Chris Whipple

Listen to "Chris Whipple Releases The Book The Spy Masters" on Spreaker. From Chris Whipple, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, comes a highly anticipated book, the most thorough and illuminating portrait ever of America's CIA directors-based on extensive interviews with the directors themselves-those upon whom the country depends to prevent another 9/11, or even a deadly pandemic. Epic in scope, spanning seven decades of intelligence gathering, espionage and covert warfare, and intimate in detail, featuring indelible portraits of the directors, this is the definitive story of the men-and, currently, the woman-who keep the secrets-The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future (Scribner, on-sale: September 15, 2020; $30.00/hardcover). What's the proper relationship between the CIA director and the president? Should directors obey illegal orders? How important is the director's role as the nation's honest broker of information during times of crisis? What's the truth about Gina Haspel's involvement in the brutal interrogations at a CIA "black site" in Thailand? And how, as director, does she manage Donald Trump, who famously rejects intelligence that conflicts with his beliefs? Through exclusive, unvarnished, and eye-opening interviews with former CIA directors and other top U.S. intelligence officials, including George Tenet, Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and David Petraeus, The Spymasters answers these questions and more, offering inside stories behind our country's greatest intelligence coups and blunders: . Was the coronavirus pandemic Donald Trump's preventable 9/11? The epilogue of The Spymasters reveals new details about the intelligence community's warnings about the emerging COVID-19 threat, and President Trump's failure to heed them. In January 2020, as the virus was spreading in the U.S., Trump's intelligence briefings-a daily occurrence for most presidents-had almost completely broken down. Throughout January, Trump was briefed not two or three times a week, as had become usual for him, but once a week. Items about the pandemic appeared regularly in the President's Daily Brief (PDB)-but Trump did not bother to read it. Moreover, Trump was, for all intents and purposes, unbrief-able. Convinced that the intelligence community was a deep state, honeycombed with traitors, the president rarely believed anything the CIA told him. Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived with horns honking and sirens blaring. Tens of thousands of lives depended on quick action-yet Trump looked the other way. Why is it so difficult for CIA directors to convince presidents of what they don't want to hear? . Trump's difficulty understanding security briefings. In The Spymasters, a senior intelligence official described trying to brief the president: "We were talking about surveilling domestic terrorism suspects, and at some point he just said, 'Why wouldn't we just deport them?' And we had to say, 'Well, we're talking about people who are U.S. citizens, sir. So no, deporting them isn't really an option.'" . Gina Haspel's unlikely journey from shadowy covert operative to CIA Director, and how she earned the confidence of Donald Trump. But can she stand up to him? . Russia's massive interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election-despite Donald Trump's continuing effort to deny the plot's existence. The Spymasters details John Brennan's discovery of the plot, James Clapper's conclusion that it tipped the election to Trump, and the Obama administration's efforts to combat Russia's covert campaign-which were stymied by Republican antipathy toward President Obama. . The untold story of the CIA's biggest manhunt ever. The never-before-reported account of the agency's botched attempt to capture Hezbollah's operational mastermind. And new details about the joint Mossad-CIA covert operation that finally succeeded in eliminating "the Scarlet Pimpernel" of terrorism in 2008. . The failure of George W. Bush's White House to heed the CIA's urgent warnings of an imminent Al Qaeda attack prior to 9/11, sounded during a dramatic July 10, 2001 meeting with Condoleezza Rice. And how, by failing to take a simple action, the administration missed an opportunity to unravel the 9/11 plot. Sweeping, illuminating, and rivetingly told, The Spymasters offers the most revealing look yet inside the CIA's wilderness of mirrors.