When top Intelligence officials start penning down books containing highly uncomfortable secrets about the on-going top-priority issues, there is usually a public and media outcry.
However, a plethora of shocking revelations about President Bush & Co’s policy and conduct with regard to the Iraq tragedy/fiasco, seems to have no effect on the present US power coterie. And the media also seems to be getting tired of reporting one scandal after another.
Now how about this one…Al Qaeda is in the United States. Who says? This latest warning comes from George Tenet, who was CIA director for seven years, the second-longest term as head of America’s top intelligence agency in US history. Tenet says in his latest book that he’s surprised there have not been more attacks on American soil. ‘I do know one thing in my gut that Al Qaeda is here and waiting.’
“ Tenet, who served as CIA chief from 1997 to 2004, questioned how Al Qaeda hasn’t sent ‘suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half-dozen American shopping malls on any given day.’
Tenet’s 549-page book, “At the Center of the Storm,” published by HarperCollins, is set to hit the bookstores on Monday.
This Tenet warning is carried as an excerpt from his book in myfoxdc. Please click here for more…
Now what about Al Qaeda and the nuclear threat? The Los Angeles Time has this to say: “In “At the Center of the Storm,” Tenet writes at some length about Al Qaeda’s attempts to obtain or develop a nuclear weapon.
“Just weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, a Pakistani organization, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, or UTN, had met in Afghanistan with Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, to discuss how Al Qaeda ‘should go about building a nuclear device,’ the CIA was told.
“Tenet also sketches out details of an attempt by Al Qaeda leaders in Saudi Arabia to buy what he described as three black-market Russian nuclear devices in 2002 and 2003.”
And here… “In a stinging indictment of the U.S. handling of the Iraq war, former CIA Director George J. Tenet accuses the Bush administration in a new book of ignoring repeated warnings that the country was collapsing into civil war and voices deep skepticism that the current ‘surge’ in troops can succeed. Tenet accuses the White House of having ‘no strategy’ for handling postwar Iraq, and concludes that the recent effort to deploy more troops has come far too late.”
Tenet’s warning and analysis bolsters the case of those who have been warning President Bush for years to pay more attention to the security issues within the USA rather than chasing a mythical desert ‘Nessie’ in Iraq.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.