This is a review of the seller, not the book. I can't review the book because it never arrived. After waiting a month for it to arrive, I wrote to the seller and requested a cancellation and refund. I have not heard from them one way or the other. The email signature was "teetra"

This was an eye opening experience. We need to be on alert. It looks like our current administration is not.

I want to make this recommendation simple: Read this book and when you are finished, go back and read it again. It is a pure slap in the face as to the realities we truly face in the world.

Courting Disaster provides an accurate insider's historical view to what happened, however, the majority of the content is approached as a clarification of what truly happened complete with first hand verifications and it debunks what others had the audacity to incorrectly guess or insinuate, then provide opinion as proof.

Marc Thiessen will force some of you to revisit the revulsion of the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, a field of heroes in rural Pennsylvania, the USS Cole, various embassies and consulates around the world through the eyes of the main culprits: those that gave the orders or wrote the plan to kill innocent people, friends and loved ones. He shows how retrieving the future plans from different sources debunks the myth that interrogation by trained professionals will not prevent future tragedies. Sadly, he also shows the current restraints thrust upon those same field operatives lessens our abilities to react effectively or in time to prevent future murderous acts.

Unique to this book is that Thiessen can make you feel the frustration of an administration that must walk the tightrope of keeping our country safe while not revealing how we are doing it because it endangers field personnel. These public servants need anonymity to prevent inevitable events, which most of us need consistent reminding that these events do not happen because our operatives keep them from happening. We ask them to protect us, as long as we include daunting restraints that are unimaginable in a land of common sense. Thiessen makes the reader keenly aware of the real world of which the CIA and the administration must operate.

The only solace is that Thiessen is able to provide irrefutable evidence that shows they had already prevented it from happening. Thiessen ably sets the record straight. There are countless discussions and quotes from outsiders who publicly second guess what is being done. These are documented from articles and broadcasts that reiterate an element of what was missing during all of the events: the lack of true journalism that used to doggedly search for the truth instead of trying to beat a deadline.

Thiessen returns some well-founded respect and dignity to those nameless heroes who must continue to keep the wolves at bay. I would only hope that it also returns some common sense to those who those seek to restrict the ability of our operatives to fight this war.

Read this book and see what truly goes on behind the scenes of the real world of keeping us alive.

I submit this book as evidence what too often happens when someone thinks they know more than they do. This guy was and is the perfect foil for conniving liars like Dick Cheney. Kissinger was infamous for always demanding the best, unlike Cheney who became infamous looking for righteous patsies to take the fall, like Rumsfeld and George Tenet. Theissman has swallowed the Cheney hook so deep I don't think he'll ever experience the eipiphany regarding his own stupidity - hook, line, and sinker.

It has been said so many times before that it's become a cliché: the events of September 11 2001 changed everything. What is usually meant by "everything" refers to the way the US and its allies treat terrorists and conduct operations to thwart and punish those who aim to hurt and civilian targets around the World. In the eyes of many, including the Bush administration, the previous paradigm of conducting these operations using the essentially law enforcement tools was completely discredited. A different approach was needed, and the overall moniker that this new approach acquired was "The War on Terror." This name has since acquired a whole host of negative connotations, based on the perception of misuse of power on the part of US government as it pursued its own interests around the globe. However, the main point of calling this a war was to enable all the relevant agencies to use means and methods that are more appropriate for the conduct of war, rather than police actions. The fact that this elicited a lot of controversy is not surprising: the enemy in this war did not operate from a controlled and well defined territory, it did not use conventional military structures and identifications, nor did it respect any conventions of war. This was definitely an unprecedented new kind of conflict, and the Bush administration needed to be very creative in the way it conducted it. One of the major decisions that were made was to treat captured terrorists as enemy combatants, and in particular enemy combatants that were not entitled to full protection of the Geneva Convention. This had many significant consequences. In particular, it allowed US to use "enhanced interrogation techniques" that could never be used on civilians caught during a police action, nor even for the regular war prisoners. Until recently there has been no public acknowledgment that these techniques had been used by the US investigators (CIA in particular) primarily because the Bush administration felt that revealing this fact would jeopardize the national security and make those techniques obsolete. For better or worse, Bush administration's decision to reveal the existence and Obama administration's decision to reveal the details of those techniques has made it possible for everyone to make up their own mind about whether or not those techniques were reasonable, ethical and lawful. By far the most eloquent and unapologetic attempt at defending those techniques thus far has come from Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.

Thiessen's close associations with the President and Secretary of Defense during all eight years of Bush administration make him eminently qualified to present the defense and the rationale for the use of those techniques. In fact, he wrote President Bush's speech that acknowledged the existence of the enhanced interrogation techniques. In that speech (which is included as one of the appendices) and more broadly in this book Thiessen has aimed to defend and justify the prudence, the morality and the legality of those interrogation techniques. He quotes extensively from first-hand accounts of the interrogations, those who were responsible for the crafting and the implementation of those policies, as well as all the documents that have since become publicly available. The book is also very good at pointing out the deficiencies, misinformation, faulty reasoning, and the downright lies of many critics of the enhanced interrogation program over the years. It is hard for me to ascertain how representative those criticisms are, but Thiessen has done a superb job of dismantling them in a clear and methodical fashion.

Tiessen is very forthright in identifying particular political and ideological biases of various actors in this narrative. In the age when "partisanship" is increasingly becoming a dirty word, it is refreshing to see a prominent author label things by their proper names.

