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WHY AMERICA SLEPT: The Failure to Prevent 9/11Gerald Posner Ballantine Books Current Affairs/Politics ISBN: 0812966236 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...

"Senior CIA officers complained to the president's national security team about their frustration with the FBI and warned that America was vulnerable to Islamic terrorists entering on legal visas and setting up sleeper cells. Reagan responded in September 1986 by forming an interagency task force, the Alien Border Control Committee (ABCC), whose purpose was to block entry of suspected terrorists and to deport militants who either had come into the country illegally or had overstayed their visas (emphasis mine). The CIA and FBI joined the ABCC effort. Six months after its formation, the ABCC had its first notable success. The...

Confessions of a Terrorist Author Gerald Posner claims an al-Qaeda leader made explosive allegations while under interrogation By JOHANNA MCGEARY By March 2002, the terrorist called Abu Zubaydah was one of the most wanted men on earth. A leading member of Osama bin Laden's brain trust, he is thought to have been in operational control of al-Qaeda's millennium bomb plots as well as the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000. After the spectacular success of the airliner assaults on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, he continued to devise terrorist plans. Seventeen months ago, the U.S. finally grabbed...

How to become CIA director Posted: September 9, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com For years I've been wondering how someone as sensible as James Woolsey ever became Bill Clinton's CIA director. A new book, getting much acclaim on other points, "Why America Slept," by Gerald Posner, finally answers the question. Indeed, from Posner's account, it seems like it was a mistake. The story is fascinating for what it says about the Clinton administration's priorities and policies. Woolsey was a conservative Democrat, former Rhodes scholar and attorney who served as undersecretary of the Navy in the Carter administration. He...

How to become CIA director Posted: September 9, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com For years I've been wondering how someone as sensible as James Woolsey ever became Bill Clinton's CIA director. A new book, getting much acclaim on other points, "Why America Slept," by Gerald Posner, finally answers the question. Indeed, from Posner's account, it seems like it was a mistake. The story is fascinating for what it says about the Clinton administration's priorities and policies. Woolsey was a conservative Democrat, former Rhodes scholar and attorney who served as undersecretary of the Navy in the Carter administration. He...

Gerald Posner's latest tome, "Why America Slept", investigates the run-up to the September 11th terror attacks and its aftermath, with a view toward garnering pivotal insights. Not surprisingly, the author concludes that our nation's vulnerability on that fateful morning was the direct result of our flawed intelligence bureaucracies and President Clinton's unwillingness to properly tackle the scourge of Islamic terrorism throughout his tenure. Nothing new there. However, what's truly fascinating is Posner's ability to expose the behind-the-scenes machinations of America and its ostensible allies in dealing with the terror netherworld. Posner zeros in on the unholy alliance that both Pakistani...

The story of the years leading up to 9-11 is the story of what might have been, and also serves as a call to the defense of America’s future. Since 9-11, one important question has persisted: What was really going on behind the scenes with intelligence services and government leaders during the time preceding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks? After an 18–month investigation that uncovered explosive new evidence through interviews and in classified documents, Gerald Posner reveals much previously undisclosed information: The identity of two countries that might have had foreknowledge that a terrorist attack was scheduled for...

Posner: Clinton’s Negligence Led to 9/11Dave Eberhart and NewsMax.com StaffThursday, Sept. 4, 2003 Best-selling author Gerald Posner says much of the blame for 9/11 and the U.S. government’s negligence falls squarely on the shoulders of Bill Clinton and his administration. In a stunning revelation made in his just released “Why America Slept: the Failure to Prevent 9/11” – Posner asserts the disaster of Sept. 11 could have been prevented and that President Clinton passed on more than one opportunity to arrest or kill Osama bin Laden. Posner describes one incident in 1996 when Clinton passed on an easy opportunity...

Tuesday, September 02, 2003   International   Why America slept bares Saudi-Pak-Osama triangle   ASIAN NEWS INTERNATIONAL   WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 1: Startling revelations about connections linking Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Osama bin Laden has been made by a commander of the Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah, claims a new book by Gerald Posner. The book, Why America slept, reviewed in the current issue of Time, goes on sale on September 2. According to the review, the book is ‘‘a lean, lucid retelling of how CIA, FBI and US leaders missed a decade of clues and opportunities that might have forestalled...

WASHINGTON - A top Al Qaeda leader in U.S. custody has detailed ties among Osama Bin Laden, Pakistani officials and members of the Saudi royal family, charging that some of them knew about the 9/11 plot in advance, according to a new book. At one point, the captured operative, Abu Zubaydah, told his interrogators to call a Saudi prince who could get him off the hook, the book says. The explosive revelations in Gerald Posner's new book, "Why America Slept," outline how U.S. agents missed numerous chances to unravel Al Qaeda's deadly plans to attack the U.S. Posner contends that...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A top aide to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) told CIA (news - web sites) agents in a drug-induced confession about secret connections between the al-Qaeda leader and top officials in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to a new book. Excerpts from the book published in Time magazine reveal that Abu Zubaydah, captured last year in Pakistan, told US interrogators that longtime Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz had secretly agreed to pay bin Laden as long as al-Qaeda refrained from promoting its political aims in the kingdom. He also said...

Author Gerald Posner claims an al-Qaeda leader made explosive allegations while under interrogation By March 2002, the terrorist called Abu Zubaydah was one of the most wanted men on earth. A leading member of Osama bin Laden's brain trust, he is thought to have been in operational control of al-Qaeda's millennium bomb plots as well as the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000. After the spectacular success of the airliner assaults on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, he continued to devise terrorist plans. Seventeen months ago, the U.S. finally grabbed Zubaydah in Pakistan and has kept him...

<p>August 31, 2003 -- Saudi Arabian and Pakistani government officials armed and funded the al Qaeda terrorist network for a decade leading up to 9/11, according to a new book that reveals confessions made by Osama bin Laden's operations chief.</p>

This past weekend, millions turned out in cities worldwide for antiwar protests – the largest since the Vietnam war – by groups opposed to US military action against Iraq. Tens of thousands in the United States recently braved frigid east coast weather and almost half-a-million people marched through Florence and Paris in what was promoted as one in a series in many Europe-wide anti-war rallies. Many of my fellow Democrats have been gushing about the hordes that have taken to the streets, basking in nostalgia about the street demonstrations over Vietnam that were a factor in changing government policy in...