Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence

by James R. Clapper

Hardcover, 2018

Call number

BIO CLA

Collection

Publication

Viking (2018), 432 pages

Description

Biography & Autobiography. History. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:New York Times bestseller The former Director of National Intelligence's candid and compelling account of the intelligence community's successesâ??and failuresâ??in facing some of the greatest threats to America When he stepped down in January 2017 as the fourth United States director of national intelligence, James Clapper had been President Obama's senior intelligence adviser for six and a half years, longer than his three predecessors combined. He led the U.S. intelligence community through a period that included the raid on Osama bin Laden, the Benghazi attack, the leaks of Edward Snowden, and Russia's influence operation during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. In Facts and Fears, Clapper traces his career through the growing threat of cyberattacks, his relationships with presidents and Congress, and the truth about Russia's role in the presidential election. He describes, in the wake of Snowden and WikiLeaks, his efforts to make intelligence more transparent and to push back against the suspicion that Americans' private lives are subject to surveillance. Finally, it was living through Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and seeing how the foundations of American democracy wereâ??and continue to beâ??undermined by a foreign power that led him to break with his instincts honed through more than five decades in the intelligence profession to share his inside experience. Clapper considers such controversial questions as, Is intelligence ethical? Is it moral to intercept communications or to photograph closed societies from orbit? What are the limits of what we should be allowed to do? What protections should we give to the private citizens of the world, not to mention our fellow Americans? Are there times when intelligence officers can lose credibility as unbiased reporters of hard truths by inserting themselves into policy decisions? Facts and Fears offers a privileged look inside the U.S. intelligence community and, with the frankness and professionalism for which James Clapper is known, addresses some of the most difficult challenges in our natio… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Susan.Macura
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper takes us on a trip through his extensive career in government. He provides a thorough discussion on the state of intelligence gathering for the past 50 plus years with honest assessments as to what we do right, what major errors have been
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committed in the gathering and dissemination of intelligence information, as well as how those errors have led to worldwide problems. He takes pride in his history of "speaking truth to power" no matter who was in the position of power. This is an incredible and insightful look at the important role our intelligence agencies play in all of our lives written by an expert in the matter.
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LibraryThing member nmele
I finished this book the night before President Trump announced he was revoking former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance, an event which made Clapper's even more strikingly relevant than it already was in my opinion. The former Director of National Intelligence quite simply lays out
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the story of his career, as both a military and civilian official, in the intelligence community, along the explaining changes i the community and, not coincidentally, why it is critically important to support the intelligence professionals upon whom our security depends.

At times, the alphabet soup of past and present intelligence agencies and offices can seem arcane even to this former member of the national security community, but most of what Clapper has to say is quite clear and constitutes a strong defense of the work of the U.S. intelligence communities over the last 50 years. I understand why he has been attacked by the President and his supporters, but the evidence he lays out of official Russian malign attempts to tamper with the foundational structures of our democracy ought to get more coverage than the question of whether or not the Trump campaign cooperated with the Russians to get the current president elected, especially since Clapper points out that the Russian meddling maligned both presidential candidates in the last months or so before election day. Clapper came across to me as a dedicated professional who is appalled by the rancor, polarization and lack of trust in our society, much of which he lays at the feet of Vladimir Putin.
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LibraryThing member MontzaleeW
Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence by James R. Clapper is a book I had heard a lot about and wanted to read but really I was worried it was going to be dry and boring, boy was I wrong. He looks so calm and ... sorry, but drab, I know that exciting story is he going to tell me?
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Well, I need to eat that piece of humble pie now, even this man's childhood was exciting! His life would make a great movie! This book talks about life growing up and his life all the way to now, it was certainly not boring! His college life, service life, the many colorful people he met, and so much more. I got this book from the library but I wish I had the money to buy it, it had some good lines I would have liked to highlighted. Recommend to all! Especially now in this day and age!
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Pages

432

ISBN

0525558640 / 9780525558644
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