The Science of Security: Ali Soufan's Book is Out

Ali Soufan's Book is Out

Forget what Cheney, Yoo, and Hayden are saying to cover their counterproductive policy choices. Ali Soufan was on the ground and in the interrogation booth.

Posted by Nick Adams on September 12, 2011 at 12:25 PM
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Ali Soufan's book chronicling his insider account of the hunt for al Qaeda, The Black Banners, is now available.

Robert Baer, former CIA agent, describes it as "Superb. An education. And best book on al Qaeda out there, bar none."

Soufan discusses some of its contents on last nights's episode of 60 minutes.

And here's more from the New York Times review:

In the 571-page book, “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al Qaeda,” Mr. Soufan accuses C.I.A. officials of deliberately withholding crucial documents and photographs of Qaeda operatives from the F.B.I. before Sept. 11, 2001, despite three written requests, and then later lying about it to the 9/11 Commission.
He recounts a scene at the American Embassy in Yemen, where, a few hours after the attacks on New York and Washington, a C.I.A. official finally turned over the material the bureau requested months earlier, including photographs of two of the hijackers.

“For about a minute I stared at the pictures and the report, not quite believing what I had in my hands,” Mr. Soufan writes. Then he ran to a bathroom and vomited. “My whole body was shaking,” he writes. He believed the material, documenting a Qaeda meeting in Malaysia in January 2000, combined with information from the Cole investigation, might have helped unravel the airliner plot.

Buy it in print, or Kindle.

Filed under: CT Evaluation , Social Psychology of CT

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