Minutes. Good evening and welcome. I am pleased to welcome howard blum, an investigative journalist and author of the new york city times best seller dark invasion as well as many other great books. He is currently a contributing editor at vanity fair. While at the New York Times he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Several of his books were nonfiction best sellers including, among others i pledge allegiance, the true story of the walkers, an american spy family that was turned into a great mini series on cbs, perhaps some of you watched it in the past. Gang land how the fbi broke the mob in 1993. The eve of destruction. The untold story of the yam kiper war in 2003. American lightning terror of mystery and the birth of hollywood and the crime of the centuryo 2008. A floor of heaven, a true tale of the last frontier and the uconn gold rush in 2011. I should also mention that Warner Brothers is preparing ax film of dark invasion starring Bradley Coope
The eve of destruction. The untold story of the yam kiper war in 2003. American lightning terror of mystery and the birth of hollywood and the crime of the centuryo 2008. A floor of heaven, a true tale of the last frontier and the uconn gold rush in 2011. I should also mention that Warner Brothers is preparing ax film of dark invasion starring Bradley Cooper as tom, the hero of the book. Please welcome, howard blum. [ applause ]. Pick up a newspaper and just glance at the headline. Check out the internet and read almost any post. Theres news about terrorism anywhere and its all very frightening. It will keep you up at night. One day theyre saying new york city is a target. The next day is chicago. Then las vegas, even the air force academy. The president tells us that we dont have to worry. Isis is not going to attack the homeland yet. Then a republican president ial candidate comes out and says, well, maybe we do have to worry. Our borders are very pourus, but theres no doubt about it
Germany. He received a great deal of the money that german ambassador had to spread, and tom tunney had to follow him around. Ultimately, he gets the information on him and he discovers, he goes up to his apartment up by columbia university, and he has a secret diary where hes recorded in german and in english meticulous prussian fashion, how he superintends hspends his day, everyone he meets with, all the things he wants to do, that hes going to stop smoking, stop drinking, and by the way, im also going to place a bomb on this ship on such and such a date. His key operative are he gives code names to d1, d2, d3. Part of the story that i tell in dark invasion is how tunney and his men track down these various operatives once they have this code book and how they, too, have to break this code and find these people. Yeah, fdr was undersecretary of the navy. He had his own private force of enforcement and investigators. I know that he was basically tracking down the immorality of the Amer
Through this entrance, every knew agent so i officer takes their oath of office here in this lobby in front of 107 of our fallen officers commemorated on the wall of honor, they have walked across the agency, sealed out morning to take their place in the lobby and the father of Central Intelligence is watching over their shoulder as they begin their career for the Central Intelligence agency in our nation. Were standing close to a sculpture of wild bill donovan, the father of Central Intelligence, donovan was tapped by president roosevelt in 1942 to head the office of Strategic Services. Established by president roosevelt to coordinate information intelligence with the war growing overseas. The single star behind us commemorates the loss of 116 ossers who the cia seal is something everyone sees as they come into the office, some people dont want to cross it, some want to walk around it. But you have seen movies filmed here in the lobby. It was designed by the crew that designed the tom
Scenario. A terrorist cell well;p finance covertly enters america. They set up their headkwauters and they become bombing munition factories and depots. A bomb rocks the u. S. Capitol building. The nations richest man is targeted in a bold assassination attempt. From a covert bio warfare lab just six miles from the white house, a bio warfare attack is launched on three american cities. The president is told by his chief adviser this is a time of fear. We have to worry that bridges and subways and buildings all around the country are going to be attacked. And the government in response puts forms a task force to look for these terrorists. Its headed by a new York City Policemen and he goes off. With just 12 men, he tries to bring these terrorists to justice. Now, this scenario that ive outlined sounds like its a movie and it would makeb a prety good movie or it would be a game, play at the pentagon as they try to figure out whats the next terrorist attack going to be made against the ho