In March of 2002, F.B.I. SWAT teams and U.S. Special Forces, acting on an electronic intercept of telephone calls from Afghanistan, descended on a two-story safe house in Western Pakistan and captured one of the most wanted men on earth: a top al Qaeda operative named Abu Zubaydah. That man’s arrest, and his ensuing confession, became the center point of Gerald Posner’s new book, “Why America Slept.”
It reads like a spy thriller, but if Gerald Posner’s thesis is correct, that Osama bin Laden and top Saudi Arabian officials were more than passing acquaintances, the truth is more chilling than fiction. Approaching the second anniversary of September 11th, a conversation about what the Saudis might have known, and what American intelligence still won’t reveal.
Guests:
Gerald Posner, author of “Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11″
Khaled Al-Maeena, editor of Arab News, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.