Intelligence Failure: How Clinton's National Security Policy Set the Stage for 9/11

By David N. Bossie

Book Overview

Eight years before 9/11, on February 26, 1993, Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist network declared war against the United States with a deadly attack on the World Trade Center. Al Qaeda continued to wage war on the U.S. throughout the Clinton Administration, attacking Khobar Towers in 1996, two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. How could these attacks happen? How could Al Qaeda wage these assaults against the strongest, best-defended nation in the world? Intelligence Failure is the definitive account of Bill Clinton's greatest failure as president. Using exclusive research and previously unreported findings from congressional investigations and other sources, David Bossie details how Clinton's poor leadership and denigration of both the U.S. military and intelligence services exposed America to terrorist assault. "September 11, 2001, may have happened under Bush's watch," Bossie declares, "but it will always remain Clinton's legacy."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785260749
• ISBN13: 9780785260745
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A revealing look

1. This is *not* at all a "conspiracy book." It is an evaluation of Clinton's policies and practices. There is no conspiracy suggested. Just utter mismanagement and blindness. 2. What if Bush Sr. would have beat Clinton in 1992, and then Bush Jr. run four years earlier before getting a second term in 2000? Would anyone simply concentrate on the policies of the previous eight months and forget about the rest? Would anyone claim worrying about the previous eight years was a distraction? How fast was it reasonable for Bush to reverse the previous eight years? 3. It is true that we now all have hindsight, but were Clinton's blindnesses limited to that? Or was there egregious mishandling? It's worth asking. Bossie is unquestionably a partisan, but even mathematicians can name some true benefits from math. Being partisan doesn't rule out the possibility he is right. 4. What pushes this book above and beyond the others is Bossie's insight into the opportunity we lost in 2000 when we intercepted the explosives coming from Canada into Washington state. The material about the millennium bomber is worth the price of the book. 5. I think there is a more threatening question raised by Bossie's research--is the real power in this country in the elected officials, or are they simply scapegoats for ensconced bureacrats who are never held accountable? Bossie didn't say this but I get the feeling the FBI and CIA are largely empires of their own.

Truth in Print at last

This is such an important book, and you should ignore the previous ad hominem reviews in which the writer is attacked rather than his assertions.Clinton cannot escape blame for endless carelessness in tending to our national security. As President, he never once took the bully pulpit to convince Americans of the danger; had he done so he could have declared war on our enemies, and taken the problem out of the hands of the Justice Department. He could have insisted upon implementation of the CIPRIS project to track foreign students (which would have flagged Mohamed Atta), he would have fully implemented the recommendations of the White House Commission on Airline Safety. He would not have cut the budget of the Department of Defense in order to balance the budget. He would have strenthened the intelligence forces rather than ignoring and weakening them! Reducing the Deficit became such a compulsion with him that he did this on the backs of our military. He will suffer in history for these mistakes; and if we had a fairer press the details outlined in this book would be known by all.

A wake-up call to the 9/11 Commission

Never has a corrective book been as badly needed as Intelligence Failure. This is must reading. It's also a shocker. David N. Bossie tells a story that cannot be found in mainstream newspapers, magazines, or books, but is all too true. It penetrates the cover-up of President Clinton's abysmal neglect of the terrorist menace, the blame for which is now transferred to President Bush.--Robert D. Novak, Journalist

Accurate, shocking and well-researched

A thorough and powerful indictment and a chronicle of all the ways that national secruty policy in the 1990s helped lead to 9/11. -R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-1995

I'd reccommend it

Thanks to the spineless strategy of the Clinton Administration and its indecisiveness, America was ambushed. September 11 was a wake up call and so is David N. Bossie's new book.--Major Bob Bevelacqua, FOX News Military Analyst and former U.S. Green Beret