Reviewed by
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
HSO Contributor
Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years
By Michael Chertoff
After Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security, resigned in late 2004 and the embattled Bernard Kerik was forced to turn down President George Bush's offer to replace Ridge, Michael Chertoff, then the United States Court of Appeals judge for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, was nominated. Chertoff, who had worked in government for many years, was quickly approved by the United States Senate on February 15, 2005. He left that job at the end of 2009. This book is an assessment of the department's first five years.
It is interesting that both Ridge's book about his tenure as Secretary, The Test of Our Times, and Chertoff's book, were released within just a few months of each other, making comparisons of the two books inevitable. Ridge's, if read as a memoir, is more accessible, in that he's the more relaxed writer, including moments of humor and far more personal detail than Chertoff. Unfortunately, neither book offers much in the realm of previously unknown information, shattering insights or future predictions. Chertoff sticks to the facts, offering list after list of accomplishments, with only a few lukewarm suggestions for the future and almost no references to the human side of the Department.
It is the nature of official government histories to not contain secret material, tales of cases won or lost, or even stories of the inevitable infighting, turf battles and power struggles that are part of agencies at these high levels. Which leaves us, particularly in Chertoff's case, with bloodless accounts that are simple recitations of events, rather than being either very informative or entertaining. There's a reason for the lackluster quality of Chertoff's book, which we'll reveal later.
Chapters include: Assessing the Danger; The Ideological roots of Terror; Securing the Border; Protecting and Preserving Infrastructure; Cybersecurity; Managing Risk; Biological Threats; FEMA; Cooperation and Consensus Abroad and Conclusions. Sound familiar? It is. There's little, if anything, here that's new, and much that is so basic that it hardly bears repeating. "In our struggle with international terrorism our main adversary is a cult of violent Islamic extremism." " Individuals can ensure that antivirus software is properly functioning and up-to-date, change passwords regularly and keep from writing them down, and avoid suspicious emails and websites." "People should be vigilant and report any anomalous or suspicious activity to the authorities." "The problem of identity fraud presents an especially urgent homeland security problem." " When it comes to countering biological threats, speed of detection is crucial." And on and on.
These simple pieces of advice are often repeated in separate chapters in almost identical wording. And in fact, a long paragraph on page 77 is repeated virtually word for word again in another chapter on page 91. Even the dullest reader begins to suspect that something is amiss as far as the writing and editing of the book. What was Michael Chertoff 's purpose in writing this book?
Most readers will be excused if they don't figure out what is going on. It is only by closely reading the acknowledgements section that the reason for the overall anemia of the material becomes clear. There, the publisher or author states, " This book is an edited and revised collection of key speeches delivered and written in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of DHS. "
In other words, Chertoff took existing speeches and strung them together into what is implied by both the author and the publisher as a history of some importance. It isn't.
The HSO Takeaway: There's very little here that even the most general reader doesn't already know on the topic.
Allen Appel is a book and media reviewer who lives and works in Washington, DC. He specializes in reviewing thriller fiction and homeland security and terrorism issues. See his literary book blog at The Thriller Guy.
State of Play
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, Universal Studios*
Reviewed by Rick Mele
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Company