Legacy of Ashes is the record of the first sixty years of the Central Intelligence Agency. It describes how the most powerful country in the history of Western civilization has failed to create a first-rate spy service. That failure constitutes a danger to the national security of the United States. Intelligence is secret action aimed at understanding or changing what goes on abroad. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it "a distasteful but vital necessity." A nation that wants to project its power beyond its borders needs to see over the horizon, to know what is coming, to prevent attacks against its people. It must anticipate surprise. Without a strong, smart, sharp intelligence service, presidents and generals alike can become blind and crippled. But throughout its history as a superpower, the United States has not had such a service.

After September 11, 2001, the FBI started collecting small, easily concealed knives and other potentially lethal objects, and compiled a catalog that has been distributed to airport screeners and law enforcement agencies across the country. In The FBI Guide to Concealable Weapons, this information is available to every citizen who wants to be prepared to face future terrorist attacks. In this exclusive reprint, you will see metal, plastic and ceramic knives hidden in pens, keys, belt buckles, jewelry, canes and cigarette lighters, as well as impact weapons disguised as keychains, and items hollowed out for the possible concealment of explosives. As citizens responsible for our own safety, we must know everything possible about the dangers that face us, and awareness is the first, vital step in this direction.