In this revelatory new account, national security historian Timothy Naftali relates the full back story of America's attempts to fight terrorism. On September 11, 2001, a long history of failures, missteps, and blind spots in our intelligence services came to a head, with tragic results. At the end of World War II, the OSS's "X-2" department had established a seamless system for countering the threats of die-hard Nazi terrorists. But those capabilities were soon forgotten, and it wasn't't until 1968, when Palestinian groups began a series of highly publicized airplane hijackings, that the U.S. began to take counterterrorism seriously. Naftali narrates the game of "catch-up" that various administrations and the CIA played -- with varying degrees of success -- from the Munich Games hostage-taking to the raft of terrorist incidents in the mid-1980s through the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and up to 9/11.In riveting detail, Naftali shows why holes in U.S. homeland security discovered by Vice President George H. W. Bush in 1986 were still a problem when his son became President, and why George W. Bush did little to fix them until it was too late. Naftali concludes that open, liberal democracies like the U.S. are incapable of effectively stopping terrorism. For anyone concerned about the future of America's security, this masterful history will be necessary -- and eye-opening -- reading.

Synopsis Jonathan Sheppard, a pilot and aeronautical specialist with Boeing Inc. in Seattle is invited to Washington by the Department of National Defense to present his work on new alloys developed in his laboratory. He arrives several hours early at the airport and is able to change to an earlier plane, flight 684, leaving almost immediately. Once on board, he checks his e-mail and finds an urgent message from the Department of National Defense. He contacts Gerald, at National Defense Headquarters, who is surprised and concerned that Jonathan took an alternative flight to the one they arranged for him. Their concerns appear to be related to the incidents of earthquakes occurring with increasing regularity around the globe. Jonathan dozes off and is rudely awoken to witness the devastation occurring in Minneapolis. He is contacted by the National Defense that informs him that the earth is undergoing considerable unrest as a result of nuclear tests combined with the depletion of resource basins of oil and water. This destabilized the planet causing a shift in the earths orbit with considerable activity in the inner core. The plane that he was originally scheduled to take was specially designed to take him and other scientists to space platforms located sixty thousand feet above the earth. As a result, flight 684 will have to rendezvous with one of these planes in Winnipeg, Canada. The plane changes course to Winnipeg, but the pilot is informed en route that the very heavy demands worldwide wont make a plane available for some time. National Defense suggests they refuel in Winnipeg and then fly on to Whitehorse in the Yukon to rendezvous with one of their planes. During the flight, Jonathan befriends Karen Grace, an attractive stewardess, who is very distressed as her family lived in the now devastated city of Minneapolis. During refueling, a major earthquake hits Winnipeg which necessitates the plane leaving only partially refueled. The remainder of the book deals with a series of adventures in which flight 684 makes a number of unscheduled stops before making its way to Whitehorse. Jonathan and Karen become very close and soon learn about government plans, going as far back as the early sixties, designed to develop strategies for saving the human race should a cataclysmic event occur. These include the development of Cities of Refuge, as well as space stations and space platforms. On the final flight to Whitehorse, flight 684 suddenly finds itself in the middle of a terrible storm. One of the engines catches fire resulting in it crashing some thirty miles from Whitehorse. The final section deals with the trials and tribulations of surviving in the frozen wilderness, including being attacked by wolves, until they finally board the specially designed plane which takes them to one of the space platforms.

First electronics. Then automobiles. Now the Japanese are ready to strike at our largest industrial export--airplanes. Intrigue and danger heighten as America faces its worst industrial challenge since the Great Depression. With the Cold War over, Japanese industrial espionage may succeed tomorrow where, fifty years ago, their military might failed. Expert saboteurs continue to strike at our vital industries, while hundreds of thousands of American jobs and countless billions of dollars hang in the balance. Ex-CIA field officer Kirk McGarvey is hired by Guerin Airline Company to investigate a recent rash of accidents and restore the company's, and America's, international reputation.