Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security - Rilegato

Faddis, Charles S.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1599219069 ISBN 13: 9781599219066

Casa editrice: Lyons Pr, 2010

Riassunto

The Central Intelligence Agency’s most respected former Middle East counterterrorism officer applies a critical lens to the state of America’s Homeland Security system and asks, “Are we really any safer than we were on 9/11?” Have the vast new bureaucracies that have arisen and the billions spent translated into real protection? Or has complacency set in? His answer is terrifying.

 

Charles S. Faddis, the author of Beyond Repair and the coauthor of Operation Hotel California, was trained through his years in the field with the CIA to know what it is like to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets. In Willful Neglect, he applies this expert knowledge to scrutinizing the preparedness of the nation’s critical infrastructure—military installations, passenger and freight rail systems, chemical plants, liquefied natural gas facilities, water treatment plants, dams, and nuclear power plants. America is still a land of opportunity, he finds—for its enemies.

 

From the author’s introduction

 

We had, on a strategic scale, plenty of warning that 9/11 was coming. Al Qaida told us they were coming, and they launched a series of preliminary attacks. . . . We did nothing.          

            Three thousand people died as the result of that complacency.  Now, in the aftermath, it is our job to move as fast as is humanly possible to block any and all future attacks. 

Amazingly, though, as you tour this nation and examine the prime targets that beg to be defended from terrorist attack, what you find, eight years later, is that virtually nothing meaningful has been done. True, large new bureaucracies have been created and huge shiny, new office buildings constructed, but in terms of concrete measures which will stand in the way of determined, evil men, there is very, very little. 

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Charles S. Faddis served twenty years in the Central Intelligence Agency as an operations officer, holding positions as a department chief at the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center in Washington, D.C., and as a chief of station in the Middle East. He is the author of Beyond Repair (October 2009, Lyons Press), a scathing critique of today’s CIA, and the coauthor of Operation Hotel California (October 2008 hardcover, May 2010 paperback; Lyons Press), which recounts how he led the first CIA mission into Iraq in 2002 in preparation for the pending invasion.

Dalla seconda/terza di copertina:

Charles S. Faddis, the Central Intelligence Agency’s most respected former Middle East counterterrorism officer, was trained through years in the field to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets. In Willful Neglect, he applies a critical lens to the state of America’s Homeland Security system and asks, “Have our vast new bureaucracies and the billions spent since 9/11 translated into real protection? Or has complacency set in?”
Faddis methodically assesses the actual protection afforded our vital infrastructure—military installations, passenger and freight rail systems, chemical plants, liquefied natural gas facilities, water treatment plants, dams, and nuclear power plants. America is still a land of opportunity, he finds—for its enemies.
Faddis points to countless situations in which “security” measures have nothing to do with the threat of terrorist attack. For example, sensitive facilities are “protected” by mere signage, and by guards who ask to look inside purses or peer inside a car—not exactly a match for a group of Al-Qaeda operatives carrying AK-47s and driving a truck jammed with thousands of pounds of explosives.
While we are drawing new lines on wiring diagrams and formulating plans to convene task forces that will propose further study, Faddis warns, Al-Qaeda is moving forward with concrete plans. We need to confront those plans with defensive measures no less concrete. We need to hire more guards, equip them better, and give them enhanced training. We need to put in place physical barriers, and move particularly dangerous facilities away from major population centers. We need action, not equivocation.|Charles S. Faddis, the Central Intelligence Agency’s most respected former Middle East counterterrorism officer, was trained through years in the field to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets. InWillful Neglect, he applies a critical lens to the state of America’s Homeland Security system and asks, “Have our vast new bureaucracies and the billions spent since 9/11 translated into real protection? Or has complacency set in?”
Faddis methodically assesses the actual protection afforded our vital infrastructure—military installations, passenger and freight rail systems, chemical plants, liquefied natural gas facilities, water treatment plants, dams, and nuclear power plants. America is still a land of opportunity, he finds—for its enemies.
Faddis points to countless situations in which “security” measures have nothing to do with the threat of terrorist attack. For example, sensitive facilities are “protected” by mere signage, and by guards who ask to look inside purses or peer inside a car—not exactly a match for a group of Al-Qaeda operatives carrying AK-47s and driving a truck jammed with thousands of pounds of explosives.
While we are drawing new lines on wiring diagrams and formulating plans to convene task forces that will propose further study, Faddis warns, Al-Qaeda is moving forward with concrete plans. We need to confront those plans with defensive measures no less concrete. We need to hire more guards, equip them better, and give them enhanced training. We need to put in place physical barriers, and move particularly dangerous facilities away from major population centers. We need action, not equivocation.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Lyons Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1599219069
• ISBN 13: 9781599219066
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 227