Inside the CIA: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Spy Agency

by Ronald Kessler

Revealing the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Agency

“This tour is never dull, especially since it features so much 007 gadgetry, from water-spraying silent drills to eavesdropping devices that work by zapping laster beams through windows.”
—The Los Angeles Times

Ronald Kessler's explosive bestseller, The FBI, brought down FBI Director William S. Sessions. Now, in this unparalleled work of investigative journalism, Kessler reveals the inner world of the CIA. Based on extensive research and hundreds of interviews, including two with active Directors of Central Intelligence, William H. Webster and Robert M. Gates, and with three former DCI's Inside the CIA is the first in-depth, unbiased account of the Agency's core operations, its abject failures, and its resounding successes Kessler reveals how:

•CIA analysts botched the job of foreseeing the Soviet economy's collapse
•the Agency spies on every country in the world except Great Britain, Australia, and Canada
•the CIA undertakes covert action to influence or overthrow foreign governments or political parties
•the Agency trains its officers to break the laws of other countries

Inside the CIA is an extraordinary guide ot the world's most successful house of spies.

“Mr. Kessler has written an overview that my spook friends say is an accurate account of the way the Agency does its business.”—Joseph C. Goulden, Washington Times

“…definitely one of the most important books on the U.S. intelligence community in some years.”—Booklist

Expanded and updated: Includes details of the CIA's colossal incompetence that allowed Aldrich Ames to spy for eight years

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Espionage, Politics, War, Audiobook, American History

358 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ronald Kessler is the New York Times bestselling author of 21 non-fiction books about the Trump White House, Secret Service, FBI, and CIA.

Kessler began his career as a journalist in 1964 on the Worcester Telegram, followed by three years as an investigative reporter and editorial writer with the Boston Herald. In 1968, he joined the Wall Street Journal as an investigative reporter in the New York bureau. He became an investigative reporter with the Washington Post in 1970 and continued in that position until 1985.

Kessler's new book is "The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game."

Kessler has won eighteen journalism awards, including two George Polk awards--for national reporting and for community service. Kessler has also won the American Political Science Association's Public Affairs Reporting Award, the Associated Press' Sevellon Brown Memorial Award, and Washingtonian magazine's Washingtonian of the Year award. Franklin Pierce University awarded him the Marlin Fitzwater Medallion for excellence as a prolific author, journalist, and communicator. He is listed in Who's Who in America.

"Ron Kessler...has enjoyed a reputation for solid reporting over the past four decades." Lloyd Grove, The Daily Beast. "Kessler's such a skilled storyteller, you almost forget this is dead-serious nonfiction..." Newsweek. "[Ronald Kessler] is the man who broke the story about the [Secret Service prostitution] episode in Cartagena...." New York Times. "His [Kessler's] book quotes both flattering and unflattering observations about presidents of both parties." FactCheck.org. "[Ronald Kessler] is one of the nation's top investigative journalists." Fox & Friends. "Ron Kessler appears to get everything first." Slate.

Ron Kessler lives with his wife Pamela Kessler in the Washington, D.C. area. Also an author and former Washington Post reporter, Pam Kessler wrote "Undercover Washington: Where Famous Spies Lived, Worked and Loved." His daughter Rachel Kessler, an independent public relations consultant, and son Greg Kessler, an artist, live in New York.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

From a purely informational and documentary perspective, this book is useful. However, it's just too kissy-assy from a journalist who clearly thinks the CIA is oh so like totally awesome, and it reads as a mash note by a 13-year-old girl to a teen idol which she sprays with her perfume and stamps with her favorite hearts, flowers and kitty stamps just to let the recipient know how much she looooooooooooves him. "I just can't wait until you and I can live together in a 50-room mansion on the beach in Bora-Bora, CIA, and then you can braid my hair."

I'm sorry, did I say that out loud?

I guess I meant to say, in a more professional, if slightly less vivid, manner, it shows a powerful pro-CIA bias throughout. It completely glosses over the CIA's secret wars and other misdeeds, and treats it like a complex bureaucracy of hard-working Americans who love their country and want to make the world a better place (cue patriotic music).

