In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

With the ‘Anthrax Letters’ case back in the news, there has been a lot of discussion of how the public has moved from such a high level of concern about terrorism seven years ago to the present relatively complacent attitude. Therefore, I thought it would be very appropriate to post the “What Should We Tell The Public?” segment I shot last week with terrorism expert, Michael Sheehan, author of a very interesting new book, Crush The Cell: How To Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves (Crown)

One of the Sheehan’s most important objectives in the book is to help the public — as well as our elected officials and the media — find the right mindset to handle the various potential threats, including terrorism, facing the U.S. in the years to come. In the segment, Sheehan makes the somewhat nuanced point that Americans need to realize we do face real and serious terrorist threats, but we also must put them into a proper perspective as citizens and a nation.

 

MICHAEL SHEEHAN, AUTHOR, CRUSH THE CELL

One of the things I particularly appreciate about Crush The Cell is that Sheehan tries to speak to Americans of all political and philosophical stripes from the center with the goal of finding a middle ground between overreacting and ignoring terror. And he is in the position to know. Among his many credentials, he has served as the Ambassador-at-Large for Counter Terrorism at the U.S. State Department as well as the New York Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner for Counter Terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.