The central thesis of this book, reflected in its title, is that the dismantling of those interrogation techniques has gotten us back into a pre-9/11 mentality, with all the possible ramifications that this entails. In particular, Thiessen believes that this outmoded approach invites possible new attack on US and its allies around the world. He presents dramatic and persuasive evidence to bolster his claims. We can all hope that nothing this disastrous happens in the end, but hoping by itself would seem to be a rather reckless approach to the danger of terrorism. Whether or not you believe that the enhanced interrogation techniques are an important and effective tool in the fight against terrorism, it would be prudent to at least acknowledge the unique circumstances under which they were employed. In a democratic society we all benefit from hearing all sides on any given issue, and Marc Thiessen's book is an important voice in the defense of the enhanced interrogation techniques that needs to be heard. This book is an invaluable contribution to this ongoing debate.

This book was an eye opener. My attitude toward torture was simply that we, the USA, do NOT use such tactics. My attitude toward Water-boarding was that it was torture. I've read the book and my attitude has been changed! I now know what torture is, and I now understand water-boarding as practiced by The USA (CIA). When a reporter can ASK to undergo waterboarding (right away you have to question whether or not it is torture -- he asked), and after much less than a minute of water-boarding, give up and ask that it be stopped. Relax for a few minutes and ask that it be done again to see if he could last longer -- that tells you something. If thousands of US Servicemen can be water-boarded as part of their Search Evade Resist ... Training -- that tells you something. No lasting damage, no water in the lungs, etc. The press and many politicians never bothered to learn about our Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, they jumped on what they knew or believed that they knew w/o any effort to get the facts -- after they began to leak.
The value of the CIA program, what it produced, why it was (and is) needed -- are all spelled out in detail with copious footnotes for support. If ever there has been a non-fiction book that should be declared "MUST READ!", this is it. Is our nation now in peril or "Courting Disaster," -- read this book and you will have no doubt. If you take the time to read my review, I fervently plead with you to take the additional time and read this book. I promise -- you will be glad that you did!

Mr. Thiessen lives in a fantasy world. It must be nice to pick and choose the basis behind your stances and disregard all others. If you're looking for a balanced read then keep looking. Mr. Thiessen is rather closed minded so don't waste your time.

This author writes and reads only those points which support his views, and then exaggerates them. This book is full of misinformed, and sadly, mostly false observations which are designed to infuriate the left and incite the right. For those of us who live in the middle and have the intelligence of a full grown head of cabbage, this is pure poorly written garbage.

Another Bush administration whiney, petulant, fat chickenhawk who has never risked anything for his country like so many of us have.

I read Theissen's book knowing full well what to expect. It's provocative subtitle is as clear a declaration of political sympathies as one could hope for. But before I discuss my serious issues with this book, I would like to note that in preparation for this review, I also read former CIA Director Hayden's positive (if ambiguously canned) review in "National Review Online" and, contra, military interrogator "Alexander's" take-down piece in "Slate." I also decided to stay up and watch Thiessen on "The Daily Show" where he appeared as a recent guest in defense of his hypotheses, although "Daily Show" segements are usually too brief to be especially illuminating. As an initial matter, I conclude that Thiessen's background as a speechwriter in the former administration and complete lack of intelligence and military experience are not troublesome, because in this book, he functions less as author than scrivener-apologist. The whole meat of the book is basically an assembly of interviews with CIA and perhaps other interrogators who either participated in "coercive interrogation techniques" or were supporters of such techniques. As scribe, Theissen reports, and essentially assembles what is, at heart, various apologia for these activities. Since I cannot speak to veracity of sources, the citations in the book not being especially helpful, I simply take these various discussions and justifications at face value, which it not to say agreement.

Where Thiessen's book veers into horrible verbal train-wrecks and convenient omissions is where he himself attempts to engage in "analysis." I am going to take two examples as representative.

Thiessen, I thought very weirdly, offered a justification for torture using, of all people, St Thomas Aquinas, the great Scholastic Doctor of the Church. In an especially convoluted argument, he essentially concludes that Aquinas would have approved of these techniques. This is a gross ahistorical claim. While it is true that Aquinas used Aristotilian logic to argue for the execution of "heretics" under certain circumstances and - perhaps - application of physical torment as a punishment, a position long since abandoned by the modern Church, Aquinas never spoke of torture or physical coercion in the comprehensive manner Thiessen suggests. Aquinas was silent on the subject of whether or not the secular authority has the right to use torture or use physical coercion, although, it is worth noting, Aristotle certainly was less ambiguous. In the "Nicomachian Ethics," Aristotle explicitly deplored torture practices as "unreliable" on the basis that a strong man can endure pain and thereby give false proofs whereas the weak man may confess to anything, making any information acquired under torment inheritly suspect, although he likely had no difficulty with the torture of Athenian slaves. And if Aristotle informed Aquinas, as he most certainly did, it is just as reasonable to assume that Aquinas would have taken an equally dim view of torture or physical coercion's probative value in the acquisition of proofs, a direct undercut to one of Thiessen's central arguments, namely that torture does have probative value in all cases. Aquinas - and by extension Aristotle - are muddy in this area at best to the extent they speak at all.

Thiessen also conveniently ignores the harsh denunciations of torture and outrage of the person lodged by prelates and noteworthy Catholic moralists like St Augustine, St Francis, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II, who, I would assume, at least in the case of the Popes, "trump" all contra Aristotilian-Aquinian arguments to the faithful. The only reason I could see his raising up Aquinas' spectre is ancillary support for one of his central premeses, namely that the current "War on Terror" has overtones of religious struggle, although I could not really tell. So here is at least one example of genuinely bad research and a sour conclusion on one of his major points.

