The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
Exhaustive and prodigiously researched, but also curiously ungainly ... For all his book’s breadth and timeliness, Weiner seems to have given scant thought to guiding his readers through the labyrinth. One questionable choice was to tell his tale largely chronologically ... Amid an unending onslaught of new names and situations, the reader is granted few clues as to who or what will prove important later ... One effect of this surfeit of detail is that The Mission begins to feel quite insiderish ... Simultaneously illuminating and saddening ... Poignant ... Weiner’s warnings about the peril facing both the C.I.A. and the United States seem prophetic.
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A better indicator of future events than the words of politicians ... Illuminates the moral and legal grey zone of the United States’s most famous clandestine organisation ... A fascinating account informed by scores of interviews.
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An absorbing, informative portrait of an embattled organization that is facing formidable challenges abroad and at home ... Fascinating ... Weiner is good at exploring spying’s psychological toll ... Knowing that they’ll be named, some of his sources speak in bloodless, extremely careful terms. This makes for some sluggish passages, but it’s better than not having those voices in the book at all.
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