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Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11

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I have been reading many books on Bin Laden, Al Quada, Muslim extremist and also on the above in relation to law enforcement (CIA, FBI, INS, NSA, etc.), Our Presidential Administrations and to Congress (law makers) as it all relates to 9-11. Those books include Catastrophe by Chris Ruddy and Carl Linbacher, Jr., Breakdown by Bill Gurtz, The Sword Of the prophet by Serge Trifkovic, American Jihad by Steve Emerson, among others; and I must say this book; Why America Slept by Gerald Posner, is one of the best. It is completely documented and thoroughly sourced. It centers on the History of major terrorists attacks on the USA, and our allies in relation to the response of our intelligence agency's, State department, and the all our presidential Administration's dating from the Carter years (1976-80) to Now (2003). In Why America Slept by Gerald Posner, He details both the Political and Law enforcement's responses to Islamic based terrorism and what mistakes were made all along the way. the book does not make wild charges but details the mistakes so that we can learn from them. This book documents all of Al Quada's attacks on the US and American citizens all over the world; Documents the History of this declared war on US; and How each attack was handled my the FBI, CIA, INS And by the administrations. He shows how weak responses to terrorism emboldened the terrorists and He also documents some of the missed opportunities to get Bin Laden and Stop his organization long before 9-11. There is also a great chapter on the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah which is must reading. Yes, the Book is critical; but not in any political way, there is no ax to grind hear, against any one individual or administration, its sober and reflective and is a must read for anyone and everyone who wants to know how 9-11 happened.

"Why America Slept" is excellent and vital reporting of the isolated, but mutually contributing failures of management, policy, regulation, politics, will, and luck that culminated in the awful tragedy of 9/11. It is concisely told in a clean style with energy to spare. Posner starts the book with a seemingly minor event (the murder of Emir Shalabi) that turns out to have major implications in the power shift among the participants in the extreme elements in the Islamist war against the West.

We also get interesting information about the events around the trial of the Blind Sheikh Omar Rahman, the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the '93 bombing of the World Trade Center, the embassy bombings, the attack on the Cole, the lessons the terrorists took from our cutting and running from Somalia, and so many more of the preliminary incidents and battles in the War on Terror. More sad than the events themselves is our collective delusion at the time that these were isolated incidents (such as the shooting on the Empire State Building Observation Deck). The author reports these events clearly and with just enough intelligent analysis and insight to show us how all these flow into the same river of violence without ever letting the narrative getting bogged down.

Posner doesn't play the easy blame game of trying to make any one person or any one agency or administration THE fall guy. There are so many failures leading up to the towers crashing to the ground that each and every one of us can take at least a cupful of blame. Yes, some of our public servants and political leaders deserve barrelfuls or even a lake full of blame, but when you and I paid more attention to the OJ Simpson trial or to the circus around the murder of JonBenét Ramsey than the trial of Sheikh Rahman, well; none of us can really claim innocence because we were telling our leaders we weren't serious about this issue.

We can't hide saying we weren't told. There were voices in the wilderness warning us, but we at least have to be honest enough to admit that, at the time, we really didn't want to know. We wanted to continue believing everything would be OK. We wanted to believe that the first bombing of the WTC was done by some crazy dolts who couldn't get it right. We wanted to believe everything was somehow under control. This book helps us understand the consequences of such willful ignornace.

Posner gives us the facts behind the scandals that led to the Congressional attacks on the FBI and CIA that put them on a short leash and gave what amounted to aid-and-comfort to our enemies. But there were (are) also inter-agency rivalries and deep-seated distrust that kept (keeps) vital information filed away and away from where it would do good. We learn about Presidential tough talk that carefully avoided tough action because of the possible political fallout. And when a decision to get real is finally made, the bureaucracy around the President moves too slowly until the horror finally hits home.

The book is a gripping read and culminates in the fascinating interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. You will never forget this chapter because it reads as if it should be in a novel or a big budget movie. As this book has been promoted I have heard weaselly denials from certain foreign authorities that the things discussed in this chapter ever took place. However, when you actually read this book you will believe that this stuff did happened. Especially when you read what actually followed right on the heels of this interrogation this chapter rings as true as a huge and beautiful church bell.

This is a book I wish everyone would read, but watch your blood pressure. This book is just right for our times and will help you make better judgments about what we should be focusing on as a country to deal with the very real threats we continue to face.

