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

My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the Also discusses the Mafia and issues leading up to and the War on Terror.
Table of contents

Unlike cabinet members, who serve at the pleasure of a president, directors are now given year terms -- in part to avoid another year reign like that of J. Edgar Hoover, and in part to provide insulation from political pressure. A potentially secret police force constitutes a great opportunity for abuse by presidents and a threat to be used against them. But even if an FBI director cannot expect to be best friends with the president, he should, as Freeh writes, "be able to go directly to the president, sit down with him and say You should know about this.

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

But the problem for Freeh was that he never could get to those hands-on moments. My FBI is no ordinary Washington memoir. To be sure, Freeh tells a number of engaging stories about his rise from FBI street agent -- one undercover assignment entailed parading around nude in the locker room of a local health club frequented by a prominent mobster -- to his mob-busting days as a federal prosecutor in the famed Southern District of New York. There are a few too many gratuitous bromides bestowed on colleagues and even neighbors.

But these accolades serve the purpose, intended or not, of contrasting starkly with Freeh's portrait of Clinton as a man whose only moral compass is political expediency. When a judge cited Clinton in for contempt for lying in the Paula Jones case, Freeh describes it as a disgrace equal only to Richard M. If it had been him, Freeh writes, "I would be so devastated that I might never show my face in public again.

The ex-president, however, seems to suffer no such pangs of conscience. Could there be two more different people? Freeh, a former altar boy and a moralist at his core, always carried a worn prayer book in his suit jacket. But Freeh was impressed with the breadth of Clinton's questions in their first meeting, and by the time Clinton assures Freeh there will be no political interference if he takes the job, Freeh has joined the legions of the charmed. When Clinton sits down, without prompting, to write a birthday greeting to Freeh's 7-year-old son, the deal is sealed. Freeh acknowledges making mistakes in the relationship.

He lacked tact in trying to distance himself. He turned down an early dinner invitation to the White House with the Clintons and Tom Hanks; he even sent back his White House pass with a terse note, indicating he would sign in every time he came calling. But, he argues, "I was the nation's top cop," and just a few months into his tenure, Clinton was already the subject of a criminal investigation in what became known as Whitewater.

It became his Moby-Dick. Only hours after the bombing, Clinton dispatched the FBI to track down the perpetrators, promising the nation they would not go unpunished. Freeh personally oversaw the case, and when it soon began to appear that top Iranian government officials might be behind the attack, Freeh says the investigation stalled: The tale of duplicity Freeh tells is complicated, but the basic outlines are these: The Saudis, who had suspects in custody, had communicated in a limited way their findings of Iranian involvement to the FBI and the White House.


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To put a legal case together, however, the bureau needed access to the suspects, and Freeh was told by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador in Washington, that this would happen only if the president and his top aides exerted pressure on Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto leader. The Saudis, however, said they were receiving U. Clinton and his aides denied this to Freeh, but in the end, Freeh came to believe the Saudis' version. Among the most telling incidents for Freeh was a meeting that occurred in September between the crown prince and the president at the Hay Adams hotel in Washington.

Freeh was assured by Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Clinton, Freeh writes, then promptly asked Abdullah for a contribution to his presidential library. I learned through my own reporting at the time that Freeh later secretly referred Clinton's library request for grand jury investigation, but he does not reveal this here, presumably because of grand jury secrecy rules.

Frustrated, Freeh then made an extraordinary out-of-chain of command pitch to former president George H. Bush, who also was scheduled to visit with Abdullah. Freeh called Bush, much favored in Saudi Arabia due to the Gulf War, and asked him to make the request that Clinton wasn't making. The former president agreed, and two days later, Abdullah told Freeh that the suspects would be made available.

Six weeks later, the information from the interviews and other evidence turned over by the Saudis showed incontrovertibly that the attack had been funded, Freeh writes, by senior Iranian officials. He adds that, after he reported these findings, Berger convened a meeting in the West Wing's Situation Room to discuss them.

But instead of dealing with the evidence of Iranian complicity, Freeh writes, the meeting focused on how to deal with the press and Congress should the news leak. A "Script A" and a "Script B" had been prepared. No other moment in his eight years matched the disappointment of that meeting: The case limped along until the new President Bush took office. Six months later, a grand jury indicted 14 defendants, mostly the active participants in the plot, and accused the Iranian government of directing the attack -- though no Iranian officials were indicted, a fact that Freeh curiously fails to explain.

Freeh devotes a scant two chapters to the Sept. This will be too little for many; critics have blasted Freeh for pursuing his Khobar Towers obsession while his FBI missed the gathering al Qaeda plot at home. Though Freeh resigned three months before Sept.

But he has a few points about Sept. While acknowledging "many shortcomings" of his own, Freeh blames Congress for the much-reported antiquated state of the FBI's computer system, pointing out that the bureau begged Congress for funds that were not forthcoming. He complains that from , the bureau asked for 1, new employees for its counterterrorism program and got only But the heart of Freeh's complaint is that until Sept. The United States had gone after Osama bin Laden with a few Tomahawk cruise missiles in in retaliation for the bombings of the U.

But these attempts were all lame, Freeh argues, because the United States lacked the political spine to put its full force behind the efforts. In , Freeh flew to Pakistan and personally appealed to President Pervez Musharraf to pressure his Taliban allies to arrest bin Laden.

