Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security

by Charles S. Faddis

Overview

Former CIA case officer and author of Operation Hotel California and the forthcoming Beyond Repair, Charles S. Faddis takes a look at the state of homeland security and attempts to answer the question, “Are we really any safer than we were on 9/11?” While not a security expert, Faddis knows more than most about the subject and he does understand terrorism. He has also run numerous offensive operations in his 20 years with the Agency, so it’s easy for him to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets. To date, he has taken a look at military installations, passenger rail, freight rail, chemical plants, LNG facilities, and water treatment plants. He’s just started to look at dams, and next up will be nuclear power plants. He went into this project very skeptical of what he would find. Several months later, he is terrified. The picture is not pretty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762762255
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Press
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	142,227
File size:	373 KB

About the Author

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.

Read an Excerpt

Willful Neglect

The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security

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By Faddis, Charles S.

Lyons Press

Copyright © 2010 Faddis, Charles S.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781599219066

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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 that will stand in the way of determined, evil men, there is very, very little.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Willful Neglect by Faddis, Charles S. Copyright © 2010 by Faddis, Charles S.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Author and CIA counterterrorism veteran Faddis (Beyond Repair) opens his latest salvo against the state of homeland security by detailing a surprise attack that cost more than 2,000 American lives, the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor; even worse, he contends, was the complacency that permitted successful "follow-on attacks" a full eight hour later, and for several days after, in the Philippines. Faddis finds the aftermath of 9/11 a bitter reminder of the 60-year-old failure to react effectively: over eight years, the U.S. has spent billions making the Department of Homeland Security the largest federal department in history, but effective new security measures are nearly nonexistent. Instead, the department's work includes a $200,000 grant for a tiny Alaskan fishing village 300 miles from the nearest major population center; and $160,000 for eight plasma screen televisions in Montgomery, Maryland. Meanwhile, many municipal railways, chemical plants, liquid natural gas terminals, and even military installations remain entirely vulnerable; in the case of a well-rehearsed, well-timed attack, the potential for casualties far exceeds those of 9/11. Faddis is a passionate and fully-informed advocate for effective and responsible security, and his analytical survey is a valuable clarion call for anyone involved in homeland security and public safety.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly - Library Journal

To an America that has gone to sleep long since 9/11, this book will serve as a wake-up call, a resounding alarm alerting everyone to the very real threats we face from an enemy committed to attacking us, again and again. Based on decades of experience as one of the CIA’s top counter-terror operators, no one is more qualified than Charles Faddis to help us see our vulnerabilities and show every American what can be done to reduce them.”—John Giduck, President, Archangel Anti-Terror Group and author of Terror at Beslan “Well researched and written with sophistication, Willful Neglect is a crucially important yet wholly disturbing depiction of gullibility and greed. Faddis points to the pervasive diversion of resources from genuine security needs by those hyping pork-barrel projects and lucrative new ‘security’ wares, and he takes on the industries and regulators aggressively seeking to save money by shirking their responsibilities to defend predeployed mass weapons among hundreds of poorly defended chemical, bio-weapon, and nuclear facilities against a host of feasible attacks.”—Jim Warren, Executive Director of NC WARN, a nuclear power watchdog organization Praise for the author's previous book, Beyond Repair:“Faddis, a career CIA operations officer, pulls no punches in this provocative critique of the iconic and dysfunctional spy agency. . . . In a world where threats are multiplying and becoming more complex, [his] bleak assessment of the CIA should be required reading.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A devastating portrait of the agency’s culture—with details that only an insider would know.”—David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and author of Body of Lies ***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 on targets such as US naval vessels and embassies. Across the globe there was chatter about the idea of attacking US aircraft and of using those aircraft as flying bombs. We did nothing. Like the commanders at Pearl Harbor we sat with our hands folded and assumed that when and if the attack came, it would come elsewhere, certainly not on our soil. Three thousand people died as the result of that complacency. Now, in the aftermath, it is our job to do what MacArthur did not do [after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941], to prepare for the next wave of attacks. There is no longer any possibility of avoiding the conclusion that we are at war. There is no question about the brutality of our foes, their level of creativity or their willingness to strike us inside our own borders. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to move as fast as is humanly possible to block any all future attacks. Amazingly, though, as you tour this nation and examine the prime targets which 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. —Charles Faddis

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