I'm sure the author thought he was being objective, but any Teabagger wishing to argue that "Liberal journalists are just as biased as conservatives" seems stupefyingly idiotic after reading this book. From my perspective it's utterly indefensible how namby-pamby Kessler is with the CIA's serious problems. I didn't expect something genuinely objective from a journalist who is not an apologist but an out-and-out lionizer of the Bush administratin, but there is no excuse for a nonfiction book

I say this with the strong, although probably suspect, statement that I am not entirely anti-CIA. Despite my strongly liberal politics, I believe central intelligence is necessary and important, and I'm even open to the argument that secret wars are defensible. Seriously, people -- I may be a left-wing fanatic, but I'm about as far from knee-jerk as you can be.

The problem is, Kessler doesn't bother to address the argument whether the CIA has acted correctly or defensibly, either in practical or legal terms, throughout its existence. As a result, whether you have liberal or conservative politics, the result is that this book is boring as shit. What's the point of lauding the CIA if you're not going to argue FOR its policies any more than against them? What's the point of reading a book if the most political cogent thing you find out is how often William Webster played tennis?

And in the history of the CIA, does the entire Kermit Roosevelt Iran episode -- in which a CIA-backed coup put the Shah of Iran in power -- merit only a sentence or two?

It's the most non-controversial CIA book I could have imagined; it acts like the political questions around the CIA's various operations are irrelevant.

Furthermore, Kessler doesn't mention Jimmy Carter once, and at the end he rabidly attacks Clinton, essentially blaming the aftermath of the Aldrich Aames affair on him.

So I guess there's your answer about why the CIA coup in Iran isn't worth even delivering information about, let alone arguing for or against.

Lots of interesting nuts-and-bolts information, but it's too ass-kissy and biased, biased, biased.

[Tim Gillen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some interesting information and analysis contained within, but to get to it, you must endure the book. The book appeared to be very well researched, but became tedious.

This has to be one of the most boring books. The writing style used is most similar to that utilized in writing medical journals, but not quite that exciting, and at times, redundant.

I listened to the audiobook version, read by Chris Lane. He in no way improved on the book itself, and in fact likely made it worse by his monotone reading.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a readable, if dry, account of how the CIA worked circa the late 1980s, which is far more exciting when read between the lines. Kessler is (was?) one of the preeminent intelligence journalists in Washington D.C., with a string of books about the FBI, spies in Moscow, and the Reagan White House. In 1990, Kessler approached the CIA public relations office about writing a book, and got a favorable response: hours of interviews with key officers, including then Director William H. Webster, large amounts of access to the buildings, and relative freedom to write whatever he wanted within the constraints of national security.

The picture he paints is one of dedicated professionals, hard at work within a sometimes opaque bureaucratic structure. Where the CIA has erred, it has done so because the world is inherently uncertain, or because their worst excesses were ordered by the White House. The idea of rogue agents and operations is part of the bad old days before the Church Committee. The new CIA, as reorganized by Director Webster, is an efficient team player, supplying fair intelligence to the President, in line with American values. Sure, the CIA operates everywhere except for the "Five Eyes" nations, but it's mostly precautionary, and a way to get sources in place to prevent surprise. The four Directorates are somewhat insular, but all good in their own way. Operations talks to foreigners and recruits them to be agents. Intelligence analyzes everything coming in, and synthesizes it down to intelligence assessments for the White House. Science & Technology runs spy satellites and a real life "Q-branch." Administration makes sure that everybody gets paid on time, and secures the agency overall. Webster gets a glowing report: former judge, FBI director, bringing the CIA into the modern era by reversing the politicized decisions made under Casey, the previous CIA director who was a Reagan campaigner staffer, and providing much needed support to the public relations office and the office of general counsel.

