Customer Reviews

1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(8)
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1 star:		(9)

 

 

How could it be that the United States of America, a world super-power, had missed the terrorist trail to 9/11? In "1,000 Years for Revenge" Peter Lance uncovers facts, connects events, and discloses a pattern of FBI behavior that together paves a glaring path to the tragedy of 9/11. His passionate presentation of material is captivating and frightening. But it is Lance's gift as a compelling storyteller that makes this book read like a best selling novel. Two real American heroes are the intimate human thread around which the story unfolds and gives this book heart. Further a glossy paged timeline in the middle of the book, provides a brilliant method of distinguishing all the players by identifying each with their picture, each time their name appears. For those readers not familiar with Middle Eastern names, like me, it is an easy way to grasp the continuity of the persons over time. We should all know this story and Peter Lance tells it well.

As I read some of the reviews of people specifically one regarding David Ray Griffin books compared to this I must wonder about their motives. Although I have not read his books I read a few summaries, and concluded on some of the differences between them. David Ray Griffin seems to put all the blame and cover up on the Bush administration; it also seems to claim that there were explosives throughout the towers causing them to come down and not just the planes. It also claims that the pentagon plane never was a plane.

So how do you compare; Peter Lance doesn't claim that the Clinton administration or Bush Administration knowingly lied, it does however criticize both administrations for not looking into things like they should have. Obviously the Clinton Administration takes a harder hit here because they were in office from 93 - 00 when most of the planning took place. (yes I know it is hard for many bush haters not to put all the blame on Bush but this attack was planned well before Jan 1, 2001).

Peter Lance goes into extreme detail regarding the people involved in the 93 bombing and the people hunting/prosecuting them. There were so many things that were missed on all levels of our government from local police to the FBI to the white house. He does focus on the FBI's failure more than many other law enforcement because they are the group involved here at home. There are no conspiracy theories, the 93 world trade center attack happened; we know who did it. The USS Cole was attacked, Khobar Towers, the 2 embassies in Africa and 9/11. To suggest that some or any of these were committed or covered up by our goverment is insane.

Peter Lance details that there are people out there that are making their living trying to kill Americans and their allies. He gives us names, faces actual details. A history lesson in New York City law enforcment. There have been numerous books written about many of the same poeple or by the same people that Peter Lance mentions; John O'neil, Bob Baer etc... Read those books many say the same thing. SO is everyone on the government payroll covering up the White House Empires????

This book is based in facts that occured up to 9/11; it gives details and criticizes many people and administrations for not looking past the tips of their noses. It isn't based on conspiracy theories and is a great book. This book should be read by anyone wanting to know how inadequate our domestic law enforcment is at handling the new terrorist threat.

I had not realized there was more material to mine in the story of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 but Peter Lance hit a motherlode in his recounting of the story of FBI agent Nancy Floyd and her relationship with Emad Salem, the FBI informant who could have prevented that attack. The story of Floyd and Salem is infuriating as it is clear that more senior FBI officials sabotaged what could have been Floyd and Salem's important contribution to breaking up the cell that carried out the 1993 Trade Center attack.
Lance's book is very well researched, well organized in its narrative, and a real page turner that reads like a fast paced book of fiction. Lance does not descend into political point-scoring, but he does make a compelling case that many opporunites were missed to root out al Qaeda in the United States. In my estimation certain officials in the FBI did have a very strong sense of the threat posed by al Qaeda. Lance nonetheless makes a strong case that the US government missed a multitude of opporttunities to extirpate al Qaeda in the United States going back as far as 1989.

