John Hughes-Wilson is a former intelligence officer and is ideally placed to
reveal the secret history of military intelligence. He takes us 'behind the
scenes' of military and political events from Elizabeth I to Osama bin Laden and
the crisis in the Middle East. The book is divided into three parts. The first
investigates some famous disasters when lack of intelligence was the decisive
factor, e.g. Gallipoli and Dieppe. The second examines some equally famous
examples of good intelligence being overlooked or ignored, e.g. the 'bridge too
far' battle of Arnhem. The last part goes behind the scenes of some famous
successes, from the capture of Slobodan