The Assault on Intelligence; American National Security in an Age of Lies

New York: Penguin Press, 2018. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very Good. Ron Aira (Author photograph). [12], 292 pages. Notes. Index. Signed by the author sticker on the front of the dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page. DJ has minor edge wear and soiling. Michael Vincent Hayden (born March 17, 1945) is a retired United States Air Force general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2017, Hayden became a national security analyst for CNN. He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005. He initiated and oversaw the NSA surveillance of technological communications between persons in the United States and foreign citizens who allegedly had ties to terrorist groups, which resulted in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. In 2020, a federal court ruled that the NSA program was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. On April 21, 2005, Lt. Gen Hayden, was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and awarded his fourth star. He served in this position under DNI John Negroponte. On May 8, 2006, Hayden was nominated for the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and on 23 May the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12-3 to send the nomination to the Senate floor. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on 26 May by a vote of 78-15. On May 30, 2006, and again the following day at the CIA lobby with President George W. Bush in attendance, Hayden was sworn in as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. A blistering critique of the forces threatening the American intelligence community, beginning with the President of the United States himself, in a time when that community's work has never been harder or more important. In the face of a President who lobs accusations without facts, evidence, or logic, truth tellers are under attack. Meanwhile, the world order is teetering on the brink. North Korea is on the verge of having a nuclear weapon that could reach all of the United States, Russians have mastered a new form of information warfare that undercuts democracy, and the role of China in the global community remains unclear. There will always be value to experience and expertise, devotion to facts, humility in the face of complexity, and a respect for ideas, but in this moment they seem more important, and more endangered, than they've ever been. American Intelligence--the ultimate truth teller--has a responsibility in a post-truth world beyond merely warning of external dangers, and in The Assault on Intelligence, General Michael Hayden takes up that urgent work with profound passion, insight and authority. It is a sobering vision. The American intelligence community is more at risk than is commonly understood, for every good reason. Civil war or societal collapse is not necessarily imminent or inevitable, but our democracy's core structures, processes, and attitudes are under great stress. Many of the premises on which we have based our understanding of governance are now challenged, eroded, or simply gone. And we have a President in office who responds to overwhelming evidence from the intelligence community that the Russians are, by all acceptable standards of cyber conflict, in a state of outright war against us, not by leading a strong response, but by shooting the messenger. There are fundamental changes afoot in the world and in this country. The Assault on Intelligence shows us what they are, reveals how crippled we've become in our capacity to address them, and points toward a series of effective responses. Because when we lose our intelligence, literally and figuratively, democracy dies.