My FBI(前FBI局长的自传)
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Book Description
The FBI that Louis Freeh took over in the summer of 1993 was still reeling from the bloody standoff at Ruby Ridge and the conflagration at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Unpopular, underfunded, and understaffed, the Bureau was also creeping along in the technological Dark Ages. For eight years - the second-longest tenure of any director since J. Edgar Hoover - Freeh would fight tooth and nail to turn the FBI around. Maybe because he had once been an FBI agent himself, Freeh was the most hands-on director in Bureau history. He didn't sit in Washington; he was there, on the ground, at some of the most high-profile crime sites the Bureau has ever taken on. In these pages, he takes readers with him: to Khobar Towers in the Saudi desert, where the dust is still settling on the remains of nineteen murdered U.S. servicemen; to Oklahoma City, where shredded children's toys lie scattered amid the ruins of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building; and to places far and wide. This is Louis Freeh's entire story - from his Catholic upbringing in suburban New Jersey to law school, the FBI training academy, his career as an assistant U.S. attorney and as a federal judge, and finally his eight years as the nation's top cop. We see him at work as a field agent, using wiretaps and even going undercover to take down the corrupt leadership of the longshoremen's union. My FBI also takes readers through Freeh's prosecutorial crusades - from the Donnie Brasco case, which took down the Bonanno crime family, to internationally coordinated attacks on the Sicilian mob. My FBI takes readers inside law enforcement at the highest level. It captures Freeh's showdown with Bill Clinton and also shows how a dedicated, apolitical professional faced down the absurdities of Beltway politics and repeatedly put himself on the line for a mission few others in Washington took seriously before September 11: ensuring the safety of the American people. Louis Freeh led the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, through some of the most tumultuous times in its long history. Bill Clinton called Freeh a "law enforcement legend" when he nominated him as FBI Director. Unfortunately, the good feelings would not last. When Clinton later called that appointment the worst one he had made as president, Freeh considered it "a badge of honour." The FBI that Freeh took over was still reeling from the bloody standoff at Ruby Ridge and the conflagration that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Unpopular, under-funded and understaffed, the Bureau was also creeping along in the technological Dark Ages. For eight years-the second longest tenure of any Director since J. Edgar Hoover - Freeh would fight tooth and nail to turn the FBI around, including going toe-to-toe with his boss during the scandal-plagued '90s, when Freeh defended his agency from political interference and worked to protect America from the growing threat of terrorism. This is Freeh's entire story, from his Catholic upbringing in New Jersey to law school, the FBI training academy, his career as a U.5. District attorney and as a federal judge, and finally his eight years as the nation's top cop. With a frank, clear-eyed, and realistic view, Freeh delivers the definitive account of American law enforcement in the run-up to September 11. From Publishers Weekly Freeh defends his performance as FBI director (1993-2001) and retaliates against Richard A. Clarke's Against All Enemies and Bill Clinton's My Life in this smooth memoir, written with the help of Means. "I spent most of the almost eight years as director investigating the man who had appointed me," Freeh declares on the book's first page, but readers expecting juicy revelations about those investigations are going to be disappointed. Freeh goes into fascinating detail when describing the FBI's work on the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia-the most damning thing he has to say about Clinton is that Clinton didn't push for the prosecution of the bombers. Freeh's recounting of his work as an FBI agent in 1970s, when his team helped eviscerate the power of the Italian mafia in New York, is similarly generous with details. And his accounts of his childhood in New Jersey and his years working his way through Rutgers are also engaging. Freeh argues convincingly against the establishment of a separate Domestic Intelligence Service, for the FBI's use of international agents and for a major investment into the Bureau's technological capacity-it's horrifying to realize that the agency has less computer power than any of America's major enemies. In a few pages of near end of the book, Freeh lambastes Clarke, calling him a "self-appointed Paul Revere" and a "second-tier player." He also accuses Clarke of deception, alleging that Clarke lied or distorted information in five places, including Clarke's assertion that Freeh is a member of Opus Dei. If corroborated, these accusations may deal a serious blow Clarke's reputation. When it comes to the Clinton investigations, however, Freeh doesn't really deliver anything new. And his explanations for