Skating on Stilts

Releasing Skating on Stilts under Creative Commons License

Hoover has agreed to release Skating on Stilts under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License 3.0.  

This means you can copy it as many times as you like, send it to your friend, and post it on line.  But there are a few limitations:  You must give me credit as the original author, and you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without permission.  

Finally, for any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.  Since the terms are reproduced at the end of each chapter, and my name is on the cover, you are safe if you copy each chapter as you find it.  

(The sticklers among you may notice that the copyright notice says that the publisher "publisher has made an online version of this work available" under a CC license.  The publisher assures me that the version I'm posting here is the online version, so you don't need to go looking for a version that says "this is the CC version."  You've already found it.)

I've put the first few chapters up already.  Just click on the link to the right that says "Download free chapters here."  I'll post another chapter tomorrow, along with a blog post.

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Sen. Susan Collins

“Stewart Baker's provocative book draws on his experience as a top homeland security official to raise important questions about the balance between security considerations and privacy concerns. This is a 'must read' for all concerned with striking the right balance."

- US Senator Susan M. Collins, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Adm. James Loy

“Stewart Baker offers the perspective of a warrior in the trenches and frames the world of exploding information and data as that terrible intersection between perseverant, cunning bad guys and vulnerable, fatigued good guys. His mix of wrenching personal life stories and policy debates challenges us to recognize the complexity of the post 9/11 security challenges.”

– Admiral James Loy, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (2003-2005)

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: James Fallows

“I don't agree with all, or even most, of the perspective Stewart Baker brings to the modern security debate. But I am very glad to have read what he has to say, both for the inside details on how security policy evolved after 9/11 and to engage with the argument he makes. The book is trenchant and well-written, and anyone who cares about the balance between privacy and public safety should be familiar with it.”

-James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Shane Harris

Stewart Baker's book, Skating on Stilts, is a behind-the-scenes story about how the federal government has tried to strike a delicate balance between security and liberty. This is no dry academic treatise. Baker's prose is by turns artful and provocative. He pulls no punches in his assessment of homeland security, his critics, and of his own role in the events leading up to and following the September 11 attacks. Few people have experienced this period in American history as closely as Baker, and his memoir is thoughtful and often riveting.

-- Shane Harris, author of The Watchers

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: James Carafano

“Policy meets reality. No post-9/11 official spent more time trying to figure out how to keep America safe, free, and prosperous at the same time than Stewart Baker. His story offers important lessons for battling terrorism in the future.”

-James Jay Carafano, coauthor of Winning the Long War and director of the Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Studies

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Amb. John Bolton

"Too much commentary about our efforts to prevent another 9/11 is based on prejudice, fear, disinformation and willfull disregard of the threats we face. Stewart Baker has courageously written an open and honest history of our recent efforts -- rare in government memoirs -- that no serious homeland security policymaker can ignore."

- Amb. John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: James Woolsey

“Stewart Baker makes a cogent, vivid, and persuasive case that we should protect privacy by auditing the government's use of data about individuals and punishing misuse -- but most definitely not by treating such data as private property nor by building walls around it, as we did before 9/11, that bar government-wide cooperation in fighting terrorism. This book will fundamentally change the terms of the technology-privacy debate.”

R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence 1993-1995

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Stuart Taylor

"With penetrating intellect, pragmatic sensibility, and broad counter-terrorism experience, Stewart Baker provides chilling insights into the terrifying threats presented by ever-more-high-tech terrorism, the maddening inadequacy of our defenses, and the lobbies responsible for this inadequacy. He recounts in vivid detail how the same entrenched business interests, bureaucratic turf wars, and anti-American Euro-bureaucrats that helped pave the way for 9/11 have continued to oppose policies that would make us safer. Especially devastating is Baker’s portrayal of the deeply misguided “privacy lobby” who insist on perpetuating security dangers in order to avert highly improbable governmental abuses. This despite the exponentially increasing likelihood of cyber-attacks “that could leave us without power, money, petroleum, or communications for months” and biological attacks 'equivalent to a nuclear detonation.'"

--Stuart Taylor, columnist for National Journal, Contributing Editor for Newsweek, and Nonresident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: John Hamre

“Skating on Stilts is both a memoir and a guidebook. Baker takes us through the challenges of his days at DHS, and presents a framework for action that will stand the test of time.”

- John Hamre, former Deputy Secretary of Defense and President, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Michael Chertoff

“Stewart Baker was one of the leading thinkers in developing the architecture for Homeland Security and his insights and experience provide a unique perspective on our national security challenges going forward.”

- Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Eugene Volokh

“A frightening and enlightening book – a must-read for anyone who wants to seriously discuss privacy, security, liberty, and control in today’s exhilarating but dangerous technological environment.”

– Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Gen. Michael Hayden

“A most unusual memoirist, Baker is a government bureaucrat with a philosopher's bent and a passion to tell you what he didn't achieve. And this tough-minded, candid work is a cautionary tale to those who slough off hard decisions with a dismissive claim that we do not have to make choices between our values and our security. As Baker points out, security is a value and those who pretend otherwise--be they business interests, privacy advocates, or international groups--put Americans at risk. His chilling retelling of the events leading up to 9/11 seem to echo some of the events of the current day, especially as he reminds us that Mohamed el Kahtani, the one 9/11 hijacker that was actually stopped, left this country with the promise "I'll be back." Kahtani, of course, was later captured, but we need no reminder that like-minded terrorists remain to threaten us.”

-General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006–2009) and director of the National Security Agency (1999–2005)

Early reviews for Skating on Stilts: Sen. Joe Lieberman

I've sent early copies of the book to several people I respect.  Their reviews have been generous and gratifying, so I'm posting them here.

“Stewart Baker provides a valuable insider narrative about many of the key homeland security policy debates and negotiations of the last decade. He offers urgent and compelling warnings about emerging threats that we face related to cybersecurity and bioterrorism. This book is a useful resource to policy practitioners and interested citizens alike.” - U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman

My book cover is out!

It's almost like Christmas. 

The cover design for Skating on Stilts has arrived.  If you don't like it, there's no one to blame but me.  I found the artist, Mart Klein, on line and explained the basic design I had in mind.  Much credit to Hoover Press, though, for the font and cover design.

Book cover design, like everything else in publishing, has been deeply affected by Amazon.  You have to pick a design that is recognizable in a tiny thumbnail sketch as well as on the shelves at bookstores.  I think this design meets that criteria nicely.

Comments about how much more hair and how much more fit this guy is than me are not really necessary.