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Charles Faddis

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Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA Kindle Edition

by Charles Faddis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 103 ratings

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From the author's Introduction:

Let me start by saying what this book is not.

It is not an attack on the men and women of the Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency, the overwhelming majority of whom are dedicated, patriotic Americans working hard everyday on behalf of their fellow citizens. God knows that they do not do it for the money nor do they do it for the recognition. They do it because they believe in the work, and because they know, as I do, that there really are monsters in the world, and someone has to protect us from them.

It is also not an argument against the existence of a central human intelligence collection organization within the United States Government. We desperately needed a central intelligence agency in 1947 when the CIA was created. We even more desperately need such an entity today. The threats facing us are multiplying and becoming more complex. The time horizons in which threats are emerging are shortening. Technology is evolving at an astonishing rate, and we really are fast approaching the day when there will be dozens of groups and nations on this planet capable of threatening us with biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear weapons. This is not pulp fiction. This is reality.

This book is an argument that the existing Central Intelligence Agency is no longer capable of performing the task for which it was designed and must, rapidly, be replaced.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Faddis (Operation Hotel California), a career CIA operations officer, pulls no punches in this provocative critique of the iconic—and dysfunctional—spy agency. Noting that the CIA was created to protect the U.S. from another Pearl Harbor, the author points to 9/11 as proof that the agency can no longer perform that task and is so beyond reform that it must be replaced. In his portrayal of the CIA, risk-taking, daring and creativity are discouraged, bureaucratic concerns are given precedence, senior leadership is lacking and morale has been sapped by crippling purges and witch hunts. The author concludes that the agency is dying a death of a thousand cuts and offers a blueprint for a new OSS, modeled on the legendary Office of Strategic Services, FDR's WWII spy agency that spawned the CIA. Keep this new organization, like its wartime predecessor, small, flat and elite, he cautions, and use it sparingly. In a world where threats are multiplying and becoming more complex, Faddis's bleak assessment of the CIA should be required reading. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Faddis, a career CIA operations officer, pulls no punches in this provocative critique of the iconic and dysfunctional spy agency. . . . In a world where threats are multiplying and becoming more complex, [his] bleak assessment of the CIA should be required reading.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

If you want to know what’s wrong with today’s CIAand how to fix it
this book is the place to start. Sam Faddis . . . describes the timidity of station chiefs terrified of getting blamed for mistakes, the obduracy of ambassadors who don’t want flaps, the we’re all winners here’ training rules better suited for a kindergarten playground than intelligence work, the reluctance to hire and promote people who understand leadership. You read Beyond Repair and you realize: No wonder the CIA is screwed up! Faddis proposes a bold cure: Remake the CIA in the image of the World War II spy service, the OSSsmaller, flatter, tougher, smarter, meaner. If people would read this book and understand its message, it could save lives.”
David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and author of Body of Lies

Drawing on his unique experience as a CIA operations officer, Charles Faddis makes a compelling case in Beyond Repair that the CIA must return to its Office of Strategic Services (OSS) roots to provide the United States with the intelligence it needs. Faddis has a deep appreciation for the OSS and great admiration for its legendary leader, General William J. Donovan, who frequently told OSS personnel that they could not succeed without taking chances. Faddis has taken such chances himself. General Donovan could have written this book. I know he would have read it and agreed wholeheartedly with its conclusion.”

Charles Pinck, President of The OSS Society

From the Inside Flap

Once upon a time, the CIA took the risks necessary to protect America. “If you fall,” went its mantra, “fall forward.” In Beyond Repair, one of the agency’s most respected former operatives mounts a scathing critique of the preparedness of today’s CIA—and, specifically, the Directorate of Operations at its core—to defend America against the dizzying dangers of the twenty-first century. In a compelling blend of analysis and fascinating true-life stories, Charles S. Faddis argues that the CIA has devolved into a low-risk or, often, no-risk bureaucracy of careerists whose mantra might be summed up thus: “Don’t fall.”

“Every senior officer I know in the CIA carries personal liability insurance,” writes Faddis, “because of the fear of being sued for actions taken in the line of duty.” And, he notes, no operatives who commanded CIA teams in Afghanistan have been promoted to key positions. Why? Because they operate within a system that is no longer built to encourage and reward the risk taking and creativity they excelled at.

Faddis discusses the birth of the CIA—then called the Office of Strategic Services—during World War II under “Wild Bill” Donovan, the twentieth-century American father of spy craft. Donovan’s daring would not get him far in today’s CIA, Faddis observes. Describing how the twenty-first-century CIA works from the inside out, he paints an unsettling picture of an agency that has truly gone awry—recalling, for example, his own experience in a Middle Eastern country as a chief of station without a qualified Arabic linguist on hand.