As the Chief of Cardiology at a major university medical center in NYC, I am part of a Physician Emergency Response Team, a network of critical crisis medical personnel organized to handle massive emergencies as best we can. Thousands of medical personnel were in place at the highest alert level within minutes of those imcomprehensible blasts on 9/11/01. Some sped as close as they could get to the site, while others prepared the O.R.'s as best we could. Less than 2 miles from the World Trade Center, it took us a couple of hours for it to sink in. No injured were being brought in. We found the same to be the case at four other hospitals within 1/2 mile radius. Not a single person. By early afternoon, I found myself absurdly beginning to pray for something, even a body part, something to prove that my fellow New Yorkers, the mothers and fathers of the children who lived next door hadn't disintegrated into ash. We continued to wait, not leaving once for 14 days and 14 nights, although the reality became apparent long before that. Incredibly, there were so few survivors that our hospital was simply not needed. We were just too far from the site to offer help to the relative few who could be helped.
Not fearing the inevitable is absurdly reckless. We are in a state of seige and I for one am grateful to have had Peter Lance put things in perspective in his book "1000 Years For Revenge". His extensive investigation is the most illuminating document that I've read on the subject so far. The revelations he's uncovered in the process of his investigation are terrifying. He writes with a clarity and precision that is remarkablehe in the process of trying to make sense of what should never have happened.
The US goverment and as the author points out, especially the FBI, have dropped the ball. They have consistently miscalled the opponent and understandably, we citizens, who for so long have enjoyed a level of invulnerability, find it less frightening to look away.
As Peter Lance warns, it is just a matter of where and when. Anyone who feels complacent about their safety is simply wrong. Each of us has an obligation to expect that our government take responsibility for the safety of its citizens. Demanding anything less, makes us responsible as well for contributing to what will inevitably be nothing less than the devastation of human kind.

As an international attorney and former INTERPOL consultant, I found Peter Lance's book, 1000 YEARS FOR REVENGE, the best-written and most fully documented account of the terrorist attacks on the United States that I have read. INTERPOL should hire this author as a consultant on international terrorist matters.

Dan Rather apparently thought enough of Peter Lance's findings to devote two segments to it on the CBS Evening News. The Washington Post also gave it a thumbs up. I don't think anyone could seriously dismiss this book unless they 1) haven't read it, or 2) are embarassed by the revelations.

Among them: Some of these Al Qaeda men were on the radar screen in the US as early as 1989. But because of infighting and incompetence, the FBI stopped surveillance and scared away a key informant. Some of the men then went on to bomb the WTC in 1993, one was convicted of killing a Rabbi, one was involved with the Africa embassy bombings, and one was convicted of plotting to blow up bridges and tunnels in Manhattan. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of both the first WTC bombing and 9/11 escaped. His uncle Khalid Sheik Mohammed executed 9/11 after Yousef was captured in Pakistan. In the mid-90's the Phillipines police told the US Ebmassy about plots to fly planes into buildings in the US, and even said there were 10 Islamic men in flight schools training in the US. Unbelievably the US failed to act on it or see it in the context of a broader international conspiracy.

The book brings to focus very legitimate criticisms of the FBI and INS before 9/11. The agency was designed to solve crimes. Prosecutors earn their stripes by putting people behind bars after the fact. Given all that the FBI knew about some of these Islamist characters living in the US, but failed to take seriously until after the damage was done, our society and others are well advised to demand agencies to prevent terror and protect us rather than just prosecute crimes; concentrating on intelligence, infiltration, prevention, communication between various agencies, and analysis of the bigger picture.

As a former FBI employee, I can say that Lance's book nails the FBI culture cold. The actions of the paper-shuffling FBI middle managers in this book, and how they viewed asserting their fearful mispriorities away from serving the public good and towards maintaining their promotional viability is exactly correct. Heaven forbid any of the FBI middle managers Lance cites should've been wrong in over-aggressively pursuing al Qaeda members in America... why, the FBI might have delayed their next promotion! The default at the FBI was that its managers were rewarded for caution, and punished for errors of over-aggression. Lance's book is the best of the current lot of 9/11 books (The Man Who Warned America comes close, Gerald Posner's book a little less so) in depicting the defective FBI culture that ultimately could have gone so far in preventing al Qaeda from establishing its roots in America.

