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David Priess

@DavidPriess

Dec 31, 2022 • 12 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X

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THREAD: As each year ends, I look back at the books I’ve read/re-read or listened to across 12 months.

I’ve read a lot this year—and thought I’d share my list in categories, alphabetically by author within each.

I recommend every one of these books and thank all authors.

1/12

@JohnAvlon

Books I read in 2022 (history, part 1):

Lincoln and the Fight for Peace by @JohnAvlon

SPQR by @wmarybeard

Grant by Ron Chernow

Washington by Ron Chernow

The Cabinet by @lmchervinsky

Behold, America by @sarahchurchwell

The Wrath To Come by @sarahchurchwell

2/12

@JohnDickie1

Books I read in 2022 (history, part 2):

The Craft: How Freemasons Made the Modern World by @JohnDickie1

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

The Future History of the Arctic by @charlesemmerson

Adams vs. Jefferson by John Ferling

The Field of Blood by @jbf1755

3/12

@vermontgmg

Books I read in 2022 (history, part 3):

Watergate by @vermontgmg

Reagan’s War Stories by @bengriffin06

Destination Casablanca by @CapitolClio

The Peacemaker by Will Inboden

Imperfect Union by @NPRinskeep

Hokkaido: A History by Ibrahim Jalal

4/12

@BrianMJenkins

Books I read in 2022 (history, part 4):

Plagues and Their Aftermath by @BrianMJenkins

Ancient Rome by Thomas Martin

True or False by Cindy Otis

A Man of Iron by @troy_senik

Terrorism in American Memory by Marita Sturken

Misinformation Nation by @PubliusorPerish

5/12

@cblatts

Books I read in 2022 (intelligence/natsec/politics, part 1):

Why We Fight by @cblatts

Analyzing Intelligence ed. by Roger George & James Bruce

Intelligence and the State by Jonathan House

MBS by @NYTBen

Truth to Power, ed. by Robert Hutchings & Gregory Treverton

6/12

@juliettekayyem

Books I read in 2022 (intelligence/natsec/politics, part 2):

A Question of Standing by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

The Devil Never Sleeps by @juliettekayyem

The Peaceful Transfer of Power by @DavidMarchick

The Oil Wars Myth by @EMeierding

Why We Did It by @Timodc

7/12

@RicPrado2

Books I read in 2022 (intelligence/natsec/politics, part 3):

Black Ops by @RicPrado2

Challenges in Intelligence Analysis by Timothy Walton

The Spymasters by @ccwhip

Spies, Lies, and Algorithms by @AmyZegart

8/12

@EricJayDolin

Books I read in 2022 (science):

A Taste of Poison by Neil Bradbury

A Furious Sky by @EricJayDolin

How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich

Fire and Flood by Eugene Linden

The Moon by @Eaterofsun

The Loop by @byjacobward

9/12

@kevbryantauthor

Books I read in 2022 (other nonfiction):

Spies on the Sidelines by @kevbryantauthor

Not Dead Yet by @PhilCollinsFeed

The Games by @Davidsgoldblatt

Bigfoot … It’s Complicated by @RepRiggleman

A Different Way to Win by Jim Rooney

10/12

@alexzfinley

Books I read in 2022 (fiction):

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

Victor in Trouble by @alexzfinley

Damascus Station by @mccloskeybooks

Black Ice by @BradThor

Rising Tiger by @BradThor

The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson

11/12

In 2023, I hope to read/listen to just as many great books.

I also hope that, after a challenging couple of years, I’ll make progress on research and start writing my own next book.

Stay tuned.

#HappyNewYear

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More from @DavidPriess

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Aug 7

THREAD: 23 years ago today, the best known daily intelligence item in history—the article "Bin Laden is Determined to Strike"—appeared in George W. Bush’s President’s Daily Brief.

Here’s the story of its creation, based on my interviews with its author and intel leaders:

1/12

During the summer of 2001, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet was telling everyone who would listen that “the system was blinking red.”

The CIA-based Counterterrorist Center (CTC) had been warning for months that al-Qaida seemed primed for a major attack.

