Synopses & Reviews
The Cell: Written by ABC News journalist John Miller and co-writer Michael Stone, a blow by blow investigation into the terrorist cells involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, using information gleaned from sources within the FBI and CIA, and from reporting Miller has gathered during his many years as a reporter covering the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, through the present.
September 11, 2001 marked the beginning of a new era in American history. But the forces that triggered those attacks have been in place for years at least a decade or more and continue to operate within the United States and abroad. Experts estimate that as many as 500 terrorist cells exist in America today.
ABCs John Miller has been tracking this story since his coverage of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. He was the first American journalist to interview Osama bin Laden. He has a sophisticated knowledge of the structure and workings of bin Ladens and other extremist organizations. And he has extensive sources within the federal and local law enforcement communities now conducting the investigation into the September 11 attacks.
In The Cell, Miller and veteran crime reporter Michael Stone narrate the behind-the-scenes story of this unfolding investigation. Following a handful of key agents and detectives, they not only describe the step-by-step process of identifying and linking up suspects, but the politics and pressures, the magnitude and feel of the greatest manhunt in the history of the world. Moreover, The Cell provides a much-needed look into the twilight universe where terrorist groups live and operate, including:
- History and formation of terrorist cells
- Recruitment and training of cell members
- How cell members interact amongst themselves and within their host communities
- Planning and organization of missions
- Funding of cells
- Links to institutional, state and international sponsors
- Numbers of organizations, their resources, and the threats they pose to America
- Biographical sketches of the leaders and key operatives linked to the current case and to major terrorist groups
Without that context a basic understanding of the extremist commitment and capability in the US no intelligent discussion of a response to the recent attacks or a strategic policy toward terrorism in general is possible.
Review
"A book like The Cell is useful or important if it does one of two things: 1) breaks news, or 2) gives a more lucid, more cogent, more comprehensive overview of a story than, say, a series of newspaper articles could. The Cell succeeds at neither of these....It's puzzling that three such experienced and knowledgeable reporters could have written such a chaotic mess of a book." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Review
"This eye-opening investigation into anti-American terrorist activities would have been even more shocking if information hadn't already started to dribble out about the inadequacies of the FBI and CIA in tracking and preventing such activities....[The authors] connect a lot of dots in this frightening and important book." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Intelligence detail about the September 11 hijackers culminates this fact-heavy account....Although slightly disorganized, this book offers the investigators' perspective and also meets the current surge of interest in who knew what when." Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
Synopsis
In New York City, a handful of veteran FBI agents, police officers and investigative journalists had known for years that a terrorist event on the scale of 9/11 was likely. Ironically, one of the men who had been most aware of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden had recently left the FBI, where he had been following the movements of bin Laden and Al Qaeda, to become Chief of Security at the World Trade Center. John O'Neill died on that awful day. The FBI's O'Neill, along with Neil Herman, Kenny Maxwell, reporter John Miller and very few others, had been on bin Laden's trail for years. To them, he had long been considered the most dangerous man on the planet.
In The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, And Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It, John Milller, an award-winning journalist and co-anchor of ABC's 20/20, along with veteran reporters Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell, takes readers back more than ten years to the birth of the terrorist cell that later metastasized into al Qaeda's New York operation. This remarkable book offers a firsthand account of what it is to be a police officer, an FBI agent or a reporter obsessed with a case few people will take seriously. The Cell also contains a first-person account of Miller's face-to-face meeting with bin Laden and provides the first full-length treatment to piece together what led up to the events of 9/11, ultimately delivering the disturbing answer to the question: Why, with all the information the intelligence community had, was no one able to stop the September 11 attacks?
Synopsis
The authors present a blow-by-blow investigation into the terrorist cells involved in the September 11 attacks, using information gleaned from sources within the FBI and CIA, and other sources.
Synopsis
September 11, 2001 marked the beginning of a new era in history, but the forces that triggered those attacks have been in place for years and continue to operate within the United States and abroad. Experts estimate that as many as 500 terrorist cells exist in America today. ABC News journalist John Miller has been tracking this story since his coverage of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. He was the first American journalist to interview Osama Bin Laden, and he has a sophisticated knowledge of the structure and workings of extremist organizations. The Cell contains information gleaned from sources within the FBI, CIA, and the local law enforcement communities currently conducting the investigation into the September 11 attacks.
About the Author
John Miller is an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist and co-host of ABC's
20/20 with Barbara Walters, and one of the few Western reporters ever to have interviewed Osama bin Laden. He lives in New York City. This is his first book.
Michael Stone is a veteran journalist who has covered many of New York's most notorious stories, including John Gotti, Robert Chambers, and the Central Park jogger assault, and is the author of Gangbusters. He lives in New York City.
Chris Mitchell is a senior editor at The Week. His previous collaboration, Jack Maple's The Crime Fighter, inspired the television drama The District.