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Reviews
The Threat Matrix: Inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the War on Global Terror by Garrett M. Graff
1outside's review against another edition
4.0
Have to confess I skipped the chapters preceding Mueller's tenure. The book focuses on his era and some of the relevant work he did before becoming the FBI director, but also gives info on post-Hoover, pre-Mueller FBI, which puts it at 650+ pages. I do intend to read the rest at some point - but my main goal was to gain some info on this silent, enigmatic guy in the middle of the Trump storm, and 650 pages is a lot of pages for me.
But the book is informative, relatively easy to read, and well researched - using a lot of primary sources, incl. interviews w/ Mueller himself - who "enjoyed very little of this process [...] yet spoke (mostly) freely with [the author] over a period of two years over dozens of hours.".
Btw, the same author also wrote this (also quite long) article on Mueller's time in Vietnam, which is a great read and also the reason I eventually decided to (mostly) commit to this brick of a book (mind you, I read the ebook ed.)
But the book is informative, relatively easy to read, and well researched - using a lot of primary sources, incl. interviews w/ Mueller himself - who "enjoyed very little of this process [...] yet spoke (mostly) freely with [the author] over a period of two years over dozens of hours.".
Btw, the same author also wrote this (also quite long) article on Mueller's time in Vietnam, which is a great read and also the reason I eventually decided to (mostly) commit to this brick of a book (mind you, I read the ebook ed.)
bryan8063's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great companion book to Weiner's Enemies. It goes deeper into the years after 9/11 and the author interviewed a number of the major players for this book. You leave with a balanced approach to the crazy times of the post-9/11 counter-terrorism world.
wiseard's review against another edition
4.0
A mammoth of a book, well researched, and one that puts in context the various approaches to terrorism that the FBI had over the years.
I subtract a star because in places the editing is jarring. A paragraph takes a narrative thread all the way to 2010 and the next covers things from 2002.
I also understand that the more political sensitive aspects of policy enacted in the post 9/11 US approach are very controversial, but the author does not address Robert Mueller's passivity. Yay he objected to Stellar Winds as AAG, and that's a good thing, but then he had no issues with letting it move forward. His lack 0f interest in addressing the torture by the CIA insults the FBI at its core values. There was a Director there that turned a blind eye to the dismantle of the rule of law just because he wanted to be a "good Marine".
That's something that may fly as a lieutenant in a war, where you don't see the big picture, but as FBI Director you have a bigger responsibility than that. As much as Mueller wanted to suggest otherwise the FBI Director /does/ influence politics.
This was also repeated in his appointment as Special Counsel later on. He refused to recognize that he had a responsibility to speak up for those victims and to challenge policy that was not rooted in the rule of law.
I subtract a star because in places the editing is jarring. A paragraph takes a narrative thread all the way to 2010 and the next covers things from 2002.
I also understand that the more political sensitive aspects of policy enacted in the post 9/11 US approach are very controversial, but the author does not address Robert Mueller's passivity. Yay he objected to Stellar Winds as AAG, and that's a good thing, but then he had no issues with letting it move forward. His lack 0f interest in addressing the torture by the CIA insults the FBI at its core values. There was a Director there that turned a blind eye to the dismantle of the rule of law just because he wanted to be a "good Marine".
That's something that may fly as a lieutenant in a war, where you don't see the big picture, but as FBI Director you have a bigger responsibility than that. As much as Mueller wanted to suggest otherwise the FBI Director /does/ influence politics.
This was also repeated in his appointment as Special Counsel later on. He refused to recognize that he had a responsibility to speak up for those victims and to challenge policy that was not rooted in the rule of law.
abookishaffair's review against another edition
4.0
With the advent of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 drawing near, I've been thinking a lot of how much has changed in the past 10 years with regard to the way that our world is. I very vividly remember where I was on 9/11 and everything on that day has totally changed the way that our Intelligence Community works. The FBI has been at the forefront of many of these changes and the way that the agency works and what it does has come into the spotlight. This book covers more of the history of the FBI but a great majority of the book covers just prior to 9/11 and the ten years after 9/11.
I took this book with me on vacation and it was a good pick (okay, maybe not so great to read on the airplane because of the subject matter but on the ground it was wonderful). I'm deeply interested in all things history and politics. The FBI has gone from a mostly domestic agency to an agency that has a presence in many parts of the world. This book is definitely engaging and is really accessible for those who don't really like non-fiction all that much.
One of the best things about this book is to read about the back stories of the different investigations that the FBI has conducted. The lead up to 9/11 was also interested to read about. There were so many mistakes leading up to the event and I really hope that the FBI has learned something since then. Graff did a wonderful job making this book really readable and enjoyable for the most part. There were some parts that were a little more drawn out than they really needed to be.
Bottom line: This book should definitely be read by anyone that has an interest in the Intelligence Community.
I took this book with me on vacation and it was a good pick (okay, maybe not so great to read on the airplane because of the subject matter but on the ground it was wonderful). I'm deeply interested in all things history and politics. The FBI has gone from a mostly domestic agency to an agency that has a presence in many parts of the world. This book is definitely engaging and is really accessible for those who don't really like non-fiction all that much.
One of the best things about this book is to read about the back stories of the different investigations that the FBI has conducted. The lead up to 9/11 was also interested to read about. There were so many mistakes leading up to the event and I really hope that the FBI has learned something since then. Graff did a wonderful job making this book really readable and enjoyable for the most part. There were some parts that were a little more drawn out than they really needed to be.
Bottom line: This book should definitely be read by anyone that has an interest in the Intelligence Community.
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