"Based on interviews with top-ranking CIA insiders and informed by classified and "Top Secret" documentation, Eclipse is an investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency from the death of William Casey to the swearing-in of its newest director, Robert Gates. Its subject is something far less understood than any covert, overseas action taken on behalf of the United States. It is the battles waged within the agency that form the explosiveness of this ground-breaking book." "Key incidents in Eclipse deal with: the bombing of Pan Am 103, the seizure of Manuel Noriega, the breakup of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, the political fallout of the Iran-contra affair, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, the enormously controversial confirmation of Robert Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence and, most important, the "politicization" of the CIA's intelligence findings. It also details considerable new information on how the CIA provided defense information to Saddam Hussein that would later be used to confuse American bombers during the Iraqi War, how George Bush undermined CIA independence, the CIA's role in the student massacre at Tiananmen Square, and why the White House did not respond to warnings that Iraq would invade Kuwait." "From George Bush to William Casey to William Webster to Robert Gates, Eclipse exposes both the triumphs and the blunders made on behalf of an American public who believe in the CIA's power to protect them as well as provide accurate, objective intelligence analysis - and have often been tragically let down."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved