Synopses & Reviews
How safe are we? What do we sacrifice to feel safe? And who pays the ultimate price?
Two Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists examine one of the most sensitive post–9/11 national security investigations—a breathtaking race to prevent an al-Qaeda bomber from launching Osama bin Laden’s final attack on American soil.
In Enemies Within, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman lay bare the complex and often contradictory state of counterterrorism and intelligence in America through the pursuit of Najibullah Zazi, a terrorist bomber who trained under one of bin Laden’s most trusted deputies. Zazi and his coconspirators represented America’s greatest fear: a terrorist cell operating inside America.
Apuzzo and Goldman lift the veil of secrecy to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of our counterterrorism measures. This real-life spy story—uncovered in previously unpublished secret NYPD documents and interviews with intelligence sources—shows that while many of these programs are more invasive than ever, they are often counterproductive at best.
After 9/11, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly initiated an audacious plan for the Big Apple: dispatch a vast network of plainclothes officers and paid informants—called “rakers” and “mosque crawlers”—into Muslim neighborhoods to infiltrate religious communities and eavesdrop on college campuses. Police amassed data on innocent people, often for their religious and political beliefs. But when it mattered most, these strategies failed to identify the most imminent threats.
Enemies Within tackles the tough questions about the measures that we take to protect ourselves from real and perceived threats. Apuzzo and Goldman take readers inside America’s sprawling counterterrorism machine while it operates at full throttle. They reveal what works, what doesn’t, and what Americans have unknowingly given up.
Review
"The authors use their investigative know-how like skilled surgeons, utilizing their scalpel to expose a malignant growth in the heart of the NYPD."
Review
"Two of America's best reporters pull back the curtain to reveal how New York really works. In the process, they also raise troubling questions about the price that America has paid, particularly in its moral standing, in prosecuting the war on terror. They ask the hardest question of them all. They ask Americans to look in the mirror."
Review
"Apuzzo & Goldman are the new Woodward and Bernstein."
Review
"Enemies Within combines the quick-paced storytelling of a mystery novel with the intellectual altitude of intelligence experts. It offers insights into the methods that work the best against would-be terrorists, as well as those that are not only a waste of money and time, but abuse the nature of our democracy. A great, informative read."
Review
"Like too many stories about the post-9/11 fight against terrorism, this is a tale in which American boldness, cunning, and ingenuity are frequently undermined by American arrogance, recklessness, and narrow-mindedness. Apuzzo and Goldman’s revelatory investigation casts a troubling light on the NYPD and reverberates far beyond New York City, exposing the risks of waging an ill-defined 'war on terror.'"
Review
"Apuzzo & Goldman are the new Woodward and Bernstein." < b=""> Spencer Ackerman, < i=""> The Guardian <> <>
Review
Two of America's best reporters pull back the curtain to reveal how New York really works. In the process, they also raise troubling questions about the price that America has paid, particularly in its moral standing, in prosecuting the war on terror. They ask the hardest question of them all. They ask Americans to look in the mirror. < b=""> James Risen, author of < i=""> State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration <>
Review
"The authors use their investigative know-how like skilled surgeons, utilizing their scalpel to expose a malignant growth in the heart of the NYPD." < b=""> Frank Serpico <>
Review
"Despite all the hype around NSA's secret Prism surveillance program, Apuzzo and Goldman show how the Zazi case really got made. This book is both a thriller and a hard-hitting expose of the NYPD Intel unit set up after 9/11. While the American people have shown some willingness to give up privacy for the hope of greater security, the reader can be the judge of whether the shocking excesses of this unit are justified by its results."
Review
"Enemies Within is a deeply reported and well written account of the NYPD's aggressive efforts to monitor the Muslim-American community and the most threatening al-Qaeda plot since 9/11---the plot to bomb the New York City subway system in 2009-- a plot that NYPD's surveillance efforts did not detect."
Review
“Two tales tell us a great deal—not all of it flattering—about the ways in which law
enforcement has kept the city safe. . . . Assiduous reporting.”
Review
"A fascinating new book."
Review
“If you're a citizen, you need to read Enemies Within . . . . The authors have a story worthy of a thriller. The book is peopled with spies, terrorists and decorated war heroes. . . . Apuzzo and Goldman have sounded an alarm.”
Review
“While Apuzzo and Goldman show their veteran reportorial skills in exposing the details of the NYPD’s surveillance program, they also expertly craft the drama of the unfolding terrorist plot and the race by government agencies to foil it. . . . A fast-paced, informative investigation into the ever-messy arena of privacy versus security.”
Review
"It is no stretch to say that the season's most anticipated book of investigative journalism is Enemies Within"
Review
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman chronicle how the quest for safety led to something far darker....Did the Snowden leaks trouble you? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Review
“A deep, jaw-dropping dive . . . No book better sums up the state of post-9/11 fear.”
Synopsis
Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists take an unbridled look into one of the most sensitive post-9/11 national security investigations, a breathtaking race to avert a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil.For Americans who wonder, "How safe are we?" Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman pull back the curtain to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of our counterterrorism measures. Chillingly, their real-life domestic spy story--based on hundreds of previously unpublished New York Police Department internal memos and exclusive interviews with intelligence sources--indicates that many of those strategies aren't even close to being useful, functional, or successful.
Six months after the 9/11 attacks, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly initiated a straightforward, yet audacious, antiterrorist plan to be implemented in the Big Apple. The NYPD would dispatch a vast network of undercover officers and informants--known as "mosque crawlers" and "rakers"--into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations in mosques and community centers. And yet their shady tactics proved to be fruitless.
Through the harrowing tick-tock narrative of forty-eight hours in 2009, the NYPD and the FBI track suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi--the single greatest threat to US domestic security since 9/11--as he makes his way from Denver to New York to launch an attack. In telling their story, the authors provide readers an inside look at the complex and often contradictory state of counterterrorism and intelligence in America.
Enemies Within answers the tough questions about the effectiveness of the measures we take to protect ourselves from real and false threats. Its shocking details about the tactics and activities of the NYPD will be headline news and reveal what it really takes to hunt down terrorists in America.
About the Author
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman are investigative reporters for the Associated Press in Washington, D.C. They shared in the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series on the New York Police Department's clandestine spying program targeting American Muslims. Together, Apuzzo and Goldman have uncovered the location of a CIA prison, revealed widespread cheating on FBI exams, and showed how the CIA's haphazard disciplinary system resulted in promotions for officers who kidnapped and killed the wrong people. They have shared the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, a George Polk Award, the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, and the Edgar A. Poe Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association. Apuzzo has covered organized crime, corruption, and law enforcement in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington. Goldman has covered crime and government for newspapers in Virginia and Alabama. He reported from Las Vegas and New York for the AP.