New Books Network

Tim Weiner, "The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century" (Mariner Books, 2025)

Sep 22, 2025
Tim Weiner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author known for his work on U.S. intelligence history, discusses his latest book, which explores the CIA's evolution in the 21st century. He highlights the agency's failures leading up to 9/11 and its transformation into a paramilitary force in the War on Terror. Weiner delves into the challenges of modern espionage against Russia and China, the impact of political threats on intelligence, and emphasizes the importance of effective leadership within the CIA.
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INSIGHT

Research Shift To Interviews

  • Tim Weiner shifted from a document-driven to an interview-driven method for The Mission because declassification collapsed after the 1990s.
  • All interviews in the book are on the record, producing a more immediate narrative than Legacy of Ashes.
INSIGHT

9/11 As Whole-Government Failure

  • Weiner argues 9/11 was a systemic U.S. government failure, not solely a CIA failure.
  • He emphasizes missed interagency warnings and that the CIA lacked precise time-and-place intelligence.
ANECDOTE

Camp David, Tora Bora, And Iraq

  • Weiner recounts a Camp David decision path that led the Bush administration toward Iraq during the Afghanistan campaign.
  • He reports CIA intelligence on Iraq's WMDs did not determine Bush's eventual choice to invade.
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