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Title: Why America Slept : The Failure to Prevent 9/11 by GERALD L. POSNER ISBN: 0-375-50879-1 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (51 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Posner's Masterpiece
Comment: "Why America Slept" by William Posner is an excellent report of the failures of law enforcement, policy makers, and American intelligence that culminated in the awful tragedy of 9/11. This book is written in a clean style and is packed with valuable information.
Posner details both the political and legal responses to Islamic-based terrorism and the numerous mistakes that were made all along the way. However, the book does not place total blame, or make any one agency or administration "the" fall man. Rather, he details the mistakes so that we are able to learn from them.
This book documents al-Qaeda's attacks on US soil as well as American citizens throughout the world. It also documents the history of this declared war on the US and how each attack was handled by the FBI, the CIA, the INS and other administrations. Also, the reader can see multiple missed opportunities the US had to capture bin Laden and stop al-Qaeda long before 9/11. Posner demonstrates how weak responses to terrorism emboldened these terrorists.
The book is a gripping read and culminates in the fascinating interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. Prior to reading the book, I read of denials from foreign authorities that the things discussed in this chapter ever took place. However, when you actually read this book, you will believe that this did happen.
"Why America Slept" lays to rest two years of assumptions about what led up to the worst terror attacks in America's history. This book presents a completely different angle on the attacks and demonstrates how misplaced priorities and incompetence made America an easy target for terrorists.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Important Book That Every American Should Read
Comment: As a detailed, carefully documented exposé of ignorance, complacency, shortsightedness and negligence, WHY AMERICA SLEPT is perhaps the most important of the recent books addressing various aspects of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
A similar case could be made for James Bovard's TERRORISM AND TYRANNY, which examines not causes but effects, specifically the government's response to 9/11, which has consisted largely of an unprecedented assault on the Bill of Rights, especially in the areas of privacy and due process. It is a vastly important book that every American ought to read.
Gerald Posner's concern, however, is with life-and-death issues, primarily the question of why the intelligence community failed to discover the al-Qaeda plot to hijack civilian airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Although Posner's approach is generally detached and restrained, he has conceded that he was "infuriated" by some of his discoveries and "disgusted" in particular by President Clinton's failure to neutralize the threat posed by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. Posner provides details of opportunities to capture bin Laden, opportunities that he says Clinton either ignored or rejected. Moreover, he says, Clinton declined offers by both Sudan and Qatar to arrest bin Laden and deliver him to the United States. Perhaps for purposes of comic relief, Posner also quotes Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, as saying that as early as 1996 the administration was "trying to get bin Laden with everything we had."
In this carnival of boneheadedness and floundering incompetence, Posner recounts one outrage after another. Among the worst, in terms of consequences, was the unwillingness of the FBI and CIA to cooperate and share information. Each had information of vital importance to the other, but the rules of their long-standing rivalry prohibited mature behavior. An FBI agent who asked the CIA for information about Zacarias Moussaoui received an official reprimand for doing so. Moussaoui was one of those aviation students who wanted to learn how to steer large airliners but had no interest in learning how to take off or land. The FBI agent was Coleen Rowley, one of the very few figures in this bleak history who behaved intelligently and honorably.
WHY AMERICA SLEPT is filled with evidentiary specifics that attest to the thoroughness of Posner's research, and one suspects that this former Wall Street lawyer might have been happier as a prosecutor. But having turned to investigative reporting --- he is now the author or co-author of ten books --- Posner apparently finds sufficient satisfaction in fulfilling the imperative of the people's right to know, and in this book, most decisively, the people's need to know.
He has pinpointed individual anomalies and systemic weaknesses that made America vulnerable to attack. This much and no more lies within the bounds of investigative reporting; readers have a shared responsibility to press for the necessary corrections to the problems he has identified.
--- Reviewed by Harold V. Cordry
Rating: 4
Summary: A worthwhile read, concise and jaw dropping information
Comment: Why America Slept, although quite a slow start in the first few chapters, caught my attention as I started to fully understand all the appalling information displayed in front of me. Posner's book is not completely loaded with tons of details on every page, but is more just a map of explaining the how's and why's of 9/11. It may infuriate you and also make you want to discuss the facts given with anyone and everyone. You believe every fact and detail on each page because of how heavily annotated and thoroughly researched this book is.
It is mostly in chronological order starting with the feud between the Muslim and Jewish communities in New York. The formation of al Quaeda is explained, yet it is somewhat confusing. So many different people were all inter-connected through al Quaeda. I was astonished as to how al Quaeda got all their funding to follow through with the attacks...from America.
It was very surprising to me how the CIA and the FBI never worked interchangeably regarding all the information both had and how that put such a strain on the relations and security of the United States as a nation. So much of the information was known by one group and not by another. When reading, it seemed to me that they had so much valuable information and didn't act on anything, just pushing it aside, and that was one of the most frustrating things. I guess we learned though, didn't we?
This book would be a good read for anyone who is just slightly interested in the scandals that went on and are still persistent in our government today, much succeeding without recognition. This book is just right for the difficult times we are going through today and could possibly help change your opinion on what you feel we should be focusing on as a country with the real threats we have to face.
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Title: Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror by Richard Miniter ISBN: 0895260743 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by ROBERT BAER ISBN: 1400050219 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: 1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story by Peter Lance ISBN: 006054354X Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 03 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Meant To Be by Walter Anderson ISBN: 0060099062 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Who's Looking Out for You? by BILL O'REILLY ISBN: 0767913795 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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