The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It

Good depth and explanation for a complicated topic

The authors of "The Cell" provide the reader with a step-by-step on how the terrorist's cells evolved and developed. The terrorist cells had its beginnings not in Pakistan or Iran but in the United States of America in the heart of the city of New York! The authors write in detail about the catastrophe of the World Trade Center on September 26, 1993. They provide inside information on the worst tragedy of September 11, 2001. The authors show how all could have been averted if it had not been for the sleeping giants, the FBI, NYPD, JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and the CIA. Not only were those powerful agencies asleep, but they were, in every way, trying to be the number one and all-powerful individual agency. This was mistakenly done by not sharing important and critical information. Moreover, the different agencies failed to act on the clandestine information, each one had about the Muslim immigrants from Pakistan. The agencies knew ahead of time a large group of immigrant Muslims were busy gathering bomb-making materials and being trained in American soil to bring the twin towers down and kill as many American people as well. I compare the way the authors of "The Cell" present the reader the story much like paint-by-number's painting. Once the reader finishes painting all the numbered pieces the reader wind up with an extremely disturbing painting of how the terrorists managed to accomplish doing the inconceivable in the heart of America. As American's we continue to believe in the fallacy that we are a giant that cannot be touched. We see ourselves as a giant elephant and the terrorist as a gnat buzzing on our giant elephants' ear. We fail to give that gnat more attention and instead gently try to swat it off our ear. The reader might have seen the incidents of the World Trade Center tragedy on TV. The reader might have witnessed the pulverizing of the twin towers on 9/11 on TV is well, but the authors of "The Cell" provide the inside story never seen and or witnessed by the public at large, and they paint the catastrophically numbered slots in a factual, but disturbing way. "The Cell" is necessary read for everyone.

This is a great read, perhaps written too much from the FBI side of the house but nonetheless at the top of the list. It is tough to read the book while knowing what would happen on 9-11. Monday morning quarterbacking always looks brilliant. However, the authors document the flaws at the FBI, CIA national leadership and other agencies, plus the many times that sound instincts were overruled by bureaucratic blunders and second guessing. Colin Powell in his excellent brief on leadership (prepared as the storm gathered) notes that both military and corporate leadership should start with the assumption that the people in the field know more about reality than headquarters staff. The effectiveness of young, results oriented organizations too often matures into process oriented organizations where results are subordinate to process, career advancement and political correctness. One small example was the CIA leadership refusing authorization for a low risk intelligence field operation, but offering to send a 4 person team to the field office to provide sexual harassment training, to a 2 man field office deep in the Muslim world. The authors note the seemingly endless stream of lost opportunities to break or at least slow the chain, some incredibly lucky events such as the fire that lead Philippine authorities to the master bomb maker. Warriors and coaches emphasize that winners make their own good luck. As a nation we did a great job of making bad luck with tragic results. There are heroes, many of them and the authors take the reader into the daily struggle as they attempt to prevent what would become 9-11 but which might have ended with an even more deadly attack. This would have been an easy 5 stars were it not for some troubling issues. The first is information available to both our leadership and the press in the decade leading up to 9-11 clearly showed that to be a serious threat. When my phone rang shortly after 6 am (Pacific Time) on 9-11, the first words I heard were, "You were right" from a very distraught and close friend. The tragedy was not that we had no information; but rather that so many public warnings over the prior 12 years had been ignored by both the press and our top leadership. In the late 80's the revised "Great Reckoning" devoted a substantial portion of the book to the rise of militant Muslim fundamentalists, the challenges of asymmetrical warfare with stateless groups whose weapons were made vastly more deadly by the expansion of technology. In the following years the terrorists had struck every continent with the exception of Antarctica. There was within much of the military leadership the shared, unclassified opinion, that the "big one was coming." And finally, as is so often the case, fiction writers like Tom Clancey understood and wrote about the potential of using airliners as weapons. The authors also note the debilitating impact of restrictions and bureaucratic roadblocks placed on the CIA's use of sources. They fail to note that the restrictions and procedures helped Ames to compromise virtually every US asset in the USSR. The rules and procedures increased the threat to those who would help us and discouraged our agents from recruiting sources. The authors also gloss over the damage done by Adm Turner who pushed the CIA away from human sources and effective action. They do note the sign over one CIA officer's desk which summarized the Turner/Carter CIA - Big operations, big problems - Little operations, little problems - No operations, no problems. Boldness succumbed to bureaucracy and risk aversion. The authors note that Clinton did not meet with the CIA Director for years, but offer the comment that he read the reports. However, in the world of very sensitive information, leaked documents and Freedom of Information requests there is no substitute for personal briefings. If the FBI, DOJ and CIA were not working together as a team it is a reflection of both the problems within the organizations and the leadership above. With these issues noted the book is highly recommended. Also recommended is I.C. Smith's "Inside" which presents another view of many of the same issues and makes a great companion.

