Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America's Stealth Warfare Hardcover – January 6, 2015

This book gives an good account of the undercover, secret operations and totally illicit, immoral actions of the military/security apparatus. Be it the Pentagon and its subordinate intelligence agencies dependent on the branches of each of the armed forces, be it the Department of Home Security, be it the NSA, the CIA, the FBI; or assorted private companies also involved in international operations of "defense and security", such as Academy (formerly Blackwater), "Triple Canopy", “Constellis” (now merged with Academi,) “SAIC” (Science Applications International Corporation”,) all closely linked to the official apparatus. It is reasonable to think that there are others, smaller ones, reserved for ultra-secret, mostly international operations, to be known by a very select tiny number, sometimes may be not even the president.The book also concentrates on “The Lords of Secrecy” on the military/security bunch of institutions, but doesn’t deal with others that also contribute powerfully to the present state of affairs. I mean mostly and foremost, “The Lords of Financial Secrecy” and “The Lords of Political Secrecy”, which the book doesn’t even mention. The financial cabal is no less powerful and dangerous than the military/security cabal. The Federal Reserve comes to mind first and foremost, together with the financial institutions “to big to challenge.”Finally, most high ranking politicians are aware of the developing plan, and act in complicity with it, but don’t have the power to defy it. John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy come to mind, among many others. In any case the number of people with access to the information about how things are done has of necessity to be very restricted and those who can truly influence decisions have to be a tiny number of extremely powerful people who take tight measures to avoid identification.In short, the book misses an opportunity to discuss and disclose all “Lords of Secrecy,” whomever they are associated with.

Still reading it. America would do well to be aware of a shadow government that thrives on war. Cannot give a good review except to say initially it is riveting.

This was extremely disappointing. What is worse is that Horton advocates for an informed citizenry that is given unmanipulated information. Yet, he manipulates his reader with poor logic, unsupported assertions, and false footnotes.As a couple quick examples:Page 98-99 he talks about the rise of the national security state with the National Security Act of 1947. After quoting the Act in regards to the definition of covert action, the need for a written finding, and the Congressional oversight, he asserts: "The national security state that came into existence in 1947 thus reflected deep concern about the unchecked spread of secrecy and a need to reconcile the pervasive secrecy that had existed during World War II with the needs of a democratic society." Except that it doesn't reflect any concern because he is using the amended Act for his quotations. The Sections 501 and 503 didn't exist in 1947.On page 129 he writes about WikiLeaks (2010) and Snowden (2013). In the paragraph on Snowden he concludes: "The US government first argued that these leaks dangerously undermined national security and placed American service personnel and those supporting them at risk. Under challenge, however, US government officials were forced to step back from many of these claims." But his footnote does not refer to government officials in 2013/2014 but instead to an article by Elisabeth Bummiller, "Gates on Leaks, Wiki and Otherwise," from November 2010. At that time, Gates could not have been responding to the 2013 Snowden leak.Some other random lines Horton throws in:He distills the debate around the US use of nuclear weapons against Japan to simply using them in "anger." (Page 110)On the next page he writes that because drones are armed and in the air they "logically would fall under the primary jurisdiction and control of the Air Force." Though every branch of the military has airborne weapons. So the logic that it is in the air and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Air Force doesn't make sense.In several places he refers to how other countries' media report on all these issues. But Americans don't get to hear about them because we're shrouded from the truth due to secrecy. Yet, we have access to the news as reported in other countries if we want it.On page 170 he calls out Congress for failing to have a mature debate on America's decisions to use force in Syria. Then on the following page, simplifies the matter to the use of force being controlled by the secret national security elite and Congress has no power over that.Horton creates an argument that secrecy has been used to disenfranchise the American people from the decision making of its national security policy. But, almost every example he uses to support his case ends with someone making a "political" decision in one of the three branches of government. Unfortunately, Horton de-legitimizes a legitimate issue by employing similar manipulation of information for which he condemns the unidentified and undefined "national security elites" and "lords of secrecy." He wants you to accept and believe his argument at face value; just like our government asks us to believe in necessary secrets.Let's have a real conversation on excessive secrecy. We should probably start with Congress having a public debate and maybe we should figure out why secrecy is used to protect the "political" appointees. We do still elect the politicians that make those appointments, right?

AN IMPORTANT INSIGHT INTO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ELITE

eye opener

Elites and defense geeks will like this. Little new insights

A superb examination of the ever-ratcheting regime of official secrecy that is inexorably strangling democracy in America. The chapter epigraphs alone are worth the price of admission. I had to resist the urge to live blog my reactions because there’s so much I loved about this book.At times depicting a bureaucratic world worthy of Joseph Heller or Kafka, the book is a clear and compelling call for citizens to recognize secrecy for what it is: a weakness, not a strength; an addiction, not a choice; a disease of democracy and ultimately democracy’s death. For anyone who wants to arrest the domestic growth of the same kind of sclerosis that enfeebled and ultimately ended the Soviet Union, The Lords of Secrecy is an excellent place to start.

I purchased this book on Jeremy Scahill's recommendation because I was very impressed with his two books, Blackwater and Dirty Wars, but I ended up very disappointed. Horton starts out with a long, drawn out, barely-relevant discussion about classical Athenian democracy that proved nothing and turned me completely off to the rest of the book. That and the constant repetition of his theory of the obvious, that excessive and unreasonable bureaucratic secrecy corrodes democracy and citizen participation in debate over matters of national security. No kidding. Yawn. I want my money back