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Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force--The NYPD Paperback – February 9, 2010
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateFebruary 9, 2010
- Dimensions9.02 x 5.98 x 0.84 inches
- ISBN-101416552413
- ISBN-13978-1416552413
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"If you're concerned about a terrorist threat to America, you need to read this eye-opening and extraordinary book. Dickey reveals the little-known existence of the New York Police Department's counterterror force, the first line of defense against another 9/11. This book should be read by the FBI, the CIA, and by every cop in America. An essential addition to the literature on global terrorism." -- Nelson DeMille, author of The Gate House
"The United States needs a new counterterrorism strategy -- one that is vigilant, creative, sustainable, and aligned with the country's constitutional values. Securing the City is not only a fascinating inside portrait of the New York Police Department's response to the terror threat after 9/11, it is also an important contribution to public policy. The federal government has much to learn from the leadership culture and street work of the NYPD, as Christopher Dickey's penetrating reporting makes clear." -- Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens
"Dickey offers a rich inside account of the most extensive antiterrorism effort in any American city. A long-time expert on extremism and the Middle East, Dickey offers amazing detail as well as a broad history of the threats to U.S. national security. There are many important lessons to be learned in Securing the City." -- Robin Wright, author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East
"Christopher Dickey has written a work of meticulous reporting that reads like a John Le Carré novel, illuminating the shadowy world of terrorists, and that of the New York City cops who hunt them down. A terrifying, and yet reassuring, read." -- Michael Korda, author of Ike and With Wings Like Eagles
"Revealing and nerve-rattling." -- The New York Times
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (February 9, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1416552413
- ISBN-13 : 978-1416552413
- Item Weight : 0.704 ounces
- Dimensions : 9.02 x 5.98 x 0.84 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #975,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #816 in Law Enforcement (Books)
- #1,020 in Terrorism (Books)
- #1,057 in Law Enforcement Politics
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Christopher Dickey is a war correspondent, historian, and thriller writer, an authority on terrorism, and a memoirist. He is the Paris-based foreign editor of The Daily Beast, and is a contributor to NBC/MSNBC News. Chris also has been a frequent commentator on CNN, the BBC, and NPR. He was formerly a bureau chief for Newsweek in Paris and Cairo, and for The Washington Post in Central America and the Middle East.
Chris's most recent work of non-fiction is "Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South," published in 2015. It was a New York Times best-seller, and was published in paperback in July 2016. Pulitzer prize-winning historian James M. McPherson described it as "an engrossing account of diplomatic derring-do," and Kirkus, in a starred review, called it, flatly, "a great book." The many, many editorial reviews and the enthusiastic reports by Amazon readers speak for themselves.
At a time when Americans are searching for a deeper understanding of their history as it affects today's burning questions of race and politics, "Our Man in Charleston" offers startling insights into the grim narrative of slavery, the matter of states' rights, and the foundations of racism in the United States as viewed by an outsider in the heart of the Southern "slavocracy." A compelling true story, deeply researched and thoroughly documented, it tells of one young British diplomat's ultimately successful effort to prevent the Crown from supporting the Confederacy. Had British military might backed the secessionists, especially in the early days of the conflict, that would have been checkmate, game over for the Union. But that did not happen, and this narrative, much of it based on "private and confidential" correspondence never before published, shows why.
Glowing editorial notices have come from several authoritative Civil War historians: Amanda Foreman ("A World on Fire"), Harold Holzer ("Lincoln and the Power of the Press") and Howard Jones ("Blue and Grey Diplomacy") have all praised the book. Great modern writers — Joan Didion, Pat Conroy and Geraldine Brooks, among them — found "Our Man" a compelling narrative. (Didion said, memorably, it is "a perfect book about an imperfect spy.") Well-known ex-CIA operative Robert Baer called it "the best espionage book I've read."
Chris's earlier works include "Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force—The NYPD," chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of 2009. His novel "The Sleeper" was acclaimed by the Times as "a first-rate thriller." His "Summer of Deliverance," another "notable book of the year," was described beautifully by Elizabeth Hardwick as "a heartbreaking, eloquent memoir by the son of the heartbreaking, eloquent poet, James Dickey."
"Innocent Blood," Chris's first novel, predicted in 1997 the waves of terror that would come at the United States, and got inside the heads of those who would bring them. "Expats," is a book of essays about traveling among the people of the Middle East—particularly the displaced and misplaced Westerners who lived there in times of war. And Chris's first book, "With The Contras," in 1986, was not only an up-close account of combat in Nicaragua but a first-hand history of Central America at a time of ferocious revolutions and repression.
So, you'll say that what's common about Chris's books is combat, spookery, terror and emotional trauma. And that's partly true. But there is also another deeply felt theme in many of them: that of family as the ultimate source of human drama and also the social force that far too often is misunderstood, or ignored, in our efforts to grasp what's going on in the world around us. For more on this theme see pages 228-229 in the paperback edition of "Summer of Deliverance" or Location 3949 on the Kindle edition.
Chris's columns about counter-terrorism, espionage and the Middle East appear regularly now on TheDailyBeast.com, where they reach some 23 million readers a month. For links to recent columns and articles, visit "The Shadowland Journal" at christopherdickey.blogspot.com. Over the years, he has written for Foreign Affairs, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, Rolling Stone, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic, among other publications.
