Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack - Hardcover

White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen was locked in a secure room and given access to the most sensitive intelligence when he was tasked to write President George W. Bush's 2006 speech explaining the CIA's interrogation program and why Congress should authorize it. Few know more about these CIA operations than Thiessen, and in his new book, Courting Disaster, he documents just how effective the CIA's interrogations were in foiling attacks on America, penetrating al-Qaeda's high command, and providing our military with actionable intelligence. Thiessen also shows how reckless President Obama has been in shutting down the CIA's program and releasing secret documents that have aided our enemies. Courting Disaster proves: How the CIA program thwarted specific deadly attacks against the U.S. Why "enhanced interrogation" was not torture by any reasonable legal or moral standard How the information gained by "enhanced interrogation" could not have been acquired any other way How President Obama's actions since taking office have left America much more vulnerable to attack In chilling detail, Thiessen reveals how close the terrorists came to striking again, how intelligence gained from "enhanced interrogation" repeatedly stymied their plots, and how President Obama's dismantling of this CIA program is inviting disaster for America.

Praise for Courting Disaster

"Marc Thiessen knows, in ways that few others do, just how effective, heroic, and morally justified were the interrogators who kept this nation safe after 9/11. If you want to know what really happened behind the scenes at the CIA interrogation sites or at Guantanamo Bay, you simply must read this book. It reveals how we foiled potentially devastating terrorist plots, and how the current administration is putting us at terrible risk by its misplaced liberal grandstanding."
?Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States

"Renditions. Enhanced interrogation. Waterboarding. Detentions. Guantanamo. Warrantless eavesdropping. These are not mere words or phrases. They’re the Rorschach test of political discourse in today’s America?and like ink blots, they evoke visceral reactions in place of reasoned discussion. Yet behind each of these words and phrases is a reality?a reality of great dangers, hard facts, tough decisions, and important lessons. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to confront these realities with knowledge and facts rather than rhetoric and headlines."
?General Michael Hayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

"It was only because of the unheralded efforts of CIA and military interrogators that many more Americans did not suffer the same fate my brother did on 9/11. They kept us safe?and for that they have been vilified, slandered, and threatened with prosecution. In this terrific and important book, Marc Thiessen comes to the defense of these courageous men and women. He explains, in stunning detail, how they protected us from danger, and how the good work they did is now being undone. This book deserves to be read by every American?and by our president."
?Debra Burlingam, sister of Charles ?Chic” Burlingame, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, hijacked and crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001

"The military men and women assigned to the task of detaining and questioning terrorists at Guantanamo Bay have served our country with honor and professionalism. They have been maligned and slandered as having ?undermined’ our country’s highest ideals. In Courting Disaster, Marc Thiessen sets the record straight. He approaches the tough issues with energy and reason. This is a valuable book for anyone who wants to understand the truth?the critical truth that the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay defended our nation’s ideals and principles, even as the terrorists who were kept from returning to the battlefield and reaching America’s shores were intent on destroying them."
?Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense