"Apuzzo and Goldman are the new Woodward and Bernstein."
Enemies Within
Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America
Description
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 stop a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil.
In Enemies Within, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman “reveal how New York really works” (James Risen, author of State of War) and 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 co-conspirators represented America’s greatest fear: a terrorist cell operating inside America.
This real-life spy story—uncovered in previously unpublished secret NYPD documents and interviews with intelligence sources—shows that while many of our counterterrorism programs are more invasive than ever, they are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.
In Enemies Within, Appuzo and Goldman tackle the tough questions about the measures that we take to protect ourselves from real and perceived threats. They take you 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. “Did the Snowden leaks trouble you? You ain’t seen nothing yet” (Dan Bigman, Forbes editor).
Reviews
"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."
"The authors use their investigative know-how like skilled surgeons, utilizing their scalpel to expose a malignant growth in the heart of the NYPD."
"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."
