Current Book News

February 2008-April 2008

September 2007 to January 2008

How jihad went freelance

Understanding Terror Networks by Marc Sageman

…Mr Sageman is a leading advocate of what is called the “buddy” theory of terrorism. He has spent much time asking why well-educated young men, from middle-class backgrounds, often with a secular education and wives and children, become suicide bombers. He suggests that radicalization is a collective rather than an individual process in which friendship and kinship are key components……(Economist, 31 Jan 08)

Publisher puts brakes on book that contends former MP spied for Russians

A publisher has cited legal considerations in halting Canadian shipments of a book that alleges a former Conservative MP from Calgary was a paid informant for the Russian intelligence service. It is the latest controversy to flair up over Comrade J, American journalist Pete Earley's account of espionage in the early years of the post-Cold War era……(Canadian Press, 30 Jan 08)

Jihad, Then and Now

THE JIHAD NEXT DOOR: The Lackawanna Six and Rough Justice in the Age of Terror by Dina Temple-Raston and THE FIRST MUSLIMS: History and Memory by Asma Afsaruddin

Policymakers, pundits and scholars have long puzzled over what inspires young Muslims to take the great leap toward radicalization. If Muslims living in dramatically different societies, in vastly different circumstances and conditions in the East and West, are similarly drawn to extremism, does this mean there is something inherently violent in the Islamic tradition?...Understanding how Muslims view their lives and their faith today is now critical to the relationship between the Islamic world and the West……(Washington Post, 30 Jan 08)

Professor Examines Jihad in New Book ‘Arguing the Just War in Islam’

Arguing the Just War in Islam by John Kelsay

… In their “Declaration Concerning Armed Struggles Against Jews and Crusaders,” the militants cited three factors justifying the jihad: the ongoing presence of American forces in Saudi Arabia following the first Persian Gulf War; the devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by that war and subsequent embargos; and the United States’ ongoing support of “the Jews’ petty state.” But what exactly is jihad? Who can declare it? And what rules govern it?.....(30 Jan 08)

Japanese waste no time to buy rights for Vietnamese spy show

Ownership of Con Duong Sang (Bright Way), a cinematic journey into the world of high-stakes espionage based on the gripping true-life tale of Viet Nam People’s Army hero Hoang Minh Dao, has been transferred to Japanese distributors even before the film’s official release in its homeland in early February. Dao, whose real name was Dao Phuc Loc, was one of the country’s best secret agents. He entered into this dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the late 1930 to fight for Viet Nam’s freedom, a choice that eventually cost him his life in 1969…..(Vietnam News, 29 Jan 08)

Russia denounces allegations by spy defector in U.S. book

The Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) said on Monday that allegations by former spy master Sergei Tretyakov recently published in a book in the U.S. were "a PR move glorifying treason."  The book is based on a series of interviews with Tretyakov, who was deputy head of intelligence at Russia's UN mission from 1995 to 2000, and defected to the U.S. as a double agent. The book quotes the ex-spy as saying that Moscow is actively involved in "subversive activities" against Washington…..(RIA Novosti, 28 Jan 08)

MSU prof explores Islam in new book

The Many Faces of Political Islam by Mohammed Ayoob

Political Islam is not inherently violent. It's not fundamentally undemocratic. It's not a single phenomenon across countries and cultures. And it is not driven primarily by religious concerns. Or such are the arguments that Mohammed Ayoob, a University Distinguished Professor of international relations at Michigan State University's James Madison College and a noted scholar of Middle Eastern affairs, makes in his latest book, "The Many Faces of Political Islam."….(Lansing State Journal, 28 Jan 08)

Spy vs. Spy

COMRADE J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy In America After the End of the Cold War by Pete Earley

