Enemies: How America's Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets--and How We Let It Happen

by Bill Gertz

It’s the great untold story of the war on terror.

Taking advantage of gaping holes in America’s defenses, terrorist organizations and enemy nations like Communist China, North Korea, Russia, and Cuba—not to mention some so-called friends—are infiltrating the U.S. government to steal our most vital secrets and use them against us. And most astonishing of all, our leaders are letting it happen.

In the explosive new book Enemies , acclaimed investigative reporter Bill Gertz uncovers the truth about this grave threat to our national security and America’s harrowing failures to address the danger. Gertz’s unrivaled access to the U.S. intelligence and defense communities allows him to tell the whole shocking story, based on previously unpublished classified documents and dozens of exclusive interviews with senior government and intelligence officials. He takes us deep inside the dark world of intelligence and counterintelligence—a world filled with lies and betrayal, spies sleeping with enemy spies, and moles burrowing within the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, and even the White House.

Enemies stunningly

• The untold story of one of the most damaging enemy spy penetrations in U.S. history—and how the FBI bungled the investigation

• How Communist China’s intelligence and influence operations may have reached the highest levels of the U.S. government

• Why Russia has as many spies in America today as it did at the height of the Cold War

• How al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups use official identification, uniforms, and vehicles to infiltrate secure areas and carry out attacks

• How some thirty-five terrorist groups are targeting the United States through espionage

• A startling account of the many enemy spies the U.S. has let get away

• How a Cuban mole operated high up in the Pentagon for sixteen years

• The gross ineptness that led U.S. officials to hound an innocent man while the real mole operated right under their noses

• Why aggressive counterintelligence represents the only real defense against terrorists and enemy spies—and why the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy resists it

Delivering the kind of shocking new information that led Washington Monthly magazine to declare him “legendary among national security reporters,” Bill Gertz opens our eyes as never before to deadly threats and counterintelligence failures that place every American at risk.

America’s enemies, including terrorist organizations, are stealing our most vital secrets to use against us—and the U.S. government makes it shockingly easy for them to do so. Filled with headline-making revelations from acclaimed reporter Bill Gertz, Enemies reveals the frightening untold story of the War on Terror.



Also available as an eBook

Genres: History, Terrorism, Espionage, China, International Relations, Politics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly Recommended Read

Outstanding book on intelligence and intellectual property theft - mostly by China.

Really impressive writing from Bill Gertz.

Gertz is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors.

Definitely check this book out if you are interested in national security and foreign interference.

4.8/5

[LNZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the info is current as of 2005 so it is very dated. I also felt that the author was very biased and his research told only one side, but I still get it was a factual representation somehow and agreed with much of the conclusions in the book.

[Trebor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr.Gertz does not have much faith in either the CIA or the FBI.I must admit my trust was shaken after reading this book. Written in 2006, it is a bit old, but nevertheless it has pointed out some of the agencies flaws. Their job of protecting the U.S. political and military secrets has proven to be an embarrassment and failure. Portrayed as bumbling, self serving, closed minded and arrogant, they are or were everything but an intelligence organization. Not only secrets, lives, and vast amounts of money were lost but also respect and international prestige. We ended up funding the traitors who betrayed us through incentives we paid the KGB for bogus information. Really only the tip of the incidents.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting, scary, and angering all at the same time. Much of what Bill Gertz writes is true, or close to it. However, his paranoia about a Chinese Cold War is incredibly prevalent in this book. The section about Ana Montes is incredibly interesting. The rest is somewhat of a witch hunt. 3 stars nonetheless.

[Vincent · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bill Gertz has been writing spook stories for the Times since the paper's birth. He gets some flashy exclusives but the majority of his stories can be safely ignored.
Same with this book. It's too unfocused and alarming to do any actual good.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the stories of how they trapped some of the people who were spying on the US.