America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration
The untold story of the last unrevealed American counterterrorism project built from the debris of 9/11. Its surprising ongoing purpose: to prevent terrorist infiltration over the US southwest border.

This thirteen-year work of journalism finally settles one of the nation’s most controversial and politically powerful ideas about the American southern border: that Islamic jihadists might infiltrate it and commit terrorist acts. Perhaps no other idea about the border has sown more conflict, claims, counterclaims, rebuttals, and false narratives on all sides.

This book provides a first comprehensive neutral baseline of truth about the threat, goring oxen on both sides of the partisan divide. It documents an ambitious and intrigue-laden covert American war on terror effort that stretches from the Mexican border to the tip of South America. Its existence to protect the homeland from terrorist infiltration was often regarded as entirely imagined—until migrating jihadists recently started killing and wounding hundreds in Europe.

Americans concerned by unchecked global migration, porous borders, and national security also may feel surprised to learn that thousands of long-haul migrants from the Islamic world similarly breach the US-Mexican border each year—among them hardened jihadists—despite media insistence that none of this traffic exists.

It does. The secret American campaign has prevented land border infiltration attack on US soil, safeguarding an unknowing nation—so far—from Europe’s bloody ongoing experience. But this geographically sprawling effort is suffering from denialism and neglect at America’s peril...just as Europe was before its calamity. How much longer can these programs keep America safe without the public recognition that they exist and the needed care and attention that acknowledgment would bring? This book is much more than revelation and complaint; it provides solutions to better protect the homeland from this chronically misunderstood border threat.
1137364573
America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration
The untold story of the last unrevealed American counterterrorism project built from the debris of 9/11. Its surprising ongoing purpose: to prevent terrorist infiltration over the US southwest border.

This thirteen-year work of journalism finally settles one of the nation’s most controversial and politically powerful ideas about the American southern border: that Islamic jihadists might infiltrate it and commit terrorist acts. Perhaps no other idea about the border has sown more conflict, claims, counterclaims, rebuttals, and false narratives on all sides.

This book provides a first comprehensive neutral baseline of truth about the threat, goring oxen on both sides of the partisan divide. It documents an ambitious and intrigue-laden covert American war on terror effort that stretches from the Mexican border to the tip of South America. Its existence to protect the homeland from terrorist infiltration was often regarded as entirely imagined—until migrating jihadists recently started killing and wounding hundreds in Europe.

Americans concerned by unchecked global migration, porous borders, and national security also may feel surprised to learn that thousands of long-haul migrants from the Islamic world similarly breach the US-Mexican border each year—among them hardened jihadists—despite media insistence that none of this traffic exists.

It does. The secret American campaign has prevented land border infiltration attack on US soil, safeguarding an unknowing nation—so far—from Europe’s bloody ongoing experience. But this geographically sprawling effort is suffering from denialism and neglect at America’s peril...just as Europe was before its calamity. How much longer can these programs keep America safe without the public recognition that they exist and the needed care and attention that acknowledgment would bring? This book is much more than revelation and complaint; it provides solutions to better protect the homeland from this chronically misunderstood border threat.
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America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration

America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration

by Todd Bensman
America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration

America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration

by Todd Bensman

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Overview

The untold story of the last unrevealed American counterterrorism project built from the debris of 9/11. Its surprising ongoing purpose: to prevent terrorist infiltration over the US southwest border.

This thirteen-year work of journalism finally settles one of the nation’s most controversial and politically powerful ideas about the American southern border: that Islamic jihadists might infiltrate it and commit terrorist acts. Perhaps no other idea about the border has sown more conflict, claims, counterclaims, rebuttals, and false narratives on all sides.

This book provides a first comprehensive neutral baseline of truth about the threat, goring oxen on both sides of the partisan divide. It documents an ambitious and intrigue-laden covert American war on terror effort that stretches from the Mexican border to the tip of South America. Its existence to protect the homeland from terrorist infiltration was often regarded as entirely imagined—until migrating jihadists recently started killing and wounding hundreds in Europe.

Americans concerned by unchecked global migration, porous borders, and national security also may feel surprised to learn that thousands of long-haul migrants from the Islamic world similarly breach the US-Mexican border each year—among them hardened jihadists—despite media insistence that none of this traffic exists.

It does. The secret American campaign has prevented land border infiltration attack on US soil, safeguarding an unknowing nation—so far—from Europe’s bloody ongoing experience. But this geographically sprawling effort is suffering from denialism and neglect at America’s peril...just as Europe was before its calamity. How much longer can these programs keep America safe without the public recognition that they exist and the needed care and attention that acknowledgment would bring? This book is much more than revelation and complaint; it provides solutions to better protect the homeland from this chronically misunderstood border threat.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781642937251
Publisher: Bombardier Books
Publication date: 02/23/2021
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 475,943
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Todd Bensman currently serves as the Texas-based Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington, D.C. policy institute for which he writes, speaks, and grants media interviews about the nexus between immigration and national security. For nearly a decade prior to joining CIS in August 2018, Bensman led counterterrorism intelligence for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division and its multi-agency fusion center. Before his homeland security service, Bensman was a journalist for twenty-three years, covering national security after 9/11 as a staff writer for major newspapers. He earned accolades—such as two National Press Club awards—for his border reporting. Bensman holds an MA in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security (2015, Outstanding Thesis designee). He also holds an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism (2009) and an undergraduate degree in journalism with honors from Northern Arizona University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Small Numbers, Big Consequences xi

Chapter 1 Proof of Concept: Weaponized Human Proliferation in Europe 1

Chapter 2 Origins of an American Covert Border War 42

Chapter 3 Jihadists Rattling the Gates: The Near War 74

Chapter 4 The Asylum Calamity 102

Chapter 5 "When the Gringos Came": The Far War 125

Chapter 6 Cat and Mouse: The Kingpins 160

Chapter 7 Latin America's Foreign Embassies: With Friends Like These and Enemies Like Those 185

Chapter 8 Holes in the Double Net 201

Chapter 9 Remedies 218

Afterword: Sanctuary or Security? 237

Acknowledgments 241

Endnotes 243

About the Author 299

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