Reading between the lines, I got the sense that Kessler was brought on to help rehabilitate the CIA after the Iran-Contra affair, and justify its relevance after the fall of the Soviet Union. He wound up getting a little seduced by the agency, so the epilogue, which was written after the Aldrich Ames case broke, runs directly counter to the rest of the book. CIA compartmentalization is a joke. The security people are entirely incompetent. Deep philosophical cracks in the mission of the CIA need to be filled before it can be the intelligence agency America deserves.

My final verdict is that this book is a picture of a kind of business as usual that no longer exists. The post-9/11 CIA, an agency of drone strikes and extraordinary renditions, is very different from the gentlemen analysts and Operations great gamers Kessler writes about. There are a few illuminating anecdotes here, but far too little about the contemporary crisis of Iran-Contra. Kessler knows his stuff, but this book has not aged well.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazingly dry & technical for such a potentially interesting topic ... this has been on my bucket list for a while, so I forced myself to read it. By page 50, I was regretting that decision. However, around page 200, I got into Kessler’s writing style and I began to enjoy it.

I’ve read several of Kessler’s later books (expose on Palm Beach & inside the Secret Service) and found them much more interesting. They seemed to focus more on the human aspect of things, instead of a technical review. I think his writing style has developed and gotten more reader-friendly over the years.

This book is about 20 years old, but since I had no baseline knowledge of the CIA, everything was new to me. It is interesting to learn about the structure of such a secret organization. Kessler mentioned repeatedly that the CIA suffers from a poor public image, which surprised me. My image of the CIA is inspired by John LeCarre and spy vs spy movies. Maybe I’m just too young to remember the Bay of Pig, the Iran contra affair and other “CIA scandals”. That said, working at the CIA does not seem like a supportive environment -- too much competition and backstabbing within the organization.

After reading this book, I was left with the question of why the FBI was roundly criticized for failing to predict/prevent the 9-11 attacks. Shouldn’t that responsibility have fallen to the CIA? How did they escape responsibility? Is it just that the FBI is more visible/accessible to the public?

[Meter]

Point of the book:

CIA is not very old.
CIA recruits assets instead of doing dirty work themselves.
CIA's charter includes directive to break laws of other countries.
CIA does a lot of sweeping to detect bugs.
CIA used to pull shenanigans but not anymore, except the Iran Contra thing which considering this book was written around 1991 really wasn't that long ago was it.
CIA gets screwed over by bureaucratic appointments.
CIA also gets screwed over by closed-minded shut-away inbreeding type thought process that would probably be easily cured if open to bureaucratic oversight.
CIA has infighting within its departments. and divisions. and there's infighting with the FBI. and the other something-teen other data/spy/federal law-enforcement agencies. They also fight with other countries in their spare time.
CIA doesn't assassinate people anymore.
CIA is friendly but confused with a sordid history that their working very hard to polish.

again written almost 2 decades ago.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book BORING; it reads like a research paper. The writing is not done well - there are no connectors to the story. I was interested in learning about the CIA, but this reads like a choppy report. It was interesting to learn about the CIA, its history, and key players, but I had to force myself to keep reading because the style was so plain.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kessler is a rational rather than a fanatic advocate of good spying. He describes James Angleton's paranoid efforts well. He points out that CIA breaks laws and gets away with it. Wasting money is what they do while engaged in searching for spies. He points out the different styles of spies; some are like us while some are more like characters from a horror movie.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suppose it's good research material if you're turned on by dry descriptions of how things work at the CIA. (I read the book because I had planned to write fiction about a CIA character.) I agree with John really... the book is a bore. It's anything but juicy and mostly rather dull.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bones of this book are good, but it's in desperate need of an update.