I leave aside any question of why involve the magisterium of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages at all in making this argument unless he wants to advance the argument that Mediaeval methods should be resurrected in matters of contemporary justice. "Equal justice" and "rights of the accused" and a "right against self-incrimination" were not part of the Aristotilian or Aquinian world. Perhaps this explains the attraction. Thiessen clearly has no tolerance for these ideas.

Thiessen also invokes SERE training as an excuse for torture. I find this argument incredible. While it is true that the United States does indeed "waterboard" its own personnel in order to build resistance to torture as part of SERE, SERE is voluntary for most personnel, I believe. The "tortured" in SERE know that they are being monitored and protected to the extent possible, an assurance an actual victim of torture would never have. But this is an example of Thiessen's twisted logic and love of fallacy - "We waterboard ourselves as part of simulation, therefore, it is acceptable to waterboard others in reality." This is analagous to saying, "We shoot blank ammunition as part of our military's training, therefore, it is acceptable to shoot others with live ammunition." Another example of this kind of parsing is his dismissal of charges that American waterboarding could not be the same as Khmer Rouge waterboarding because one subject is prone and the other "dunked." Such hair-splitting is offensive in its nihilist absurdity, and - again - ignores the point that the Khmer Rouge used both techniques which now frame centerpieces in the anti-torture artworks and pictorial dramatizations in present day Cambodian memoria. Thiessen, in other words, is a grandmaster of "a distinction without a difference." I note that he attempted other such sophistic tricks on "The Daily Show" about the "Al Quaeda Seven" video, although with no appreciable success I could see. It was, honestly, painful to watch.

Lastly, his citations to American case law that seem to justify these activities is selective only on the "pro" side of the argument. The post-war trials of Japanese war criminals punished for torture, including waterboarding, and examples where law enforcement officials have been discharged or even imprisoned for the activity are not even mentioned. Again, Thiessen is an apologist, so such glaring omissions would be acceptable except for his throw-away assertion that "American law" allows such practices carte blanche. Once again, this is not a position supported by objective facts, an error compunded by "fallacy of accident." Another example of exceedingly poor research and equally rancid logic.

Had Thiessen stuck with his interviews alone and simply titled his book "The Pro Side of Enhanced Interrogation" or something along those lines, that would have been fine as a bland, albeit hearsay riddled, primary source reader. But as an analyst, the man is simply not just selective, but flatly - even embarrassingly - inept to the point of literal incoherence. What results is an impossible to follow "jump around" book that proves nothing and, at its core, proves incapable of even a coherent rhetorical argument in defense of its own stated position. An addled, confusing mess.

No recommendation.

Marc Thiessen is arrogant, reckless and culpable in his promotion of torture and human rights violations. His stance goes against everything I treasure in the U.S. Enemy combatants is a term that should be expunged from our legal system along with those that believe that somehow torture works. Perhaps their viewpoint might be better suited for Iran or North Korea.

It is my hope that he never finds solace in his belief system because most Americans do not believe his lies (although apparently 32 on Amazon do). Please do not defend the failed administration of the war on terror. It was a complete bungled mess fueled by incompetence and arrogant thinking. I am prepared to be attacked for not reading the book. This is partially true, I was able to stomach the first three chapters before the bile started to accumulate.

One thing has bothered me about the black site at Guantanimo. How did three suspected terrorists commit suicides and why was their throat ripped out before shipping the remains? Please explain this and you might be able to convert me.

Is Marc Thiessen sincere in his indictment of the Obama Administration's handling of the war on terror? Yes. But upon reading this book, a sense extreme prejudice becomes apparent. All validity in this book is hidden behind the mask of conservative rhetoric. The claims made by this book would be better received if the aura fear was not exploited. Unfortunately this is just another one sided plea for attention. As the American readership we can only hope that we will receive informative literature worthy of our intellect.

This book should be classified under "Fear Mongering." It was yet another attempt to try to bend my thinking so that I will abide by conservative principles. Life is too short to sit around and read a book which only has one goal, to instill fear in us.

If you believe in the American way, then you believe in the constitution. This man clearly does not believe in our constitution and proposed that people are "guilty by association" such as lawyers for defending clients that he believes are guilty.

This book is the biggest waste of time. Marc Thiessen spends the entire book trying to justify the Bush Administration's handling of "enemy combatants." Thiessen presents the book as a crafted piece of journalism and investigating how secure the Bush Administration has kept the country just to suggest, with absolutely no evidence, that the current president going to cause another 9/11 type attack. You will only like this book if you already support this political agenda. There is no critical thinking, quite the opposite. The writing style and quality is sophomoric and completely lacks any intellectual competency. Another, in a long line of "pundit-esc" justification books.

He's partisan to be sure but does he have the facts on his side, or not? In some cases, it's hard to draw conclusions on some of the allegations. But the author makes a strong case on legal, ethical and moral grounds that enhanced techniques were both effective and justified (they are no longer used). Some people just cannot even allow for the possibility that the vast majority of our professional military personnel are both honorable and disciplined, and not the sadistic morons that brought us Abu Ghraib. Yet the author cites many independent investigations, testimonies and facts which bear this out. Intelligent and moral people can disagree on the tradeoffs between waterboarding and preventing terror attacks. Before reading this, my opinion was that enhanced techniques (which are manifestly NOT torture), are justified rarely. The book details convincingly that the controversial techniques were in fact applied rarely, under controlled and highly circumscribed conditions and produced intel which prevented attacks on the homeland. After reading the book my opinion remains that the techniques are justified, rarely. So this book and the many other independent studies and accounts absolves Bush administration officials of wrongdoing to the fairminded reader who is not an absolute pacifist or a committed left wing radical. It does not absolve certain members of congress who were informed of the techniques and programs and later lied about it, and who continue to lie for purely political reasons.

