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Summary: The Gov't Should Hire John Miller to Advise Them
Review: The Cell merely highlights John Miller's brilliance in distilling a wide array of facts and seemingly unrelated violent acts into a coherent history lesson. Why the U.S. Government doesn't hire John Miller to advise them on future planning is a mystery. We need more thinkers like John Miller. His 20-20 piece on ABC Friday night just highlighted his keen ability to land in a foreign country and ascertain the true story.This book is a captivating must read!
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Summary: al Queda vs. USA
Review: This book does a great job describing the history of the al Queda cells that operated inside the United States from early 1990 through 9/11/01. You will follow the Joint Terrorism Task Force (FBI & NYPD) and learn about the knowledge they gained about al Queda & Osama bin Laden. This book talks in detail about the people involved and their connections to various plots & terrorist acts through that time. The book will also give a look at the Osama bin Laden interview, and follow his personal history (as we know it). Lastly, the book spends a great deal of time trying to show you the failures of our system and why this event took place.
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Summary: The Cell...
Review: This book expertly tells the story of why the FBI and the CIA failed to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks before they occurred. Basically, even though they possessed information that could have led them on the trail to the discovery of the plot, the author asserts that political correctness and careerism at both agencies, coupled with an entrenched beauracracy, made the FBI and the CIA practically unable to decode the clues that a major plot was unfolding. In addition to these disturbing assertions, the author shows just how well entrenched various al-Qaeda cells are in this country and other Western nations, and just how difficult it will be to stop them. Truly a terrifying book, especially considering the implications it has for the future.
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Summary: Enlightening
Review: This book is a brilliant account of the errors and repeated gaffes made by the American intelligence community in the months and years leading up to 9/11. The book cleverly mixes objective journalism and first-hand recollections by Miller to make interesting and fast reading. "The Cell" describes the clues the intelligence community had regarding an impending terror strike, including an implicit warning from Osama bin Laden himself. Most disturbing, however, is that most of the 9/11 hijackers were considered relatively harmless men traveling around the world. Also disheartening is the fact that the two hijackers that were on the FBI's watch list were allowed to enter the United States, leave for the Middle East, and return with thousands of dollars without even the slightest interference of the FBI or CIA. Yet, as the book points out, threats pour into the State Department on a daily basis and almost never materialize beyond that point. It may be that the American intelligence services did indeed allow suspected terrorists to enter the country and missed many warning signs in the pre-9/11 time period. Now, as after Pearl Harbor, Americans know the modus operandi of the enemy and must make certain we never become complacent again.
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Summary: Good Introduction to 9/11 and al-Qaeda
Review: This book is a good place to start when researching the current 'war on terror.' The perspective is American and the writers are journalists and former law enforcement types, so don't expect much in-depth analysis of radical Islam's hostility to Euro-American culture, for example. The authors are however quite adept at describing the real-life efforts of government agents and government bureaucrats during the decades prior to 9/11. What is conveyed is that law enforcement efforts to 'stop' or 'neutralize' Al-Qaeda prior to 9/11 were inadequate, underfunded, and plainly put on the backburner until it was too late. Without pointing fingers at anyone in particular (well one former Yemen ambassador ends up looking pretty inept), the authors describe a bureaucracy unable to 'connect the al-Qaeda dots' of information obtained by U.S. intelligence services prior to the 9/11 attacks. The book lacks footnotes and includes MUCH information that is unattributed, but taken as a whole it is a good introduction to what the FBI and CIA knew, and didn't know, prior to 9/11.
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Summary: Chilling documentary
Review: This book is a sad commentary on our government's ability and willingness to deal with terrorist threats prior to 9/11, if the sheer extent of the beaurocratic delays, indifference, and incompentence of the various agencies and authorities that the authors extensively document is even close to accurate. The authors show how the 1998 African embassy bombings could probably have been prevented, after the 1993 WTC bombing and the murder of a Rabbi in NY in 1990 were traced back to a series of early al Qaeda cells, among many other threads of evidence left behind that were not investigated and followed up on. Even worse, amazingly, there was even an informant, Max, who knew by early 2001 that there was a hijacking plot afoot, but again, the warnings were ignored and nothing was done about it. The authors show how agents on the ground were continually frustrated by everything from beaurocratic infighting to a budget cut of the Anti-Terrorism monies. Well, all I can say is that a few million more for that budget would probably have been cheaper than the several billion the destruction of the World Trade Center and all the other damage to New York cost, not to mention the incalculable loss of life. After reading this book, one can only hope that the situation, post-9/11, is radically different and that this sort of inexcusable long-term neglect by government agencies will never happen again. "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Jefferson's comment is all the more relevant today in our present circumstances.