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

A peek behind the curtain of the CIA
13 June 2014

For a bit I was wondering where I managed to get my hands on this book because I do remember a friend of mine, ages ago, telling me how he had read this book and that he had found it really interesting, and then proceeded to tell me everything that he had discovered, as if he had been given a peek behind the curtain of one of the world's most secretive spy agencies. Then I remembered that my friend's brother loved spy and detective fiction, but was giving away all of his books, and this happened to be among them, so I grabbed it. As I look over at the stack of books on my shelf I notice that there are some other (obscure) books that I had also grabbed that day which have since been relegated to the bottom of my pile, and have pretty much remained there (such as The Carlos Complex and By Way of Deception).
Anyway, unlike the other books, I did end up reading this book (and this commentary is a dead giveaway because I doubt I would be writing about it if I hadn't read it, though I have been tempted to write about books that I haven't read, such as books written by Ayn Rand, though I end up going and doing better things with my time, such as writing commentaries on books about the CIA), and I did actually find it quite interesting, though I would hardly call the CIA 'one of the world's most secret organisations'. I reason that I say that is because they let somebody write a book about what goes on in the CIA. In fact I have this theory that the only job that the CIA has is to take the fall for the stuff ups of all of the other intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and there are a plethora (though I won't go into details with regards to them) of them. To me, the role of the CIA is as the umbrella organisation, though we should note that the CIA isn't actually allowed to operate on American soil (or I should say it is not supposed to operate on American soil) – there are other agencies for that.
Mind you, this book was written sometime prior to the 'bad' intelligence that led to the kerfuffle that turned out to be the Iraq War. Kessler is writing at a time when the CIA had worked to regain credibility after a series of scandals that had rocked the agency, and the presidency, in the early 70s. He also goes into details about its origin (the organisation was only formed after World War II) as well as the way that it is structured. It is interesting to note that the term 'agent' actually refers to a third party contractor – namely somebody who is paid by the CIA to obtain information, but doesn't actually work for them. Generally they are foreign nationals. The actual spies are referred to as operatives.
In the end, for all that this book is worth, it is incredibly dated, due to the numerous scandals that have been rocking the agency over the last fifteen years, beginning with the faulty intelligence that was used to justify a war against Iraq (and the allegations that they were forced to manufacture this intelligence), the Valarie Plame affair (though that had more to do with the administration as opposed to the agency), and of course the revelations that the agencies have been gathering information on us. It is still an interesting read, though I would not consider that we are being given any special information, namely because if it has made it into this book, then it has been declassified. If you want classified information, there are other places you can go.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this 1992 release in dead tree form years ago and still find it interesting and surprisingly forthcoming: CIA printing presses forging passports and drinking and orgy excesses of internal security staff. (Domestic IDs can be had from patriotically motivated state officials but the state department generally is cool to the idea of issue fake passports. The CIA prints those of foreign countries.)

A lot of this book reflects on William Webster, the attorney who was director of the FB) from 1978 to 1987 and director of CIA from 1987 to 1991. He is the only person to have held both positions. His legalistic view and coming from the generally seen as an opposing team FBI made for an interesting dynamic.

Post-Bay of Pigs, the book reflects on the legacy of the Church committee that in 1975 investigated abuses by the CIA. The most shocking revelations of the committee include Operation MKULTRA, which involved the drugging and torture of unwitting US citizens as part of human experimentation on mind control and Family Jewels, a CIA program to covertly assassinate foreign leaders.

Angleton had precede this investigation as chief of counterintelligence for the CIA from 1954 to 1975. According to Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, Angleton was "recognized as the dominant counterintelligence figure in the non-communist world". It also seems he was ineffectual as he was lauded.

James Woolsey, who had a dim view of lie detectors, ended up disciplining five active and six retired senior agency officers for permitting confessed spy Aldrich H. Ames who failed many lie detector session. Apparently, counterintelligence was a dumping ground for the poorly skilled and generally feeling that if failures by this backwater ended up revealing defectors it was no big loss - they are troublesome.