2/12

From January 20 to September 10, more than forty pieces in the PDB alone related to Bin Ladin.

In response to such analysis, the president several times asked Michael Morell, his CIA daily intel briefer, about the prospects for an attack in the United States itself.

3/12

Read 12 tweets

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Mar 12

THREAD: Something interesting this way comes in the new US intelligence community annual threat assessment testimony, as briefed to the Senate today.

It’s about Russia. And nukes. And things left unsaid in the submitted text.

Here we go:

1/9c-span.org/video/?534027-…

First of all, if you’re unfamiliar with the long tradition of unclassified worldwide threat briefings to Congress, catch up with this podcast episode I hosted 4+ years ago with Michael Hayden, Jim Clapper, and Andrew McCabe.

Deep experience here:

2/9lawfaremedia.org/article/lawfar…

The Russia section last year had this interesting line: “Moscow will become even more reliant on nuclear, cyber, and space capabilities as it deals with the extensive damage to Russia’s ground forces.”

See here:

3/9odni.gov/files/ODNI/doc…

Read 9 tweets

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Mar 5

THREAD: Speculation has started in earnest about what will happen this year to the tradition of classified intelligence briefings for the major party presidential candidates.

And a lot of what’s being said is wrong, or at least incomplete.

Here’s ground truth —>

1/12

Major-party POTUS candidates have been offered intel briefings during the campaign since 1952.

(Not to be confused with the heavy intel support presidents-elect get—including, since the President’s Daily Brief began in the mid 1960s, a copy of the outgoing POTUS’s PDB.)

2/12

The tradition began in 1952, when President Truman—reflecting on his sudden succession to the presidency in April 1945—offered classified briefings to both candidates (Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson) seeking to succeed him.

No statute required it. Just a courtesy.

3/12

Read 12 tweets

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Apr 4, 2023

THREAD: Tonight in Fredericton, New Brunswick, at a public event about US presidents and intelligence, I got a question I hadn’t heard in hundreds of engagements on the topic:

“Who are the oddest people to ever show up in a PDB briefing?”

Buckle up. Strange things ahead.

1/9

Usually, for more than half a century, the President’s Daily Brief goes only to POTUS and a close circle of senior national security officials—like vice presidents, national security advisors, secretaries of state and defense, and folks one step removed.

Usually.

2/9

But it ain’t always that way.

The PDB was born in 1964, for Lyndon Johnson—and within a few short years, this most secretive document was going to, among others … Press Secretary Bill Moyers.

3/9

Read 9 tweets

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Mar 9, 2023

THREAD: My quick reactions to the U.S. intelligence community’s Annual Threat Testimony, released and briefed to the Senate Intelligence Committee today.

Some surprises, and some disappointments. Let’s go—

1/13

@GenMhayden

First, appreciate that this annual testimony from intel leaders has a rich history—described in this 2020 episode of the Lawfare Podcast that I hosted with former DNI Jim Clapper, former DCIA and DirNSA @GenMhayden, and former DD/FBI Andy McCabe:

2/13
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…

Now for this year. Here are things that strike me upon first reading.

First, China. Wow.

More than ever, the PRC isn’t only front and center but interwoven throughout the assessment. And the judgments = blunt.

Don’t believe me? Read it yourself:

3/13
odni.gov/files/ODNI/doc…

Read 13 tweets

David Priess

@DavidPriess

Oct 5, 2022

Hi. It’s the President’s Daily Brief guy again.

I’m here to explain how Mark Meadows’s newly reported remark about presidents and the PDB is woefully wrong—and reveals why he never should’ve been chief of staff in the first place.

Grab a drink. Let’s take a PDB journey.

1/13

@maggieNYT

First, the remark. In her new book “Confidence Man,” @maggieNYT writes that during the transition Mark Meadows asked Ron Klein, “How many days a week is Vice President Biden gonna want this daily brief?”

Klain was "dumbstruck by the question.”

2/13
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/668293/c…

After Klain said Biden wanted to be briefed every day—saying that was how Biden had done it as vice president—Meadows countered,
"No president ever does that. That’s never happened.”

[This is where your narrator takes a deep breath. And another one. And another one.]

3/13