Power Wars
by Charlie Savage · first published 2011
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Barack Obama promised change from George W. Bush's global war on terrorism. But the Obama administration used drones to kill suspected militants and vacuumed data on Americans' phone calls. Obama criticized Bush's unilateralism and secrecy, but launched wars without going to Congress and presided over an unprecedented crackdown on leaks.With extensive reporting, Savage explores how and why Obama and his legal team--an elite, liberal group who vowed to restore the rule of law--end up accused of entrenching the sweeping powers of the post-9/11 security state. If legitimate, the accusation stands
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Charlie Savage's book "Power Wars" goes into this quite a bit. The tl;dr is basically this: administrations before Obama definitely wanted to crack down on whistleblowers, but were limited in their ability to do so. The fact that whistleblowing…
on “The Last Diplomat” ↗"Cryptonomicon" - Neal Stephenson "Expecting Better" - Emily Oster "The 9/11 Commission Report" - National Commission on Terrorist Attacks "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" - Joby Warrick "Power Wars: Inside Obama's Post-9/11 Presidency" - Charlie Savage (not finished yet)
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…Republicans. For example: "As implied by the term, Graham spent the summer of 2009 looking beyond Guantánamo. His basic proposition to the White House, reported in detail in Charlie Savage’s 2015 book Power Wars, was to deliver the votes in the Senate for shuttering Guantánamo and opening a replacement facility. In exchange, Graham wanted a broader wartime detentions policy than Obama was willing to embrace.…
on “13M Pages of Declassified CIA Documents Posted Online” ↗FWIW, people thought that when Obama ran around saying “these extrajudicial drone strikes are illegal” they assumed that he would end them rather than do what he actually did - make them legal. Power Wars by Charlie Savage covers this rhetorical zig zag.
on “The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE” ↗