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

This book does not blame any one political party - and its very political balance shows how carefully it has been constructed. Sad to say it - but this book is all too true. People forgot that religion has become a major player in why people do terrible things, and September 11, 2001 showed us that all too clearly. We can't afford to ignore such extremism in the future. We must also do something, as many specialists in DC and elsewhere are now realising, about the way in which Saudi Arabia fuels the kind of extremism that caused 9/11. Let's keep looking at the real reasons behind 9/11 - as these authors are trying to do - and learn the right lessons for the future. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

An excellent book. I saw Mr. Posner on The O'Reilly Factor the other night and after listening to the interview, I realized he'd raised enough points to peak my interest enough to buy it. DO NOT let this one escape you. It is a book you will not put down until you reach the end. In fact, you will probably turn the hardcover over to see if there just might be another page to read. This book is a beautiful piece of journalism. Do your friends a favor and encourage them to purchase and read it. It would also be a great gift. :)

Why America Slept - America's Alarm Clock is Clanging Loudly (And Boy, Are They Annoyed!)

From the time of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon to the near-assassination of former President Bush to the destruction of the World Trade Center, the footsteps of a menacing enemy have grown ever nearer, and Americans have literally slept through the warnings. They stirred at each shaking of slumber, and then promptly went back to sleep again. Posner's new book is a wake-up call, a reminder of many things that we knew, and were able to read about for ourselves, but just as quickly dismissed again, and forgot about.

Ostensibly concerned with the devastation of September 11, 2001, Posner guides the reader through a crucial analysis of the relationship between America's domestic and international intelligence agencies, the CIA and FBI. He details the inner political intrigues of both agencies, and the fundamental differences in their priorities and goals that set them at odds like two dissimilar, feuding brothers, and ultimately cause them to fail the country they're sworn to protect.

Posner also chronicles the most significant of the many pre-September 11 terror attacks, noting America's failure to deliver a strong, decisive response. Conservative readers, weary of the media's love affair with liberals and the Democratic party, will be delighted with the way Posner holds Clinton accountable for his apathetic responses to terrorist attacks (his answer to an attempt on the life of former President George H. Bush was to bomb an empty building in Baghdad in the middle of the night) and the many opportunities he missed to capture Usama Bin Laden.

The current President Bush is not entirely let off the hook, nor is former President Ronald Reagan. There is no one in America who ultimately does not bear some responsibility for the attack, including the American people themselves. But this book is such a page-turner for those fascinated by the political intrigue, the taking-to-task of politicians and bureaucrats, and by the inside look at the behind-the-scenes bureaucracies, the secrets the media failed to properly inform the American public of, that Americans don't realize how much they are to blame until they come to Posner's bibliography at the end, and see the endless list of news stories and books they could have read to keep themselves informed, and either didn't read or had forgotten about until it was too late.

So Posner reminds us of the terrorist attack on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and how it was dismissed as merely the action of a loner. He takes us back to the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the Kenya embassies, Pan Am Flight 103, which had three CIA agents aboard coming home for Christmas. He even returns us to the Oklahoma City bombing, teases us with a few eyewitness accounts that were ignored and then shows us how the distraction with the case led to such a strain of the FBI's resources that they were unable to follow the leads of more serious terrorist threats. He examines TWA Flight 800, though unaccountably makes no mention of the stories that were prominent in the days' papers about an FBI terrorism expert who was aboard that flight, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions, despite the official determination of what might have caused the flight's destruction.

Readers will find the interrogation of an actual terrorist the most fascinating, an account worthy of a James Bond movie or a Tom Clancy novel. Clancy has predicted for years what kind of things could happen. Posner's book isn't fiction. Nor is it Nostradamus. Unfortunately for us, it's all history. Somewhat troubling is that fact that Posner makes no mention of the interrogation of Khalid Mohammed, mainly because the FBI wasn't very forthcoming with the details. Mohammed's accounts, in any case, may not prove to be as reliable as someone lower in the ranks and less practiced at evading an interrogator's questions. But in Posner's style, it would have made very interesting reading.

Posner's book is a page-turner that will have readers shouting, "Unbelievable!" every few pages. Most readers will be downright furious. Liberals will grumble and dismiss it as conservation sour grapes. To those few who'd been paying attention all these years, the fangs of rage won't bite quite so deeply, and will be mixed with bemusement, though there are still a few ironic surprises, like the FBI agent who spoke at a terrorist convention, thinking it was the Rotary Club. Posner writes that Usama Bin Laden's contempt for Americans has its roots in their apathy. After reading this book, no one can say that they didn't know. Posner is to be commended for his attempt, though perhaps not entirely perfect, to set the record straight. Let us hope Americans will keep Posner's book for posterity and heed it, unlike the many newspaper accounts that for years heralded the events of September 11 only, if read at all, to wind up lining bird cages.

