Blum, an investigative journalist and author of the new New York Times bestseller become become as well as many other great books. He is currently a contributing editor at vanity fair. While at the New York Times he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Several of his books were nonfiction best sellers including, among others i pledge allegiance, the true story of the walkers, an american spy family that was turned into a great mini series on cbs, perhaps some of you watched it in the past. Gang land how the fbi broke the mob in 1993. The eve of destruction. The untold story of the yom kippur war in 2003. American lightning terror of mystery and the birth of hollywood and the crime of the century in 2008. A floor of heaven, a true tale of the last frontier and the yukon gold rush in 2011. I should also mention that Warner Brothers is preparing a film of dark invasion starring Bradley Cooper as tom, the hero of the book. Please welcome, howard blum. 4 lu pick up a newspaper and just glance at the headline. Check out the internet and read almost any post. Theres news about terrorism anywhere and its all very frightening. It will keep you up at night. One day theyre saying new york city is a target. The next day is chicago. Then las vegas, even the air force academy. The president tells us that we dont have to worry. Isis is not going to attack the homeland yet. Then a republican president ial candidate comes out and says, well, maybe we do have to worry. Our borders are very porous. But theres no doubt about it my children are growing up in a world of terrorism. Terrorism has become part of the dna of the times in which we live. So consider this very harrowing scenario. A terrorist cell wellfinanced, covertly enters america. They set up their headquarters, and they begin bombing munitions factories, munitions depots. A bomb rocks the u. S. Capitol building. The nations richest man, a pillar of the complex is targeted in a bold assassination attempt. From a covert bio warfare lab just six miles from the white house, a bio warfare attack is launched on three american cities. The president is told by his chief adviser this is a time of fear. We have to worry that bridges and subways and buildings all around the country are going to be attacked. And the government in response puts forms a task force to look for these terrorists. Its headed by a new York City Policeman and he goes off and he, with just 12 men, tries bring these terrorists to justice. Now, this scenario that ive outlined sounds like its a movie, and it would make a pretty good movie, or it could be maybe a game thats played at the pentagon and they look as they try to figure out what the next terrorist attack is going to be made against the homeland. But in reality, all this happened. This happened in 1915. And its a story i tell in dark invasion and a story i want to share a little about tonight. The story begins really its a time when the u. S. Is still neutral while europe is at war. In germany, theyve decided to target the United States. They decide that the only way to keep the United States out of the war is to bring terror to our shores. They decide that they need to stop the United States from sending arms and materiel to the allies who are fighting against germany. So they begin to target the United States. Its a time when the United States realizes that this is a nation full of targets. The cia in their inhouse journal has looked back on this period and they point to this as the First Defense of the homeland, and the man who is made in charge of it defense of the homeland captain tom tunney, and ill speak about him, really is the first head of Homeland Security. He and his little 12man squad are really the precursors of a Homeland Security network which now has 40,000 people and an annual budget of 98. 8 billion. Its also a time where we learn to live with fear. Now, to understand where this story begins, i think we have to go back to two months before the war, before the war has broken out in europe. And we have to go to germany, berlin where Walter Nikolai, a major in the german army is head of the german secret service. And nikolai has served on the russian front. Hes been a handler, he sent agents deep into russia. He sent up the german spies academies and theyve sent agents into france, into england and as i said, into russia. But suddenly occurs to him, as war is about to begin, he knows in a couple of months, the germans have taken their battle plans out of the safe and dusted them off, he suddenly realized weve forgotten about the United States. In the United States, as 1914, the summer of 1914 approaches, germany only has one agent in the entire country, a 70yearold man who works in a munitions factory in new jersey and hes supposed to monitor the entire munitions industry of the United States. So nikolai realizes that something has to be done. If germany is going to win this war, which is about to break out, we have to keep the u. S. Out of the war. We have to keep the u. S. Military machine if its ever built up from working against the germans, and we have to prevent the United States from sending, supplying the allies. So he decides that the only way we can do this the only way that germany can do this, is to set up a clandestine network. He he summons the u. S. Ambassador, germanys ambassador to the United States, count Johann Van Berns Dorff and he gets this mysterious summons to report back immediately to berlin for meetings. Hes rather upset about all this because he has his whole summer planned. He has a rich american wife with an estate on the north shore and has a girlfriend with her house in