"Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" opens strong with a blow-by-blow description of 9/11 from a government response point of view. Clarke then winds the clock back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In those days he was working at the State Department on intelligence matters. During that war a huge number of refugees fled into Pakistan. While the US aided the Northern Alliance during Soviet occupation, it essentially dropped support when the Soviets left. In the resulting power vacuum, Pakistan helped create "order" in the country by supporting a competing group called the Taliban. Pakistan, through its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID), would continue to support the Taliban up until 9/11.

The book changed my opinion about the level of effort the US put into counterterrorism, and specifically al Qaeda, prior to 9/11. While most Americans think of the attacks in NYC and Washington as the start of terrorism against America, there were numerous attacks, most carried out by what would eventually be called al Qaeda.

Attacks that did happen

• 1993 - Shooting at CIA by Pakistani Mir Amal Kansi
• 1993 - Car Bomb at the World Trade Center
• 1995 - Oklahoma City Bombing by conservative Timothy McVeigh
• 1996 - Atlanta Olympics Bombing by conservative activist Eric Rudolph
• 1996 - Khobar Towers bombing.
• 1996 - Explosives attack on US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia
• 1998 - Bombing of Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
• 2000 - Al Qaeda attack on USS Cole docked in Yemen
• 2001 - World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks
• 2001 - Anthrax Attack in NY, DC, and FL (perpetrators unknown)

Attacks that were foiled

• 1993 - Captured men plotting to blow up Lincoln and Holland Tunnels in New York.
• 1995 - Ramzi Yousef plans to blow up eleven 747's mid flight with suicide bombers.
• 1998 - Au Hajir plans to bomb US Embassy in Tirana, Albania.
• 1999 - Ahmed Ressam caught carrying explosives into US just before the Millennium.

Attacks that failed

• 1990 - Aum Shinrikyo sprays Anthrax on two US bases in Japan but spores were ineffective.
• 1999 - Al Qaeda tries to sink USS The Sullivans docked in Yemen. The attack boat sinks under weight of explosives.

Mr. Clarke discusses how in 2001 Donald Rumsfeld let the Afghan warlords from the Northern Alliance take care of trying to track down Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leadership. The US had Special Forces on the ground directing air support from the very beginning of the war, but didn't really commit ground troops until FIVE months later. More than anything, this let the bad guys get away. John Kerry tried to revive this issue in the death throes of his Presidential campaign, but most Americans (myself included) had forgotten how tepid the administration was about committing ground troops to fight al Qaeda.

Clarke is quite hard on the FBI for not being more proactive on counterterrorism, though he makes special exceptions for agents Dale Watson and John O'Neill (the latter perished in the World Trade Center). He also takes Condi Rice to task for downgrading the position of National Coordinator (for terrorism) and wanting to shift the functions of the NSC's Counterterrorism Security Group (which Clarke built) to other departments because it was performing "operations" rather than "policy". Clarke also asked for a cabinet Principals meeting to address terrorism right after Bush took office. Rice delayed holding that meeting until September 4, 2001. (The original memo from Clarke requesting this meeting was released to the public in February 2005). Surprising to me, Richard had good things to say about CIA Director George Tenet, and did not take him to task for bad intelligence about Iraqi WMD.

"Against All Enemies" is a good read because it outlines the steps America took against terrorism before it was fashionable. There were terrorist drills held by government agencies, successful "snatch" operations of terrorists overseas, and numerous attempts to kill Osama bin Laden. Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directives outlining our overall plan to deal with terrorism, and created the cabinet-level position of National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counterterrorism (filled by Clarke). And as I mentioned earlier, several attacks were thwarted. One of the things that came out after 9/11 was how close we came to uncovering the Hijacker's plot. The US was not taken by complete surprise. The US was already uncovering al Qaeda cells around the world and interrupting the flow of money. The President talked about a long term struggle against terrorism as far back as 1996. What happened on September 11, 2001 was the most effective attack to date, but by no means the start of conflict.