Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror by Michael V. Hayden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading Snowden's Permanent Record, it was good to have Hayden's perspective/insights for some balance. Hayden spent many years in the Air Force and then in various roles in the IC: Intelligence Community (made up of some 60+ agencies of the US government--or closely related to it). Hayden's account seeks to make a case for the reasons things have evolved to the state they currently are in the US world of intelligence--due to the catastrophic intelligence failure over the 9/11 terror attacks. He also makes the point that there are always--true of every country/government--going to be things kept secret that are meant to be used for a country's protection and/or purposes (whether those are good or evil). He makes the case for the existence of good enough checks & balances & intents on the part of US intelligence to justify what it has done since 9/11--and for what will need to be done for the foreseeable future, given the flow of information across the worldwide net. I am not totally convinced or in agreement with this stance--which has brought us into a world where there is literally no ultimate privacy and our online/communication lives can be recorded AND stored in perpetuity. Borrowed this Kindle book from the library.


View all my reviews