'Blind Spot' and 'Preventing Surprise Attacks': It Didn't Start on 9/11
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/books/review/10LICHTBL.html?pagewanted=all
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: July 10, 2005
THE notion that Sept. 11 changed everything has become deeply ingrained
in the American psyche. Indeed, when Steven Brill gave his 2003 book on
post-9/11 America a single-word title -- ''After'' -- everyone knew
instantly what he meant.
Still, the idea of a pre- and post-9/11 obscures a grim reality: many
of the quandaries now confronting the United States -- how to identify
and defeat terrorists, how to protect the nation's borders and reduce
its vulnerabilities, how to preserve our freedoms while ensuring our
safety -- had been debated for decades at lower decibels. The problem
is that few were paying much attention.
BLIND SPOT
The Secret History of American Counterterrorism.
By Timothy Naftali.
399 pp. Basic Books. $26.
PREVENTING SURPRISE ATTACKS
Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11.
By Richard A. Posner.
214 pp. Hoover Institution/ Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. $18.95.
.
|
