Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2011), Edition: First, 608 pages
Description
A former FBI special agent offers an insider's account of how the September 11th attacks could have been prevented, as well as his role in the war on terror, including his highly effective interrogation efforts.
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member lifesshort
Ali Soufran worked for the FBI. This is his account of how they questioned suspects after 9/11 and how they were doing a better job of getting credible information until the CIA intervened and started using harsh tactics and got poor information. Biased towards FBI I guess but an interesting read
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and made me think about it long after. Show Less
LibraryThing member mara.murdoch
This is a great book! Written by one of, if not the main, FBI interrogator of the al-Qaeda operatives, it tells the story of the FBI's following of the al-Qaeda network from the 1990's until present day. The author was born in Lebanon but moved with his family to the US when he was a child. By
I would also recommend viewing the interview with the author by Charlie Rose on PBS as well as the Frontline show "The Investigator".
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chance he ended up joining the FBI. Being fluent in Arabic and with an interest in the history of the Middle East and the Muslim faith, he made a hobby of following the events in that part of the world, specifically al-Qaeda. In the FBI this became his focus, first with the investigation of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen. He describes the details of the investigations and how he was able to get captured operatives to cooperate through his knowledge of them individually as well as al-Qaeda and the Muslim faith. He discusses the information that was ignored by the CIA that could have prevented 9/11. He also discusses the use of EITs by the CIA and who directed their use as well as the opposition by the FBI and many in the CIA to the use of these techniques. I would also recommend viewing the interview with the author by Charlie Rose on PBS as well as the Frontline show "The Investigator".
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LibraryThing member sarahlh
One of the best books about Al-Qaeda and the FBI's investigation of them post-9/11 and onward that I've ever read. Ali H. Soufan's story is an essential one for anyone who wants to understand how we could have prevented such a tragedy in 2001; it is also a startling portrait of multi-level
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incompetence in the U.S. intelligence agency. You'll also read about John O'Neill, Soufan's mentor and best friend, who saw Al-Qaeda's attack on U.S. coming but whose warnings were dutifully ignored by his superiors and who was unfortunately one of the many American victims of 9/11 in the Twin Towers. I can only hope that the redactions in the text will be overturned by the courts as Soufan fights the censorship of his book by the U.S. government; this information is so essential to the public. Show Less
Awards
Ridenhour Book Prize (2012)
Original language
English
Physical description
9.6 inches
ISBN
0393079422 / 9780393079425