Second Wave - by Michael Lebowitz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Upon the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and after five years of government-clearance battles, Second Wave exposes Al Qaeda's plan to launch a far deadlier "dirty-bomb" sequel to the 2001 attacks. Drawing on top-secret records and his access as a Guantanamo war-crimes prosecutor, Mike Lebowitz details the heroic yet controversial race within the CIA, FBI, and Pentagon to stop the plot--and forcing readers to ask: Are we truly prepared to prevent the next one?

In 2003, just two years after 9/11, US intelligence uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda had obtained nuclear materials and was plotting to smuggle them into American ports. The nightmare scenario--codenamed the "Second Wave"--triggered one of the most urgent and secretive manhunts in US history.

Told with the cinematic intensity of Zero Dark Thirty and the psychological depth of The Looming Tower, Michael Lebowitz's Second Wave captures the chaos and human drama of a post-9/11 world: agents risking everything to prevent another catastrophe, families torn apart, and the ethical fault lines still dividing US intelligence.

At the center of the terrorist plot was Saifullah Paracha, a wealthy Pakistani-American industrialist whose import-export business concealed ties to Al Qaeda's leadership. When investigators discovered that Paracha had met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed--the architect of 9/11--the CIA and FBI clashed over how far they would go to stop him. Along the way, readers meet Majid Khan, a wayward Baltimore convenience-store clerk turned jihadist who mapped US targets; FBI Special Agent Janelle Miller, whose methodical interrogations broke suspects faster than any waterboard; and Charles Anteby, an Orthodox Jewish garment importer, whose betrayal of his business partner prevented large-scale disaster.

As the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Lebowitz's insider account reveals a global pursuit that tested America's moral limits, and it asks the urgent question: Is America as prepared to stop a terrorist attack now as it was then?

Review Quotes

"Every American needs to read this book to understand the complex dark world of counterterrorism. Lebowitz shines a spotlight into the secret corners of sleeper agents, hostile intelligence agencies, spies, and terrorists plotting to detonate dirty bombs on US soil. Is the threat still viable? Read this book and draw your own conclusions."
--Fred Burton, former counterterrorism special agent and New York Times best-selling author

"Some books inform you. This one will shake you. . . . Michael Lebowitz spent years as a prosecutor inside the War on Terror--in the courtroom, in Guantanamo, in the classified files no one was supposed to see. What he found was a post-9/11 nuclear plot so dangerous that the US government fought for years to keep it secret. Second Wave is one of the most important untold stories of our generation: meticulously researched, impossible to put down, and overdue by twenty years. If you only read one book about the War on Terror, make it this one."
--Dr. Tony Brooks, US Army Ranger, author of Leave No Man Behind

"Leaving nothing out from the heroics and hubris, Lebowitz's unparalleled combination of access, participation, insight, and story-telling skill will leave readers with a better understanding of how the United States government both succeeded and failed to meet the high ideals and expectations of its hallowed Constitution and those who swore an oath to support and defend it. . . . Lebowitz's work is also a telling indictment of how national security priorities can shift so abruptly between administrations as to leave a country weaker and less secure. We should be grateful for the author's dogged efforts to bring this story to light 'to ourselves and our posterity.'"
--Daniel Maurer, Associate Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University, author of Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil-Military Relations, Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army, retired)

"A hidden chapter of the War on Terror that reads like a thriller but is chillingly real. Second Wave is gripping, revelatory, and urgently relevant, exposing how close America came to a catastrophic follow-up to 9/11 and why we must remain vigilant in the never-ending struggle against terrorism."
--Michael P. Scharf, former Dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law (2013-2024) and President of the American Branch of the International Law Association

About the Author

Mike Lebowitz is one of America's few war-crimes prosecutors with front-line counterterrorism experience. A former senior attorney at the Department of Justice's National Security Division, he spent nearly a decade prosecuting cases at Guantanamo Bay, including the 9/11, USS Cole, and top Al Qaeda commander trials. A US Army combat veteran and former Pathfinder unit officer, Lebowitz also served as a senior legal advisor to US Army Cyber Command. He has been featured or quoted by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Associated Press, and the Atlantic. He lives in Washington, DC.