Although I know the CIA better than I do the FBI, I have spent time in the past ten years with law enforcement officers from over 40 countries including the US, and the bottom line is that the FBI bureaucracy (Supervisory Special Agents and the politically-motivated upper tiers of FBI management) are a worse threat to US security than individual terrorist groups, for the simple reason that as long as the FBI leadership remains in denial, in secret, and ineffective, the entirety of our homeland defense is incapacitated.

The earlier version of this book focused on the decades of historical enmity between CIA and FBI--in the early years, Edgar J. Hoover was clearly to blame for a culture of hostility between the two agencies and between the FBI and military intelligence--in one instance he actually suppressed early knowledge of Japanese intentions on Pearl Harbor obtained from a German agent tasked to fulfill their targeting requirements.

In later years the CIA took on more responsibility for shutting out the FBI, consistently refusing to brief them in to either internal counterintelligence failures, or foreign operations with a strong domestic counterintelligence matter.

What the author has done in the aftermath of 9-11 is update the book and make it even more relevant to every citizen and every elected official and every bureaucrat. The earlier edition made me very angry about how the senior FBI bureaucracy can sacrifice the national interest at the altar of its own selfish agenda of self-preservation and aggrandizement--from Special Agent Rowley to Special Agent Robert Wright, the FBI leadership consistently spends more time censoring and punishing its own people for honesty, than it does chasing terrorists. This new improved edition should make every citizen, every voter angry, and they should instruct their elected representatives that the time has come for a National Security Act that finally reforms national foreign intelligence, military intelligence, and law enforcement intelligence, and in passing, creates the homeland security intelligence act to create a federated system of state and local intelligence and counterintelligence cadres that operate under the jurisdiction of governors and mayors rather than the federal government.

Pogo had it right: we have met the enemy and he is us.

Riebling also takes a somewhat revisionist approach to the Cold War, implying in many places that the secret measures taken againt communist sympathizers by our government weren't that extreme, and noting that they were in fact more modest than those taken by Jefferson, Madison, et. al. against suspected British sympathizers in the early decades of the Republic.

There's a besetting contrarian current or draft in this work, which sometimes Riebling rides to great heights of interpretation (e.g., on KGB deception ops), but which sometimes blows him into dead-ends where the key data is still classified.

The book is rich in detail. There is tradecraft detail here one finds nowhere else -- e.g., Nazi spies' use of butterfly trays to smuggle microdots; the story of Project WALNUT, CIA's first foray into the computerization of its records; a fistfight between FBI agents and CIA officers over custody of a Soviet defector in a Washington, DC restaurant.

There are long stretches where one feels riveted as in the best spy novels. The material on Ian Fleming and the influence of the "James Bond" ethos is especially well done.

Expertly handled too is the vast amount of original mateiral on the colorful and controversial CIA spycatcher James Jesus Angleton, whose approach is explained with patience and precision. Riebling clearly had access to many who worked closely with Angleton, including FBI liaison officer Sam Papich, and as a result there is a sureness of touch where other writers have played false notes.

Overall, despite some disagreements with Riebling's interpretations, I found this book educating and entertaining. It's the only history of our intelligence community I know of which traces our current problems to our past ones. And unlike most other books in the field, it does NOT devolve into nonsenical claims that the U.S. is in imminent danger of becoming a police state simply because it must sometimes use secret weapons against ruthless foes.

The Windows 2000 Performance Guide is the definitive book on its subject. It contains critical information that is often very hard to find, and in some cases simply unavailable, on a wide range of topics. The authors provide in-depth knowledge on everything from disk hardware to arcane operating system issues. Because the source of performance problems is often unclear, the book's breadth of scope is absolutely essential. These days, most computer experts are narrowly focused: it's just too difficult to broadly keep up with everything that is happening. Somehow, the authors of this book are able to offer real insights in many independent fields.

The book provides many real world examples. It also contains many valuable screenshots of performance monitoring tools under various load conditions. The writing is lucid, thoughtful, and offers many valuable insights. Another feature that I liked is the wealth of references the book offers. I found these references to various web sites, shareware tools, academic papers, and other information sources extremely useful.

The Windows 2000 Performance Guide is a must read for anyone interested in computer performance. Unlike so many other books that I've encountered that are merely a rehash of information available elsewhere, this book is a thoughtful, detailed, and thorough inquiry into its subject matter. Bravo!

The book is massive (432pages) and makes superb use of colourful maps and photographs of the battlefield which explain the battle situation at key times, the deployment and various formations of forces.

The book also provides additional curious information by the use of text boxes including some first account experiences of the battle.

All in all this is an absolutely superb book, well researched using various sources of information, beautifully presented and printed on high quality paper. I have found it hard to put down , as I keep poring over the maps and digesting all the wonderful information to found in this book. This is a must buy for anyone with an interest in the Waterloo campaign. Lets hope Mark Adkin will do the same with other Napoleonic battles.

There is a book by the same author called "the Misterious Stranger" which is much easier to read. It's enjoyable. So I
recommend you guys to try out the misterious stranger first.
Then, if you like the story, and you'd like to know more
about the philosophy behind it, read this one

Whether or not one finds the questions and ideas raised in the book outrageous or greatly revolutionary, one will still be able to get many hours of reading satisfaction out of it. With his usual wit, Twain has created a beautiful dialogue that in many ways can be compared to that in Plato's The Republic. And I would be amazed if this book doesn't put your brain to work. In my case I spend hours, days and even weeks discussing the book with friends and family. I simply wanted to get other people's conceptions and opinions of the ideas raised.

What Is Man? is not just a great piece of art. It is a somewhat behaviouristic philosophy and a way of looking at Mankind. In my opinion a must in every personal library. In my own case I'll need it as an e-book on my laptop for when I'm on the road and as hard back on the book shelve when I'm sitting in my easy chair relaxing after a long day.