This negligence, he argues, emboldened the terrorists. My FBI is ultimately a sad tale, and it's clear Freeh saw it this way, too. He had planned to resign before the end of Clinton's term but held off until the president left office because he worried that Clinton might replace him with someone who would damage the FBI. Sep 09, Jon Moeller rated it really liked it. Just finished reading this. Freeh was my first Director and I had the chance to spend time with him on several occasions.

He like to bust my chops, which I was good with.

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What is interesting reading this years later , is the foreshadowing of the Mueller and Comey successions, as well as the non-stop and on-going Clinton issues. Freeh addresses remaining apolitical as FBI Director and did a great job of doing so even with the Clintons' antics. Makes you wonder if Comey actually read his bo Just finished reading this.

Makes you wonder if Comey actually read his book. May 03, Dora rated it it was ok.


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I was enjoying it until the huge editing error. Freeh talks about a date that should be seared in every American's mind. A date like December 7, or September 11, He says we should remember April 19, How could that slip by editing? Really detracts from the point Mr. Freeh is trying to make by using the wrong date.

Editorial Reviews

I just couldn't believe it and it was in the print book and the audio version. This was not for me. I was interested in the history and the politics but there was a lot of flattering of all the people mentioned - not that I thought that they should be insulted - just that I thought pausing to say how great, smart, gorgeous, etc everyone was cut into the flow of the story and made me lose interest.

I didn't finish it. Also the guy reading had a strange pace and inflection. I will try this book in print rather than audio CD so I can skim over the flattery. Brent rated it really liked it Oct 05, Catlett Jr rated it really liked it Jan 24, Larry Bernstein rated it it was amazing Mar 03, Ellen rated it did not like it Dec 30, Alison Yerkey rated it really liked it Jul 01, Christopher marked it as to-read May 18, MJOcampo marked it as to-read May 20, John Smith is currently reading it Mar 25, Alexa marked it as to-read Nov 14, Yuriy Tsybrovskyy is currently reading it Apr 21, Jane Wexton is currently reading it May 25, Jordan Mechner added it Jul 23, Richard Anderson is currently reading it Aug 31, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

Books by Louis J. Beyond the above expressed reservations, I rated it with four stars because Freeh really does delivery the goods in this book. It is substantive - one learns a great deal about the position of Director of the FBI, one learns a great deal about the important cases Freeh worked on, including Khobar Towers and Oklahoma City. And one gains important insights into the personality of Bill Clinton. Perhaps I shouldn't express this last opinion it borders on cruel , I nevertheless can't close without writing it. I think the thing that troubles me most about Freeh is what seems to be his self-absorbtion.

Sure he was a public servant. But he never really tells us why he got into public service. My sense is that he was drawn to law enforcement for personal reasons, a sort of calling - a destiny. I'm not sure that "serving others" really had much to do with it. My reading of Freeh is that, outside of his family, there isn't a whole lot Freeh truly cares about - a "me first" man. For this reason the book left me unsettled. It troubles me a little that men like Freeh can reach such heights of power in our society. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

His description was pretty mundane about the agency but he did illuminate some snaffus and cleared up some misconceptions I had. The Judge said they had a very good relationship. There's a great amount of lauding others in the book which goes along with retirement speeches. Judge Freeh comes across as a fair and honorable person in his dealings and withholds criticism. Easy to read without a lot of legalese. One person found this helpful. Freeh discusses background on the major cases the FBI handled during his tenure.

This book gives insight that you didn't get from the news stories. One of the controversial subjects in the book was Freeh's relationship with President Clinton.

Blaming the Boss

This subject may turn off certain people, but the bottom line is that Freeh did not like working for Clinton. That is not a result of politics- because Freeh went out of his way to be apolitical. Most of it stemmed from the many investigations into the Clinton administration like Whitewater, Travelgate, etc.

Another small part of the book I found to be interesting was Freeh's take on former "Counterterrorism Czar" Richard Clarke.

Blaming the Boss

Freeh writes that Clarke was never a major player in national security in either the Clinton or Bush White House. Freeh writes that Clarke was a second-tier player that was rarely at any of the important meetings. This has somewhat of a ring of truth in light of the way Clarke has tried to recast himself as a modern day Paul Revere of terrorism, after the fact. Somehow I don't buy his self-promotion, see-I told you so attitude. Anyway, overall a solid book for those interested in the FBI and national security issues. Louis Freeh provides an interesting look into the world of the FBI.

The book takes an overview approach with specific vignettes of his time at the organization and how it evolved or lack thereof over the years. Freeh was director during a turbulent time when trust in the FBI was at a low and worked one of the toughest cases in its history with the Kohbar towers investigation. This investigation is the focal point of the book and done very well. He also covers a lot with the Bob Hansen treason as well as other stories. The main problem with the book is that it is light on details and the chapters often ramble on without focus.

The book would have been better off from an organizational standpoint with shorter chapters more pointed towards the topics. I would like to have seen lesser stories but the ones told in greater detail. Overall it is a useful primary source but not the definitive history of his role in the FBI during those years.

It gives great insight to the major events in law enforcement though the Clinton administration through Louis Freeh is very hard on presidents Clintons stance on law enforcement and he does not sugar coat his feelings towards him. Judge Freeh is an amazing man of action and justice.