You’ve seen him answering questions during US Congressional hearings. He’s blunt, offensive, even to the point of rudeness, his body language suggesting disregard or contempt for his interlocutors.
That’s “Kash” Patel for you, or Kashyap Pramod Patel to give him his full monicker, the current director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who wears his loyalty to Donald Trump on his sleeve, and why not?
Patel is not only the first American of Indian origin to run the FBI, he has Trump’s trust. Just check out his book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, The Truth And The Battle For Our Democracy and don’t miss the one-liner attributed to the president on the cover:
“Kash Patel will be the best ever FBI Director.”
That remains to be seen given various reports about his “casual approach” to work, tardiness and propensity to be seen with celebrities. But this is about Government Gangsters and Patel begins with an accusation:
“Unsurprisingly, the government gangsters that I expose in these pages didn’t want this book to come out. Yet by law, I needed their approval before we could publish … it’s the book the Deep State doesn’t want you to read but they failed. I will not and will never let government gangsters stop me from putting the Mission First.”
Patel doesn’t pull his punches. The table of contents tells you exactly what he’s up to. The section on the Department of Justice lists three chapters beginning with “Reckless DoJ”, then “In the Belly of the Beast”, and the rather ominous “When Politics Obstructs Justice”.
The FBI, the organisation he now heads, has five chapters named “Objective Medusa” and so on; the National Security Council and Intelligence Community figure as “The Good .. The Bad .. And The Ugly”.
Patel claims he’s been battling the American Deep State for the last seven years, and describes Russia Gate, where Moscow was accused of meddling in the 2016 elections, as “the biggest criminal conspiracy by government officials since Watergate.”
And he points the finger at just about everyone imaginable in Washington DC, about how “the problems we face are not just the result of our leaders incompetence but more so their malice; how the media is not just one-sided but liars … and the Deep State … is the most dangerous threat to our democracy.”
Over the course of 19 chapters and more than 200 pages, Patel calls for overhauling the FBI, putting intelligence in its place, faults “made up” domestic terrorism and seems to echo Trump in the last chapter “Fight to Win” (recall Trump urging his backers to fight following the assassination attempt on him in July 2024).
Patel’s book, although brash, loud and in your face, offers an inside look into how various agencies of the US government work. It’s written by a man who, while he styles himself as driven by “mission first”, does not hide his strong political loyalties.
Government Gangsters is not the first book of its kind and probably not the last, but it is a product of a politically polarised America and every page hammers that message home.
