Why America slept: national security failures and preparedness

¶ … America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 by Gerald Posner. Specifically, it will contain a review of the book, along with a brief recommendation. "Why America Slept" is a chilling account of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The book discusses why the terrorist attacks happened, and how America could have prevented them.

The author's thesis is presented early in the book, in the "Author's Note." Author Posner writes, "Could the attack on America have been prevented? Yes. September 11 did not need to happen" (Posner xii). The author then presents information, arguments, research, and conclusions to indicate how American leaders ignored terrorist threats, and turned their back on information that could have lead to more terrorists being captured and put out of the terrorist business.

Some of the book is difficult to read because it seems that such bungling went on between American agencies that nothing concrete could get done. The CIA and the FBI both had information on terrorist groups operating in and outside the U.S., but were so busy trying to gain power themselves, they fought against each other and refused to share information. Posner notes that this internal feuding only helped the terrorists, many of whom slipped into the country while security was low, and agencies were not passing information about suspected terrorists between each other (Posner 23). This is not only distressing, it is difficult to read, and know that childish feuding between agencies was allowed to continue, and that is was a threat to national security.

Posner also makes it more understandable to Western readers just why Muslims hate the U.S. so much, and how their deep-seated hatred of the Jews expands to anyone who supports Israel and its' right to exist. He quotes Osama bin Laden as saying, "Every grown up Muslim hates Americans, Christians, and Jews. [...] it is part of our belief and our religion'" (Posner 26). He also shows how dedicated they are to their beliefs, as he chronicles bin Laden's history and rise to fundamentalist power. Moreover, the book shows how widespread the support of terrorism is in the Arab world, and how dangerous the U.S. ignorance of the problem continues to be. Posner also illustrates just how the Muslims get funding, and how they utilize a variety of methods to transfer and raise money throughout the world. The author notes, "For at least six years, the terror organizations reaped the benefits of fund-raising through charities, illegal schemes, and straight money laundering, while law enforcement and Treasury officials failed to move against them" (Posner 130). The U.S. knew about bin Laden and his cronies for years, and ignored him, and that proved to be disastrous and deadly. Unfortunately, many other gaffes by intelligence agencies also ultimately proved to be costly.

As the book continues, it chronicles an almost unbelievable number of missed opportunities, ignored information, and dropped balls that all lead up to the successful terrorist attacks of 9/11. It is amazing to read how many times key terrorists literally fell through the fingers of investigators, and even after they had them, they allowed key information to go undetected or ignored. Even worse, it illustrates how deeply entrenched bin Laden was in terrorist activities. The groups he sponsored participated in Somalia at the time the U.S. Rangers were losing 18 of their men in the "Black Hawk Down" incidents, and became convinced America was simply a weak, "paper tiger" (Posner 52). Sadly, it seems now that he may have been right about many of his ideas about the American government and terrorism.

Even more troubling are the accounts of people who really understood the dangers America faced, but were ignored. It seems there was so much infighting between the FBI, the CIA, and other agencies, that many high officials could not be bothered listening to the concerns of some of their agents and experts. In fact, much study, including Emerson's PBS documentary, Jihad in America was conducted on the terrorists, and many people did understand the dangers they posed. However, their concerns were never taken seriously by the agencies that could have done something constructive. If they had listened, perhaps 9/11 would not have happened at all, and that is the most maddening thing about reading this book.

To prove his thesis, the author uses extensive research, interviews, and legwork in the Arab-American community. It is clear he became an expert on his subject, and looked at the terrorist attacks from every angle before writing his book. He spoke to some leading experts in their fields, and cites personal experiences he collected as information for the book. It is clear the author did his homework, and the book is even more chilling and believable as a result of the author's dedication to his purpose.