Clancy's specialty is the inner workings of the defense and intel agencies. It's scary what you can compile from open sources. My caution about his stuff is that the language can be a bit coarse and the stories are very violent.
Mom read exactly one of his books...in addition to what you said, she also said he has no clue how to write even remotely realistic wimmin.
But I should at least give him a try one of these days. Man, my "should read soon" list is getting long...
Heh. Have you read any of Vince Flynn's stuff? I just finished his most recent. His protaganist, Mitch Rapp, reminds me a lot of Jack Bauer, in fact, I think Vince Flynn had been a guest at the set of "24" at some point. Some of his books were published before "24" got started, though, and his protaganist tends to work outside the country more than inside, since he's CIA.