What else does Chris do? Apart from spending as much time with his grandchildren as possible, Chris is a passionate amateur photographer. As he moves through the streets of Paris, New York and other cities around the world, he constantly takes pictures to amuse himself. His Instagram and Twitter handles are the same: @csdickey.
Chris is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a master's degree in documentary film making from Boston University. Among his many honors are a doctorate from Hamilton College and journalism awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Inter-American Press Association and Georgetown University. Chris is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was formerly an Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow, and the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. He is on the board of the Overseas Press Club of America.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book interesting and informative. They describe it as readable, with an anecdotal style that reads like short stories. Readers also mention it's a great book that leaders need to read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book interesting and engaging. They find the information current and important. Readers also mention it's an anecdotal piece on the successful response to terrorism.
"...he is a serious professional journalist who writes in a clear and engaging way. Praise or criticize the book on its merits!..." Read more
"...It is an anecdotal puff piece on the successful response to terrorism developed by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) since 9/11...." Read more
"...I like that as it made it more interesting and easier to read, Amazing information - if you are into policing or counter terrorism at all - you'll..." Read more
"very interesting." Read more
Customers find the book readable, though some find the style jarring at times. They say it reads like many short stories rather than one long book.
"...I like that as it made it more interesting and easier to read, Amazing information - if you are into policing or counter terrorism at all - you'll..." Read more
"I hope and pray Obama reads this, great book that our leaders need to read." Read more
"...It is "readable" although the style jars at times as it attempts to be read as a spy novel and anyone with anything beyond a bare knowledge of CT or..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2009I ordered this book after seeing a review in one of my favorite magazines The Economist and read it from cover to cover. Since I live in Manhattan and have lost a family member on 9/11, the issue of 'Securing the City' gets my undivided attention.
Dickey has done a very workmanlike job describing the measures put into effect by the NYPD after the '3-letter agencies' such as the CIA and FBI failed to protect the city and the country prior to 9/11.
He describes turf wars with the 3-letter guys that erupted when NYPD began to develop its own intelligence service and stationing agents abroad. To my view, this was like the emergence of competition after the breakup of ATT phone monopoly decades ago. The arrival of smaller aggressive competitors has improved service for everybody.
Dickey also describes many of the vile aspects of NYPD work, such as inserting an agent-provocateur to create a 'cell' of two young moslems - one a schizophrenic, another mildly retarded - then dragging them into courts and using the psychotic to testify against the retarded to send him to prison for 30 years. He also goes way too easy on NYPD for their behavior during the recent Republican National convention. Those were ugly days, like living in an occupied city. I was walking with my daughter one day when a kevlar-helmeted, M-16 toting guardian of order was directing traffic and kicked with his jackboot the door of a car whose driver was not paying attention.
Several reviewers have given Dickey bad ratings because of what he wrote about. I say, he is a serious professional journalist who writes in a clear and engaging way. Praise or criticize the book on its merits!
Thank you Mr Dickey, as head to my roof deck to look at the unmarked police helicopters incessantly hovering overhead.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2009In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a rare moment of lucidity observed that fighting terrorism was 90 per cent intelligence and police work with the implication that military operations would account for only 10 per cent of the effort. Although this observation was forgotten in the ill conceived and ill managed Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), it still remains true. Most experts on counter-terrorism and on terrorist movements have maintained that fighting terrorism is a job for some combination of intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They also have noted that it is only through international cooperation between such agencies that transnational terrorist threats can be countered.
All of the preceding is by way of introduction to this rather interesting book. It is an anecdotal puff piece on the successful response to terrorism developed by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) since 9/11. In fact if read closely this book provides a resounding argument supporting Rumsfled's observation. Because their focus is entirely on protecting New York, the NYPD was able to develop an effective intelligence program that provides direct and timely support to tactical forces. By exercising the street knowledge of beat cops, standard police surveillance and investigative techniques, and the very diversity of New York as mirrored in the NYPD, the force has been able to develop an extremely effective counter-terrorism program. As a local force, the NYPD has been able to conduct operations normally forbidden to federal agencies such as the FBI. In another break with federal level operations the NYPD has developed working relationships with foreign police services around the world. Indeed NYPD has developed an impressive dossier of counter-terrorism tradecraft that is both tested and efficient. It appears to really protect the city.
Indeed if one reviews the history of Islamic inspired terrorist groups since 9/11 around the world, in almost all cases it has been police actions informed by intelligence that have either thwarted terrorist strikes or arrested the perpetrators of the strikes that have occurred. The DHS ought to think seriously about this.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019My favorite thing about this book is that it reads like many short stories instead of one book. I like that as it made it more interesting and easier to read, Amazing information - if you are into policing or counter terrorism at all - you'll enjoy this ready. One of my favorite books.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2010Christopher Dickey is one of my favorite authors, both his fiction and non-fiction. I bought copies of this particular book for my sons and other members of my family. We should all read this one.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2009I hope and pray Obama reads this, great book that our leaders need to read.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2009You'll gain a whole new perspective on the job they do. The book reveals how defeating terrorism has little to do with the so-called "Global War on Terror" and almost everything to do with good local policing. We need people who understand cultures, speak different languages embedded in local areas, eyes and ears on the ground, instead of secret wiretaps and secret renditions by disjointed, Orwellian federal bureaucracies. This reveals how most terrorism can be stopped in ways using basic crime prevention; the stuff the NYPD has been doing so well for years.
Top reviews from other countries
- d r parkinsonReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
A very interesting book