Download Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon
Your perception of this book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon will certainly lead you to get what you precisely need. As one of the motivating books, this book will offer the visibility of this leaded Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon to collect. Even it is juts soft documents; it can be your cumulative data in gadget and also various other gadget. The vital is that usage this soft data publication Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon to review as well as take the benefits. It is what we mean as publication Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon will boost your thoughts and mind. After that, reading book will also improve your life high quality better by taking excellent action in balanced.
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon
Download Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon
Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon. Someday, you will find a brand-new experience as well as expertise by investing even more cash. However when? Do you think that you have to obtain those all needs when having much cash? Why don't you try to obtain something easy at first? That's something that will lead you to know even more concerning the world, journey, some areas, history, entertainment, and also a lot more? It is your personal time to continue reading routine. Among the books you could appreciate now is Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon below.
Right here, we have numerous book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon and collections to review. We additionally serve variant kinds and also sort of the publications to browse. The enjoyable e-book, fiction, past history, novel, scientific research, as well as other types of e-books are available here. As this Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon, it comes to be one of the recommended e-book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon collections that we have. This is why you are in the appropriate site to see the fantastic e-books to possess.
It will not take even more time to purchase this Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon It will not take even more money to publish this book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon Nowadays, people have actually been so clever to utilize the innovation. Why don't you utilize your gizmo or various other gadget to conserve this downloaded and install soft file publication Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon Through this will allow you to consistently be gone along with by this book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon Naturally, it will be the very best buddy if you review this publication Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon till finished.
Be the first to purchase this e-book now and get all reasons you should read this Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon The e-book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon is not just for your obligations or necessity in your life. E-books will constantly be a good friend in every time you check out. Now, let the others recognize about this web page. You can take the benefits and also share it additionally for your good friends and people around you. By by doing this, you could truly obtain the significance of this e-book Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, By John Nixon beneficially. What do you assume concerning our suggestion here?
In December 2003, after one of the largest, most aggressive manhunts in history, US military forces captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Beset by body-double rumors and false alarms during a nine-month search, the Bush administration needed positive identification of the prisoner before it could make the announcement that would rocket around the world.
At the time, John Nixon was a senior CIA leadership analyst who had spent years studying the Iraqi dictator. Called upon to make the official ID, Nixon looked for telltale scars and tribal tattoos and asked Hussein a list of questions only he could answer. The man was indeed Saddam Hussein, but as Nixon learned in the ensuing weeks, both he and America had greatly misunderstood just who Saddam Hussein really was.
Debriefing the President presents an astounding, candid portrait of one of our era’s most notorious strongmen. Nixon, the first man to conduct a prolonged interrogation of Hussein after his capture, offers expert insight into the history and mind of America’s most enigmatic enemy. After years of parsing Hussein’s leadership from afar, Nixon faithfully recounts his debriefing sessions and subsequently strips away the mythology surrounding an equally brutal and complex man. His account is not an apology, but a sobering examination of how preconceived ideas led Washington policymakers—and the Bush White House—astray. Unflinching and unprecedented, Debriefing the President exposes a fundamental misreading of one of the modern world’s most central figures and presents a new narrative that boldly counters the received account.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
- Sales Rank: #1079353 in Books
- Published on: 2016-12-27
- Released on: 2016-12-27
- Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 5
- Dimensions: 5.90" h x 1.10" w x 5.10" l,
- Running time: 330 minutes
- Binding: Audio CD
Review
"A damning indictment of the perversion of a major intelligence service by little minds inside and above it." –The Times of London
“That a CIA officer should hold power to account in a memoir is unusual, and patriotic. John Nixon has done so with insight and style. Debriefing The President is a page turner of historical consequence — excellent news for the republic in treacherous times.” – Nick McDonell, author of Twelve and The End of Major Combat Operations
"Nixon captures the psychological give-and-take of these exchanges [with Saddam Hussein] with gripping readability...and he describes the resultant verbal sparring with a sharp ear for nuance." – Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor
"Mr. Nixon, the first C.I.A. officer to interrogate Hussein after his capture in December 2003, reveals gobsmacking facts about that deposed Iraqi leader that raise new questions about why the United States bothered to invade Iraq to oust him from power. These details will likely appall Americans who have watched their nation’s blood and treasure wasted in Iraq ever since…. More broadly, Mr. Nixon offers a stinging indictment of the C.I.A. and what he sees as the agency’s dysfunctional process for providing intelligence to the president and other policy makers…. Mr. Nixon’s book comes at an extraordinary moment, when President-elect Donald J. Trump is already at war with the C.I.A….“Debriefing the President” will add fuel to the fire of the Trump-led criticism. It will also send a chilling warning to anyone counting on the C.I.A. to stand up to Mr. Trump once he is in office.” – James Risen, The New York Times
“Gripping…Nixon’s book, Debriefing the President, gives more ammunition to the skeptics; indeed, some of its contents can only be described as sensational.” – John Cassidy, The New Yorker
"A fascinating glimpse of the "tough, shrewd, manipulative" leader and his views on the U.S. invasion, Iraqi history, and his own role in the Middle East...An intelligent and readable postscript to the Iraq War that will be valuable for future historians."
--Kirkus (starred review)
About the Author
John Nixon was a senior leadership analyst with the CIA from 1998 to 2011. He did several tours in Iraq and was recognized by a number of federal agencies for his contribution to the war effort. During his time with the CIA, Nixon regularly wrote for, and briefed, the most senior levels of the US government. He also taught leadership analysis to the new generation of analysts coming into the CIA at the Sherman Kent School, the Agency’s in-house analytic training center. Since leaving the Agency in 2011, Nixon has worked as an international risk consultant in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia. This is his first book.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
At the CIA, I lived and breathed Saddam
By Bassocantor
DEBRIEFING THE PRESIDENT is an informative look into the life of a senior CIA analyst, John Nixon, who happens to also be the one who debriefed Saddam Hussein. When he was first confronted with the dictator, Nixon was amazed. Nixon was introduced as "Mr. Steve."
Although he spoke cordially with Hussein, the author makes it clear that he wasn't fooled; he knew exactly what this man stood for: "He was a ruthless dictator who, at times, made decisions that plunged his region into chaos and bloodshed." And, "Saddam was tough, shrewd, and manipulative."
The author explains that for interrogating Hussein, he was given a $75 gift certificate to a local Italian restaurant!
Nixon believes, like many others, that the U.S. effort to capture the dictator was misguided, and came at too high a price. Looking back, it just seemed not worth it: "In hindsight, the thought of having Saddam Hussein in power seems almost comforting in comparison with the awful events and wasted effort of America’s brave young men and women in uniform, not to mention the $ 3 trillion and still counting we have spent to build a new Iraq."
Nixon's offers withering criticism of the Bush administration; they just didn't understand Iraq, and especially Saddam: "The United States had vastly misunderstood both him and his role as a determined foe of radical currents in the Islamic world, including Sunni extremism." Nixon sees Saddam's removal as a tragic mistake, with lots of unintended consequences: "Saddam’s removal created a power vacuum that turned religious differences in Iraq into a sectarian bloodbath."
DEBRIEFING THE PRESIDENT is a deadly serious book, but it does have a few light moments. Describing the CIA staff living in Iraq, Nixon recalls their poor conditions: "We lived in trailers, and often four or five of us were packed into each one." Longing for American food was common, and there was a single "Burger King" restaurant not too far away--they just had to make sure they weren't blown up on the way there: "Like other service personnel, CIA officers made special trips to the airport, braving the gauntlet of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for a Whopper and fries."
Mr. Nixon expresses frustration with the marginal competence of his superiors, as well as the inexperience of his fellow analysts. The agency is not what people might think: "The CIA, like most large bureaucracies, was plagued with competing fiefdoms."
After the Iraq invasion, tons of newbie analysts were brought in, and the CIA thought they could be brought up to speed quickly. Nixon says they were simply not up to the job: "Few of them had analytic skills, and most were content to cut and paste material from previously published intelligence reports. . . “The agency foolishly thought that a good analyst could be developed quickly: "The Agency still thought it could take anyone and make him or her a first-rate analyst within a few months. I can say from hard experience that this approach simply doesn’t work."
Nixon relates his frustration with the Bush administration and their pre-conceived ideas of the situation in Iraq. As a senior analyst, he was frustrated that they stuck to their options, "No matter what the intelligence showed."