Actual Version I read: Unabridged Audiobook Narrated by: Chris Lane.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The CIA is a secretive organization. So it comes as no surprise that a book that states that it reveals the top secrets of the CIA is merely a hodgepodge of technical mumbo jumbo relating to how the agency works. It is not very informative, but what can you really expect? No one is really going to get to the bottom of what the CIA knows presently and what they are telling the president. It is better that way. Policymakers are able to surprise our enemies. At the same time, because the agency is secretive, we are able to benefit from novels and movies that probably exaggerate the day to day life of a CIA spy. If you're really interested in knowing secrets, I'd suggest reading a crime novel or joining the CIA itself. But this book does not help.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a little dated at this point, but it remais the best researched and most even handed representation of the CIA, its mission, bureaucracy, culture, triumphs and failures that is available. Mr. Kessler has written excellent primers on both the CIA and FBI that avoid conspiracy theories while aiming criticism where criticism is due. For this reason, he was granted unprecedented access to the CIA and its people to conduct research for this book. His previous book on the FBI actually contributed to the dismissal of one of the FBI's Directors for abusing his official position, so it is difficult to accuse him of holding punches or propagandizing.

[Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this book on Audible and the narrator was horrible, I can't see how this guy ever got the job as a narrator. As for the book itself I was not all that impressed. The author focused on some very different aspects of the CIA. To give an example he focused almost the same amount of time on the Directorate of Operations as he did the special assistants to the DCI. He also seemed to focus more on the shortcomings of the agency than the benefits of it.

[Clark Goble · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although I love books about spying, espionage, and the CIA, this one was too bland for my tastes. Ronald Kessler, a journalist who was granted extraordinary access to the inter-workings of the CIA writes like an outsider. He has no personal stories or anecdotes. As a result, this book reads like a distant documentary. While it is chock-full of information, I found myself dreading reading it more and more with each page.

I gave up on it about 100 pages in.

[Spencer Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative and mostly even-handed look at what the CIA is, does, as well as it's strengths, weaknesses, and lots of history. It may have glossed over the Chile situation, but it doesn't mince words about Cuba. But there's plenty of books you can find about the bad stuff. If you want to understand the nuts and bolts, you really would be hard pressed to do better.

[Cordell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting reading. Everyone in the english speaking world knows of the CIA, this book lets you understand it and understand much more about its effect and the impact of politics and the CIA on the world

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book covering the disaster that the CIA has been for the most part. I had read "Legacy of Ashes" which is much better so I wasn't able to get through all of this work. It was just going over the same material that was handled better in Legacy of Ashes.

[Tyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very out dated information while some of it is still relevant there are many more books out there that are much more current that deal with DHS and other intelligence agencies. Only reason for the low score is the fact that it is outdated.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

this really bummed me out. i was hoping for a juicy little glimpse into the cia. all i got was a book that read like a flier to entice potential employees to sign up. shitty.

[Rick]

4 stars

[Will Brandsmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read about what the CIA does. Not what I really expected.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

(reviewed in 2012)

Probably enjoyed it.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't let the exciting title fool you. This book is outdated and boring.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is extremely dated by this point (2015) and so it's difficult to find relevancy or entertainment in it. There could be some potential value for history students perhaps.

[Zzzz Zzzz]

f

[Donna B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, didn't finish

[John Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the insight into the CIA but it was hard to get into the book and for the topic it had so much more potential.

[Stefan Toma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fascinated me with its wealth of in-house and organizational details, from the internal structure and chain of command to the way the agency manages its daily operations. It also provides a fairly complete historical overview, which I greatly appreciated.

What left me less satisfied, however, was the fact that the manuscript had to pass through CIA approval before publication. Because of that, many of the darker sides of the organization—unofficial failures, instances of corruption, and the more controversial covert operations—are either absent or only hinted at. Instead, the focus is largely on officially acknowledged setbacks, which themselves took decades to be declassified.

Still, for anyone interested in how the CIA presents itself and how it functions on paper, this is an informative and valuable read, even if it leaves out some of the shadows behind the curtain.

[Madras Mama · Rating 2 out of 5]

This literary work served as a means to convey the stories that were already told by the CIA/ media. It provides a detailed account of various CIA scandals, such as the numerous assassination attempts on Fidel Castro, including the notorious attempt to make his beard fall out, which have already been widely reported. The book's editorial quality was notably poor, resulting in repetitive retellings of certain events. Additionally, many of the depicted incidents are portrayed with a tepid stance, often appearing to justify the actions of the CIA. Consequently, the overall reading experience was profoundly underwhelming and lacked merit for investing time and attention.