Sony Pictures is negotiating to acquire film rights to counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke's first novel, "The Scorpion Gate," which Putnam Adult will publish in October. The realistic geopolitical thriller is set five years in the future as oil-hungry forces in Washington are ready to reshape the map of the Middle East to further their own ends by launching a global nuclear war. During that hearing, he testified that the Bush White House didn't consider terrorism "an urgent issue" in the months before the al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington.

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