Gerald Posner and his wife, Trisha, have wonderfully collaborated in revealing how our nation was surprised by the attacks of the Muslim extremists on 9/11. Which major political party deserves most of the blame? Sadly, both the Republicans and Democrats have much to answer for. Even Ronald Reagan deserves a lot of criticism for appointing the grossly inept William Webster as head of the CIA. Moreover, Reagan pulled our troops out of Beirut after a terrorist bombing murdered 241 American soldiers. This action greatly emboldened Osama bin Ladin to carry out his future deeds of massive destruction. And yes, the Posners do take to task the irresponsible and pacifist inclined Bill Clinton. The former president's political guru, Dick Morris, asserts "In Bill Clinton's epoch, terror was primarily a criminal justice problem which must not be allowed to get in the way of the `real' foreign policy issues." The first World Trade Center attack in 1993 shockingly barely got any attention from the Clinton White House. The Posners also mention the mind boggling damage caused by liberal Democrat congressman Barney Frank (and implicitly the American Civil Liberties Union) who "led a successful effort to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that membership in a terrorist group was no longer sufficient to deny a visa." I strongly contend that a whole chapter should have been devoted to this particular subject. The ACLU and its fellow travelers may have the best intentions---but the results of their efforts often leave a lot to be desired. After all, the United States Constitution is not a suicide pact!

The Posners legitimately blast the CIA and FBI for their childish bureaucratic confrontations. Those supposedly defending our lives and freedoms are often too distracted in fighting each other. Is Saudi Arabia truly a friend? Did our European allies always fully cooperate with us? The Posners do not avoid these disturbing questions. In regards to the Saudi royal family, a number of them might remind you of Thomas Wolfe's 1971 "Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers." One is cynically hard pressed to believe that such wealthy and extravagant folks really desire to live in a backward and impoverished cultural milieu. Do they merely desire to loosely associate with those more adventuresome and violent than themselves? The evidence provided by the Posners suggest that this may be so.

Gerald and Trisha Posner are once again to be congratulated for this fine work. You also may wish to read the highly recommended Daniel Pipes' "Militant Islam Reaches America" and Steven Emerson's "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us." The radical Muslim threat is not going away anytime in the near future. Thus, it behooves us to increase our knowledge concerning our unrelenting and vicious foes.

Gerald Posner's Why America Slept is a short, engaging, well-researched book about the events leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the failings by government agencies (U.S. and otherwise) that enabled them to succeed. Without intending to be, it is an excellent primer (along with James Bamford's A Pretext for War and the 9/11 Commission Report) to show the bankruptcy of the "U.S. government did it" conspiracy theories. The book does not address those theories, it simply lays out the events and evidence that led up to 9/11 in great detail--events and evidence which those conspiracy theories completely ignore. As Posner's earlier book Case Closed more explicitly showed for JFK assassination theories, they proceed by selecting isolated apparent anomalies in the evidence or errors in the official accounts, stringing them together to build a superficially semi-plausible case, and ignore everything else. The same tactic is used by those who deny the reality of evolution or the Holocaust. Those who use this technique fail to realize that any attempt to construct an account of a large, complex historical event is likely to have a few minor errors, but the best explanation is one which incorporates the most accurate and most comprehensive amount of the available data.

Notable for their absence from the book are any significant links to Saddam Hussein and Iraq, though Posner does discuss a few that exist (and mentions and cites speculation by Laurie Mylroie). In my view, this is appropriate, though he could have debunked some of the bogus claims of connections, like the claim of Mohammed Atta meeting Al-Ani in Prague, the mistaken identification of al Qaeda's Ahmed Hikmat Shakir Azzawi (family name, Azzawi) with Iraqi intelligence agent Lt. Col. Hikmat Shakir Ahmad (family name, Ahmad), or the other bogus claims from bad intelligence information assembled by Douglas Feith and promoted by Stephen Hayes in his book The Connection, if only Posner's book hadn't predated Hayes'. On the other hand, Posner documents significant links between the hijackers and Pakistan's intelligence services and Saudi royalty.

