Why America Slept: The Reasons behind Our Failure to Prevent 9/11 FROM THE PUBLISHER
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 eighteen-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 September 11 on U.S. soil
• a startling account of the interrogation of a leading al Qaeda captive
• facts about a series of deaths that point to an ongoing conspiracy by some governments to hide the extent of their earlier relationships with al Qaeda
• how the U.S. government missed several chances to kill or capture bin Laden
• evidence that German intelligence may have protected an informant who was involved with many of the 9/11 plotters
• how the CIA tracked--and then lost--two of the hijackers when they entered the United States more than twenty months before the attacks
• the devastating consequences of the crippling rivalry between the CIA and FBI as the United States moved unwittingly toward 9/11
In a dramatic narrative, Why America Slept exposes the frequent mistakes made by law enforcement and government agencies, and demonstrates how the failures to prevent 9/11 were tragically not an exception but typical. Along the way, by delving into terror financing, the links betweenfar-flung terror organizations, and how the United States responded over the years to other attacks, Posner also makes a damning case that 9/11 could have been prevented.
Why America Slept lays to rest two years of conjecture about what led up to the worst terror attacks in America's history. This breakthrough book presents an infuriating review of how incompetence and misplaced priorities made America an easy target for terrorists.
SYNOPSIS
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 that terrible day? After an eighteen-month investigation, Gerald Posner reveals much previously undisclosed information, including details about a secret deal between Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden; how the U.S. government missed several chances to kill or capture bin Laden; how the CIA tracked–and then lost–two of the hijackers when they entered the United States months before the attacks; the devastating consequences of the crippling rivalry between the CIA and FBI; and the startling account of top al Qaeda captive whose information subsequently led to a trail of mysterious deaths of Saudi Arabian princes and Pakistani military leaders.
Why America Slept exposes the frequent mistakes made by law enforcement and government agencies, and demonstrates how the failures to prevent 9/11 were tragically not an exception but typical. In the end, Posner makes a damning case that the terrorist attacks could have been prevented.
FROM THE CRITICS
The assertion that America missed many warning signs that could have prevented 9/11 is, by now, an oft-heard one. What sets Posner's book apart is not only the accumulation of detail and the lively writing he uses to make that point but also the remarkable characters he develops to narrate that story...In the ever-growing collection of volumes on the Sept. 11 tragedy and the lessons to be learned from it, Why America Slept should go down as one of the best.—Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
Success, it is said, has a thousand fathers, while failure is an orphan. Gerald Posner's Why American Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 goes far to prove the opposite: the C.I.A., the F.B.I., Congress, the State Department, the media, the White House, the foreign policy establishment and the general climate of public opinion all contributed to the failure to prevent the devastating mass terror attacks of 2001. — Walter Russell Mead
NY Times Sunday Book Review
The assertion that America missed many warning signs that could have prevented 9/11 is, by now, an oft-heard one. What sets Posner's book apart is not only the accumulation of detail and the lively writing he uses to make that point but also the remarkable characters he develops to narrate that story...In the ever-growing collection of volumes on the Sept. 11 tragedy and the lessons to be learned from it, Why America Slept should go down as one of the best.—Eric Lichtblau
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