Faddis concludes by setting forth the main points of a plan for building a new entity. He proposes that this agency draw on the best qualities of the OSS (and readopt its name) while adapting to twenty-first-century needs, and that it be staffed by many of the CIA’s finest men and women. This new agency would maintain the midnight watch, so Americans can sleep well at night.

From the Back Cover

An insider’s account of why the CIA is ill prepared to protect America, and why it must be replaced without delay

Praise for Beyond Repair

“If you want to know what’s wrong with today’s CIA—and how to fix it—this book is the place to start. Faddis . . . describes the timidity of station chiefs terrified of getting blamed for mistakes, the obduracy of ambassadors who don’t want flaps, the ‘we’re all winners here’ training rules better suited for a kindergarten playground than intelligence work, the reluctance to hire and promote people who understand leadership. You read Beyond Repair and you realize: No wonder the CIA is screwed up ! . . . If people would read this book and understand its message, it could save lives.”
—David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and author of Body of Lies

“Drawing on his unique experience as a CIA operations officer, Charles Faddis makes a compelling case in Beyond Repair that the CIA must return to its Office of Strategic Services (OSS) roots to provide the United States with the intelligence it needs. Faddis has a deep appreciation for the OSS and great admiration for its legendary leader, General William J. Donovan, who frequently told OSS personnel that they could not succeed without taking chances. Faddis has taken such chances himself. General Donovan could have written this book. I know he would
have read it and agreed wholeheartedly with its conclusion.”
—Charles Pinck, President of The OSS Society

About the Author

Charles S. Faddis served twenty years in the Central Intelligence Agency as an operations officer, holding positions as a department chief at the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center in Washington, D.C., and as a chief of station in the Middle East. He is the coauthor of Operation Hotel California (Lyons Press), which recounts how he led the first CIA mission into Iraq in 2002 in preparation for the pending invasion.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00RMO0COQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lyons Press (October 4, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 555 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 197 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1599218518

Best Sellers Rank: #1,035,158 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #543 in National & International Security (Kindle Store)
- #699 in 21st Century History of the U.S.
- #712 in Intelligence & Espionage (Kindle Store)

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4.6 103 ratings

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Charles Faddis

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Retired CIA operative. Spent twenty years in the Near East and South Asia working against terrorist groups, WMD smuggling networks and rogue states. Took the first CIA team into Iraq in advance of the 2003 invasion. Now divides his time between writing and consulting for the Intelligence Community. Faddis is available to speak to both large and small groups.

Former Assistant Attorney General, Washington State

Served as a U.S. Army Officer (Captain, Armor and J.A.G. Corps)

Received a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law and a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University

Resides near Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and family and spends his free time sailing, traveling and dabbling in politics.

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Arkansaw Traveler

If You Read Only One Book This Year, Make It This One

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2009

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This is probably the most important book to come out this year. The author synthesizes all of the books about the CIA and its problems into one little book that everyone can understand. Not only that, he PRESENTS A SOLUTION. Unfortunately, I doubt if Obama or anyone in Washington has the moxie to implement author Faddis's solution.

The author argues with a great deal of archane information that the CIA is a broken agency, needs to be closed and another Agency built from the ground up. If his litany of horror stories seem unbelievable, consider this -- there are probably a thousand ex-case officers (ones who really ran operations (including me)) that can each tell a minimum of ten horror stories like the author, each one more unbelievable than the last. The bloated, time-serving, risk-adverse bureaucracy that the CIA has become must be extirpated and replaced by a mission-oriented, flatly-organized, and relatively small and nimble organization devoted to obtaining human intelligence quickly and have the ability to interpret it even more rapidly for policy makers. The author's case is simply overwhelming to anyone other than the federal bureaucracy.

As a side point, the author's remarks concerning military intelligence agencies (and DIA) may be true now, but it was not always that way. Once (during the 40s, 50s, and until Kennedy gutted those units in favor of putting their personnel back into uniforms) military intelligence was streamlined and capable, producing thousands of intelligence reports without layers of staff bureaucracies and tons of paperwork. Even the Soviets found that the GRU and the KGB were both necessary, and in many cases the GRU (Army Intelligence) actually produced better intelligence. But I will concede the author his point at this time. Likewise, the FBI is simply too bound by bureaucratic procedures to be effective in gathering intelligence, so yes, an OSS-type agency is sorely needed if the U.S. is to survive the NEXT TWENTY YEARS. The author makes a superlative case for this, although it may already be too late and beyond our political capabilities to implement.

The author's assertion that good case officers do not necessarily make good managers is absolutely correct and there needs to be a career path for case officers "in the Cold" to remain there and still have a rewarding career. Case officers need to be imaginative, mission-oriented, aggressive, maybe a little crazy to take the necessary risks (of being tortured and killed), able to work extremely long hours, have excellent linguistic skills, and be flexible and able to make snap decisions. Those attributes do not describe a manager or bureaucrat (usually.)

