Blowback

This book begins with a detailed summation of what the author calls the Terror Timeline, a series of events that led up to the attacks on 9-11. Among the events covered are the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and the investigation led by FBI agent John O'Neill; the Beirut bombings which left hundreds of US Marines dead; the 1998 East African embassy bombings by Al Qaeda; the Oklahoma City bombing and the Middle Eastern connection; the destruction of Pan Am 193 over Scotland; the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia; and more. Kross gives a detailed description of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the role played by Ramzi Yousef. He discusses the New York cell which was connected to bin Laden, and the FBI's failure to connect the dots as to its real purpose in New York; also the role of the blind Sheik Rahman who spewed anti-western rhetoric out of his Mosque in Brooklyn and his plans to destroy certain New York landmarks. The book describes the secret relationship between the US and the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, and the US-Saudi connection. It also covers the role of the CIA's secret unit to find bin Laden, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Able Danger program, the failures of intelligence-sharing between the FBI and CIA which directly led to the 9-11 attack, the role of mobster Gregory Scarpa and his jail-cell talks with Ramzi Yousef regarding threats to blow up American airplanes.