The Mission Quotes

“Crucially, the CIA didn’t understand until years later that Saddam wanted to deceive the Americans and his archenemy, the Iranians, into thinking his deadly arsenal from the 1980s still existed. He had hoped that imaginary weapons could deter a real attack. And, as Makridis explained twenty years later, “he thought the CIA was so good that it would see through that secret and know that the weapons were gone; that once this happened, the U.S. would lift the sanctions against Iraq that were strangling his economy; and that once sanctions were lifted, Saddam would be free to re-arm.”
― Tim Weiner, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century – The Revelatory History of Intelligence Wars from Afghanistan to Moscow and Beijing

“Both Burns and the CIA station in Moscow had warned that trouble lay ahead for the United States after Putin’s imminent and inevitable reelection. He would seek revenge against America.”
― Tim Weiner, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century – The Revelatory History of Intelligence Wars from Afghanistan to Moscow and Beijing

“Among the CIA’s greatest challenges in the days to come will be the man in the White House, an authoritarian leader who presents the clearest danger to the national security of the United States since this century began.”
― Tim Weiner, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century – The Revelatory History of Intelligence Wars from Afghanistan to Moscow and Beijing

“The Mission is being published in a time of great peril. The United States is governed by a man who admires dictators and despots, aspires to rule as an autocrat, despises civil liberties, and threatens to imprison his opponents. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed in office, they can abuse their power freely.”
― Tim Weiner, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century – The Revelatory History of Intelligence Wars from Afghanistan to Moscow and Beijing