The author makes the point that foreign language capability is necessary to make a good case officer. I would like to second that and go farther. If an individual does not fluently speak, read and passable write in the language of the host country and/or the target country, then he cannot be an effective case officer, and indeed, should never be considered as a case officer. For example, if Valarie Plame was not fluent in the language spoken in her host African country while she supposedly was a case officer in non-official cover, then simply put, she was a square peg in a round hole and should have been given the title of case officer.

Inter-agency coordination requirements need to be minimized in order to be effective. As in the art of computer programming; if one programmer can do the job in one day, two programmers will take a week, and three programmers will never be able to get the job done. So it is in intelligence. The case officer and his agents/sources generally get the job done by themselves, and as far as the rest is concerned, the CO only needs his back protected and support for his accomplishing the mission ALL THE WAY UP THE LINE TO CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT. After all, he's the one risking his life to safeguard the rest of us.

I simply cannot recommend this book too highly. Purchase it, read it, and write your Congressman and Senator to make them read it. Otherwise, we can easily disappear in a mushroom cloud in the coming decades, be unable to drink our poisoned water, or die from breathing the deadly spores in our air.

Other books you might read include (all with my reviews on Amazon):

Chief Of Station, by Larry Devlin. An excellent book by an operative under offical cover.
Why Spy? Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty, by Frederick Hitz. This book clearly shows the problem, unfortunately it is the author and others with his lawyer-first, maximum control approach.
The Great Game: The Myths and Reality of Espionage, by Frederick Hitz. Like above, this adds valuable insight to espionage from a bureaucrat's viewpoint of view -- clearly the bureaucrat can't do or manage espionage.
The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, by Ishmael Jones. Read and believe -- probably the best book out there on the nitty-gritty.
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, and Political, by Robert Steele. A very valuable book for all citizens covering more than just the CIA.
On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, by Robert Steele. Extremely valuable work outlining American intelligence failures, how and why they occurred, and what is needed as reform.

35 people found this helpful

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Edward P. Fitzgerald

Don't pass up this book!

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is one of the most important stories of our time. The author is a fully qualified expert on the highlights of espionage, running dangerous operations in multiple third world countries, and on getting results. His observations of the short comings of the clandestine world should be our top priority starting twenty year's ago. Intriguing, alarming, frighteningly pointed.

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2016

Good book.

A Vision of the Future

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2009

Verified Purchase

This book is extremely interesting for a number of reasons. It not only describes the effective destruction of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service (Directorate of Operations (DO)), but offers a novel solution to restore the ability of the U.S. to collect human intelligence and to conduct covert actions. Perhaps more interestingly it offers a window into the thinking of a recently retired and undoubtedly successful CIA Operations Officer. Finally it provides a much needed and friendly view of some the accomplishments of the WWII Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
The account that Faddis provides of the demise of DO mirrors the conclusions made by other former CIA officers such as Robert Bear and the pseudonymous Ishmael Jones. His solution to restoring DO however is unique. He proposes doing away with CIA as an institution and replacing it by a 21st Century version of OSS. His proposals actually make a good deal of sense including the concepts of keeping the reborn OSS small, diverse, and agile. He would introduce an actual "flat management" system that would push decision making and responsibility down to the lowest levels. And of course the new OSS operatives would operate far from the debilitating official cover offered by the U.S. embassies. All this seems worth considering.
Yet Faddis is perhaps too DO centric. In his introductory pages he describes DO as "core of CIA" and generally ignores the role of the Directorate of Intelligence (DI). Yet when CIA was charted it was precisely to be a clearing house and analytic center, "to connect the dots" in the current intelligence cliché. Because of the culture established by the many OSS officers who moved into the newly created CIA and the desires of most presidential administrations to have their own operational arm, DO gradually subsumed the DI. In a like manner in the OSS although because of the daring do of their dangerous and often important overseas missions it is forgotten that OSS also had a very effective intelligence analysis arm that included such icon analysts as Sherman Kent.. (See "Creating the Secret State", 2000 University of Kansas).
Faddis's criticism of the scandalous state of CIA and especially its DO certainly appears justified. Yet it is only one part of the story. The collection of HUMINT is just as dependent on analytic support as is SIGINT collection. Further no matter how good the collection service, somebody still has to transform raw information into something that can actually be used by decision makers. Analysis and collection are two sides of a single coin. Both need major reformation if they are to support U.S. National Security.

26 people found this helpful

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Mat Van Gogh

Sam Faddis is a true patriot

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024

Verified Purchase

Sam Faddis is a true patriot. He knows his stuff. Great info in the book. !

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