Michael IsikoffCríticas

I found myself a little reluctant to begin Isikoff and Corn's book, "Russian Roulette", having already been inundated by endless news reports and Presidential Tweets dealing with links between Trump associates and the Kremlin and Russian interference in the 2016 election. But I hoped that these two veteran Washington reporters would be able to clarify the matter after examining the numerous conflicting claims and counter claims made by the White House and those tasked with examining these matters.

Isikoff and Corn seemed able to sort out most of the details about the Russian story, although the investigation continues to this day, and until the Muller investigation concludes, we still may not know all the answers. We have seen several Trump associates like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos indicted or convicted of related crimes. Michael Flynn reportedly hid his talks with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Paul Manafort was accused of illegal lobbying actions on the behalf of Ukraine, Rick Gates was charged with conspiracy against the United States, and George Papadopoulos was sentenced for lying to the FBI about his relationships with foreign nationals with connections to senior Russian government officials. Papadopoulos also reportedly tried to set up meetings between Russian and Trump campaign officials on various occasions. Additionally, a number of Russian individuals and officials have been indicted by the Muller team for interfering in the 2016 election. So some of the charges related to this matter as reported in the Media ring true.

Isikoff and Corn detail some of the reasons the Russians may have wanted to hack the Democratic Party information, some of the many individuals in the Trump circle investigated and indicted, and the probable impact of the Russian meddling. They also discuss the weaknesses in the Hillary Clinton campaign, the cloud of her private email server, and the impact of the 11th-hour Comey announcement of re-opening the FBI investigation of her emails just before the election and as news broke of Trumps "pussy-grabbing" of women. This book was probably as complete and thorough as possible as of the time it was written, and does put a lot of the issues to bed.

A comprehensive look at what happened between the U.S. and Russia, and between Donald Trump and his associates and the Russian government, over the last few years--roughly from the period of "reset" in U.S.-Russia relations during the Obama presidency, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State until the early days of the Trump administration. I didn't quite "read" this book, but rather listened to it on CD. In this case, there might be a distinction between the two, as listening to it, with all the Russian names and factual details, you miss a lot. I often thought how a certain passage or chapter would have to be read slowly if I was going actually to absorb it as I wanted to.

Somewhat surprising to me was the lack of certainty in the authors' treatment of Trump's alleged "collusion" with Russia. Both journalists, Isikoff and Corn go only so far as their evidence takes them, and they concede there is much that we cannot know with available information. If you're interested in bringing yourself up to date about what has happened with the Russia story and what is still to be learned, this would be a good book to pick up.

This book gives a rather comprehensive, in-depth, and unbiased coverage of Russian cyber interference in our elections of 2016 - producing the detailed timeline of when/how it all happened. What we know from the news is one thing - powerful in its separate episodes; here, though, all the dots are connected in a most meticulous manner of thorough investigative reporting.

It's exhausting... trying to keep up with the day-to-day insanity of the Trump-Russia revelations. Isikoff and Corn's book is a useful, if also exhausting, refresher course in the early days of this mess. There are details, especially from the two months prior to the election, that are easy to have forgotten, and some that were never really publicized all that much. The question remains: when (and how) will this end, and how (and when) will we repair the damage and build a more just society? (Brian)

An insightful read.

This is the complete story, insofar as is now known, of how the Russians hacked our democratic election in 2016. This was not a "3rd rate burglary" like Watergate, but was well-planned, well-executed, and very damaging. This book explains it all, beginning with the holding of the Miss Universe contest in Moscow in 2013. What the Russians did was horrifying, but perhaps more horrifying is how long it took our government to realize the extent of what was going on and the damage it was causing.

I'm an "MSNBC Mom" (It's a "thing" according to a recent NYT article), and I pretty much keep up on these things, but this book puts all the snippets together and connects them logically so that the depth of the damage can't be ignored. I think this is an essential book to read to help understand the state our country is in today. Highly recommended.