The author also has harsh words for CIA management, complaining of the "CYA" culture and just telling higher-ups what they wanted to hear. "Expertise is not valued, indeed not trusted, because experts can be wrong."
Nixon had a handful of visits to the Oval Office, to brief the president and vice-president. I thought these accounts were perhaps the most fascinating part of the book. The author's final meeting with President Bush was tense. He was asked a lot of off-subject questions by the president, who was rude to the author when he didn't quickly respond.
In this last briefing, Nixon answered the questions as best as he could, but his opinions conflicted with senior officials. Word got around about Nixon's turbulent briefing, and others in the agency seemed to avoid him: "When I walked around headquarters during the next few weeks, it was if I were radioactive."
The author has critical words, of a different sort, for President Obama. The analysts at the CIA had high hopes for Obama, and thought he would be more interested in truly understanding foreign affairs, but they were disappointed: "The new president could not understand why the government spent so much on intelligence but, in his view, got so little in return."
All in all, I found DEBRIEFING THE PRESIDENT to be an interesting, informative book. The author seems to me to be a dedicated, intelligent man, who gave his job 100%, under some difficult circumstances. I thought the book was well written, and I found his narrative easy to follow. I appreciate the author's expertise on Iraq--and especially his "insider view" on the life of Saddam Hussein and his last days. I especially appreciated the author's arguments for the need to have highly experienced analysts in the field, as opposed to "yes men" who simply tell higher-ups what they want to hear. It will be interesting to hear the reaction from those who were the object of this book's criticism
Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher
.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Much more than questioning a despot
By Oso Sam
BOOK REPORT ON THE BOOK ENTITLED: DEBRIEFING THE PRESIDENT – The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein. - by: John Nixon
I highly recommend this book to persons who have an interest in our government, whether they are conservative or liberal. The stupidity of our relations with foreign governments, especially the complete ignorance of our leaders about and with middle east policies, Israel and the terrible mess in Iraq and Syria.
Other very good reviews have covered this book very well, so this will not just be a repeat what they had to say, but rather more about the background of the workings of our intelligence community.
This book is much more than the questioning of Saddam Hussein. In fact I found the rest of the book more edifying by covering the inside workings of our “so called” intelligence departments and their relationship with various Presidential administrations. I already knew that the top YES men in our intelligence services were only giving information that supported the opinion of the president, especially the Bush/Chaney administration. Now with this book we have information of just how far this has gone with all of the administrations.
As in most government positions the top men seem to spend more time watching their backs, and coddling to the President, than giving a true answer about dangers and our well being. I was tempted to give more exact examples, but then I decided that others have done a fine job covering this and if you are really interested in knowing what is going on, and what to look out for, in the coming administration, then you owe it to your self to read this book.
It is true that Saddam Hussein was a despot and most of what was said, is true about him. However we could have learned something from him, and about the Arab States, if we had spent more time listening, instead of running around looking for non existent WMD's and other excuses for being in a country where we did not belong. The Arab world is not at all the same as we in America seem to think, and we will never be able to know the truth of this without studying or living among them.
I fear that with the attitude of the incoming President we may be back in this, or worse, if we are not more careful in our intelligence and attitude. Question what you read or hear, study and speak out. Transparency in our government, many times is a myth.
This book, even if you feel it may be a bit of an axe grinding, has much truth in it, which becomes apparent in it's pages, especially the final chapters, and it is as even handed politically as I have seen in any exposure of our government. I feel that this book is a good place to get us started and asking questions.
52 of 59 people found the following review helpful.
I Am Sorry Saddam
By Ninos Youkhana
As an Iraqi citizen who lived about 18 years under Saddam's Regime, I must say to John Nixon: "Thank you very much for writing this book. This book is for the Iraqi people to know, and for the world to witness, and for those who care".
I agree with the John's finally analysis, the removal of Saddam was a mistake. I wrote a blog on that title: I am sorry Saddam…A nation longing for leadership or dictatorship? please google it, and read it. I explained how I changed my opinion on Saddam and more.
The book finally put an end and gave answers to many of the rumors I grow up hearing about it.
Seriously, thank you John!
See all 79 customer reviews...
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon PDF
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon EPub
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon Doc
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon iBooks
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon rtf
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon Mobipocket
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon Kindle
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon PDF
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon PDF
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon PDF
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, by John Nixon PDF
