"When the worst terrorist atrocity in American history occurred on September 11, 2001, the intelligence agencies of the United States and most of the western world were taken by surprise. Ten years earlier, in 1991, those same organizations were surprised when the Soviet Empire collapsed. In both cases the intelligence establishment has invested enormous resources, compiled information, wrote detailed analytical papers and yet failed to provide an early warming of the impending Soviet collapse as well as the coming terrorist attack." "This book sets out to explain why western intelligence agencies failed to diagnose the Soviet Union's terminal condition, despite the many obvious symptoms, and worse, why they failed to convey what they did know to the political echelon."--Jacket.