About the Book

The forthcoming book by journalist Todd Bensman, AMERICA’S COVERT BORDER WAR, is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other links below. This 13-year work of journalism finally settles, for the first time, one of the nation’s most contentious and politically powerful ideas about the southern border, that Islamic jihadists might infiltrate over it and commit terrorist acts. Perhaps no other idea about the American border has raised more conflict, claims, counter-claims, rebuttals and false narratives on all sides than does this one. This his book provides a first comprehensive baseline of neutral truth about the threat, goring oxen on both sides of the partisan divide. It reveals, for the first time, that after 9/11 America deployed secret (ongoing) counterterrorism campaigns at the border and far beyond – and that they have worked surprisingly well to date, preventing attack on the homeland. This is the untold story of those hidden American border programs, how they succeeded in apprehending jihadists, why they’re faltering at a time when the risk of border infiltration attack is elevated, and what should be done to repair the enterprise before Americans finally suffer the consequences.

Americans concerned by unchecked global migration, porous borders, and national security will feel surprised to learn that thousands of migrants from the Islamic world breach the U.S.-Mexican border each year, despite widespread media insistence that these long-haul travelers are imagined, as are the hardened jihadists caught among them each year. This is an intelligence world insider’s story of the ambitious and intrigue-laden covert American counterterrorism programs built after 9/11 from the U.S. border to the tip of South America. These programs were created to protect Americans from a supposedly notional infiltration threat that has been killing and wounding thousands in Europe in recent years. The surprising conclusion: the American effort has prevented attack on the homeland so far, shielding an unknowing nation from the migrant-jihadist bloodshed Europe has suffered as a result of organized terrorist border infiltrations that began in 2015 and have continued since.

But how much longer can these programs keep America safe from the same threat without the public recognition that they exist, and the care and attention that they deserve?

Praise for America’s Covert Border War

“Todd Bensman is one of the last remaining authentic counter terrorism experts and investigators on jihadist terrorism whose new book will mesmerize, shock, inform and totally enlighten you on the covert war against Islamist militants fought by the government inside the US as well as around the world. Having worked as both a national security investigative reporter as well as a top level counter terrorism intelligence analyst for the government, Bensman is in a unique position to reveal a fascinating story spanning the globe over almost two decades that will interest all readers.I must say that in today’s world of totally politicized media and the poisonous influence of political correctness in corrupting the objective truth about jihadist terrorism, Bensman rises above all others in revealing what is really going on and what has gone on. And even though I have specialized in terrorism for more than 25 years, I have learned more from reading the work of Todd Bensman than any other counter terrorist official or “expert” in the world bar none.”
– Steven Emerson, Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, author of seven books on Islamic terrorism and the executive producer of two award winning documentaries on jihadist terrorism

“Amidst multiple international crises, most of the media have lost sight of the jihadist threat to America. Todd Bensman is a welcome exception. His investigative reporting on continuing terrorist attempts to infiltrate the United States deserves wide attention from specialists and the general public alike.”— Clifford D. May, founder and president, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

“Bensman draws on his many years studying the U.S.-Mexican border to establish the presence of a major but secret national counterterrorism project, then to show the serious neglect that hobbles it, and finally to recommend solutions. He needs urgently to be heeded, lest disaster come via the Rio Grande.” —Daniel Pipes, founder and president, The Middle East Forum, thought leader on U.S. foreign policy in the region and author of 16 books on Islam and the Middle East

“Progressives on the cultural and political left harbor a lot of dangerous and seditious ideas about illegal immigration. Chief among them is that lax border enforcement and massive waves of third world migrants are not an invitation to terrorist infiltration. But Todd Bensman’s new book, America’s Covert Border War, is even more dangerous and seditious because it speaks plain powerful truth about the very real problem of jihadist infiltration, backed up by the kind of deep reporting that will challenge the assumptions of even the most willfully ignorant, glib or smug. The book is a well-grounded warning from a longtime veteran of the War on Terror as well as a bold rebuke to the media’s unfortunate culture of denial, avoidance and resistance.” —William McGowan, best-selling author of Coloring The News; Gray Lady Down

“Journalist and former counterterrorism intelligence manager Todd Bensman shines a spotlight into a complex issue that few truly understand. Trust me when I say this: Bensman has been in the trenches and behind the scenes to safeguard Texas. He deserves our thanks.”—Fred Burton, former Diplomatic Security Special Agent and New York Times bestselling author of Beirut Rules, Chasing Shadows, and Ghost

“Drawing upon his unique experience, both as a counter-terrorism professional within the Texas Department of Public Safety, as well as his many years as an investigative journalist, Bensman utilizes a vast range of primary sources to provide an unmatched, richly detailed account of the vulnerabilities to terrorist infiltration that exist at the United States’ southern border. Timely and engaging, this book cuts through the otherwise deeply politicized debate that surrounds this topic to give a clear-eyed, factually-based account of the threat as we know it, the counter-terrorism machinery that was put in place after 9/11 to defeat it, and the worrisome holes in the system that persist to this day. Simply put, it is a must-read for anyone wishing to get to grips with this issue.” —Sam Mullins, professor at Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies and author of Jihadist Infiltration of Migrant Flows to Europe: Perpetrators, Modus Operandi and Policy Implications

“Todd Bensman provides a deeply disturbing national security perspective to failed immigration controls from Panama through Mexico to the southern borders of Mexico to which we were blind. Bensman now examines the threat of lone jihadists and organized groups moving through those countries to the United States. He knows this world from his reporting on the ground in Central America and Mexico and as a government intelligence worker. With this book, we are far less blind.” —Dr. Michael Lauderdale, University of Texas at Austin, Clara Pope Willoughby Centennial Professor

Reviews

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Stay Tuned!

On The Catholic Current Radio national broadcast August 28, 2020. Click here to listen.

On with Newsmax TV’s The Chris Salcedo Show discussing the border and America’s Covert Border War, August 18, 2020. Watch it here.

On-air discussion about Covert Border War. An hour with KTOK 1000 AM’s Gwin Faulconer-Lippert of Oklahoma City. Download it here.