the rift between them come off as disingenuous. "Maybe I was, in Clinton's eyes, too much the altar boy," Freeh muses on page 17. More than two hundred pages later, he reveals that he snubbed the President's first two collegial gestures, and elsewhere Freeh drops references to his close friendship with H.W. Bush, who worked as director of the CIA before he was president and after whom Freeh names the FBI's new command center in 1999. "We had differences of temperament," Freeh acknowledges about Clinton. His book would have been stronger if he acknowledged more directly that he and Clinton had differences of politics, too. After all, it's to Clinton's credit that he appointed Freeh despite those differences, and to Freeh's credit that he didn't allow them to hamper his excellent performance on the Oklahoma bombing and Robert Hanssen cases, among others. From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com For nearly a dozen years, Louis J. Freeh has been pointedly silent about the man who appointed him director of the FBI. That moratorium ends officially and loudly with the publication of Freeh's My FBI, a scorching account of his relationship with Bill Clinton and of leading the bureau at a time when, as Freeh writes, the president's "scandals . . . never ended." To understand the depth of Freeh's antipathy, consider this one anecdote: Sometime after he resigned in 2001, Freeh ran into the former White House counsel who had recommended Freeh for the job. The lawyer reported that Clinton had just complained to him that the worst advice the lawyer ever gave him was to appoint Freeh. "I wear it as a badge of honor," Freeh writes. And that's just the second chapter. How did it come to this? A president's relationship with an FBI director should be a mixture of hands-off and hands-on. Unlike cabinet members, who serve at the pleasure of a president, directors are now given 10-year terms -- in part to avoid another 48-year reign like that of J. Edgar Hoover, and in part to provide insulation from political pressure. A potentially secret police force constitutes a great opportunity for abuse by presidents and a threat to be used against them. But even if an FBI director cannot expect to be best friends with the president, he should, as Freeh writes, "be able to go directly to the president, sit down with him and say You should know about this." In Freeh and Clinton's case, there were vital issues to discuss and collaborate on. But the problem for Freeh was that he never could get to those hands-on moments. "There was always some new investigation brewing, some new calamity bubbling jus…… 编辑推荐 ：
Book Description
The FBI that Louis Freeh took over in the summer of 1993 was still reeling from the bloody standoff at Ruby Ridge and the conflagration at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Unpopular, underfunded, and understaffed, the Bureau was also creeping along in the technological Dark Ages. For eight years - the second-longest tenure of any director since J. Edgar Hoover - Freeh would fight tooth and nail to turn the FBI around. Maybe because he had once been an FBI agent himself, Freeh was the most hands-on director in Bureau history. He didn't sit in Washington; he was there, on the ground, at some of the most high-profile crime sites the Bureau has ever taken on. In these pages, he takes readers with him: to Khobar Towers in the Saudi desert, where the dust is still settling on the remains of nineteen murdered U.S. servicemen; to Oklahoma City, where shredded children's toys lie scattered amid the ruins of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building; and to places far and wide. This is Louis Freeh's entire story - from his Catholic upbringing in suburban New Jersey to law school, the FBI training academy, his career as an assistant U.S. attorney and as a federal judge, and finally his eight years as the nation's top cop. We see him at work as a field agent, using wiretaps and even going undercover to take down the corrupt leadership of the longshoremen's union. My FBI also takes readers through Freeh's prosecutorial crusades - from the Donnie Brasco case, which took down the Bonanno crime family, to internationally coordinated attacks on the Sicilian mob. My FBI takes readers inside law enforcement at the highest level. It captures Freeh's showdown with Bill Clinton and also shows how a dedicated, apolitical professional faced down the absurdities of Beltway politics and repeatedly put himself on the line for a mission few others in Washington took seriously before September 11: ensuring the safety of the American people. Louis Freeh led the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, through some of the most tumultuous times in its long history. Bill Clinton called Freeh a "law enforcement legend" when he nominated him as FBI Director. Unfortunately, the good feelings would not last. When Clinton later called that appointment the worst one he had made as president, Freeh considered it "a badge of honour." The FBI that Freeh took over was still reeling from the bloody standoff at Ruby Ridge and the conflagration that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Unpopular, under-funded and understaffed, the Bureau