pivotal in leading to bin Ladin
· 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is scheduled to be arraigned at Guantanamo Bay on May 5th. Rodriguez reveals how he was captured, what crucial intelligence was gathered from him, and what "KSM" was like in captivity
· How the CIA's authorities and resources grew exponentially and were adapted in the immediate aftermath of 9/11
· Rodriguez’s controversial decision to order interrogation videotapes destroyed in 2005 and the three-year investigation which followed
· The reality of living under cover for over thirty years
About the Author:
Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Caribbean and South America. He received in undergraduate and law school degrees from the University of Florida before being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and serving his country for thirty-one years.
About the Book:
HARD MEASURES
How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives
By Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. with Bill Harlow
Pub date: April 30, 2012
ISBN: 9781451663471
Hardcover / Price: $27.00 / Threshold Editions
Threshold Editions is an imprint dedicated to publishing works that impact the great political, policy, and philosophical debates of our time by providing a forum for the thinkers and doers across the ever expanding contemporary conservative spectrum. Threshold Editions is the proud publisher of many bestselling authors, including Glenn Beck, John Bolton, Herman Cain, Dick Cheney, Jerome Corsi, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Jason Mattera, and Karl Rove.
Simon & Schuster, a part of the CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com
