Instinct: The Man Who Stopped the 20th Hijacker

“Michael Smerconish is perhaps the most intelligent, insightful and provocative public commentator on the current scene. He also has a great narrative style and displays all these glittering talents in Instinct.  The little-known tale of Jose Melendez-Perez’ calm heroism has many important subtexts and vital lessons for our security. Smerconish illuminates them all. It is both important history and great motivational therapy.”
—John F. Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy,
    Member of the 9/11 Commission

“Jose Melendez-Perez is a true American hero; but for his actions in preventing the 20th hijacker, Mohamed al-Kahtani, from entering the United States, the Capitol Building might have been destroyed on 9/11.”
—Richard Ben-Veniste, Member of the 9/11 Commission

All author proceeds will be donated to the Flight 93 National Memorial.
 

The gripping story of courageous men and women who changed history - by stopping terrorists on American ground.

All author proceeds will be donated to the Flight 93 National Memorial.

Publishers Weekly

At the center of this dramatic true story is Mohammed al Kahtani, allegedly meant to serve as the 20th 9/11 hijacker, whose denial of entry to the U.S. by an Orlando customs officer may have provided just the edge that the passengers of United Flight 93 needed to overpower their captors. The questions that surround him, however, are central to the execution of the war on terror: in particular, was Kahtani a "highly trained al-Qaeda operative" or a "low-level mercenary tortured by his interrogators out of frustration or pure malice?" From the political fallout of denying foreign visitors entry to the fine line between profiling and professionalism (says one interrogation expert, "that intuitiveness, that innate ability, that instinct... if you fine tune it, you have a very powerful person") to the disturbing procedures at Guantanamo Bay, radio talk show host Smerconish (Muzzled: From T-Ball to Terrorism) presents the vivid narrative of United Flight 93 and the issues at hand with the skill of a seasoned reporter. Proceeds from the book support the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign.
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Michael Smerconish is the coauthor of the best-selling Murdered by Mumia (Lyons Press) and the host of his own exceedingly popular drive-time radio show in Philadelphia on CBS Radio’s The Big Talker (1210 AM WPHT). He is a regular fill-in host for Bill O’Reilly’s nationally syndicated Radio Factor, and a regular panelist on David Gregory’s Race for the White House on MSNBC. He has appeared on every television program where politics is discussed, from the Colbert Report on Comedy Central to The View on ABC.