Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing by Tim Shorrock Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
Book Review: Required Reading for An Alert and Knowledgeable Citizenry
Summary: 5 Stars
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm going to quote liberally from an excellent full-length review of this book from blogger Meteor Blades at Daily Kos:
"Spies for Hire is one of those books so brimful of detail, including mergers and acquisitions by intelligence companies, that one wishes for coded links and two or three charts illustrating the career trajectories and corporate genealogy of a couple dozen of the key players."
Another reviewer told an unsourced anecdote about an intelligence contractor who was downsized into driving a limo. Well, consider the story of neocon visionary Stephen Cambone. A charter member of PNAC, Cambone was appointed as the undersecretary of defense for intelligence at the Pentagon, a position of immense power and influence, which was forged from the conflict between Rumsfeld and the CIA.
"Among his other duties was overseeing "Copper Green," the interrogations, much of them by private contractors, of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Cambone was so widely despised and feared at the Pentagon that an Army general had jokingly said that "if he had one round left in his revolver, he would take out Steve Cambone," according to the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks."
When Rumsfeld was forced out of his job, his loyal retainer, Cambone was shown the exit a few months later, in January of 2007. However, Cambone did not end up driving a limousine:
"In January 2008, the Pentagon's Counter-Intelligence Field Agency granted a $30 million contract to the Missions Solutions Group of QinetiQ North America...Just two months before that contract was awarded, QinetiQ hired a new vice president for strategy. His name is Stephen Cambone."
So, why is this book a must-read? I'll leave you with one more quote from a different source:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
Book Review: Oversimplifying
Summary: 2 Stars
I saw this book at a local DC bookstore and had to sit down and spend a good amount of time reading it, using the index as my guide going back and forth to areas I am very familiar with. In interest of full disclosure, I have significant experience with the topic of the book. First thing I notice is that book cover portrays a govt. badge (they don't look like that) with the Dollar sign formed out of the chain. This tells me that this guy has an agenda: to "expose" the Intelligence industrial complex. Well I hate to break it to Mr. Shorrock, but he never worked as a def. contractor and obviously cherrypicks negative information to bolster his preconceived notion. Yes, the govt. uses contractors. Big deal. Most of the contractors used are either prior government "blue badgers", be it military, civilian or simply retired (thus returning to their previous job with those years of experience), who have specific skills that were sorely lacking after 9/11 due to the budget cuts of the 90s. On one hand people whine and moan about how the intel community failed them and on the other they chastize efforts to correct those failures. While reading through the book, it became evident as well that the author vastly oversimplifies the relationship (good and bad) between the Intel communiy and the current administration. He also fails to explain that contract employees don't really have the authority staff employees do. Moreover, one should look at the way government is run to see why contractors are used more, over hiring new staffers: It takes nearly an act of congress to fire a staff employee for bad performance, whereas a contractor's career is short lived and can be fired on the spot. Hiring staffers also takes about two years to get them in the door and train them, unacceptable given today's climate. Do contractors make more money? in most cases yes, but there is great risk involved. Contracts can be terminated at a moments notice and the contractor who brought much needed expertise to the fore is all of a sudden without work. I know of one man (one example of many) who was a victim of knee jerk downsizing. He has a degree, multiple langauges and a full clearance. He is now driving a limo in New York. Maybe shorrock should have interviewed him, no?
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