The CIA and the FBI were hugely damaged by the supermoles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, who ran their own private spy bazaars and peddled vast amounts of U.S. secrets to the Russians for years. No one seemed to notice when Ames drove a red Jaguar XJ6 to CIA headquarters or when the FBI's Hanssen escorted a stripper to Hong Kong. So it is understandable that the two agencies might want the public to know that for at least a few years in the late 1990s, they had a mole sending secrets the other way. Enter Col. Sergei Tretyakov, a Russian spy who defected in New York in 2000 as the deputy rezide nt (station chief) there of the SVR, the successor to the KGB's foreign intelligence directorate…Tretyakov, who had been assigned to the Russian mission at the United Nations since 1995 and to Ottawa before that, gave the FBI 5,000 secret SVR cables and more than 100 Russian intelligence reports, according to one U.S. intelligence official cited by Earley. Tretyakov apparently first tried to defect around 1997 but agreed to remain as an "agent in place," passing secrets to the FBI until October 2000…..(Washington Post, 27 Jan 08)

General tells of OSS days

Hazardous Duty, by Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub

The theater at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum on Bragg Boulevard was nearly full Saturday afternoon as soldiers turned out to listen to retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub. Singlaub, 86, was there to speak about his book “Hazardous Duty.” He focused mostly on the beginning days of the Office of Strategic Services…..(Observer, 27 Jan 07)

Five courageous men who tried to stop terrorism in late 19th-century America

THE BLOODY SHIRT: Terror After Appomattox by Stephen Budiansky

The decade-long period known as Reconstruction, which began shortly after the Civil War and ended with the presidential election of 1876, probably has been subjected to more misinterpretation, misunderstanding and outright factual distortion than any other time in American history… In the past quarter-century the pendulum has finally begun to swing away from fiction to historical fact, as scholarship of the Civil War-era South has become as interested in the former slaves as in the defeated masters. Precisely what moved Budiansky to pitch in his two cents' worth is unclear, as his previous books have been about military history, espionage and natural history, but the tone of The Bloody Shirt suggests that a principal motive was sheer outrage over "the palliative stereotypes, the exculpatory myths, and the outright bald-faced lies……(Washington Post, 27 Jan 08)

Dancing to the CIA's Tune

THE MIGHTY WURLITZER: How the CIA Played America by Hugh Wilford

What do Richard Wright, Gloria Steinem, Henry Kissinger, George Meany, Nina Simone and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. have in common? Answer: Directly or indirectly, they all took money from the Central Intelligence Agency during the early years of the Cold War…..(Washington Post, 27 Jan 08)

In the Heart of the Heart of Conspiracy

Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies by M. Stanton Evans

…Part of Evans’s appeal is his boast to have unmasked the biases and distortions of previous McCarthy critics, this author (David Ochinsky) included. He begins by describing a massive Russian spy operation in the United States, drawing his evidence from K.G.B. files as well as portions of the Venona project, a top-secret operation that traced Soviet intelligence traffic during World War II. Evans leaves the impression that he has uncovered fresh material, suspiciously overlooked until now….(New York Times, 27 Jan 07)

Exploring the origins of Islamic civilization

Essays on the Origins of Islamic Civilization, by Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg

…Each scholarly attempt to present Islam from a new perspective has yielded a new interpretation of Islam. Moreover, each new interpretation can be useful to readers of different backgrounds.”…Being a historian by profession, the author pursues a historical-cum-multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing the origin and development of Islam as a global religion and civilization. Consisting of nine essays, a synopsis and a short preface, in this book, the author provides a complex but cogent answer to the question: what is the origin of Islam as a religion, culture and civilization?.....(Muslim News, 25 Jan 08)

Black turbans rebound
Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop by Antonio Giustozzi

…In a revelatory new book, Antonio Giustozzi of the London School content  of Economics analyzes the violence, its perpetrators and their backers. Though the author does not underestimate the role of Pakistan in the renewed activity of the Taliban, he emphasizes that internal weaknesses of the Afghan state opened the window for the insurgents to establish themselves deep inside Afghanistan and pose a serious challenge……(Asia Times, 25 Jan 08)

'God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215' by David Levering Lewis

