Monday, June 13, 2011

The Next Wave By Catherine Herridge

Bin Laden is dead. But are we really any safer?

The first American on the CIA's kill or capture list, Anwar al-Awlaki slipped away from the FBI and is now enemy #1 - details on the worst intelligence failure since 9/11.

On the Hunt for Al Qaeda's American Recruits
By Catherine Herridge

 "An absolutely compelling case that we haven't seen the end of terrorism in this country. In a gripping narrative, Herridge tells how it was only by sheer luck that we sidestepped al Qaeda's 'second wave' - and we'll need all the more of it not to be hit by the next." --Bob Baer, New York Times best-selling author

"Even before Osama Bin Laden's death, al Qaeda had shown itself to be an organization as adaptable as it was deadly... This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand where this war is going and what we need to do to win it." --General Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and the NSA

Award-winning Fox News national correspondent Catherine Herridge's groundbreaking book, THE NEXT WAVE: ON THE HUNT FOR AL QAEDA'S AMERICAN RECRUITS, is the first of its kind since Bin Laden's death to show what the next chapter of terrorism could look like. Herridge's landmark investigation exposes the American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the first American on the CIA's kill or capture list, who is the public face of al Qaeda in the West. Herridge, who has covered intelligence, the Justice Department, and Homeland Security for a decade, reveals the insidious threat posed by al-Awlaki's new generation of American recruits - al Qaeda 2.0.
In THE NEXT WAVE, shocking details emerge about what could be the worst intelligence failure since 9/11. The FBI allowed the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to slip away after 9/11. Now he leads al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate in Yemen that was behind at least two major plots targeting the U.S. New evidence shows that al-Awlaki's movements and his connections to a major FBI investigation were hidden from the 9/11 Commission and from Congress.
THE NEXT WAVE reveals:
  • Awlaki's post-9/11 lunch at the Pentagon including the guest list and proposed menu that included pork.  It was like a thief returning to the scene of the crime. Al-Awlaki had contact with three of the five hijackers on Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon.
  • The sexual frenzy and double life of al Qaeda 2.0.  As Navy Seals find porn in Bin Laden's hideout, senior counter terrorism officials reveal to Herridge how common it is to find operatives with pornography on their hard drives.  Terrorists demand as much as $30,000 for al Qaeda's messages that are delivered through porn sites.   Binging on alcohol and blowing money on strippers are standard practice before their suicide missions.
  • Al Qaeda's so-called holy man, al-Awlaki, was picked up three times for soliciting prostitutes and a fourth time for loitering around a school. Yet, Government officials refuse to use the cleric's criminal past against him.
  • The new threat and why the next twelve months are critical - Were plots already in the pipeline before Bin Laden's death? Where are the sleeper cells? Will al-Awlaki, and his al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, or Somalia and North Africa, step up to fill the void?
  • New details from the U.S. intelligence community who already warn of retaliatory strikes by al-Awlaki and his cell. From his hideout in Yemen, al-Awlaki is the leader of al Qaeda 2.0, the new generation of recruits. Who are the new digital jihadists? How are they radicalized?
  • Was this American cleric recruited by the FBI as an intelligence asset?
  • New information proving it's all easy living for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
  • Details on how Pentagon media officers tried to intimidate the author for her groundbreaking reporting in Guantanamo Bay.
  • Exclusive and rare access to the new generation fighting the war on terror - the new generation of counter terrorism officers at the CIA whose "accounts" include the tribal areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.
  • The New Frontier: al Qaeda's strongholds - Yemen, Somalia, and North Africa are the hubs for terror training. 
  • Former CIA leadership and other senior intelligence officials predict future attacks could look like the commando-style assaults in Mumbai, India, in 2008. A cyber attack will most likely be combined with a conventional attack in what amounts to a "one-two punch." The nuclear attack is predicted to be a device the size of a refrigerator, smuggled up a major waterway to cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
  • A 9/11 story that was never told. Newly declassified documents and interviews suggest that al-Awlaki was an overlooked key player in the 9/11 plot, itself.

THE NEXT WAVE discusses this shocking likelihood: As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, Bin Laden's death may provide justification for radicalized individuals in the United States to rapidly mobilize attacks here. 

Their leader is an American, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was firmly in the grasp of U.S. authorities until the FBI let him slip away. The story behind the next wave of American recruits and al-Awlaki has never been told before.  Why has so much of the American cleric's story been hidden from Congress, 9/11 investigators and the public? Was there a cover-up? Herridge's book is already being described as "a landmark in investigative journalism."

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