I read this book with great interest and found it to be a prelude to all the information coming out today, THAT 9/11 may have been avoided if egos were not in the way. Three people had valuable information that was totally ignored by the FBI, one of the people being an FBI agent herself. Ronald Bucca, a distinguished Fireman, Fire Marhshall and soldier apparently trained in terrorism had much to offer in the way of information that may have helped thwart the massive killing that took place on 9/11 by backward, ignorant and pathetic people. It has come out now that there were many signs that we would be attacked. No one took notice and as a result our nation was attacked. Now the attorney general is asking for the public's help. Maybe he should read this book. Perhaps the government, in particular the FBI, should pay closer attention to people like Ronald Bucca, a hero, who had the experience and knowledge of terrorism, to listen and investigate Ronald's claims, as well as the others. Perhaps, if these three people had been listened to, Mr. Bucca would be alive today along with over 3,000 other lost souls. After reading this book by Mr. Lance I do not trust our government to protect us any longer, especially in light of the fact that when offered legitimate information by in the know people, that information is ignored.

Peter Lance leaves the reader with a commanding trail of events and missed opportunities leading to 9/11.

He also paints clear portraits of self-serving middlings who brushed off pertinent intelligence, either because a woman (Nancy Floyd) told them or, because they did not come upon the critical information themselves. God forbid a possible promotion should outrank their duty to the government they serve.

Anyone interested in why we are hated so much cannot afford to miss Mr. Lance's book. A tip for new readers: go to the middle pages first where Mr. Lance has made it a little easier for his readers to keep track of the people with the unfamiliar names A treasure trove of identities.

Meantime, if an Intervention were held on behalf of the FBI, would it learn where it went wrong and why it still has not moved to an alternate path? I doubt it.

Any agency that can notify 18,000 police departments, as the FBI did in December '03 to be alert to anyone carrying an almanac either is not too swift or, does not comprehend the value of the laptop and a terrorist's dream of information at the ready on the internet. In an instant, they can find out the minutest details about a town, a site, a road, the span of a bridge, the height of a building, etc. Even a full map and detailed directions on how to reach a place and how long it would take to get there.

Mr. Lance's "1000 Years for Revenge" presents a disturbing truth in a fluid style without need of embellishments. It should be required reading in any study of world history.

Do you remember where you were on September 11th? If you do, then you were undoubtedly affected by the 14-year or so plot by Muslim extremists to rein terror on America. 1000 Years For Revenge follows the plot as if it were Osama and co's personal diary. Along the way, it exposes the bungling to blatant bureaucratic ignorance demonstrated by the FBI, which as told through a number of insiders, may have facilitated the tragedy on 9/11 among a myriad of other terrorist acts.

The book follows the trails and tribulations of FBI Agent Nancy Floyd, her inside man, Salem; the heroism of Firefighter Ronnie Bucca and his quest to put the pieces of the terrorist's plot together as an outsider; and Ramzi Yousef, or the "Mozart of Terror." The book follows the play by play of Yousef and his dealings with the men that strolled into America's backyard only to plan to destroy it's landmarks, it's infrastructure, and ultimately, it's people.

We all know the end of the story, but it's the events that lead up to 9/11 that Peter Lance is outlining for us here. In tremendous detail, which sometimes reads like a Hollywood cliffhanger, we learn about the countless FBI missteps, the cunningness of Osama, Yousef, and co., and the bravery and struggle of Floyd and Bucca. Honestly, I couldn't put the book down. In less than 24 hours, I was at page 300, in the middle of the DSS's capture of Yousef and his plans for fellow jihadists to fly jetliners into the Trade Center, the Pentagon, a nuclear facility, and even Sears Tower. I'm a slow reader too, so this was an accomplishment. The part that ties Terry Nichols into the mix, circumstantially, left me feeling a bit queasy and wanting to learn more.

In a nutshell, nearly two years after the attacks, as this 25 year old Brooklynite looks out his living room window at the spotlights that serve as a sobering memorial to where WTC once stood, I confess that this book has left me both frightened and satisfied. Frightened that in a mosque 5 minutes from my home, my neighbors could construct a plethora lethal plots that could have been hijacked a number of times by the FBI. Yet, at the same time, satisfied that America's collective gut feeling that "there is more than this terror mess than meets the eye" is laid out and documented by the extraordinary people that were the closest to this evil.

Just read the intro and you'll be hooked.

Dan DeCriscio - Brooklyn, NY