Because No One Else Can; Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory
Robert R. Nicholson (Graphics) and Christopher M. Scotts Valley, CA: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xii, 783, [1] pages. Illustrations. Annexes. Contents include 12 chapters, an Epilogue, and 26 Annexes (A through Z) starting at page 299. Lieutenant Colonel Jim Nicholson has served active and reverse in the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army National guard, an the US Army Reserve. He did tours of duty as an Intelligence Officer in the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency, US Central Command, US Forces Command, Joint Task Force Six, Ft. Bliss, TX, two multi-agency counterdrug task forces, Central America, the Middle East, and along the Mexican Border. He has also worked as a police department intelligence analyst, private investigator, political field organizer and speech writer, investigative reporter, obituary writer, cement finisher, oil rig floor hand, truck dock worker, and car salesman. Inscribed on the first page by the author: To General Petraeus Thank you for your nearly forty years of service to our nation--and for your friendship. Take care and God Bless, Dave. Jim Nicholson 30 Apr 13. Mr. Nicholson joined New Jersey’s National Guard in 1982, and later transferred to the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. It was about that time that he began leaving the Philadelphia Daily News for overseas military missions that he rarely discussed. Mr. Nicholson was sent on nearly a half-dozen missions to Panama in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and was involved in the 1989 U.S. invasion that overthrew Gen. Noriega. Other missions centered on Colombia and Venezuela. Along the way, Nicholson struck up a correspondence with Petraeus, and the two men became friendly. Retired Navy Capt. Bill Battle, a longtime friend of Mr. Nicholson’s, was serving in the Iraq War when he discovered that Mr. Nicholson was still in contact with Petraeus. The general soon extended an offer: Would Mr. Nicholson consider coming out of retirement, at age 66? He couldn’t say no. In 2012, Mr. Nicholson published a 783-page memoir on military analysis, Because No One Else Can: Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory. The title came from a Batman movie in which, after dispatching several thugs, the caped crusader is asked by a little girl, “Why do you do this?” “Because no one else can,” Batman replies. In the book, Mr. Nicholson examined how smarts, focus, and determination drive the best intelligence agents, influencing the way they build facts into deductions, and how those conclusions help shape United States policy. “One of the greatest rewards an analyst can have is to know that he or she played a major role in actually directing an investigation, operation, mission or policy,” he wrote. “’Did my being here make a difference?’ … The analysts may never be able to answer that question. But, they do know why they do what they do. It is because no one else can.” Mr. Nicholson was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times. Mr. Nicholson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Because No One Else Can is a textbook. But, some may want to read it as part textbook, part Playbook, part history book, part intelligence primer for the uninitiated and part Military Intelligence career memoir. This book is basically divided into three sections; Nicholson Sea Stories, the wisdom of some of the best analysts in the Intelligence Community as imparted in the Epilogue by The Tribal Elders and the Annexes; more than sixty Operational Plans, SOPs, Operational Security Templates, Memoranda, Concepts of Operation, Matrices and more. It is a guide for the young analyst or manager but also a look inside for those who know little of the Military Intelligence Community and always wanted a tour through the Secret Sausage Factory but were forbidden. In Post-9/11 America, everyone has a need to know. The author gives his views on how to reduce the military rape problem, his theory on what is behind the Green-on-Blue ( Insider ) deadly assaults on allied troops in Afghanistan, the SEAL book controversy, the outing of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame Wilson by a member of the Bush Administration and why Military Intelligence troops facing discharge in the post wars cut-backs could be retained and used in the three wars the United States is presently fighting within its own borders. In the Annexes there is a complete Report of Counterintelligence Survey conducted on a military base by a team supervised by the author. In the years leading up to 9/11 it was a nice-to-do, thorough security survey. Today, it should be a must do. But, it is costly and labor intensive, which begs the questions: How many are being done and how often? This book explains why today we are all in the intelligence business. The Intelligence Community, military, government and private - has got to be better than it ever has been before. Everybody had better start sharing. Elitism, exaggerated classification, agency pride and personal egos must be set aside. Otherwise, as a nation we may wind up Secret Squirreling ourselves out of business. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Military Intelligence, Intelligence Analyst, Operations Planner, Terrorism, Asymmetric Combat, Concept of Operations, CONOPs, Threat Assessment, Counterintelligence, Document Exploitation, Insider Attacks, Drug Enforcement, Law Enforcement, Philadelp
ISBN: 9781479206155
[Book #82524]
Price: $175.00