The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against al-Qaeda / Edition 1

by Ali Soufan, Daniel Freedman

Overview

A book that will change the way we think about al-Qaeda, intelligence, and the events that forever changed America.

On September 11, 2001, FBI Special Agent Ali H. Soufan was handed a secret file. Had he received it months earlier—when it was requested—the attacks on New York and Washington could have been prevented. During his time on the front lines, Soufan helped thwart plots around the world and elicited some of the most important confessions from terrorists in the war against al-Qaeda—without laying so much as a hand on them. Most of these stories have never been reported before, and never by anyone with such intimate firsthand knowledge.

This narrative account of America's successes and failures against al-Qaeda is essential to an understanding of the terrorist group. We are taken into hideouts and interrogation rooms. We have a ringside seat at bin Laden's personal celebration of the 9/11 bombings. Such riveting details show us not only how terrorists think and operate but also how they can be beaten and brought to justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393079425
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/12/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Ali Soufan, a former FBI special agent and the lead investigator on some of the world’s—most complex international terrorism cases, gained an—international reputation as a top counterterrorism operative. He is the chairman and CEO of The Soufan Group, founder of The Soufan Center, and has been featured in books, films, television series, newspaper articles, and documentaries across the globe.

Table of Contents

Important Note Concerning The Text xi

Map xii

Prologue xv

Note To Readers xxv

Part 1 The Early Years

1 The Fatwa and the Bet 3

2 Osama Air 33

3 The Northern Group 56

Part 2 Declaration of War

4 The al-Qaeda Switchboard 75

5 Operation Challenge and the Manchester Manual 97

6 "You'll Be Singing Like a Canary" 121

7 Millennium Plot 131

Part 3 Uss Cole

8 A Naval Destroyer inYemen? 149

9 The Hall of Death 168

10 "We're Stubborn, but We're Not Crazy" 185

11 The Human Polygraph Machine 209

12 "What Is al-Qaeda Doing in Malaysia?" 228

13 Bin Laden's Errand Boy 254

Part 4 The Attack That Changed The World

14 The Binalshibh Riddle 271

15 "What Dots?" 284

16 The Father of Death 306

Part 5 A New World Order

17 Bin Laden's Escape 343

18 DocEx 350

19 Black Magic 356

Part 6 The First High-Value Detainee

20 Abu Zubaydah 373

21 The Contractors Take Over 393

22 "We Don't Do That" 411

Part 7 Successes And Failures

23 Guantánamo Bay 439

24 45 Minutes 484

25 The Crystal Ball Memo 502

Part 8 Final Missions

26 Leaving the FBI 511

27 Undercover 518

Postscript 525

Conclusion 531

Acknowledgments 539

Principal Characters 545

Key Documents And Articles Cited 569

Editorial Reviews

"To those inside the U.S. government Soufan has long been something of a legend. He conducted the most effective and fruitful interrogations of Al Qaeda suspects during the war on terrorism, and save for some inexplicable failures by the CIA, he and his team might well have prevented 9/11. Soufan has since left the FBI and written a gripping account of his experiences, brimming with details about Al Qaeda and its historical development."

Harpers Magazine

"Superb. An education. And the best book on al Qaeda out there, bar none."

Robert Baer

"One of the most valuable and detailed accounts of its subject to appear in the past decade."

The Economist

"A devastating picture of rivalry and dysfunction inside the government’s counterterrorism agencies."

New York Times - Scott Shane

"An absorbing account of America's fight back after 9/11…it reveals the dedication of those who defend us, as well as the weird frailties of those who try to kill us."

The Sunday Times

"Unfortunately, we only have one Ali Soufan. Had American intelligence listened to him, 9/11 might never have happened. No one did more to unravel the story of al-Qaeda than Ali Soufan. Thankfully, he's left another legacy in this book. Anyone who wants to know what really happened should read it. It's an inspiring but wrenching story told from the heart of a great American."

Lawrence Wright

"Most Americans first heard of FBI agent Ali H. Soufan in the spring of 2009. That’s when he testified from behind a black curtain in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing room…The testimony was explosive…Now Soufan has fired another salvo…detailed descriptions of what unfolded behind the closed doors of the world’s interrogation rooms…Soufan’s story provides a new and important window on America’s battle with al-Qaeda."

Dina Temple-Raston

This book stands out among the numerous books published on al-Qaeda because it provides information not found in other volumes; many have relied on Soufan's information, at times anonymously, but none has offered all that is here. Soufan was the FBI's most knowledgeable special agent dealing with al-Qaeda's activities and became the source of the most useful actionable intelligence on this terrorist organization. As an interrogator with unique skills, Soufan gained firsthand, reliable information about many al-Qaeda operatives. What has been remarkable about the valuable information provided by Soufan to the FBI is that he obtained all of his data without resorting to torture and objected to the prevalent use of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that were devised during the George W. Bush administration. This absorbing book details accounts of Soufan's treasure trove of data that he provided to the U.S. government well before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some of which were ignored. VERDICT The best and most original book published in the West on al-Qaeda, this is highly recommended. (Although Soufan never worked for the CIA, the FBI submitted a draft of this book to the CIA, which redacted several sections. The CIA did not sign off on the index, which is why there is none.) [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/11.]—Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile

Library Journal

Could 9/11 have been prevented? By former FBI special agent Soufan's account, the answer is a resounding yes. In this heavily redacted memoir--some pages contain nothing but crossed-out lines--the author recounts a long career on the trail of al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups, a quest that sometimes seems to have begun before those groups were even up and running. There is not a whisper of self-promotion in his narrative, but it is clear that Soufan was on the case early and often. He writes, for instance, that on reading of a fatwa signed by Osama bin Laden and Muslim clerics in 1998, he wrote a memo to headquarters recommending that the FBI "focus on the threat he posed to the United States. Al-Qaeda came into focus even earlier on: "Al-Qaeda trainers were on the ground during the Battle of Mogadishu (also known as Black Hawk Down)"--a defeat of American forces that bin Laden declared not only a great victory but also proof that the American enemy was weak and lacked the stomach to fight back. Not so, insists Soufan, though given the ineptitude he portrays within FBI and other intelligence agencies, it seems amazing that the country managed to survive the last couple of decades; 9/11 was virtually foretold, and yet federal agencies did nothing. Fortunately, he writes, the enemy was also incompetent, particularly when it came to training operatives in how to use explosives. Remarked one prisoner of a training program in Afghanistan, "we're graduating more people to heaven than out of the class." The author concludes that al-Qaeda is on the decline, but more groups like it are on the rise. Soufan provides a sobering, sometimes maddening view from the front lines.

Kirkus Reviews