Homeland insecurity : how Washington politicians have made America less safe / Terry D. Turchie, Kathleen M. Puckett.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Addicted to power : why politicians do what they do -- Richard M. Nixon : from Watergate to 9/11 -- Frank Church : paving the road to 9/11 -- Jamie Gorelick : FISA and the wall -- Don Edwards : of terrorists, spies, and libraries -- All Reagan's men : Iran contra -- Patrick Leahy and Charles Grassley : a hands-on approach to the FBI -- Investigating friends of politicians : the Archer Daniels Midland case -- Bill Clinton : too little, too late --- Al Gore : waltzing with Chinese intelligence -- Richard Shelby : leaking with impunity -- George W. Bush : groupthink -- Dick Cheney : absolute power --- Dennis Hastert and Nancy Pelosi : the House protects its own -- The friends of Jack Abramoff : the money fix --- Outsourcing the war on terror : the business of security --- The intelligence game : torture and other tactics -- Realities of intelligence : the FBI and the CIA -- Political independence and the rule of law : the real power behind our republic.

The authors "sound the alarm in this book, to bring to light the critical damage that over three decades of the exercise of unfettered political power has had on the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- the FBI -- in ensuring transparency in government, the pre-eminence of the rule of law, and the guardianship of civil liberties. It all began with Watergate." -- p. vii-viii.