A Pretext for War: An Insider Threat and an OPSEC Failure
A Book Review by William M. Feidl, OCP
Protecting sources and methods is one of the key security objectives of the intelligence community. In his most current book, A Pretext For War, James Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets presents a cogent—if somewhat slanted—perspective of the Iraqi war. The Puzzle Palace revealed the inner workings of the NSA, reportedly the largest, most secretive, and best-financed intelligence organization in the world. Body of Secrets took readers inside what is routinely referred to as the ultra secret agency, charting its deeds and misdeeds from its founding in 1952 to the end of the twentieth century. In this new book, Bamford takes on the entire intelligence community and presents a compelling picture of an inept community effort, bolstered by misdirected political pressures to provide evidence of Iraqi WMD.
You can read any number of reviews of this book, evenly split on its merits. While I personally found the book entertaining and to some degree informative, the level of detail and insight it provided was disturbing. Of course this was no surprise. In his previous books, Bamford demonstrated an excellent capability to elicit sensitive information from “trusted” insiders.
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