Customer Reviews

Forewarned: Why the Government Is Failing to Protect Us - and What We Must Do to Protect Ourselves

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is an excellent book that also provides answers and suggestions and not just observations on how weak and ineffective security is since 9/11. Everybody knows the issues but analysis is limited and nobody has real solutions although this book provides many. The author's long time at Kroll, an investigative company very well known on Wall Street, lends a lot more credence than some of the books I read by former rogue news reporters. I also wouldn't give any thought to the anonymous reviewer here who can't be named, gives a bad rating, and is probably a competitor or someone who might have been caught!!! Made me want to buy this book even more...

FOREWARNED: Why the Government is Failing to Protect Us and What We Must Do to Protect Ourselves is a timely and important book that you must read if you care about national and personal security. Whether you agree with everything that the author recommends, this book is so essential that I ordered copies for my two married brothers, my mother, and several of my colleagues at work. I hope our President and every member of Congress reads it and that it helps shape Government policy.
The author Michael Cherkasky is the CEO of Kroll, the world famous security agency with 70 offices in 18 countries. He offers tips for making Americans better protected from terrorist incidents, including information on home safety, corporate security, and foreign travel. He also provides practical measures our country can take to help our security agencies foresee and forestall future attacks. These range from issuing new US/ID cards for every citizen, to bar-coding and linking all cargo containers-via satellite-to a database, thus helping to prevent the shipping of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.
Cherkasky says that the danger of terrorism isn't going to go away. September 11th changed America forever. We're dealing with an enemy who is willing to die to kill us. We must be prepared because we will be attacked again, and our current national security policy is ineffective.

I'm baffled by the bad reviews some people have submitted--including one based on half an hour browsing in a bookstore! These people must have political axes to grind. I found FOREWARNED an important book raising issues about national security few people are raising. Some of Cherkasky's ideas will be disliked by liberals, some by conservatives--he advocates a national ID card and database, opposes racial profiling, and says corporations should do much more to protect their facilities. I don't agree with everything he suggests but his proposals ought to be getting a broader debate in Congress and elsewhere.

I thought this book would say sensible security things, but it doesn't. It might be good business for his company to publish these sorts of things, but that doesn't make it sensible. The book is self-serving nonsense of the worst sort.

Wow, what a load of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). Maybe some of the the things he proposes might possibly reduce the risk of terrorism, but then again so does living in a police state. By looking at security solely through the filter of a security guard, Cherkasky gives a bunch of suggestions that 1) are far too expensive for the security they provide, and 2) actually reduce our security. Does he really believe that ensuring that all cargo containers are "bar-coded, uplinked to a satellite, and downlinked to a database" would "prevent the shipping of biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons"? Or that a National ID card would do anything to prevent terrorism? (Two 9/11 terrorists were able to fraudulantly get Virginia drivers' licenses.) Give me a break. What we need is some creative thinking, not some hack rehashing of the same old nonsense.

This book is badly reasoned, poorly proposed, and stuffed with scarey unrealistic nonsense. I don't recommend it.

I just finished Michael Cherkasky's Forewarned, and I must say it was quite a read! I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the issue of national security and personal safety in light of the possibility of future terrorist attacks.

I do not agree with all of Cherkasky's conclusions and recommendations, but he supports his case very clearly with many real-life examples and he is undoubtedly the well-informed expert that can shed light on both the failings and the possibilites for improvement of our defense against terrorism.

He recognizes the need to balance security measures with the protection of our essential civil liberties and is an intelligent voice that should be heard in the national debate that has waned since our attention has turned to foreign affairs and wartime. If you agree that we need to take security seriously but have issues with the loss of our Constitutional liberties codified in the "Patriot Act of 2001", pick this book up and learn one well-informed individual's opinion on how to avoid reduce the threats of both terrorism and fascism.

The author puts forth the idea that the reason the terrorist attacks succeeded was because there was not enough security in place.This is what one would expect from a person who spent many years as a bureaucrat and is now selling security services.How much security would it take to ensure terrorists would be unable to carry off attacks?Most attacks took place on targets which had security measures far greater than what normal buildings and facilities have.The WTC had security and emergency plans which greatly exceeded that of normal office structures.The Pentagon and Fed bldg in Okla.,foreign embassies,ships had security above the norm.The terrorists chose to go through airports and use commercial planes and slipped through security totally undetected.It's highly doubtful that had all the things that the author suggests been in place,that the results would have been any different.What comes through in this book, is for a continuation of the same kind of "turf" protection and rehash of the same old uninspired thinking that you get from the establishment;and like any other area, there is a security establishment.So, the author is right is saying that security failed;it couldn't possibly work in the first place against determined terrorists;nor would what he proposes.

The problem faced is to identify the terrorists,hunt them down and destroy them.This is going to require a no holds barred approach,since that is the approach used by terrorists,and it must be at the highest level.When terrorists come from outside the country and run back to them to hide,train,get financed,indoctrinated,supplied with weapons and otherwise supported; then they have to be pursued there or pressure applied to those countries to conclude that it is in their interest to do it.It will be obvious that those countries have gotten the message when their reaction to an attack is a determined hunt down of and elimination of the perpetrators.That does not exist today .What you get is a half-hearted condemnation,followed with a "but" then a long line of anti-american rhetoric.They have to be made to believe that a terrorist attack made by their people will bring a resounding reply . Instead of pouring huge amounts of resources into defensive security that the author suggests,and won't work ;the need is to identify the enemy,and respond in quick fashion and in a manner that will convince the terrorists and their supporters that terrorism will result in a crushing response.

The author also suggests that big efforts need to be made to "understand" the terrorists.Again,the bureaucratic approach.These terrorists and thir sympathizers are filled with hate and have clearly stated their aims of killing as many infidels as possible.Tell me,what is there to understand? Just like a serial killer,understanding him is not the issue;catching and eliminating him is.

The whole approach in this book reminds me of the Gun Control mess we have developed here in Canada.We have spent somewhere between 1 and 2 billion dollars on gun registration which doesn't work,hasn't got the guns out of the hands of the criminals and is nothing short of a fiasco.I shouldn't be too negative,I suppose,it has produced a lot of jobs for bureaucrats and consultants.Maybe the ducks will now benefit when shot by an approved and registered gun.It will have no effect on someone shot by a criminal, running around with a gun he has no intention of registering. War has been declared,and rather than falling back into defence,an all out effort for total victory is the only sensible approach.

I spent half an hour with this book at a [local book store]. I thought it was the same half-baked everyone-should-be-scared nonsense that I read everywhere. This book has no new insights or ideas.

I think they just wanted to paint all sorts of disaster scenarios so they could say I-told-you-so. Big deal.

My advice is save your money

I thougth we were all smarter than this. No one wants to read this kind of fearmongering anymore.

I have read many of the books regarding President Bush, 9-11 and the breakdown of our intelligence agencies. Although many of them made their points well, I couldn't recommend them because of their political slants to the right or left.

Forwarned is by far the most important book any American can read. There were times that I actually lost my breath because of the real fear implicit in its pages. This book was very painful to read and yet I could not put it down!

Regardless of one's political leanings this book proves beyond all doubt that we are at war with a very powerful and organized enemy and we better unite soon.
I am neither a R or a D but it's time that we demand that our elected officials stop this political correctness b.s., and DECLARE WAR! Anyone who thinks otherwise is a damn fool.