Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America--and How the CIA Has Ignored It

by Curt Weldon

"Congressman Curt Weldon provides a rare—indeed unique—insight on what is going on in the war on terrorism through his 'Ali' missives. The book is a case study of an intelligence failure in the process of happening, with potentially catastophic consequences for the United States. Moreover, Curt accurately diagnoses the larger problems in the intelligence community that can result in intelligence failures. He offers a blueprint for solving these problems, and for winning the war on terrorism, that deserves a wide hearing."

—R. James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence

Genres: History, Politics, Conspiracy Theories, Nonfiction

245 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Wil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book exposure of what Washington knew about Bin Laden and 9/11/2001. Confirmed in 2024-2025

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 50/50 book where half of it has aged well and the other half has not. It is also a 50/50 book in that you really only need to read half of it.

The first part of the book is "reports" from a source named Ali. I eventually skipped over much of this because they were vague and repetitive. Ali pretty much wrote variations of the same thing over and over. Weldon would have been better off using them throughout the book to support points he was trying to make rather than just making them half the book.

The second half of the book, Weldon does bring up many interesting and valid points of how the intelligence community was operating at the time. The mistakes and just out right incompetence was pretty remarkable, but not surprising, to read about.

Weldon does layout a pretty good idea for how the intelligence community should be reformed to get actual usable results. Unfortunately, however, much of the book comes across as him whining about why is no one listening to me.

[Fred Fanning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Countdown to Terror is a compelling book that offers insight into the failures of the United States' intelligence community. The author provides detailed information he received and passed on to the United States intelligence, which they did not act upon. He also provided key information to the president of the United States, who did not act on it. These failures continue to multiply, and each hurts the United States. The author also provides corrective action that can be taken to improve the US intelligence community. I listened to this book on Audible. The narration was good.

[Ernie Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book from an intelligence community point of view. The only problem is that it is 5 years out of date. I worked intelligence in the Air Force and I'm getting pretty tired of people telling me about weapons of mass destruction which only turn out to be a carrot and stick trick. I need actionable intelligence. Does Iran have atomic weapons or not? They were on the "verge" in 2005 and we're still not sure where they are at in 2010. This book was written by an Congressman, for whatever that is worth.

[Kashayar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply not accurate.