Brilliantly blending storytelling skill with hard analysis of the latest intelligence, "The Base" explores in riveting fashion arguably the greatest threat to democracy since the end of the Cold War. Tracing al-Qaeda's roots back to the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, Jane Corbin picks up the complicated trail that led to the collapse of the Twin Towers and beyond, including a penetrating survey of the success - or otherwise - of the ongoing "war on terror."