I admit I am curious and would like to read the book.
A goobermint-incompetents-circle-the-wagons BUMP!
"See! Tora Bora! I told you people back in 2004...."
Can Berntsen even prove that bin Laden is alive? If not, his book is useless.
There are other people who are still working and who's lives may be in danger given certain information.
Here we go again... VIPS?
Imagine that, he got frustrated with the government and retired early. I've got 5 years to go and going crazier every day.
Document: Bin Laden Evaded U.S. Forces
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1368407/posts
Some related info...
That's along the same lines as what they said about Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Greg Thielman, Mike Scheur, even Wesley Clark - and so on...
/OFF.....James 'Jesus' Angleton's rolling over again, again, and again?
/sarcasm
Too many "Former CIA Agent" books out there already. No one can get half the truth out of any of these books because they're so jazzed up with "literary flair" as Wilson likes to put it.
Does Gary have a blonde wife who might have been an "ambassador" at some point in the past?
History does have a way of repeating itself, eh?
It seems that Porter Goss was assigned the thankless task of trying to turn a writer's guild into an intelligence operation. If George Tenet isn't collecting (literary) agent's fees, he's getting screwed.
Personally, I doubt that Osama was ever at Tora Bora during the American invasion.
Seems to me that Berntsen is on the up-and-up. He doesn't appear to be a VIPS fright-wig.
It sounded just like all the basic mistakes that led to the intelligence failures on Iraq WMD. Take a morsel of information, make an assumption about it, and then adopt it as gospel.
A close reading of the article suggests he simply "commanded" the "CIA response team" at Tora Bora, apparently five people who were on a mission in Afghanistan in addition to the Army and Marines. I'd expect some covert operators in there, all things considered, although I wouldn't expect the "leader" to being saying anything about it at this point...
It might be considered a point in his favor if he ruffled some higher-up feathers though...those are the "civilian political appointees" aren't they?! And even if the "big-wigs" have to be confirmed by the Senate, how much does anyone really know about some of these "career" types whose ideology was set long ago?
Good. During wartime, the CIA should severely limit what kind of information gets in the public domain. Whether through a book or an op/ed in the NY Times.
>>Berntsen, the recipient of two of the CIA's three highest medals, one for preventing Islamic extremists from assassinating the Indian prime minister in 1996.
Wow. Who was that. Where. There's a story.
Too bad the USG is censoring this book. The above anecdote is exactly what the world needs; success stories in the GSAVE.
Ditto for the FBI agent, Edwards, whose book is also on the Index.
This book would help fill in the blanks about the whole ToraBora Campaign; another account, Christopher Smucker's "Al Qaeda's Great Escape", is a decent accout, albeit from a peripheral location, outside looking in, with Afghanis with their intrigues and insights, and it - does a good job of pointing out some of the perplexities and contradicitions of ToraBora.
Using locals instead of a US force, relying on airpower, policy based on info that didn't corroborate with on the ground facts, Osama's escape (or death?), the role of Pakistan - (there's a whole book there).
Now that the War has become a struggle, why is the USG so intent on keeping this guy's account quiet.
You mean all those MOABs and Daisy Cutters were for naught? Damn! They sure were cool.