An investigation and look into how all of the major players who were to protect us before 9-11 failed. Would have liked to have seen more about the reports from an FBI agent in Flordia who reported about men taking flying lessons who met the criteria for the investigation prior to 9-11 but were told to not worry about it. those men later were the same men that took over the planes. This was a good book.

Due to a passing in the family a few years ago and my subsequent health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for years after the bereavement. Thank you for the opportunity.

I must start by saying that what I found amazingly helpful about this book was the ‘who you should know’ pages, in the beginning, this really helped me to get up to speed with the people involved in one of the most devastating times of America history. Of a time I only briefly remember as I was very young.

The book covers one of the most devastating times in America history, recounting the human suffering that took place and the lack of preparedness of the authorities that are supposed to protect us. I have read a few books about 9/11 and learn the history but this book brings in a real human aspect, it doesn't just recount this history.

It is well written and ties you into reading. I would say easy to read but I feel that is in bad taste and certainly not true. Remembering this time will always come with a challenge and emotional turmoil.

As you would expect from such a title, this book is about something that went horribly wrong. It sure looks like the watchdogs didn't bark!! Would you believe that the horrendous events of 9/11 could probably have been avoided, if not the damage vastly minimised?  To refresh your memory, though on this event most do not need reminders, 9/11 must rank as one of the greatest tragedies in American history. On that fateful day in September 2001, Islamic terrorists of Al Qaeda crashed 4 hijacked aeroplanes in a series of meticulously planned attacks. Two aeroplanes crashed into the iconic World Trade Centre in New York, one crashed into the supposedly invincible Pentagon, HQ of the US Department of Defense, while the fourth heading to Washington DC ( with the White House, no less, as a possible target) was thwarted by passengers who fought with the hijackers forcing them to crash the aeroplane into a field in Pennsylvania. In all, it is reported that 2996 people were killed and over 6000 injured in these attacks. This event, more than anything else, changed the way people reacted to terror threats forever. 

"The Watchdogs Didn't Bark: The CIA, NSA, and the Crimes of War on Terror" by John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski now divulges how the CIA knew about the presence in the United States of two of the terrorist planners for nearly two years before the actual terror strike took place. Why, then was this information not shared with the FBI and the other Government agencies fighting terror? Why were top officials including those close to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush silent on this hitherto unknown issue? How come the US agencies failed to arrest two men suspected of being deeply involved in planning terror strikes for Islamic terror groups.

Researching the subject for a decade, the authors bring to light the facts of this shameful story.  John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer writes about this book, " The authors lay bare… an intelligence failure of historic proportions.” John Duffy is a writer and activist, while Ray Nowosielski is a documentary film maker and journalist.

The book is comprehensive as it describes the lengths some people and Governments will go to, to hide what is inconvenient for them and for the public to know. Yes, there is some amount of repetition which could have been avoided but overall the book makes for interesting reading.

Of all the books and pieces that have been written on the subject of September 11th, The Watchdogs Didn't Bark is certainly a well informed, eye-opening addition to the genre. With so much hindsight at its disposal, Watchdogs leads the reader through the build up and catastrophe of 9/11, outlining the missed opportunities and oversight of those assigned to protect the U.S. The reader is forced to watch as everything falls, one by one, like dominoes. It's uncomfortable, to say the least.

I felt as though The Watchdogs Didn't Bark was well written and offered insight I would not have simply "stumbled across." The story was told not as a dry work of non-fiction, but almost as a psychological thriller, There were components of the story that were perhaps a bit abrupt, so if I had one piece of constructive criticism for the authors, it would be on the flow of the book, but honestly, that criticism would be much more serviceable for a work of fiction.

4 1/2 stars
I hate to say this might come off more personal than it should because of the topic that is being written about.

Readers will not be able to get though the first 100 pages without wanting to pull their hair out. Realizing the people who were suppose to be protecting us failed at their one job is hard but seeing how easy it would have been for them to prevent something like this from happening years before the first bomb that failed to take down the towers years before 9/11. I can't say how much I wanted to punch something.

I understand there are always two view points but these author make a compelling story that will have readers demanding more answers. I understand there are things as normal people we do not need to know. I can see the debate of transparency vs allowing Americans to sleep in their beds at night with a fake since of security everything is alright with the world.



History isn't going to judge this time in history well because there is so many falsehoods and well as the buried truths.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Hot Books for the an advance copy of Ray Nowosielski and Emanuel Stoakes The Watchdogs didn't Bark.

I had to take this information in fairly small doses. Within 50 pages I was spitting mad, and it didn't get much better as the story progressed. These are the people we trusted implicitly to keep us safe, and to keep the world at bay from our shores. Their peeking into our phone and internet use that we have found so offensive was only the tip of the iceberg. Not only did these watchdog's not bark, they spent our billions while playing hide and seek and keep-away like children.

Hot Books is a fairly new publishing platform established in 2015 by Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons and David Talbot. Their publications shine a light on issues that truly matter to Americans - from environmental concerns to why our elections have failed, the deportation of our Veterans and the poisoning of our earth in the search for fossil fuels to benefit the 1%. They are a publishing concern that I applaud and will continue to read.

I received a free electronic copy of this political eye-opener from Netgalley, Ray Nowosielski and John Duffy, and Hot Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

It is common knowledge that there were serious failures of our intelligence system in the weeks and months before 9/11. There have been many books and news reports about this and it was recently brought back into the public consciousness with the Hulu adaptation of The Looming Tower. This book describes how things were likely much worse than we could have imagined: the CIA withheld important information from the FBI in order to cover up the fact that they were illegally operating in the United States to recruit Al-Qaeda members that became 9/11 hijackers. To make matters worse, the book describes how some of the key figures of this later went on to key roles in some of the most shameful actions of our government including extraordinary rendition, the so-called black site prisons, and torture of suspected (and in at least one case described in this book, wrongly-accused) terrorists. Well-written and convincingly-sourced, this book is an important part to understanding what really happened in one of the most significant events in American history.

I enjoyed this book as an idea starter but the negative to me was hiding in the margins was the bogey man of the R-party, Alt-right or whatever nom de guar we are using today. I think this will cause you to look closer at while the failure is widely acknowledged it was never investigated and those responsible went on to reign in other operations; that is a strange underreported fact. Read it.