was also creeping along in the technological Dark Ages. For eight years-the second longest tenure of any Director since J. Edgar Hoover - Freeh would fight tooth and nail to turn the FBI around, including going toe-to-toe with his boss during the scandal-plagued '90s, when Freeh defended his agency from political interference and worked to protect America from the growing threat of terrorism. This is Freeh's entire story, from his Catholic upbringing in New Jersey to law school, the FBI training academy, his career as a U.5. District attorney and as a federal judge, and finally his eight years as the nation's top cop. With a frank, clear-eyed, and realistic view, Freeh delivers the definitive account of American law enforcement in the run-up to September 11. From Publishers Weekly Freeh defends his performance as FBI director (1993-2001) and retaliates against Richard A. Clarke's Against All Enemies and Bill Clinton's My Life in this smooth memoir, written with the help of Means. "I spent most of the almost eight years as director investigating the man who had appointed me," Freeh declares on the book's first page, but readers expecting juicy revelations about those investigations are going to be disappointed. Freeh goes into fascinating detail when describing the FBI's work on the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia-the most damning thing he has to say about Clinton is that Clinton didn't push for the prosecution of the bombers. Freeh's recounting of his work as an FBI agent in 1970s, when his team helped eviscerate the power of the Italian mafia in New York, is similarly generous with details. And his accounts of his childhood in New Jersey and his years working his way through Rutgers are also engaging. Freeh argues convincingly against the establishment of a separate Domestic Intelligence Service, for the FBI's use of international agents and for a major investment into the Bureau's technological capacity-it's horrifying to realize that the agency has less computer power than any of America's major enemies. In a few pages of near end of the book, Freeh lambastes Clarke, calling him a "self-appointed Paul Revere" and a "second-tier player." He also accuses Clarke of deception, alleging that Clarke lied or distorted information in five places, including Clarke's assertion that Freeh is a member of Opus Dei. If corroborated, these accusations may deal a serious blow Clarke's reputation. When it comes to the Clinton investigations, however, Freeh doesn't really deliver anything new. And his explanations for the rift between them come off as disingenuous. "Maybe I was, in Clinton's eyes, too much the altar boy," Freeh muses on page 17. More than two hundred pages later, he reveals that he snubbed the President's first two collegial gestures, and elsewhere Freeh drops references to his close friendship with H.W. Bush, who worked as director of the CIA before he was president and after whom Freeh names the FBI's new command center in 1999. "We had differences of temperament," Freeh acknowledges about Clinton. His book would have been stronger if he acknowledged more directly that he and Clinton had differences of politics, too. After all, it's to Clinton's credit that he appointed Freeh despite those differences, and to Freeh's credit that he didn't allow them to hamper his excellent performance on the Oklahoma bombing and Robert Hanssen cases, among others. From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com For nearly a dozen years, Louis J. Freeh has been pointedly silent about the man who appointed him director of the FBI. That moratorium ends officially and loudly with the publication of Freeh's My FBI, a scorching account of his relationship with Bill Clinton and of leading the bureau at a time when, as Freeh writes, the president's "scandals . . . never ended." To understand the depth of Freeh's antipathy, consider this one anecdote: Sometime after he resigned in 2001, Freeh ran into the former White House counsel who had recommended Freeh for the job. The lawyer reported that Clinton had just complained to him that the worst advice the lawyer ever gave him was to appoint Freeh. "I wear it as a badge of honor," Freeh writes. And that's just the second chapter. How did it come to this? A president's relationship with an FBI director should be a mixture of hands-off and hands-on. Unlike cabinet members, who serve at the pleasure of a president, directors are now given 10-year terms -- in part to avoid another 48-year reign like that of J. Edgar Hoover, and in part to provide insulation from political pressure. A potentially secret police force constitutes a great opportunity for abuse by presidents and a threat to be used against them. But even if an FBI director cannot expect to be best friends with the president, he should, as Freeh writes, "be able to go directly to the president, sit down with him and say You should know about this." In Freeh and Clinton's case, there were vital issues to discuss and collaborate on. But the problem for Freeh was that he never could get to those hands-on moments. "There was always some new investigation brewing, some new calamity bubbling jus…… |
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