The real eye opener in the book involves the Center for Constitutional Rights and Michael Ratner, a self described "double agent" (ostensibly defending the constitution but actually seeking to destroy it), whose legions of progressive lawyers flock to the aid of the terrorists, tying our court system in knots and our intelligence agencies hands behind their backs. BUY THIS BOOK FOR THESE CHAPTERS ALONE. It's a chilling read, learning who these folks are and what their true intentions are, in their own words. They are lioninzed in the left wing books on this subject, of course.

I read the one star reviews (curious, only one star negative reviews, no 2 or 3 stars at all). It doesn't appear that these folks read the book and nary a fact nor an argument that's to the point. Just categorical dismissals - willfull blindness.

Hope/Vote For Change

"Bush Derangement Syndrome" (BDS) has become a study in comedy theater.
Yes, there was reason for concern when the inmates stormed the asylum in 2006.
Even-more-so after the last presidential election, when the plague of these histrionic heretics became more deeply entrenched and then infected the White House.

But here we are, more than five years after this tumor became critical, and over a year after "Clowning and Pimping" (i.e. similar to Cloward and Pivens, only different,) seized the helm of the asylum, and these jesters, like an army of Pierre Gringoire-type Lilliputians, led by the trickster, toady and turkey trinity (i.e. Obama, Pelosi and Reid,) has done nothing more than rile the ire of Quasimodo and awaken ole Gulliver to their ridiculous and (almost) benign threat.

But I digress.
Should using EITs be a choice between letting innocents die, or jumping on a grenade and sacrificing oneself?
Thiessen raises this specter.

After the presidential election, Obama and his incompetent administration were flushed with an effervescent and energetic exuberance that caused the true colors of their radical and anti-American stripes to come frothing to the surface immediately for all to see.

For example, the Jurist-for-Jihad-General, Eric Holder, let club-wielding Black Panthers go free while he persecuted the CIA and its administrative council for the way they were protecting and keeping the American people safe.
Is pursuing the CIA a means for placing Bush and Cheney on trial?
Thiessen exposes this peccant phantom as well.

Was the attempt to move KSM et.al. into civilian courts another strategy that, in their frothing foolishness, Obobble and his band of nefarious bumblers thought would enable them to place Bush/Cheney on trial in the public square?
This is another crooked chimera that Thiessen conjures in the mind.

How else does one explain scrapping the anti-terror apparatus that was painstakingly crafted by the Bush administration after 9/11?
According to Thiessen, that anti-terror apparatus thwarted at least eight large-scale terrorist attacks that were in their final stages of planning at the time that they were stopped.
Thiessen also reminds us that Bush kept us safe for the remainder of his administration after 9/11.
We didn't witness another terrorist attack until after the White House Hasan invited the Panty Bomber over for figs and futility.

And what of the untold damage inflicted on our national security and intelligence culture when Nicolae Hussein Carpathia, after shutting down the EIT program, began exposing our interrogation tactics to terrorists and unleashing the Jurist-for-Jihad-General, like Damien's dog, onto the CIA?

"With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to America's national security ... than any president in American history. ...These were ... the most dangerous and irresponsible acts an American president has ever committed in a time of war." (p.12)

But the most Mephistophelean demon of all, rising from the book like a genie from a bottle, is the notion that the purpose of the Obama drone strikes are to purge (as opposed to eliminate) operatives that have been compromised by the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.
With the EIT program scrapped; with those jihadists that were compromised purged, and with the teaming ranks of fresh jihadists now further case-hardened to our tactics, is the "Jurist-for-Jihad-General" - and his trickster boss - now in infiltrated, more clandestine and powerful positions for waging jihad from within?

The 9/11 terrorists used our own equipment, but it was only commercial equipment.
How much more effective will the jihadists be if they have unbridled access, by way of the White House Hasan, to all of our military wares?

But it is comedy theater indeed, because now we look toward November in confidence, when Quasimodo will dress-down poor Pierre Gringoire and crack him on the palatial polls, Gulliver will snap the fraying ties of the leftist Lilliputians and the peevish Nicolae pretender will face his Waterloo.

Are we on the cusp of a conservative ascendancy, or is this just hope for change?

Be warned, I could not put it down. I hope this book will be read by all currently in the white house though that is extremely doubtful. What are they thinking? Mr. Bush and his administration wholeheartedly put Americans safety first. It was refreshing to read about a president who really was Commander in Chief. Marc's facts cannot be denied.

There are two sides to every story - we've heard a lot from a biased media on the subject, and this book gives a look at some underlying facts that may (or should) change some minds. "The turth shall set you free."

Anyone who has followed the debate over waterboarding, torture, secret detentions, etc. MUST READ this book. Thiessen presents an insider's perspective, based on his access to many of the individuals involved in the CIA's interrogation program, as well as to the written records connected to the program. I realize this is an emotional issue for many, but it's worth trying to set feelings aside long enough to let Thiessen make his case. In particular:

-- the CIA program worked. Thiessen lists the documented cases in which terrorists revealed details of future operations or identities of other terrorists. That information was used to thwart attacks and arrest very dangerous actors. You should at least read what he has to say, even if you don't want to believe it.

-- the purpose of denying prisoner of war treatment to captured terrorists or terrorist suspects is to provide an incentive for countries to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Take away that incentive, and you've given away the last reason why terrorists, insurgents, militants or whatever you want to call them shouldn't hide among civilians, use civilians as human shields, and otherwise abuse the local population.

