Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security

A top veteran CIA operative scrutinizes Homeland Security—with terrifying results

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The Central Intelligence Agency’s most respected former Middle East counterterrorism officer applies a critical lens to the state of America’s Homeland Security system and asks, “Are we really any safer than we were on 9/11?” Have the vast new bureaucracies that have arisen and the billions spent translated into real protection? Or has complacency set in? His answer is terrifying.

 

Charles S. Faddis, the author of Beyond Repair and the coauthor of Operation Hotel California, was trained through his years in the field with the CIA to know what it is like to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets. In Willful Neglect, he applies this expert knowledge to scrutinizing the preparedness of the nation’s critical infrastructure—military installations, passenger and freight rail systems, chemical plants, liquefied natural gas facilities, water treatment plants, dams, and nuclear power plants. America is still a land of opportunity, he finds—for its enemies.

 

Former CIA operations officer and author of Operation Hotel California and the forthcoming Beyond Repair, Charles S. Faddis takes a look at the state of homeland security and attempts to answer the question, “Are we really any safer than we were on 9/11?”  While not a security expert, Faddis knows more than most about the subject and he does understand terrorism.  He has also run numerous offensive operations in his 20 years with the Agency, so it’s easy for him to stand in the shoes of a terrorist and appraise targets.  To date, he has taken a look at military installations, passenger rail, freight rail, chemical plants, LNG facilities, and water treatment plants.  He’s just started to look at dams, and next up will be nuclear power plants.  He went into this project very skeptical of what he would find.  Several months later, he is terrified. The picture is not pretty.