Coming Soon!
The official publication date is August 11, 2026!
Reviews for SECOND WAVE
“Drawn from secret case files and bristling with riveting detail, Second Wave is an extraordinary account of al-Qaeda’s terrifying plot to smuggle explosives—and possibly a weapon of mass destruction—into a busy American seaport. . . . [A]n unforgettable journey as US officials try to piece together the plan for a 9/11 ‘sequel’ against a backdrop of CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay’s notorious Camp 5 prison. The book’s chilling finale is a warning to Americans about coming dangers. . . .”
—Joby Warrick, author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
“Every American needs to read this book to understand the complex dark world of counterterrorism. Lebowitz shines a spotlight into the secret corners of sleeper agents, hostile intelligence agencies, spies, and terrorists plotting to detonate dirty bombs on US soil. Is the threat still viable? Read this book and draw your own conclusions.”
—Fred Burton, former counterterrorism special agent and New York Times best-selling author
“Some books inform you. This one will shake you. . . . Michael Lebowitz spent years as a prosecutor inside the War on Terror—in the courtroom, in Guantanamo, in the classified files no one was supposed to see. What he found was a post-9/11 nuclear plot so dangerous that the US government fought for years to keep it secret. Second Wave is one of the most important untold stories of our generation: meticulously researched, impossible to put down, and overdue by twenty years. If you only read one book about the War on Terror, make it this one.”
—Dr. Tony Brooks, US Army Ranger, author of Leave No Man Behind
“Leaving nothing out from the heroics and hubris, Lebowitz’s unparalleled combination of access, participation, insight, and story-telling skill will leave readers with a better understanding of how the United States government both succeeded and failed to meet the high ideals and expectations of its hallowed Constitution and those who swore an oath to support and defend it. . . . Lebowitz’s work is also a telling indictment of how national security priorities can shift so abruptly between administrations as to leave a country weaker and less secure. We should be grateful for the author’s dogged efforts to bring this story to light ‘to ourselves and our posterity.’”
—Daniel Maurer, Associate Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University, author of Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil-Military Relations, Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army, retired)
“A hidden chapter of the War on Terror that reads like a thriller but is chillingly real. Second Wave is gripping, revelatory, and urgently relevant, exposing how close America came to a catastrophic follow-up to 9/11 and why we must remain vigilant in the never-ending struggle against terrorism.”
—Michael P. Scharf, former Dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law (2013-2024) and President of the American Branch of the International Law Association
“A fascinating book written by an expert participant in the pursuit and prosecution of the masterminds of the 9/11 attack and potential follow-on attacks. . . . What is most chilling is his description of the convergence of the visceral hatred of hard-core terrorists and the banality of useful idiots who enabled the successful 9/11 attacks and the planning for the second wave. . . . Lebowitz not only warns that, twenty-five years after the original attack, we need to remain vigilant, but he also warns that the price we pay today for adequate security pales in comparison to the butcher’s bill we will certainly pay if we allow history to repeat itself.”
—Lieutenant General Stephen Fogarty, US Army (Ret.); former commander of US Army Cyber Command and US Army Intelligence and Security Command
“Through years of intensive research and dogged determination, Lebowitz has produced a study that reminds us of the extreme dangers our nation has faced, and the lengths to which our government has gone to keep them secret.”
—Clay Mountcastle, Phd; Director, Virginia War Memorial
Connect with Mike
National Security Expert | Former War Crimes Prosecutor | Combat Veteran | Author
Mike Lebowitz is one of the few American war crimes prosecutors who also has experience capturing terrorists as part of an elite Army unit. For almost nine years, he served as a prosecutor in the controversial Guantanamo Bay military commissions where he became an expert on the 9/11 attacks. Based on his institutional knowledge and expertise, Pentagon leadership selected him to be a special counsel for Guantanamo Bay matters. He is the only war crimes prosecutor to appear in a courtroom for the three major contested cases held at Guantanamo Bay: The 9/11 case, the USS Cole case, and a case against al Qaeda’s top commander in Afghanistan.
These positions afforded Lebowitz unique access at all levels to the world of national security and war crimes. As a combat veteran who served in a U.S. Army Pathfinder unit, he was one of the few war crimes prosecutors to have a combat badge on his uniform. Lebowitz until recently was a senior attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division, practiced before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and was a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. He also served as a senior legal advisor to U.S. Army Cyber Command as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He has extensive cyber law experience and has written extensively on quantum computing. Previously, Lebowitz worked at a non-governmental organization in Uganda and was a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s English-language newspaper of record. Academically, his work as a national security expert has been published in several legal journals. Lebowitz also has been quoted by media outlets such as the Washington Post, NPR, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and the Military Times. He also has appeared on various national security podcasts.
Growing up in Cleveland (and suffering through years of sports fan misery), Lebowitz earned his law degree from Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law in 2003 and a journalism degree from Kent State University in 1999. In law school, Lebowitz was a contributing editor for the Case Western Reserve University Journal of International Law. At Kent State, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Daily Kent Stater, the independent, student-run newspaper. As an Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, he is currently working on a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College.
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