-- why is it better to kill terrorists by missile strikes from drones than to capture, interrogate and debrief them? If we just kill them, we'll never find out what they know.

-- and, although I've read this elsewhere, Thiessen repeats it: thousands of US servicemen have been subjected to waterboarding as part of their training. He explains why it was not classified as torture, and makes a very strong case. Again, I'm sure Thiessen won't convince any 'true believers' - but if you're at all openminded about the issue, then this is the book you must read.

I can't say anything beyond what other reviewers have said, but I will say this:

Half the reviews are one-star. Please look at them. They are ad hominem attacks on the author; some one-star the book because Cheney is quoted on the cover; another one says that it should not be read BECAUSE it presents the opposing - and unfavorable - point of view on war against militant Islam. (And this from the Left that always calls for objectivity!!)
Without those vicious or ignornant statements, this would be a straight five-star book.

Rather than defending and rationalizing the practice of torture, the author should be apologizing for his role in it during the Bush Administration. LIkewise for the genocidal destruction of one million Iraqi civilians. This author has clearly put Caesar before God, but perhaps they are closer than we might recall given that the RC Church invented waterboarding as a torture technique during the Inquisition. The tree is known by its fruit. These people claim to be pro-life but they show by their condoning of torture, genocide and executions that they are quite the opposite. Why do they even bother calling themselves Catholics when they are such hypocrites who live exactly opposite than the teachings of Jesus?

Everything that I expected. Very well researched and written. Some one had to tell the truth and Mr. Thiessen did just that.

Once you read even a portion of this, you start to ask questions like: Are the people opposed to "enhanced interrogations" aware of ANY of this? If not, is their opposition based on ANY facts, or just holier than thou knee jerk reaction? If so, why are they still opposed to "enhanced interrogations"? What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it? If she is lying, why is she lying? Why do they want to protect people that want to cut off our heads with machetes and blow us up, and are willing to punish those trying to protect us? Why is it more moral to send a missile into a house with the hope of blowing up a terrorist and any innocents who may be there with them, rather than capture just that person and question them and actually learn more about their plots and contacts with some "enhanced interrogations"? The terrorists want all of us dead, so what possible sense is there in giving the enemies of this country the same legal rights as our own citizens? If a terrorist is "home grown", isn't that what the "treason" charge and death penalty is for?

An essential book in understanding the interviewing and extracting of essential information from the terrorist, and how the Obama administration is closing down our sources of intelligence.
The only problem I have is that it is longer than it needs to be. Thiessen spends too much time explaining that waterboarding is not torture, and that the bad guys have it good at Guantanimo.
I may be biased because if I believed one of these guys had information that would save a single life, I would call Jack Bauer and say, "Make him tell us what he knows."

Marc Thiessen is credible.

He does a wonderful job in telling the truth about so called "torture". The difference between what actually transpired during enhanced interrogations of terrorists and the thoughtless allegations of what happened is truly remarkable.

He also proves that Because of the program, a lot of terrorists did not make it onto airplanes, or into high rise apartment buildings. Now the program is gone. He is very credible when he asserts that our politicians are "courting disaster".

I refuse to buy any book where the publisher insists on raising the price above the $10.00 cap! One of the main reasons I bought the Kindle was to avoid being overcharged for hardbacked books that you only end up reading once! Get a backbone Amazon and stand up to these publishers!!! You are the leader in the electronic reading market, don't let the publishers threaten you!!!

THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANY LIBERALS OUT THERE WHO FEEL "ENHANCED INTERROGATION " SHOULD BE AVOIDED . LETS LET THE PROS DO THEIR JOB,AND KEEP US AND THOSE WE CARE ABOUT SAFE

this is exactly how al qaeda wants the world to see us and our western values.

Its also a real tribute to our democracy that a mouse of a man such as Thiessen is permitted to pen such twisted and shameful ideas. Plain unAmerican and antiWestern from cover to cover.

Patriots need not bother a read.

THIS BOOK BACKS UP THE WISDOM AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CIA INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES WHICH HAVE SAVED UNTOLD THOUSANDS OF CITITZENS' LIVES, AND THE DANGER WE NOW FACE UNDER THE OBAMA/HOLDER ADMINISTRATION.

The terrorist finally breaks and begins telling the agents all they want to know. Having held out from the integration techniques as long as he could, the terrorist now feels he has fulfilled the commitment to jihad and is released from his bond of resistance. With that he tells his interrogators that they must do this for the other prisoners so that they too can experience this "release". With that, he spews forth dates, names and addresses leading to the capture of many others and the disruption of numerous lethal plans.

The reader may find as I did that there are several times where Mr. Thiessen continues to cite example after example of basically the same point. Perhaps he did that by way of thorough documentation. The reader may find the thread of the story is enhanced by gliding over these redundancies.

I may not have chosen exactly the words Mr. Thiessen uses on the cover. I certainly don't feel the current administration is "inviting" the next attack. Indeed, I get the distinct impression there has been a very steep learning curve in the White House. The professionals in the CIA and other intelligence and defense organizations come across very professionally in this book. Having met several members of that community myself and having read "Courting Disaster", this reviewer gets the distinct feeling that the dedicated men and women sworn to defend and protect this nation will continue to find ways to do just that.

All of the one-star reviewers should be made to live in the Los Angeles Library Tower. Then we set free the 19 terrorists in the alleged attack plot, since it was never "anything more than fantasy." Any takers????

