CIA Goes On The Record About Suskind Book

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 8/22/2008 11:00:00 AM

The CIA isn't happy with Ron Suskind's new book, The Way of the World, and has made its grievances public in an e-mail blast sent out Friday. In the letter, headlined "Hardly The Way of the World," the agency charged that a number of the claims Suskind makes in the book, which went on sale August 5, are false and "profoundly offensive to the men and women who serve here, as they should be to all Americans."

Although the CIA likely devotes a negligible amount of resources to tracking anti-agency books, it has issued similar letters in the past. Last year the agency sent out letters slamming two books, Tim Weiner's history of the organization, Legacy of Ashes, and Rowan Scarborough's Sabotage: America’s Enemies Within the CIA. Speaking to Suskind's book, a CIA representative said, in statement e-mailed to PW, that the agency made an exception to its rule about not commenting on books because "the allegations were so egregious—including the suggestion that the agency broke the law—that we felt a response was both necessary and appropriate.”

Harper defended the accuracy of the book, issuing a statement that read in part, "Suskind and his book have our complete confidence and support," adding that Suskind's "sources are on the record, highly credible and spoke from personal knowledge." For his part, Suskind took direct issue with the CIA's contention that his reporting on Tahir Habbush, Saddam Hussein's intellegence chief, was incorrect. Suskind said that the relationship between Habbush and the Bush Administration "is the product  of background interviews and extensive on-the-record interviews, most of it taped, with five officials directly involved with Habbush. Their comments in the book are thorough and accurate."  

As in the Weiner and Scarborough cases, the CIA will limit its displeasure with Suskind's book, which has been causing a stir on Capitol Hill since its release, to the page. The CIA representative told PW that, aside from the letter, no further action will be taken against The Way of the World.

Click here to read the full letter from the CIA.