I listened to the book on Audible while working in my wood shop. It was an interesting and informative book. I had read bits and pieces of the information about the September 11 attack in past years. However, Miller tied things together in a way that more clearly explained the events leading up to the attack and the failures of our various government agencies to identify the threat early enough to possibly intervene in the attack on the twin towers as well as earlier attacks. It seems pretty clear that our concerns about political correctness are major roadblocks to dealing effectively with terrorism. It really is about radical Islamist ideology.

Just finished reading The Cell. If anyone wants to know what went wrong on 9/11 just read this book. To try and blame one person or organization, except for the terrorists, for the death and destruction on 9/11 would be foolish. If the Towers were brought down in 1993 and toppled over each other, the death count would have been well over 100,000. John Miller, Stone and Mitchell do an incredible story detailing the events leading up to 9/11. I don't know the party affliation with any of these men but the story they present is fascinating. The book is summed up the best on page 332; Terrorism is cyclical, left alone it always comes back, usually bolder and more lethal. Additionally the fight against terrorism can't be conducted from afar, it requires in your face old fashion investigation. No matter how many lasers we have, smart bombs, stealth fighters,etc. what we need is 100 Louie Napoli, Don Sadowy and John O'Neils. Book should be required reading for all high school students, never to forget or let your guard down.

The book was a really good book about antecedent and aftermath of 9/11. The authors inscribed many information to the events and individuals involved in this atrocity. The book pointed out the lack of interdependence between law enforcement agencies, such as the CIA and FBI, in which the results were horrendous.

It's a fantastic book!!! It shows the history of just what our country was attempting to do a long time ago even before 911. We knew much of what was going on, but there weren't any real incidents so the program got cut. . . . sad....

I was actually disappointed in this book after seeing Miller interviewed on TV. I suppose that's why he's on TV. Still I recommend this book to anyone interested in US capabilities to prevent terrorist attacks and the terrorists who hate us most. The style of the book is not exactly galvanizing and it is particularly difficult to keep track of the characters. The Arabic names are so often similar that it would have been nice if a device had been employed to help present the characters and I kept wanting some sort of pronunciation aid, too. But even the Anglo characters were hard for me to follow. A time line graphic or aid would have been nice. I felt like things were hurried perhaps to meet the anniversary. The content itself and the big picture of the terrorist attack is definitely communicated and moreover has the clear ring of truth. While the characterizations of the participants on both sides leaves one yearning for clearer pictures; those, too, are sufficient to communicate a definite impression of both good guys and bad guys. I couldn't help but think of Laurence Johnston Peter's famous principle: "employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent." This certainly seems to be true with the FBI which comes across much better than the CIA. Generally individual agents within the organization seem to be constantly betrayed by idiotic bureaucratic regulations administered by sophisticated and practiced incompetents. But this seems more to be in the area of confirmation of what so many already suspect than revelatory. However, the terrorist themselves, despite numerous and irritating declarations to the contrary throughout the book, appear, if anything, to be even worse. I suppose this is fitting for an even more hierarchical organization than the CIA. It appears that the pool for terrorist talent consists pretty much of lazy candidates for dumb and dumber movies but seasoned with particularly high amounts of personality dysfunction. The exceptions, which are notable by degree more than substance, only serve to emphasize such a sad impression The terrorists are portrayed in a way that seems to indicate they have no appreciation for American individualism, resolve, and character. But they are also portrayed as very communal with almost no individualism themselves and that may indeed be an underlying factor. I believe the book does a reasonable job of cursorily examining the hatred of the terrorists especially considering that is not the primary intent. It is hopeful in that while the disaffection appears to be widespread among the Muslim community, only a few actually are motivated to real violence. The most hopeful impression I retain however is that individual US citizens and agents will continue the search for these terrorists until all are eliminated and the threat removed regardless of the time or resources necessary.