The controversy that has overshadowed the debate on enhanced interrogations has blurred the lines between facts and hyperbole, truth and fancy. Thiessen's book goes along way to present the facts and let the record speak. He doesn't let the press decide what went on, he interviews the actual people who authorized and employed the techniques. The author here takes a multi-pronged approach to the justification of enhanced interrogation. The book opens with a dramatic fictionalization of what might have happened had the intelligence gathered from enhanced interrogations not been gathered. The information here is specific because the terrorists were specific in their planning. Thiessen proceeds to deliver a massive body blow to the idea that these interrogations were torture. The legal case for the techniques used is built solidly, showing prescedent, citing case law, recalling why al qaeda terrorists DO NOT qualify for Geneva Convention protections, and showing the disciplined restraint that the Bush administration used in determining what would be done and what would not. Many opposed to enhanced interrogations make the claim that the techniques the CIA used were straight from the nazis, imperialist japan, or the khmer rouge. Thiessen goes into the uncomfortable details of these tortures and the stark difference between the brutal treatments of history and the restrained techniques employed by the CIA become evident. In CIA custody no detainees were killed, maimed, or had any lasting physical or mental suffering.
Theissen makes the case that effective interrogation, sometimes using the tougher techniques, such as waterboarding, are not only necessary but morally mandatory. barack obama's specious opinion that we must keep the world's most dangerous people safe from even the appearance of harm while risking the lives of thousands of innocent civilians is in reality reprehensible and displays a moral cowardice to the world and our enemies. The book brings forth exhibit after exhibit of the CIA going to extraordinary lengths to ensure the safety of the detainees while getting dependable, actionable intelligence that has saved untold lives around the world. An astonishingly small number of terrorists were ever submitted to enhanced interrogation, only three were waterboarded, and only when nothing else worked. The details of the effectiveness of the intelligence streams by the reader one after another. Not only does Thiessen show that intelligence gathered from enhanced interrogation was extremely prolific, but that no other intelligence gathering source is as effective. By removing this capability, obama has hamstrung our nation's ability to defend itself by something akin to not fielding tanks in World War II.
I was also surprised by the level of detail the book goes into about the legal defense of these terrorists by firms volunteering pro bono work and filing habeas corpus cases on their behalf. The level of complicity of these lawyers is shocking. This alone would make this book a must read. I was pleased to find the book also had a postscript addressing the pending civilian trial of ksm which is very interesting.

The CIA enhanced interrogations were morally necessary, justified, and effective in saving lives and the men and women involved are heros who deserve our support rather than prosecution by a passing administration.

For those who ideologically disagree with this book, can they argue the facts? Are they willing to admit they've made a choice to risk the lives of American and allied citizens rather than make murderers uncomfortable for up to two weeks? Read this book and make an informed decision for yourself.

Marc Thiessen has done an important job of detailing the damage that Holder and Obama have done to our intelligence gathering activities. He also has undertaken a detailed analysis of the uses of torture and the so-called uses of torture by the CIA and others in our defense establishment. The book is extensively footnoted.

One of the most important revelations comes from his detailed explanation and history of water boarding. As it turns out, water boarding is a very broad term that ranges from real severe torture that can lead to death or permanent impairment to a harmless version that does no physical damage but is more psychological than anything. That's what has been used by the CIA along with other mind games that are designed to frighten folks into talking but not harm them. But even this relatively harmless methodology has been severely limited in its applications with highly lawyered approvals for use coming from the highest levels. That's why liberal and left wing charges of "torture" comparing these activities to methods used by the Nazis, Japanese and others are so outrageous and so misleading to a national understanding of what is being done to keep our country safe from ongoing attacks from Muslim Jihadists. Needless to say our so-called main stream media has done little or nothing to bring clarity to this important issue. In fact, it's fair to say the NYT and others have been very helpful to the Jihadists, who seek to destroy them too.

Thiessen makes it clear, with obvious help from CIA insiders, that the CIA's watered-down version of waterboarding of KSM and two others enabled the CIA to acquire extensive information about Al-Qaeda networks, techniques and personnel that foiled a number of attacks aimed at Americans. It is obvious that the relatively benign use of waterboarding was a valuable and important technique in protecting Americans from these radical Muslims. Thiessen revealed that when faced with what they believe is force, the Jihadists will tell all. That happened with KSM and two others.

Now Holder and Obama, with the enthusiastic support of their leftist allies, have ended the use of waterboarding and some related techniques. They have introduced the ridiculous notion of reading captured terrorists Miradana rights. In addition, Holder has threatened to prosecute members of the Bush administration who supported this policy. Predictably, the results are disastrous.

First of all, risk taking within the CIA has been minimized. CIA and other operatives are frozen for fear of being prosecuted or having their careers destroyed by leftwing politicians in Washington. That is no way to run a successful intelligence service. In addition, the absurd restrictions on useful interrogation techniques have dried up important sources of intelligence essential to keeping us safe.

Of course none of this should be a surprise. Holder comes from a leftist law firm that has given a good deal of free help to terrorists. That is fully detailed and footnoted in this valuable book.

The book is appropriately titled. Obama is Courting Disaster.

The truth about how Bush kept us safe for the last 8 years. Its amazing to read about how much valuable intel was gained, how much we learned about our enemies, and how many terrorist attacks were thwarted. Everyone should read this book.

Same old stuff. A book full of unsubstantiated assertions and debunked "facts". If you love Dick Cheney and unlawful torture. If you love scare tactics - this is the book for you.

Absolutely nothing new from a "speech writer" who was never given access to be in the situation room.

If this book doesn't scare the hell out of you, you have no feelings. Republican or Democrat, you really should read this book. Yes, there are detractors who say the book is full of lies, but they offer no proof. Thiessen, on the other hand, is meticulous about citing sources and quotes for every statement. It gets a little tedious on Spanish Inquisition history, but the points are made forcefully: We are still in great danger and Obama's releasing of the DOJ/CIA documents exacerbates that position.
Of course, one problem is that those who are bent on holding to their position regardless of the facts will not be influenced by the book--except to dig in harder, in effect saying "Don't confuse me with facts; my mind's made up."