4 stars

Isikoff and Corn do an excellent job of laying out the origin story (including all the players) of the Russian investigation. No huge surprises (if you've been watching Chris Hayes on MSNBC), but they really make this huge beast of a mess into a coherent, organized narrative. Can't wait for the next installment which will (hopefully) conclude with the imprisonment of several traitors who sold out the U.S. and cozied up to Putin.

If you read just one book on Trump and Russia, this is the one to read. Having read several, this is the definitive one. Michael Isikoff and David Corn, two investigative reporters, join forces to trace the ties Donald J. Trump and various Russians have had traced back many years, even before he declared his intention to run for president. Unfortunately for the American electorate, Trump has kept many of these contacts, attempts to conduct business in Russia and various obligations, financial and otherwise, to people and entities in that nation, a secret. For instance, if we could see his tax returns, we might be able to find some assurance that he is not a "stooge" for Putin, but unfortunately, Trump is the first president in recent history to deny the American people this transparency. This is both an enlightening and frightening look at Russia's interference in our election that midway changed to assist in the election of Trump, someone who was a "friend" to Russia who could be controlled and manipulated, right up to the investigation by Mueller into this situation. After reading this, unless Mueller is a fool which I highly doubt, his investigation will proved a disaster for Trump and his administration.

If you've been following this story closely over the last eighteen months, there's not a lot of new information here but it is a useful synthesis of the best information we have so far. I suspect it will age poorly as new information comes out -- it could have even benefited from some of the things we learned yesterday, just a few weeks after its publication -- but for now it is highly recommended if you are overwhelmed by the recent avalanche of news.

Well written, easy to follow. Should be read by every patriot.

When I was younger I never imagined I'd be devouring books about politics. And it's not just being "woke" that makes me feel that I need to keep up on what's going on in the world. Rather, it's a desire to understand all those goings-on, and how they affect my world and me. The more I know the more interesting it all becomes. Perhaps the political milieu seems boring to many Americans because we know so very little about how it works. That's a shame, really, and if I wanted to I could devote a whole post (or many) about why that is, and what can be done about it.

But this is intended to be a review of the Isikoff and Corn history of the run-up to the 2016 election with an eye to Republican collusion with Russia, so let me just say that they do a damn fine job of it. The book reads like a political thriller -- without the car chases, shoot-outs and fistfights, though there is a good bit of poison, courtesy of the Russians -- a chronological account of the events that informed the presidential election, and a look at the players involved.

The Trump camp does not come off well, but then did you expect they would? If there was no collusion between them and Russia, the coincidences are so unbelievable that I'd guess the odds are up in the killed-by-a-meteor-while-collecting-a-billion-dollar-Powerball-check area. Is Trump culpable here? That's hard to say because he comes off as one of the most oblivious humans on the planet, never entirely knowing what's happening, or really caring about any of it unless it earns him money.

The Clinton camp seems more feckless than anything else, forced to play defense at every turn. The Sanders camp barely registers, except to come across badly when they do. Surprisingly, James Comey seems more sympathetic than I'd expected. Isikoff and Corn paint a picture of a man who kept finding himself between a rock and a hard place, and who made some bad decisions because it it. It made me want to read his new book, so that should tell you something.

What did I take away from all this? There is no doubt in my mind that Russia intended to influence the election in favor of Trump. There is no doubt in my mind that America was played for a collective chump by Putin and his allies. There is no doubt that there were Putin allies in the Trump camp, and they may have included The Donald. As of the writing of this book, the jury was still out on the proof of culpability and the level of damage that was done to our democracy, though the news brings us closer to answers every day, and I suspect that had this book been published next year it would have been far more damning.

Nevertheless it's food for thought, and it is, in one important sense, one of the best accounts of what happened that I've run across. Isikoff and Corn are brilliant at contextualizing these events so that it's simple to understand what happened and why it was important and, not incidentally, who was involved. For a clear, concise timeline of these events, I don't think you could do better.

The beginning of this was the most interesting part of it, with lots of new details and pulling together of timelines I knew about in a less connected way. As it got closer to the election, it just started to become painful to read. I knew these details and I could see the train wreck that was coming and I it was just rehashing the mess. As I told a friend, "Don't make me go through this again without a happy ending!" Still, well-written and researched and perhaps in a few more years I will enjoy rereading it.