The list of failings Posner documents is long--it includes failure by Bill Clinton to treat terrorism seriously enough, and in particular to treat Osama bin Laden seriously enough, even after the Hart/Rudman report on national security was issued in 1999. It includes walls between agencies (especially between the CIA and FBI), incompetence by the INS, failure to heed multiple warnings, the FBI's inability to investigate religious groups--even when Islamic extremists were openly advocating attacks against the U.S. at conferences held at U.S. hotels.

Posner's book starts in 1990 with the takeover of the Alkifah Refugee Center by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and the subsequent murder of Emir Shalabi, which solidified bin Laden's influence over the Center. He then backtracks to the 1970s to cover CIA activity in counterterrorism, and back to the 1950s to cover the history of Osama bin Laden up until the late 1980s. He devotes a chapter to the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in Manhattan, and documents the connections to Rahman and al Qaeda which were ignored in the prosecution of El-Sayyid Nosair, who pulled the trigger.

Another chapter documents the secret deal between the Saudi government and bin Laden that would not only allow him to operate freely but to be funded with millions of dollars from the Saudis in exchange for a promise to keep his activities off Saudi Arabian soil.

Posner covers the first WTC bombing attack, bin Laden's time in Sudan (and the U.S.'s failure to apprehend him despite multiple opportunities), and his deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He discusses the hijacking plot foiled by police in the Philippines, "Operation Bojinka," which involved hijacking planes, loading them with explosives, and flying them into buildings. He discusses reporter Steve Emerson's work on Jihad in America, and the Oklahoma City bombing, which discredited the idea of Islamic terrorism in the eyes of many when it proved to have a domestic source. (Posner describes and refers to the work of Jayna Davis, who still argues for a Middle Eastern connection to the Oklahoma City bombing.)

Posner has a brief mention (p. 103) of Wadi el-Hage, bin Laden's private secretary, who lived in the U.S. in the early 1990's and was "implicated in the murder of a radical imam in Arizona" (Rashad Khalifa in Tucson, though Posner doesn't name him).

Subsequent chapters cover money trails to al Qaeda, al Qaeda attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, the crash of EgyptAir 990, Ahmed Ressam's attempt to cross into the U.S. from Canada with explosives, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, before going into detail about the movements of the 9/11 hijackers up to their attacks, the numerous missed opportunities to track and apprehend several of the key players, and the immediate aftermath and capture of key al Qaeda operatives like Abu Zubaydah, whose interrogation after his apprehension in Pakistan in 2002 concludes the book.

This book is a great introduction to the events surrounding 9/11 and is highly recommended.

Posner has written a great book on why America failed to stop 9/11 and has uncovered new information along the way. Posner details the rise of militant Islam in the US, the rise of Bin Laden, terrorism funding, blown chances to stop 9/11, and shocking new info on countries that may have known about 9/11. The missed oppurtunities by the CIA and the FBI to stop 9/11 have been widely reported and there really isn't much new info. The parts I enjoyed were the chapters "Jihad in America", "The Interrogation", and the chapter on terrorism financing. Militant Islam has been around for a long time. Posner discusses its rise during the 90s and how people were preaching hatred towards America for a long time. Guess where most of the money comes from for terrorism? From US charities. Many of them are fronts for terrorists. The last chapter is probably the best in the book. I would say about half the chapters of the book are new information. Posner rereports some open facts for about half the book, but the other half is definitely worth the read.

I really enjoyed reading this book. True to its claims, the book presents an infuriating look at the power struggle between the CIA and FBI that consistently led to perpetrators of terror to slip beneath our collective radar. The book also goes into great detail about the failure of several administrations to realize the threat of terrorism against the U.S., even after compelling evidence was presented. People still enamored with the Clinton administration will find this book to be a hard medicine to swallow, but Posner's style is not vindictive, only telling truthfully how the policy of polling and public opinion ruled Clinton's strategy against terrorism.

If you're looking for a book telling how O.J. and JonBenet Ramsey kept us from looking closely at terrorism, try another book. Posner's book thankfully keeps this kind of rhetoric to under a page, while focusing on the real (and continuing!) issue of american apathy to violence directed at us by the militant muslim population.

Well written, with many personal interviews. I was a bit distracted by the numerous footnotes (often crowding onto another page) and chapter notes, and found my head hurting trying to jump back and forth while remembering the flood of names, places and dates that are presented in this book.

Highly recommended for students writing reports on the 9/11 tragedy - bibliography is well done and comprehensive.