It is a shame that the author is so closely identified with one wing of the political Right, and that he chose an inflammatory title. The facts are the facts, and all the attacks upon the messenger don't dilute the message. Facts, as someone said, are stubborn things. And Theissen's book is replete with facts -- verifiable and cross-referenced facts, plain and simple.

If you like reading the works of other commentators, with their non-fact-checked lifting of secondhand statements and false allegations from their own and others' sloppily-researched hatchet pieces, and are closed-minded to those with whom you disagree, then by all means remain an intellectual coward and avoid this book.

But if you are open-minded, a critical thinker, and truly interested in what happened, then read this book.

This book will convince most independents to vote for Republicans in the upcoming elections.

That's why the liberals hate it, and you can point them out by their one star ratings, and that's higher than they really want to rate it. Liberal Democrats are too naive to trust with the safety of the American people. We live in a world with dangerous people, and liberals live in a fantasy land.

It's a must read for those who want to know what is necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorist, and it proves that liberal ideas don't work.

This book is actually a collection of talking points used by republican party. Cheney uses these same discounted charges when he gives his speeches. It's also a way for the Cheney followers to justify torture. I read this hoping for something new but it's all a rehash of why the democrats are weak on terrorism and the Republicans are strong. The authors points are not well documented and border on slander. The part about stopping an attack on Los Angeles, for example, was proven false years ago. My recommendation is, if you want to read this, wait until summer, it should be in the dollar bin by then.

Enlightening book for those who want to know what the intelligence community has been doing to protect this country since 9/11.

As a Republican I was very much looking forward to a thought-provoking read on the subject matter.
Unfortunately this author is clearly out to make a quick buck and wasted a number of hours of
my life. The more this garbage is printed by those claiming to be true conservatives, the more
Democrats will gain favor with the American public. We dont have to sink to the lowest common
denominator - and a word to the far extremest right - stop saying you speak for all republicans!!
YOU DON'T!

The biggest sign of a great book of this type are the numbers of five-star ratings AND one-star ratings. When you get a lot of flak, you know that you're over the target. The fact that we're killing a lot of terrorists with Predator attacks means that we're not capturing and getting information from them. We know nothing about their operations, their plans, who their contacts are, others that trained with them, where they've been, bases of operations, etc. This book has example after example of the information we've gained from captured terrorist suspects and how this has prevented future attacks. Most notable is the planned attack on the tallest building in Los Angeles and how it was avoided from gathered intelligence from terrorist suspects.
The Obama administration no longer captures and interrogates terrorist suspects. The CIA has been vilified and its agents have been threatened with prosecution. His waffling on Afghanistan has tacitly indicated that we are not long-term players in that part of the world. The population perceives that it's in their best interests to cooperate with the Taliban. This has inhibited our efforts to create an "on the ground" human intelligence network in Afghanistan. Without this, our efforts there are doomed. With their Iran policy, the Obama administration has shown that they will turn their backs on a popular uprising against an evil, brutal dictatorship.

This book is socially irresponsible with the words used on it's covered, and is riddled with lies. This man should be locked up for helping to spew lies. The Bush cronies should not have a voice in this country after irresponsible policies for eight years and the attempt they made to drive this country into the ground in the name of profits.

I want everyone to read this book. Everyone. Whether you supported Bush or not. Whether you support Obama or not. Mark Thiessen has used his familiarity with the way Bush dealt with the unlawful combatants and the high-value detainees to help us understand what really happened. This is very different than what many media outlets reported and what the rabid anti-war-on-terror types have hyped for years. Thiessen also had access to people who were directly involved with these events and shares what they reported to him (using declassified and publicly available (but too often ignored) material).

If you want to know exactly what was done in "walling"(where they used false and noisey walls to ensure safety but make the detainee THINK they were being slammed into a hard wall) and in "waterboarding" (see page 133-137) these detainees, you can find out here. There are many kinds of waterboarding and some are torture. Ours was not. Unpleasant, yes, but not torture.

He also tackles the phony notion that you don't get good information using "enhanced techniques" because the people will say anything to stop the interrogation. But using enhanced techniques is not about getting information under stress. The point is to get an uncooperative detainee to become cooperative. The new phase is called debriefing and that is where you do get good information. Theissen demonstrates that the mindset of these detainees requires them to resist until they feel they cannot resist any more and then become cooperative. So, we gave them some level of unpleasantness to resist without actually harming them (at least without intentionally harming them and taking every measure to ensure their physical safety).

The thesis of the book is not that Obama is too weak or somehow sympathetic to our enemies. What the book is saying is that by giving up certain intelligence programs, tough interrogations and thorough debriefings of detainees and using the criminal courts rather than military tribunals we make ourselves more vulnerable by missing the early signals of attacks. Our enemy has no intention of stopping on their goal of killing Americans and destroying our country. Obama and his team are no doubt sincere in their beliefs, but their beliefs are mistaken and American lives are put in jeopardy by the actions taken to implement those beliefs.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Like many people who think they understand terrorism, Theissen believes that what makes for good tactics is to apply the lessons learned from 24.

A long time proponent of torture during the Bush Administration, Theissen proves in this book that he knows nothing about what he speaks.

If you want to learn about this subject from a former speechwriter, then this is a good source. If you want to learn from someone who actually knows what they are talking about, choose another.