Good book on Trump and Russia but Collusion by Luke Harding came out first. This book does add a lot more though.

About the relationship between the Trump family, and cronies,. and the Russians during the presidential campaign and after. I found the book to be rather dull. I read 224 pages of about 305 pages before I decided to return the book to the public library.

This is a book that needs to be read now before events overtake it. The book provides a comprehensive and well written account of the entire Russian-Trump investigation. There is not much new if you have been following the news but it helps to have it all laid out with good explanations.

Exhaustively researched and yet intensely readable. Well, the end kinda lagged a bit but mostly a truly fascinating and frightening account of an amazing combination of arrogance, incompetence, and sheer nuttiness that led us into the Iraq war. There were plenty of things I knew about but even more I didn't and it was all worth reading. However, by the time it got to the Libby trail and the leaks, I was getting worn out with who had spoken to whom about what and started to loose some of the thread. The final wrap up was very good as well. This almost got me excited about politics again!

It you're a Bush supporter, you probably don't want to read this book. The rest of you will find confirmation in this book for what you've suspected and feared all along. It fills in many of the details behind some of the news stories that we've been hearing over the past several years about the Iraq War.

Read in August, 2007

Even more depressing than Fiasco, but just as well documented. An incompetent executive branch with virtually unlimited power, running amok.

ust finished a great book: _Hubris: the inside story of the spin, scandal, and the selling of the Iraq war_ by Michael Isikoff and David Corn. Really in-depth background to the Administration's case for war, the intelligence behind it, and how that intelligence was spun.

Here's a good summarizing excerpt from p. 209-210: "For those who wanted to overthrow Saddam, eveything had worked out. The American intervention, for which planning had begun 16 months earlier, was about to unfold. But the public case had been built on a flimsy foundation: a faulty and misleading National Intelligence Estimate, the phony Niger charge, the false claims of fabricating defectors such as Curveball; the White House Iraq Group's spin campaign; the misleading media reports seeded by the manipulative Iraqi National Congress [Chalabi's group}; the disputed aluminum tubes; the CIA white paper that concealed intelligence agency dissents; Rice's "mushroom cloud"; the imaginary Atta-in-Prague [about the 9/11 hijacker supposedly meeting w/ a member of the Iraqi government] that obsessed Cheney, Wolfowitz, Libby, and Feith; the flawed Powell presentation; and Bush's overstated (if not overheated) rhetoric that exceeded the actual and exaggerated intelligence." All these things are thoroughly explained in the book.

It is also quite clear that Rove, Libby, and Richard Armitage all disclosed Valerie Plame Wilson's identify as a CIA agent to several reporters. For technical reasons (also well explained in the book) the prosecutor couldn't make a case against Rove and Armitage.

The book is well written, with all the excitement of a spy novel or a detective story.

Recommended.

Book report

Title Hubris: The inside story of spin, scandal and the selling of the Iraq war

Author: Michael Isikoff and David Corn

The title of the book very aptly tells what the book is about. What has transpired over the past six years, the Bush presidential administration, is a grimly fascinating saga. To say that it is a tale unprecedented in American history is perhaps too much of a stretch. Previous administrations have engaged in no less scandalous behavior nonetheless this current soap opera of arrogance and ignorance is unique.

The book is appropriately titled “Hubris”. The dictionary definition of the word is: 1.Arrogant pride or presumption. 2. (In Greek tragedy) excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis. There have been inept presidents previously but it is not likely that any have been as detached as Bush has been.

Hubris is a recounting of what amounted to “a selling of the Iraq war”. What began as pursuit and annihilation of the Al Queda of Osama Bin Laden, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack, was diverted from the Afghanistan War to invasion of Iraq based on the notion that changing the regime in Iraq from Saddam’s brutal dictatorship to a democratic government would bring about a transformation in the Middle East.

Wolfowitz was the prime agitator for removing Saddam. His principle concern was control of the oil patch since this was a vital national interest. In spite of the fact that Iran posed a far greater, more credible, threat. Bush and company focused on Iraq and became obsessed with knocking Saddam out with armed force.

The core of the administration known as the “Vulcans” consisted of Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice. Colin Powell, Secretary of State during Bush’s first term was pretty much an outsider to that group despite his important cabinet position.

Hubris tells of the extent to which this group went to sell the war to the Congress and the American people. Essentially the decision to invade Iraq was made first and then the rationale or justification for doing so became the obsessive objective. The prime reason given was weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Later Wolfowitz stated that it was chosen because it was the most effective (scariest) reason of all. Next was ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Eventually they claimed Iraq was importing yellow-cake from Nigeria, the central element for nuclear weapons production.

Despite assurances after the war had begun that evidence of W.M.D. would be uncovered no nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons were ever found. One outcome of the allegation of uranium processing was the controversy between the White House and the CIA. Ambassador Joe Wilson had been sent to Nigeria by the CIA to check on the validity of the White House claim that yellow-cake (the source of uranium) was being shipped to Iraq. Wilson found no evidence that such was the case and publicly refuted the claim. Vice President Cheney reacted strongly to the repudiation and sought to discredit Wilson.

That now famous “leak trial” indictment of Cheney’s aid Scooter Libby by a federal prosecutor for perjury and obstruction of justice came from the investigation of the leaking of the name of a CIA agent, Wilson’s wife, to the press and a subsequent article by Robert Novak divulging the name. The CIA requested that the FBI investigate the outing of a CIA agent.

The investigation uncovered the fact that high government officials – Karl Rove, Richard Armitage, Libby, and Cheney were involved in the leak and its coverup.

In spite of the machinations to justify the war the debacle that ensued as the war degenerated from bad to worse has culminated in civil strife that is causing horrendous loss of life for Iraqis as well as American and British military personnel.

Eventually all the subterfuge and incredible misjudgment and mismanagement of the adventure will be chronicled more fully and history will judge the actions of the Bush administration. It won’t be a pretty picture.

Pretty much a rehash of stuff we already knew (except that Armitage started the whole Valerie Plame leak). Irritating style of leaving one plot in the middle and jumping to another.½

A fine, reasonably balanced (fans of the Bush administration won't think so) look at how we got to where we're at now.

The picture ain't pretty--politicians of both parties, intelligence workers and reporters all come off very badly.

Patriotism is apparently not just the last resort of the scoundrel, but makes scoundrels of us all--or many of us at any rate.

This story was told by the Newsweek writer who was uncovering the Lewinsky scandal as it was happening. In fact Isikoff goes to great lengths to point out how the investigators would ask him to sit on a story for a day or two until they can question witnesses so as not to give out information that could sway testimony. He breaks down his reporting into Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, and Ken Starr. He was very close to this investigation, at times feeling like he was more involved in it than reporting it.

