Homeland Insecurity: How Washington Politicians Have Made America Less Safe - Hardcover

Terry D. Turchie; Kathleen M. Puckett PhD.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1933909331 ISBN 13: 9781933909332

Publisher: History Publishing Company, LLC, 2008

Synopsis

Many of the same people who inhabited the political jungles of Washington, D.C. during Watergate are still in power today. In their constant jockeying for political power and influence on public opinion, they foster the same ill will and distrust of the FBI they have for 30 years. Their political persecution has not improved the FBI's performance or insured that Americans are safer today within our borders than we were before the attacks of 9/11. In fact, current partisan political control of the FBI, as well as the public hammering of the Bureau by politicians using the media to broadcast their agendas, has resulted in a disheartening and dangerous paralysis of operations in the Field. In an effort to gratify the White House and Congress, the Bureau has rushed to implement ill-advised and hasty changes in its own structure and the way it does its work. In Homeland Insecurity, authors Terry D. Turchie and Kathleen M. Puckett name politicians from both parties who are responsible for undermining the ability of the FBI to protect Americans from both domestic and international terrorism. They warn readers that purely partisan assaults on the FBI, if unchecked, will destroy the last impartial defender of United States law and the rights of individual citizens in the current terror war.

About this title

About the Author

Terry D. Turchie is a former Counterterrorism Unit Director of the FBI and the recipient of the FBI Director's Award and the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service.Dr. Kathleen Puckett, a former FBI Special Agent and a clinical psychologist, was a founder of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program. She was the recipient of the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service.

From the Back Cover

The bell is tolling for our national security...

Homeland Insecurity examines twelve elected politicians of both parties who, driven by their addiction to power, have compromised national security for their own political advantage. It shows what they did and how they did it.

Homeland Insecurity removes the veil covering the unspoken addiction that grips Washington, D.C., a force greater than drugs, alcohol and sex--the addiction to power.

Homeland Insecurity, shows how Washington politicians, driven by their need to protect their power platforms, have undermined the investigative powers of the FBI, the only government agency authorized the investigate them.

Homeland Insecurity is the book that addresses the real cause of the uneasy feelings Americans have about affairs in Washington D.C. today, affairs that have their root in the most powerful addiction, the addiction to power

"An absolutely fascinating story about the effects of power hungry individuals who place their self interests above the security of this great nation. 'Homeland Insecurity' should serve as a wake up call to America's politicians, if they truly want us to continue to be the "Land of the Free." With any luck, perhaps some of them will move forward to become leaders, instead of walking backwards down the road of poltics as usual.

Colonel Ted Spain, U.S. Army (Ret.)
First and last military police chief of Baghdad

From the Inside Flap

There is unease in America. There is a sense something is wrong in Washington.

Confidence in the President and Congress is at an all-time low.

The nation's value system appears to be in a constant state of change.

The nation does not appear to be going in the "right "direction.

Why is it that a sense of unease about the direction of the nation is in question?

Why is it that partisan politics seems to be the order of the day?

Why is it that nothing ever seems to get done in Washington?

There is an answer that goes to the very crux of the problem...all the problems.There is an addiction prevalent in the nation's capital. It is greater than drugs, alcohol and sex. It is the desire to attain, increase, and to hold on to power.

The addiction to Power is a driving force that has caused some of those politicians afflicted with it, to do things that have endangered national security.

Many have done so. And yet it is rarely discussed by the mainstream media, the Washington pundits, and the political authors, in order to keep the corridors of power open to them.

"Homeland Insecurity" focuses on twelve elected officials who have done such things to enhance their power, compromising our nation's security in the process. It is a work that could only be achieved by authors with the combined skills of Terry Turchie and Dr. Kathleen Puckett.

Reviews

Turchie, a former FBI Deputy Assistant Director, and Puckett, an author and former Special Agent (Hunting the American Terrorist), bring their expertise to bear in a spirited defense of the bureau and a stinging attack on those who would limit its scope. Damning "the exercise of unfettered political power" in Washington that has constrained FBI operations, the authors charge politicians with being "literally addicted to the perks and pleasures of power," their only aim to protect themselves from exposure. Comparing Washington's political culture to the "royal courts of monarchies and the ancient Roman Senate," they specifically charge presidents Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush with "concealment, lying, and deception," and are particularly unsparing in their criticism of VP Dick Cheney. Truly fascinating insights crop up throughout, such as their discussion of Associate FBI Director Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat," who was attempting to expose Hoover's successor L. Patrick Gray, a Nixon appointee with an important role in the Watergate cover up. Though their dim view of those who've worked to defend civil liberties (President Ford, Senator Frank Church, Rep. Don Edwards, etc.) and clamorous frustration may rub some the wrong way, Turchie and Puckett provide an account full of intriguing sidelights from inside the bureau.
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter One ADDICTED TO POWER: Why Politicians Do What They Do

Why do politicians appear to believe they are above the laws that constrain the behavior of every other American?

They are literally addicted to the perks and pleasures of power. The political culture in Washington, D.C., just as the royal courts of monarchies and the ancient Roman Senate, operates on the same principle: power enables privilege. Privilege shared creates its own excepted, favored class, exempt from legal and social rules that govern other citizens. It feels good to be a member of this class, so good that the pleasure centers of the brain are activated, and the process of addiction to power -and privilege - begins.

There's a poignant accuracy in the old observation that it's possible to be "drunk on power." Interactive social activities between human beings - like sex, or politics - activate the same pleasure centers in the brain that are stimulated by addictive chemical substances. The same brain mechanism demands continued and increasing levels of the stimulus - in this case, political power. The privilege that comes along with political power provides additional sources of pleasure, such as fame, social position and increased access to other addictive substances (like alcohol, drugs and money).

Politicians are continually plied with money and gifts for political favors, perpetuating their sense of power and importance as well providing them a life of excitement as well as social and physical comfort...

The following chapters illustrate the dangerous toll that the unrecognized and untreated addiction to power in American politicians has taken on the national security of the United States - in one very specific case. The point of this book is to expose the toxic effect this addiction has had on the only force in American politics that can counter it: the rule of law.

Edition details

• Publisher: History Publishing Company, LLC
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933909331
• ISBN 13: 9781933909332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300