Three-quarters of Americans believe that a group of unelected government and military officials secretly direct national policy in the United States. Conservatives fear the ever-growing bureaucracy is encroaching on individual rights. Liberals fear the military-industrial complex is pushing us into endless wars.
The debate over the “deep state” raises core questions about the future of American democracy. Is it possible for career government officials to be politically neutral? How vast should the power of a president be?
In a sweeping exploration of CIA and FBI scandals of the past fifty years, from the Church Committee’s exposure of Cold War abuses to the claims, counterclaims, and conspiracy theories of the Trump era, and based on dozens of interviews with career CIA operatives and FBI agents, IN DEEP seeks to answer whether the FBI, CIA, or politicians are protecting or abusing the public’s trust.
David Rohde is an executive editor of The New Yorker website and a former Reuters, New York Times, and Christian Science Monitor reporter. He previously wrote Endgame: the Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, and Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in the Middle East, and co-authored A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping From Two Sides.
