Review of The Human Factor; Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture

 



When I first started the book, I had high hopes for it. Although it stated from the outset that it was a semi-expose on the dysfunctional culture of the CIA I was hoping for more ' interesting ' stuff. 
Like most biographies, he details his time in the Marines, his life before the CIA, how he joined, some of the recruitment, advice he was given and overall thoughts on directions his life took....Getting married, having kids.  He does a good job of highlighting the main part of the book - CIA dysfunction.  The culture within the CIA is one of risk aversion so you don't lose your job or get stuck for years in some dead in, cubicle in a basement somewhere; layers of management that have to approve any type of meeting or outreach; slowness on even getting things approved or reviewed. For example, being a YEAR behind in having current paychecks. 
The book details meetings, moving to other countries, trainings, turf battles, who pissed off who. 
Although critics of the book have characterized his time and retelling as someone who is disgruntled, I don't see that. He compliments many.." a good manager" or " a decent guy" but has little time for corporate drones. Oh wait, this isn't a corporation, it's a freaking spy agency set up to protect our national secrets. I come to realize the CIA isn't really into things like data collection ( that would be the NSA ) or hostage rescues ( that would be special forces/military )  so really their only job is to recruit foreign agents to tell on their country and to gain insight into what is going on.
With the reading of this book, it's very easy to  understand the failure of 9/11 intelligence. When you have, say 100 memo/emails going up to level 1, then 50 going up to level 2, then 10 going up to level 3. Of those 10,without some background which the other 50 might supply, are set aside as ' meh, nothing to see here". 
 I was much more interested in things that he didn't talk about.  How did his kids do in a foreign land? Did they make friends? Face harassment? What did  his wife do? Did she work? How did she handle being in Muslim countries? 
He said he 'grew up' in some Muslim areas. What did his parents do? Were they Muslim also or were they government workers? 
When he made contacts with the foreign agents, what was there feelings about sharing information about thier country?  Did they feel guilty but needing the money? Unpatriotic ? 
How did you ' get set up' with a new household?  Buy a car?   Enroll in schools?
What was the training like?  
Did any of the higher level ' mandarins' ever express why they were so risk averse? 
Overall, an okay read highlighting a difficult subject the author feels passionately about.  Unfortunately, it doesn't bode well for all the intelligence failures/threats the US is facing. 

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