Newport Rhode island. And he figures hell spend part of the summer with his wife, because she has all the money, and then ill high tail it off to newport to spend the rest of his summer with his girlfriend going to the parties up there. Now hes been summoned back to berlin and its a bit of an inconvenience. He hopes to get it over rather quickly. He goes off to berlin and hes brought down to nikolais headquarters, really. Its a basement room underneath berlin and hes a little off. Hes a count after all and ambassador and hes being lectured to by a major. But he listens and hes told that hes going to head the german spy network in america. Hes upset about this because hes a gentleman and a spy is little beneath him, but he realizes hes told whats at stake and then given a briefcase. Briefcase. In the briefcase are 150 million in treasury notes. Hes told to bring this money into the United States he is to travel back under an assumed name. If the ship is boarded by british sailors inspecting, dont let them get this money dont let them know what were up to better to throw it into the sea than to let the british get their hands on it. So von bernstoff comes back to the United States, he brings the money with him and he begins to set up his organization. He during the day lives his cover as they say in the spy business very well. Hes still going out to parties all around washington. Hes still on the social circuit. Hes going up to newport. But he also has sent his agents his military and naval attaches to run this spy network. They are based in Lower Manhattan around wall street and they have also been able to recruit many assets to work with them. Not only is there a large german population in new york, for example, who are sympathetic to the father land but also ships have been interred in new york harbor and also in hoboken and these are filled with german sailors that cant get back to germany because of the war. They have nothing to do and they are looking to help the father land in any way so this is an army which is really based in new york thats at Germanys Beck and call and they have 150 million to spend. So they start beginning sabotage sabotage, they set up a safe house in new york not too far from here on west 15th street. Its a bordello run by martha held, a former opera singer. They meet there late at night and its a great cover for planning terrorist activities, a bordello because 0l9 anyone who is watching it is not surprised to see men entering, coming and going all hours of the night. Gb so they begin to do this and suddenly, ships are blowing up at sea, munitions factories are going up in smoke and the american authorities really dont know whats going on. Is this a plague of industrial accidents, is this a labor protest . They really dont suspect that germany could be behind this. Then the british share some information with us. The british since the start of the war have been intercepting germanys cables and they have broken the code they do it in the old admiralty building. They get a bunch of oxford and cambridge dons and are able to brilliantly break the german code and they are reading germans messages. They read them and they say oh, my gosh, they declared war even though there isnt a real declaration of war, against the United States. So they pass this on to the federal government. The man in charge of intelligence activities at that time is james polk a descendent of the president. Hes an undersecretary of state. He has to do something about this. President wilson says well look into it, see what can be done. He really doesnt take it too seriously. So polk has to figure out what to do. The bureau of investigation, which is the precursor to the fbi, is really at this point a very feeble organization. The men arent even allowed to carry guns. Military intelligence, Naval Intelligence, with all respect to many members that might be here, was really not functioning back in 1914 very well. So he decides because he went to grotton prep school up in new england and the new York City Police chief went to grotton and his chief deputy went to grotton, they are all grotton and harvard men, to go to the old boy network. And he goes to them and he says maybe you can help me with this. He trusts them the way he doesnt trust people in the federal government. So arthur woods who is the new York City Police chief, who taught at grotton for awhile after his graduation from harvard, he and his deputy, guy scull, decide they have just the man. Hes an irish street cop tom tunney. At this point hes heading the bomb squad and the bomb squad in those days is really not concerned with defusing bombs but its concerned with the people who make them, the various anarcist groups around the city. Tunney has just run a successful undercover operation one of the first ever in the history of the police department, an Anarchist Group was going to put a bomb in st. Patricks cathedral. He had one of his men infiltrate the group. They were able to while the bomb was left in the front of st. Patricks cathedral, they were able to grab the bomb and stop it from being stop it from exploding. This has given him a great deal of credibility with the department. So hes called to a secret meeting at the new York City Police headquarters on Center Street a big domed building thats now luxury condominiums that go for several Million Dollars apiece. In the commissioners private office, theres a back way in the back of the building. You go up a private elevator into woodpanelled room with a fire going and there is the commissioner and his deputy guy scull, and they are telling tunney weve got this mission for you. We want