If you care at all about America you must read the book: "Courting Disaster" by Marc A. Thiessen. You will be shocked and dismayed by what is being done by this administration and by radical lawyers and groups such as the deceptively named "Center for Constitutional Rights" and some of the top legal firms in the Nation. You will learn how many of those radical lawyers are now working for your Department of Justice, and working against your constitutional and safety interests.

You will also learn exactly what water boarding is and why it is NOT torture. You will learn that only three (3) prisoners at Gitmo have ever been water boarded. You will learn of the extensive controls and protections that have been employed during all interrogations, who established them, and why. You will learn that tens of THOUSANDS of U.S. Service men have been water boarded as part of their Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. Water boarding in this context still continues to this day in at least one of the Armed Services. You will learn how one honest (yes there are a few) journalist choose to experience water boarding, TWICE, so that he could write accurately and honestly about it. Imagine that!

You will learn just how extraordinarily dishonest and damaging most of the "news" on this issues has been. You will learn how successful the intelligence efforts WERE and the numerous plots that were averted because of them, including plots to: Bring down 7 commercial airliners into the Atlantic Ocean, on their way to the U.S., in a four hour period; Fly a jet into the Library Tower in L.A.; Use Anthrax against U.S. citizens; Blow up high rise apartment buildings in the U.S.; and a 9/11 type attack on the London business district and Heathrow Airport; as well as others both inside and outside the U.S.

As my father handed me this book to read he told me, "It will make you mad." He was right.

Thiessen starts out with the following: "You should not be reading this book. I should not have been able to write it." Powerful words from a man with 15 years in national security, and one who served in the White House as a Senior Staff speechwriter (thus being privy to top secret classified information) for George W. Bush. Many of my suspicions were confirmed in these 300 pages; and many shocking (unknown) details were uncovered. With executive orders and mishandling the War on Terror (now called "Man-made disaster"), Obama and his minions are naively setting us on a vulnerable and dangerous path.

This book was very enlightening; but not in the sense that I was uplifted. Quite the opposite. Thiessen outlines how this current administration is quickly and carelessly unraveling the anti-terror programs set up by the Bush Administration; the very programs that have thwarted dozens of terrorist plots to attack this nation. Sensitive intelligence information has been leaked....and at an incredibly rapid pace the last 13 months. The reputation of the CIA is being tarnished, secrets are being divulged, and lies are being spread. This book will have you shaking your head and quite possibly your fist. Among the many topics covered:

Torture. The left continues to distort the truth and the very definition of torture. Waterboarding is explained in great detail and how IT IS NOT TORTURE. When over 16,000 of our service men and women experience waterboarding as part of their training, carrying out such enhanced interrogation (key word being interrogation; not torture) can hardly be considered "severe pain or suffering". On the mere three enemy combatants who underwent this procedure, vital information was obtained and used to prevent future attacks. This book also goes into detail on how this procedure (and others) were not taken lightly, and how they fall within the confines of the Geneva Conventions. One need only look at foreign nations' own use of POW treatment to understand what torture really is (also included).

Guantanamo. The left will have you believe that this prison is a torture chamber and recruiting tool for al Qaeda. This couldn't be further from the truth. Inmates receive far better treatment at this facility than our own prisons. And it's hard to believe that terror recruitment only began with the use of this prison. Didn't terrorists attack us before 9/11?

Intelligence. Now that sensitive information has been declassified, it's only a matter of time before our enemies get their hands it. How are we to continue to keep this country safe when the enemy knows our secrets? Now that they can train against interrogation, how are we to extract pertinent information on suspects, plots, and the workings of al Qaeda?

Cronies. From Nancy "The CIA is Lying" Pelosi to Eric "Let me Flip Flop on my Positions" Holder, Capitol Hill is full of people who will undermine the very nation they claim to protect. Their behavior and decisions are as despicable as they are dangerous.

Lawyers. Civil rights groups are having a field day with granting America-hating terrorists Miranda rights and pro bono protection. These are guys who admittedly want to blow up our country....and they have rights?

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wants to know the truth-or thinks they know the truth-behind some of the critical decisions being made on national security. Really, a must read for anyone who loves this country and doesn't want to see it fall prey to weakness and vulnerability, and be at the mercy of the enemies who despise us.

If you are curious how the rabid right wing (Cheney endorses this book!) sees the world, you could hardly do better than this. Marc Thiessen, a partisan if there ever was one, spins a curious tale of how Bush was mostly good, Obama mostly bad (and ignorant, and lax, and "inviting the next attack", etc) and... well, that's mostly it. He apologizes a lot, but not really, about how we NEED to torture "terrorists" - who have not been tried, or in some cases even charged with crimes, but whatever - to "prevent the next 9/11". Of course, Marc conveniently glosses over how Bush let the worst attack since Pearl Harbor occur on his watch, even though there was ample evidence to suggest an attack was imminent. No, the real solution is to torture, I'm sorry use "enhanced interrogation techniques" on brown-skinned "terrorists" to prevent such tragedies from happening again! And this can't possibly be torture, because our own service members go through it! See, everything will work out. Bring on the waterboards. Oh, and Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples.

So, there you have it. If you feel like you'll enjoy this book, you will. If the dust-jacket disgusts you, prepare yourself. There is nothing new here folks -- except perhaps, a primer on how great nations die.

One of the most important books you will ever read about national security. The urgency of this book cannot be overstated. Meticulous and soundly reasoned, the author lays out the facts: Obama is exposing America and her allies to deadly terror attacks in the name of political correctness and the complicit mainstream media [who seem more like enemies of freedom] are aiding and abetting this threat to our security. Be informed. Read this book.