Courting disaster : how the CIA kept America safe and how Barack Obama is inviting the next attack / by Marc A. Thiessen.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [443]-472) and index.

"Sheikh Osama warned you" -- "Hell, yes!" -- "How could the CIA be so stupid?" -- "You must do this for all the brothers" -- "You did the right thing" -- Tough, not torture -- "Absolute evil?" -- "Hard choices" -- "Double agents" -- "I want to go back to Guantanamo" -- Throat-slitters, not sheep herders -- "A present for Obama" -- Courting disaster -- "You've got a harder job" -- The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Courting Disaster shows how America's dedicated intelligence professionals went head-to-head with the world's most dangerous terrorists, and won--only to have Barack Obama expose America's secrets to the enemy, endorse smears against our intelligence officers, and put them at risk of prosecution for defending our country. As chief speechwriter for President Bush, Marc Thiessen had unprecedented access to some of the most sensitive intelligence our government possessed on al Qaeda. He has since spent countless hours interviewing the men and women involved in the interrogations at every level--from Vice President Dick Cheney to the interrogators themselves. What he reveals is a thoroughly documented account of just how close we came to suffering follow-on 9/11 attacks, how so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" were directly responsible for unearthing the actionable intelligence that foiled them, and the extraordinary measures the Bush administration took to stay well within the bounds of what was not only legally but morally right.--From publisher description.