The Threat Matrix
Inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the War on Global Terror
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4.3 • 18 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An intimate look at Robert Mueller, the sixth Director of the FBI, who oversaw the investigation into ties between President Trump's campaign and Russian officials.
Covering more than 30 years of history, from the 1980s through Obama's presidency, The Threat Matrix explores the transformation of the FBI from a domestic law enforcement agency, handling bank robberies and local crimes, into an international intelligence agency -- with more than 500 agents operating in more than 60 countries overseas -- fighting extremist terrorism, cyber crimes, and, for the first time, American suicide bombers.
Based on access to never-before-seen task forces and FBI bases from Budapest, Hungary, to Quantico, Virginia, this book profiles the visionary agents who risked their lives to bring down criminals and terrorists both here in the U.S. and thousands of miles away long before the rest of the country was paying attention to terrorism. Given unprecedented access, thousands of pages of once secret documents, and hundreds of interviews, Garrett M. Graff takes us inside the FBI and its attempt to protect America from the Munich Olympics in 1972 to the attempted Times Square bombing in 2010. It also tells the inside story of the FBI's behind-the-scenes fights with the CIA, the Department of Justice, and five White Houses over how to combat terrorism, balance civil liberties, and preserve security. The book also offers a never-before-seen intimate look at FBI Director Robert Mueller, the most important director since Hoover himself.
Brilliantly reported and suspensefully told, The Threat Matrix peers into the darkest corners of this secret war and will change your view of the FBI forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
It's not often that a political thriller is true, but Graff (The First Campaign) pieces together a gripping, cogent narrative from an immense amount of sources, including previously un-reported information. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was infamous for being a luddite, and Graff shows how his leadership slowed intelligence operations preceding 9/11 and in what ways the agency still suffers from his tenure. Graff handles a highly complex topic with ease, tracking the ways that the FBI adapted as terrorism changed. He takes seriously even ridiculous threats, such as an absurd letter penned by a Filipino teenager and the realization that the FBI lacked a file on the Japanese cult that released sarin gas in Tokyo even though they were listed in the Manhattan phone book. Some episodes, however, are straight-out horrifying, like a discussion of the events behind a July 2001 memo's theory that terrorists were in the U.S. training at civil aviation facilities. Graff's focus, though it covers a time span from J. Edgar Hoover's death to the present day, rests particularly on the massive intelligence failures in the 10 years preceding 9/11, and after (it's fair to say we're not a whole lot safer today). Painstaking research and character studies make this an informative and exciting work.
