Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad (Hardcover)

by Andrew C. McCarthy (Author)
Key Phrases: blind sheikh, commission staff, grand imam, Abdel Rahman, United States, World Trade Center (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this annotated retrospective, the prosecutor responsible for leading the investigation of Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and others involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing dissects the miscues between federal agencies that led to that event while laying bare the challenges facing the war on terror today. The pre-1993 comedy of errors begins with the CIA's decision to funnel arms and money to Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war and continues with inexplicable lapses of communication between the State Department and immigration officials (despite having been placed on a State Department terror watchlist, the sheikh travels freely to the United States). The most enduring oversight, however, at least from McCarthy's perspective, is the refusal among academics and political leaders to confront fundamentalist Islamic tenets, the 800-pound gorilla that is somehow always in the middle of the room when terror strikes. The jihadist philosophy that guided the Blind Sheikh is traced through generations of Islamic thinkers to the Prophet Mohammed himself. Though McCarthy's language is at times cumbersome, his firsthand account of jihad's rise and the sheikh's trial of the century is an important contribution (and in some instances, counterpoint) to existing literature on the attack that foreshadowed disaster to come. (Mar.)
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Product Description
Andrew C. McCarthy takes readers back to the real beginning of the war on terror--not the atrocities of September 11, but the first bombing of the World Trade Center in February 1993 when radical Islamists effectively declared war on the United States. From his perch as a government prosecutor of the blind sheik and other jihadists responsible for the bombing, Andrew McCarthy takes readers inside the twisted world of Islamic terror.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (April 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594032130
• ISBN-13: 978-1594032134
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,364 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

263 of 271 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an important, timely read , April 6, 2008

By	John E. Drury "jedrury" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Andrew McCarthy writes with clarity, depth and self-effacement about the lead up to and the successful 1995 prosecution of Omar Abdel Rahman, the Blind Sheikh, and his terrorist followers. As lead Assistant United States Attorney, McCathy's knowledge and attention to detail fascinate. The intricacies in mounting the prosecution, avoiding the pitfalls and foibles of the FBI and New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force, keeping a difficult informant from refusing to cooperate, struggling with the rules of admissible evidence, rival the best in any police procedural mystery; this is not Sam Waterston spouting the script of "Law and Order," this is the argot of a real life Federal prosecutor and it is daunting. No Hollywood script can capture the nuance and judgment needed to bring a case like this to its successful conclusion.

McCarthy, a talented writer, draws deep insights from his experience into the shortcomings of prosecuting terrorists as criminals. He ends with a thoughtful exposition of the disconnect between national security and criminal law. He is a voice of clarity, reason and experience in the dialogue now going in America on issues of law and national security.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, May 19, 2008

By	Robert Herring (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an entertaining and informative book about the prosecution of terrorists in the 1990s, and specifically those who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993. You get a window into the inner workings of government and this knowledge will help you frame the current argument about where (US or GITMO) and how (courts vs battlefield) to defeat the current threat. Armed with the history of what happened in the 1990s, you will be able to separate logic from fantasy in today's highly-charged political environment. McCarthy even offers food for thought on the damages that could happen if we bring the war to our courts.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It didn't have to end like this., October 15, 2008

By	Peter Taber "Herkybird" (Vero Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It didn't have to end the way that it did, with 3000 dead and a smoking hole in lower Manhattan. We were warned. We had gotten our wake-up call. It was our choice to go back to sleep.

What makes Andrew McCarthy's book a must read for everyone is that he is not a journalist telling someone else's story. He is the lead prosecutor in the case against the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and this is his first-hand account of that high-profile prosecution and the events leading to it.

After reading Willful Blindness the inescapable conclusion is that all of the societal structures that are supposed to serve us have broken down. The Intelligence Agencies failed to warn us; Law Enforcement failed to protect us; the Press failed to understand the implications and meaning of the events they reported on; the Courts, obsessed with legal abstractions, mis-judged the very real danger we faced; our political leaders were too timid, self-absorbed, and focussed partisan advantage to fulfill their first and most fundamental obligation: to defend the nation above all else. Only the Military, our last line of defense, has succeeded in raising the shield. Yet, even now their efforts to protect us are underminied by those same elements of society that so singularly failed in their past duties.

It is tempting to shrug and say, "Hindsight is always 20/20." A better cliche to adopt as our slogan is Santayana's famous dictum, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." We closed our eyes and chose to forget what happened in 1993, only to see history repeat itself - with a vengeance - in 2001.

The cast of characters today is familiar to us all. Ramsay Yusef, who planned the first bombing and who was thwarted in his plan to simultaneously blow-up 11 airliners over the ocean - but only just. Kalid Sheik Mohammed - the Mastermind of the second bombing and ultimate destruction of the World Trade Center - who escaped civilian prosecution in 1993 but is presently held prisoner at the military base at Guantanamo Bay - to the consternation and frustration of the ACLU. Lynn Stewart, the radical lawyer convicted and disbarred for abusing the privilege accorded legal counsel to unmonitored access to an accused, who used her lawyer's priviledge to transmit operational orders from the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman to his followers outside the US. Her presence on the streets of this nation today, as a free woman - the result of a Judge's decision not to imprison her for the crime for which she was convicted - is a reminder that the legal system fails us still.

Andrew McCarthy has rendered invaluable service to this country, first as a Justice Department Prosecutor, and now as the voice of warning. Will we listen to him, or will we remain wilfully blind?