The title gives the book away immediately. It is designed to make you believe that Trump’s election was corrupt from the beginning, starting with Putin, America’s new arch enemy. Although I had hoped this book would be a bit different, offering more neutral facts, but it was the same old, same old hatchet job, written by two Trump haters designed with the only purpose being to trash President Trump, and trash, they did.
A more discerning reader, than the average one who simply reads it to reinforce their dislike for Trump, and their anger at having their candidate lose what they are convinced was a stolen election, will actually begin to see the conspiring of the left, from day one, to destroy the legitimate election of President Trump by tainting it with investigation after investigation based on unverifiable facts, innuendo and any idea they thought would blow up into a scandal that would hurt him. Truly, the conduct of the investigations of the FBI and the behavior of the left, leaping to immediate conclusions that they thought would help their cause, including President Obama’s administration, is tainted with utter and complete bias, devoid of facts. Their actual intent was to alienate the electorate, convince them that the President was a criminal, and destroy his Presidency so they could have him removed because they could simply not accept the fact that he won. To do so would force them to face reality and their own failure. At first, there were saner minds prevailing, but as time went by and nothing concrete developed, they grabbed at straws and with the help of a biased press and FBI, they succeeded in beginning an investigation which would taint the entire Presidency, which was their goal, to begin with; they succeeded. History will judge them all, including the hypocrites who wrote the books without fairly showing both sides of the story.
While it is true, that President Trump, a non-politician used non traditional methods during his campaign, it is also true that after he won, the forces against him piled on in far greater numbers and with far murkier methods to destroy him. While Trump used, rather benign, sometimes comical, labels for those he was running against, those that were against him, used far more incriminating terms to describe him, without any evidence to back it up. They took private conversations and made them public and than used them as excuses for their public denouncements. Bullying from the left was rampant and totally excused by a fourth estate that forgot its purpose because it is populated, largely, by left-leaning journalists.
The lies of the Obama administration were totally ignored, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton’s lies about the video blamed for Benghazi and Hillary’s use of a private email server were all dismissed as non-crimes, although they surely could have been investigated ad nauseum, as well, and a crime could have been discovered. Susan Rice’s unmasking of an American citizen’s private conversations was dismissed as well, when phony and uncorroborated excuses were used to allow it. John Kerry failed to understand what was happening in Russia, as did Obama, yet they were not investigated as to their possible reasons for dropping the ball. The attempt to attach a corruption charge to the Trump business dealings with Alfa Bank failed. When all of their so-called “legitimate” attempts failed to distract the world from Hillary’s offenses, the left created their own.
They were successful because the larger world was truly surprised when Trump won the nomination. They were further surprised when he won the election. In saner times, we would have moved on, but the left collaborated to keep Trump out of the mainstream, with incomplete briefings He was not informed fully about the Russian problem, partly because Obama and his friends did not want the world to know that they had dropped the ball.
If the Republican Party had hung tough, as the Democrats do, this might have blown over. However, there were moles in the party actively plotting against Trump, as well. They essentially shot themselves in the foot, starting with McCain, who disseminated the uncorroborated Steele dossier because it contained salacious information and McCain wanted to get back at Trump. Then you had Senator Flake and Corker who actively undermined every effort Trump undertook. Without the help of an honest media, the enemies of Trump had the stage and could plan the show as they wished. Scene after scene played out without any positive actions attributed to Trump. The only news was bad news about him. We were indoctrinated and we were being brainwashed. The idea that all the emails and other information about the corruption in the Clinton campaign were factual, didn’t matter. The media liked the unsubstantiated trash they could put out on Trump far better.
The left was quick to jump on anyone associated with the Trump campaign that seemed a bit dirty. They sullied even those with fine reputations by finding hints of wrongdoing from so many years ago it was neither possible to prove or refute them. They then callously ignored all of the truly underhanded people involved with Obama and Clinton, saying that was then, this is now. For their benefit, the time line jumped back and forth. For them, the past was meaningless. For Trump and his friends, it was all consuming. Although Trump has had a far more positive effect on the black and Hispanic communities, Issikof and Corn do not mention this. They reinforce his image as a racist, the name the left has branded all those who disagree with them. They decided their book would ultimately trash Trump, and the Afterword at the end of the book reinforces any notion of the book serving any other purpose. The choice of descriptive words by Issikof and Korn showed their deliberate intent to disparage Trump’s character and those that associated with him. Events were cherry-picked for the specific purpose of demeaning Trump; none were chosen to give him credibility.
When the Clinton campaign cheated and lied and misrepresented, it is treated as just a mistake…a mistake by seasoned politicians. When Trump’s campaign makes an error, it is egregious and criminal. This is probably the first time in history that the outgoing administration hindered, rather than helped the incoming one. Shame on them.
Incredibly, the fact that Obama interfered in Israel’s election is totally ignored as Russia is demonized from page one. I do not disparage the description of Russia’s intervention, only the absence of Obama’s into our allies election. The vindictiveness of the left is unsurpassed in history and history will not look kindly upon this period.
Corn and Issikof wrote a book which rocketed the Steele Dossier and Steele to star status. From the Times, some of their statements are analyzed. Anyone interested can read the entire article at this website:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/30/michael-steeles-russia-dossier-...
Most of their claims have never been proven and Issikof has admitted it.