Rating: Summary: Flawed, but Interesting Review: Mylroie's book is flawed but nonetheless interesting. Her analysis of the first attack on the WTC is somewhat unconventional, and raises some interesting facts, like one of the plotters currently lives in Baghdad. Nonetheless the author fails to deliver real proof that Iraq was behind the bombing. She spends a lot of time trying to prove that Ramzi Yousef was not in fact Abdul Basit, but ultimately fails to do so. Wose she spends about 50 pages talking about Saddam's track record with UNSCOM, which detracts from the overall narrative on the bombing investigation. This book raises some important questions but ultimately comes far short of delivering proof. Could Iraq have been behind WTC bombing 1, Yes!!! Does this book prove it No!! Maybe the most interesting thing are the credits, Paul Wolfowitz is give a note of thanks, he's the Deputy SECDEF, if the author has his ear, thats important to know. Bottom line this book is long on speculation but fails to deliver a convincing, and coherent arugument to prove its thesis.
Rating: Summary: Memo to Bush Haters and UN: God Bless George W. Bush Review: Saddam chose the Iraq war and while most of us were sleeping, he was vigorously waging it. Before 911 Mylroie warned us that terror groups worked through STATE financing, safe harbor in a STATE, border passage allowed by a STATE, training camps located in a STATE. Iraq was such a state. The links to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing point to Iraq.
Freedom comes with a price, most of which is being paid in blood by US servicemen fighting terrorists all over the globe. IT IS TREACHERY TO ARGUE EX POST FACTO THAT THE INVASION WAS A MISTAKE AS A CONSEQUENCE OF OUR MEN BEING KILLED AND MAIMED.
They volunteered and accepted because of their potential - and NOT losers looking for a way out of poverty. They know what they are up against. They are the best educated servicemen this country has ever produced; the best trained in the world. They are confident and will win. Saddam chose war, America responded because no one else can or wanted to.
It's idiocy to say "we're not any safer." Freedom is NOT safety. Freedom is choosing to do what one ought to do. There are many more FREE Iraqis thanks to Bush and everyone down the chain of command.
Mylroie's investigation is first rate, and all the Beltway desk jockies who constantly carp behind the President's back about why US should not have invaded Iraq do not know anything compared to Laurie Mylroie.
Rating: Summary: Complete rubbish! Review: This book directly contradicts virtually everything we've learned from "Dollars for Terror: The Us and Islam" by Richard Labeviere which was published a year BEFORE 9/11/2001. Mr. Labeviere is a journalist for Swiss TV and spent years researching the links between various Saudi royals, the bin Ladin family, al Qaeda and the CIA. He asserts that the CIA used al Qaeda in Macedonia, Kosovo, Chechnya and elsewhere at least up until 2000.
Rating: Summary: An extremely helpful and enlightening work! Review: This book is great! After the September 11th tragedy, I was seeking some clarity in what was transpiring over in the Middle East; more so than what the news service could offer me. After reading this book, I really felt that I understood what was going on. I found it intriguing that Ms. Mylroie had published this book before the second attack on the World Trade Center. The last line in the work is so prophetic! After reading this book, there was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein has to be taken out in order for us to win the war on terrorism. I have been loaning this book to many of my friends and they have also found it helpful and enlightening
Rating: Summary: Want to know what we knew before sept 11? Review: This book lays out step-by-step the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. There is a good attempt to link Al Qeada to Saddam Hussein. This book is prophetic considering it is written prior to Sept. 11 attack on the WTC. Considering many still have not grasped the state sponsorship aspect of terrorism, this book is a must read.
Rating: Summary: Caveat Lector Review: This book tries to make the case that Iraq was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It strings together some interesting reportage on things like phone records of the terrorists involved, but ultimately is deeply tendentious and wrong-headed, coming to conclusions that the vast majority of mainstream analysts of the subject (including the professionals in all major U.S. national security bureaucracies) reject. Basically, Mylroie ignores the abundant evidence that convinces others the WTC attack was carried out not by traditional state sponsored terrorists, but rather by loosely connected Islamic extremists or freelancers. A fun conspiracy theory, perhaps, but not a good basis for serious policymaking--and certainly not a good rationale for making Iraq the target of 'Phase 2' in the war on terrorism. The bottom line is that we still don't know the exact role Iraq played in the 1993 WTC attack (or the 2001 WTC attack, for that matter), but it was most probably not what Mylroie makes it out to be.
Rating: Summary: Great Intelligence Scholarship Review: Using open sources, especially the testimony and evidence from the WTC '93 conspiracy trial, Dr. Mylroie presents the evidence that Ramzi Yousef was an agent of Iraqi intelligence. The case is, of course, circumstantial, but such is the nature of intelligence. Critics of this book, and Mylroie's work in general, will reply with the "there's no evidence" refrain, but there is evidence, such as the trial exhibits recreated in this book. If you read it, you will discover that analysts arguing against Iraqi involvement in the terror network aren't arguing about evidence: they're ignoring it. Their evidence is "well, Yousef told us he wasn't working for the Iraqis." He told us! Can you believe it? This is what American intelligence has come to. As the old saw goes, you can't beat something with nothing. This work is the something.
Rating: Summary: Raises excellent questions to be answered... Review: While a bit out of date, Mylroie's book gives the facts connecting Iraqi intelligence to the first World Trade Center bombing. Documentation is given, especially for the movements and activities of Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Rahman Yasin and five other Islamic conspirators, whose activities and movements are tracked quite accurately -- for the ring-leaders Yousef and Yasin, all the way to Baghdad. Yousef is the same nasty character who later appears in terrorist activities (not fully discussed in Mylroie's book) in connection with Khalid Shiak Mohammed, one of the two 9-11 terror planners, now in US custody. He is Mohammed's nephew, and fellow jihadist, and two other of the 9-11 terrorists were "brothers" of Yousef. Those who dismiss these findings are either in denial, or willing to traffic in lies, as I observe in several of the negative reviews here at Amazon.com. Richard Clark's new book fully distorts this evidence, deceptively. Strongly recommended along with "Masterminds of Terror" by Fouda and Fielding, which tracks the history of the 9-11 plotters, some of whom firstly appear in Mylroie's book. The full history of these connections has not yet been written, but you'll get the basics from Mylroie, and the Fouda/Fielding book.
Rating: Summary: Mylroie Gives the Facts Review: While a bit out of date, Mylroie's book gives the facts connecting Iraqi intelligence to the first World Trade Center bombing. Documentation is given, especially for the movements and activities of Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Rahman Yasin and five other Islamic conspirators, whose activities and movements are tracked quite accurately -- for the ring-leaders Yousef and Yasin, all the way to Baghdad. Yousef is the same nasty character who later appears in terrorist activities (not fully discussed in Mylroie's book) in connection with Khalid Shiak Mohammed, one of the two 9-11 terror planners, now in US custody. He is Mohammed's nephew, and fellow jihadist, and two other of the 9-11 terrorists were "brothers" of Yousef. Those who dismiss these findings are either in denial, or willing to traffic in lies, as I observe in several of the negative reviews here at Amazon.com. Richard Clark's new book fully distorts this evidence, deceptively. Strongly recommended along with "Masterminds of Terror" by Fouda and Fielding, which tracks the history of the 9-11 plotters, some of whom firstly appear in Mylroie's book. The full history of these connections has not yet been written, but you'll get the basics from Mylroie, and the Fouda/Fielding book.
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