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My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror

Review

My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror

Reluctant to write this book when he first stepped down as FBI Director, Louis J. Freeh pens an inspirational story about his experiences with the people with whom he has worked. He celebrates their dedication, sacrifice, honesty, and grace under tremendous job pressures few in the private sector will experience. His fitting introduction is a full-page statement of the FBI Core Values.

Freeh's introductory chapter is about the assault on a housing complex in Saudi Arabia known as Khobar Towers. In 1996, the buildings housed more than 2,000 American, British, French and Saudi troops. A driver and passenger park a tank truck near Building 131 of the complex. Abandoned by the two men, the tank truck explodes, ripping a crater off the north face of the building. Nineteen Americans are killed and more than five-dozen hospitalized. Freeh is in immediate contact with Janet Reno, his direct boss and link to the Clinton administration. Soon thereafter, President Clinton announces the attack to the public, saying that the "explosion appears to be the work of terrorists. We will pursue this. America takes care of its own."

Multiple trips to Saudi Arabia during the next several years mark the involvement of Freeh. The most pressing need: access to the Hezbollah terrorist arrested by the Saudis at the border with Jordan. Freeh writes of his frustrations with members of Clinton's staff during the investigation. Assurances about cooperation are tempered with inaction. A delicate balance exists with the Saudi government, governed by its royal princes, and Prince Bandar proves to be the best resource. Freeh feels his work is surrounded with Clinton staff doubletalk.

MY FBI is written with passion and attention to detail in its descriptions. Worker bees around the blast site "have got a more human face." The king's palace is "out of a storybook so secure that a mouse would have trouble sneaking in." Freeh's word pictures bring life to the settings throughout the book. His work on the Khobar Towers attack remains a highlight of his career, despite roadblocks and dead ends blocking the investigation. He displays with deep affection a signed plaque from the families of the 19 Americans killed at Khobar.

Freeh suggests that our political landscape gets defined by narrow self-interest. Discussions with the CIA Director about putting FBI agents in Moscow, Budapest and points east become a political debate, with Freeh shaking his head in disbelief. He says, "The Bureau has grown reactively far more than it has grown logically."

He runs the cases on Eric Rudolph, perpetrator of the Centennial Park bombing, and Wen Ho Lee, accused of contact by computer with Chinese agents about sensitive nuclear issues; illicit fund-raising during the 1996 Presidential campaign by the Democratic National Committee; and the devastating attacks in New York on the Twin Towers in which thousands were killed. Freeh dissects the core of the problem of our unpreparedness.

In his opinion, the FBI was in the Dark Ages technologically. Years of requests had gone for naught in results, with recruitment of trained technical specialists compounding the problem. Budget constraints were a constant threat to the effectiveness of Freeh's FBI. He doesn't cry over the spilled milk of political agendas, but he does point out the difficulties now facing this nation as the legislative, administrative and judicial branches of government become more entangled and politicized.

In all, MY FBI ranks as a good read about one man's career in the organization he's revered since childhood.

Reviewed by Judy Gigstad on January 12, 2011

My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror
by Louis J. Freeh

  • Publication Date: October 3, 2006
  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
  • ISBN-10: 0312321902
  • ISBN-13: 9780312321901