you to in effect, be head of Homeland Security. They say we are going to give you a special office right across the way above a bar. You answer only to us. Take the men you need, set up this group and figure out what is going on. So tunney looks at the problem and he really doesnt quite know where to begin. The first thing hes learned, he doesnt want married men in the unit. Hes afraid this is going to be too dangerous and hes learning as he goes along. Hes never done this before. Hes never been a spy catcher. He then recruits people who speak german but then he decides well, i wont have any people who werent born in this country. I dont want any german immigrants on my team because i cant trust them. Then he looks for goes to the Police Shooting range which is in the basement of this building, its now an 8 million co coop, the Police Shooting range alone went for 8 million. He recruits a guy who had very good scores there, another guy who he describes as being as big as the woolworth building, which was the biggest building at the time. He gets men who are good at surveillance, men who are good at tapping phones, and he makes this 12man team. And they are given this assignment to find out whats going on bring these terrorists, bring these germans to justice. At the same time in germany, major nikolai is not really happy with the progress of von bernstoff and his ragtag group are doing. He is a professional spy and he knows we need a professional agent to really run this group. So he recruits a member from Naval Intelligence a man by the name of frans von ritlin. Von ritlin before the war worked in the United States and london, in london he learned how to dress, he discovered a tailor who made up outfits for him, and when he worked in new york as a banker, he added the von to his name. He really wasnt a member of german nobility. When he went back to germany, he just kept it. He thought it would be easier. He is given this mission to go to the United States and wage war as he puts it against america, against the 48 states. He describes himself as a dark invader. He comes to the United States under a pseudonym, bearing a swiss passport, calling himself emile gashe, a false tooth in his mouth. He has codes so he can communicate back with germany, and he establishes himself in the new York Yacht Club on 44th street. He gets a suite of rooms there and at night hes out on the town in white tie going to parties, being a very successful banker but during the day, from an office down on wall street, he is running a sabotage campaign against the United States and a terror campaign. He is a spider spinning his web. And the web hes spinning is a very ingenius one. Ultimately tunney and von ritlin are involved in a cat and mouse game, as was mentioned when i was introduced Warner Brothers is doing a movie about dark invasion and the crux of the movie as has been written and sort of taken my story which is true, taken some dramatic liberties, the script does work really well, is really a cat and mouse game between von ritlin and tom tunney between these two very complex personalities. Each one is ruthless and determined in their own way and its a real battle. The plot that von ritlin spins in the United States, let me give you an idea of some of them. One of them is an ingenius invention to sabotage ships at sea as they leave the new york harbor after they have been loaded with munitions that are going to go to france or england or russia. One of his men invents whats called a cigar bomb. Its a piece of metal tubing about the size of a cigar. In the middle of it is a bit of copper plating. On the other side is a is acid that will eat through the plating in the middle in a number of days, so they throw this in the bales of sugar or explosives that are going off to sea. They enlist stevedores to help them do this. Many of the stevedores are irish. They do this because any enemy of england is their friend. They are willing to work with these german terrorists. They put them in the ships going off to sea and two days out at sea, the acid has eaten through and the ships blow up. The fires ignite and they never the evidence really doesnt exist anymore because its all been combusted in the explosion. And tunney has to figure out how this is done. Another plot he has to deal with is germ warfare. In 1907 in a former stables that turned into a Veterinary Clinic outside berlin the German Government had begun experimenting with anthrax and glandris. When mustard gas begins being used in battlefields of europe, they decide why not bring anthrax and glanders here to the United States. Why not use that in america. The real target is war horses the corrals of horses gathered up and being shipped to the war that are so necessary for fighting in world war i. And they decide well poison these animals. But there are ancillary incidents and people die from germ warfare in the United States. The main agent who is doing this is a dr. Anton dilger. Anton dilger is this sort of enemy agent we still worry about today. He was born in the United States, then he goes off to germany, to study medicine. Hes living in germany when the war breaks out and he volunteers to help the germans. But he has an american passport. His father, in fact, won the congressional medal of honor in the civil war. And now but he is also of german descent and they are willing now to help germany so he comes to the United States, he is given money by nikolai and he sets up a germ warfare factory, in effect. He sets it up six miles from the white house in a house hes rented, in the basement and his sister lives upstairs for good cover and in the basement, he and