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Unlimited Access

Name: Unlimited Access
Author: Gary Aldrich
ISBN: 9780783885834

by Gary Aldrich

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Overview

FBI special agent Gary Aldrich thought he had a plum assignment. As one of only two FBI agents posted at the White House, he performed the background checks on White House appointees - a peaceful yet dignified way to close an eventful career spent nabbing mobsters, drug dealers, and white-collar criminals. Aldrich had little interest in politics. But he was concerned with the honor of the presidency and with national security. So what he witnessed in the first months of the Clinton administration left him deeply troubled. Then alarmed. Then angered. And finally, halfway through Clinton's term, so thoroughly outraged that he felt compelled in conscience to leave the FBI. Unlimited Access is Aldrich's electrifying expose of a presidential administration with a great deal to hide - and willing to put America at risk to keep it hidden. Aldrich describes how a comprehensive security system that had been perfected through six presidencies was systematically dismantled by the Clintons so they could bring their friends into the White House - friends that previous administrations would have barred because of serious ethical or legal problems, some prosecutable. Unlimited Access also sheds new light on such White House scandals as "Nannygate," "Travelgate" and the mysterious case of Vince Foster - whose true motive for committing suicide was revealed to Aldrich, in a secured vault, by White House security director Craig Livingstone. Throughout Unlimited Access, Aldrich relies on eyewitness testimony: his own, and that of other White House insiders. He concludes with a mock FBI "background report" on the President and First Lady themselves - a report that will surely come as deeply disturbing to every loyal, law-abiding American.

Mr. X, a private investigator who served both Presidents Bush and Clinton, gives a fascinating insider's view of the day-to-day workings of the White House. From the Chief of staff to the kitchen chef, from the Drug Czar to the custodians, Mr. X met and talked with them all and here reveals, in detail, how the Clinton administration turned the White House into "Animal House."

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Editorials

Library Journal

Aldrich, who spent 30 years with the FBI, the last five as an agent responsible for background checks on White House staff, does not earn much sympathy with this ear-to-the-gutter expos of the Clinton administration. Other books, such as Roger Morris's Partners in Power (LJ 8/96) and Meredith Oakley's On the Make (LJ 7/94), detail the rudeness of the Clintons and the people that surround them, but Aldrich lashes back at the lack of cooperation he received with repetitive character assaults, allegations, and blanket condemnations. Former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum is a "short, pushy, dissembling New York lawyer." Vincent Foster, with whom Aldrich had some contact, was not likely depressed because Aldrich didn't notice it. (Neither did Foster's best friends, including the Clintons). Hillary Clinton, "Mrs. President," was in charge of all hiring and preferred "tough...lesbian women...and gay men." The book concludes with the background investigation of the Clintons that Aldrich would have submitted had he been given the opportunity. Not surprisingly, it concludes that the Clintons are not fit for the White House. Not recommended.Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.