09/17/2008

A book written by Edward Alden, Former Washington bureau chief of the Financial Times was published yesterday by HarperCollins.  It will be of great interest to readers of this blog. The book is entitled The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration and Security Since 9/11. It tells the story of the internal battles within the Bush administration after 9/11 over how far to go in tightening U.S. borders in what was often a misguided effort to keep out terrorists. That story is interspersed with many personal tales of innocent people who got caught up in the labryinth of post-9/11 restrictions. Mr. Alden also makes a number of larger points about the damage that has been done to the U.S. economy and to the country's standing in the world by the heavy-handed way in which border security measures have been implemented.

The book comes out of reporting the author did after 9/11 while he was the Washington Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, and well as more than a year of further research after he joined the Council on Foreign Relations.

The book is available in bookstores, and on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Border-Terrorism-Immigration/dp/0061558397/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221575965&sr=1-2

You can also get a preview of some of the chapters at: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061558399

Product Description from Amazon.com

"On September 10, 2001, the United States was the most open country in the world. But in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, the U.S. government began to close its borders in an effort to fight terrorism. The Bush administration's goal was to build new lines of defense against terrorists without stifling the flow of people and ideas from abroad that has helped build the world's most dynamic economy. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

The Closing of the American Border is based on extensive interviews with the Bush administration officials charged with securing the border after 9/11, including former secretary of homeland security Tom Ridge and former secretary of state Colin Powell, and with many of the innocent people whose lives have been upended by the new border security and visa rules. A pediatric heart surgeon from Pakistan is stuck in Karachi for nearly a year, awaiting the security review that would allow him to return to the United States to take up a prestigious post at UCLA Medical Center. A brilliant Sudanese scientist, working tirelessly to cure one of the worst diseases of the developing world, loses years of valuable research when he is detained in Brazil after attending an academic conference on behalf of an American university.

Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to show how an administration that appeared united in the aftermath of the attacks was racked by internal disagreements over how to balance security and openness. The result is a striking and compelling assessment of the dangers faced by a nation that cuts itself off from the rest of the world, making it increasingly difficult for others to travel, live, and work here, and depriving itself of its most persuasive argument against its international critics—the example of what it has achieved at home."