BIBLIOMANIA

My book buying, which is now beyond all sensible bounds, has led me to pick up Admiral Stansfield Turner’s new Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors And Secret Intelligence and I find I like Admiral Turner far more as a popular historian and commentator on Intelligence than I liked him as DCI. While I am familiar with most of the stories Turner is relating, in every case he throws in some nuggets that I have never heard before; I guess being a former DCI opens a lot of doors when you are researching a book. Moreover his personal observations on the historical figures that Turner knew or worked alongside are illuminating in themselves.

On a related note, I direct your attention toward ” Improving CIA Analytic Performance: Analysts and the Policymaking Process” from the Sherman Kent Center For Intelligence Analysis. Short but worthwhile read.