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Summary: Great read!
Review: This book is a well-written description of the various attempts to investigate terrorist crimes occuring against the US well before the horrible attack of 9/11. It shows some dogged determination of many agents, cops, investigators who followed the leads & developed them, but were many times stopped in their tracks by recalcitrant administrators or changed political climate. (nothing sinister in it, just emphasizes how unaware our country was of so much organized hatred against us) This book gives readers a very good idea of how Al Queda grew & how it works, & lets you know how strong an adversary we are up against.
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Summary: Realistic revelations of our competence
Review: This book reveals something most Americans are aware of but we put aside for our desired free way of living. We cannot soley blame the government agencies for the failures. Ever since Pearl Harbor was attacked, we as a whole have not learned to be fully alert to our unwalled Jerico. This book also sends a slight message we need to be pushy as individuals and as a whole to insure our security agencies are not kicking back as they, in fact have repeatedly done even before Pearl Harbor. 9-11 is the evidense we need to become eternally vigilent in our quest for freedom. In this real world, someone is always going to come along and plan an attack on the USA, this book says we need to get off our freedom couch and be diligent. I hope from 9-11 alone that we will be,,,years into the future without forgetting this necessity. We in fact did forget Pearl Harbor but ignorantly remembered on 911. This book points out serious warnings, even the most fundamental that all Americans were aware of (USS COLE< EMBASSY BOMBINGS< AND PRIOR ATTACK ON WTC) that we should have realized the World Trade Center in fact was a target. We ignored that, even ignoring it for the time the hijacked planes left their flight plans for NY and DC. We as a whole aren't to blame, we as a whole are responsible to be protective of our freedom before the fact. I do recommend a book that says just that, SB: 1 or God by Karl Mark Maddox
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Summary: Great Book - But Needs an Index!
Review: This is an excellent book for tackling the history of these attacks and the motivations of those that would commit them. I don't know of many books like this so it is a great contribution. However, this book would have greatly benefited from an index and perhaps some graphical representations. For a book so detailed, the lack of these is quite surprising. In order to get a better timeline and context, I found myself flipping through past pages to remind myself where this or that person fit into the picture. If the book had an index, I would continue to reference it when news articles mention names. The authors and publisher should consider reprinting this book in a more complete form.
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Summary: Riveting and a Greater Appreciation Gained for Cells
Review: This is the first book I have picked up on Al Quaeda, and I could not set it aside until I was finished. By beginning with the killing of Rabbi Kahane in 1990 and following with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, thwarting the Manila bomb plan, Embassy bombings, the USS Cole, and finally to the preparations for 9/11 this brings alot together. Of course, John Miller's ABC interview with Bin Laden in 1998 adds a touch. I learned alot about the Cells and gained a greater appreciation for the dangerous times we live in today. To some this could really be scary. I also gained a positive feeling towards our intelligence forces despite their past problems of "territory" and in some cases outright timidness at the higher levels. They really are on top of alot of the terrorists, but in so many cases their hands are tied behind their backs. Like alot of people I know, I had no real background to latch on to as to just why this all happened. This book may not be the absolute authority and it may be a rehash of a much that has been written, but to me it brought it together in a manner that makes some sense and reason. As much as I am sympathetic to the loss, sorrow and hurt felt by the victims and families, I wasn't interested in another book with pictures of the Towers and the stories surrounding their destruction. I needed something to bring it all into perspective. Most of all it has developed my thoughts on the real problem we face is with the cells, and Osama bin Laden is just a minor part of the whole puzzle and threat we live under today. It is these radical elements around the world in these cells that are the threats to our security, and as this book points out in bold type one of our drawbacks is America's determination to give everyone the benefit of the doubt which results in things coming together like 9/11.
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