NONFICTION - Jan. 3, 1993

INSIDE THE CIA: Revealing the Secrets of the World’s Most Powerful Spy Agency by Ronald Kessler (Pocket Books: $23; 274 pp.). Disturbed by the threadbare way writers have used the CIA as a symbol both of Good (the fount of knowledge in Washington, a town built on knowing) and of Evil (the epitome of corruption in works by ‘60s writers), Ronald Kessler aims in these pages to offer the first realistic, evenhanded overview of the agency. As the first journalist to win in-depth interviews with CIA directors (including two “active directors,” William Webster and Robert Gates), Kessler is generally successful, concisely summarizing the agency’s short history. But Kessler’s interview deal seems to have given his sources far too much leeway to fashion their own images. Like a tour guide who spirits us past too many closed doors on a supposedly “comprehensive” tour, Kessler makes much ado of revealing “classified information” that’s not really vital (e.g., the actual number of CIA employees is 22,000, not the number most commonly cited, 17,000). Meanwhile, he fails to report many recent CIA controversies, such as Gary Sick’s contention that CIA personnel, disillusioned with Carter, helped arrange a deal with Iran to delay the release of the hostages. Still, this tour is never dull, especially since it features so much 007 gadgetry, from water-spraying silent drills to eavesdropping devices that work by zapping laser beams through windows.