…Lewis, 71, is a distinguished social historian, particularly of the 20th century United States. Both volumes of his magisterial biography of W.E.B. Du Bois won the Pulitzer Prize for history. However, he is neither a medievalist nor a scholar of Islam origins, and some -- though not all -- of this book's shortcomings originate there. The more fundamental problem is that "God's Crucible" is as much the product of an enthusiasm as it is an idea……(LA Times, 23 Jan 08)

The African Jihad: Bin Laden's Quest for the Horn of Africa

The African Jihad by Greg Pirio

…The book traces how these efforts began with the collaboration between Al Qaeda and the National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Sudan. The NIF under the ideological leadership of Hasan al-Turabi and Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden sought to channel the social, political and economic grievances of Muslim communities into a global jihadist narrative, and the NIF and Al Qaeda worked hand in glove to set up and/or support several, coordinated jihadist movements in the countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda……(UCLA, 23 Jan 08)

The C.I.A. and the Culture War

…The controversy over secrecy seems to boil down to ends and means: the end was preventing Communist domination of Europe; the means were those that spy agencies, but not artists and writers, are accustomed to using. Wilford himself would have preferred the program to be public, but his book suggests we should be careful before rushing to judgment……(New York Times Blog, 23 Jan 08)

A Word From Our Sponsor

THE MIGHTY WURLITZER: How the CIA Played America by Hugh Wilford

This is a book whose content somewhat contradicts its title. “Mighty Wurlitzer” was the metaphor Frank Wisner, the first chief of political warfare for the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe the C.I.A.’s “array of front organizations.” They were, he said, “capable of playing any propaganda tune he desired.” But Wisner rather exaggerated what he was able to do, as one learns from this remarkably detailed and researched book by Hugh Wilford, a British scholar now at California State University, Long Beach…..(New York Times, 20 Jan 08)

Top U.N. Nuclear Watchdog a Russian Spy, Defector Says in New Book

Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War by former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley

The top U.N. official responsible for monitoring the clandestine nuclear programs of Iran and Pakistan is a Russian spy, according to a new book on Moscow’s espionage operations in the United States and Canada. The official is identified only by his Russian code name, ARTHUR, but other sources identified him as Tariq Rauf, 54, a Pakistani-born Canadian who is chief of verification and security-policy coordination at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)…….(Congressional Quarterly, 19 Jan 08)

IAEA dismisses Russian spy claims against senior staff

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday dismissed espionage allegations against a senior staff member as "nonsense" and a probable attempt to discredit the UN nuclear watchdog. The accusations, apparently based on memoirs of former Russian intelligence operative Sergei Tretyakov, are leveled in a book to be published on January 24 by former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley….(DPA, 21 Jan 08)

A fresh look at terrorism's roots
Leaderless Jihad by Marc Sageman

…Marc Sageman is a University of Pennsylvania professor of psychiatry and ethnopolitical conflict, and a former Foreign Service Officer who worked closely with Islamic fundamentalists during the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s and gained an intimate understanding of their networks. His 2004 book Understanding Terror Networks gave the first social explanation of the global wave of activity……(Asia Times, 18 Jan 08)

Decatur attorney writes book to debunk myths about Muslims

War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims by Melody Moezzi

…"War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims" is a collection of profiles of young Muslims, as wide-ranging as they are peaceful: a feminist Muslim, a gay Muslim, a rapper, a convert from Catholicism, a buff Muslim with tattoos and one who sounds like a surfer when he tells her, "Dude, I think I'm like one of the worst Muslims I know."…..(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 16 Jan 08)

Amy Zegart has a lot to say about U.S. intelligence agencies

Spying Blind: The CIA, The FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 by Amy Zegart

Video Interview…Our video brings Johnson and Zegart together to discuss the premise of her latest book, “Spying Blind: The CIA, The FBI, and the Origins of 9/11.”…..(Spotlight UCLA, 14 Jan 07)

Explosive Evidence: 'The Nuclear Jihadist'

"THE NUCLEAR JIHADIST" is a triumph of investigative journalism.

Subtitled "The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets ... And How We Could Have Stopped Him," the book is both a biography of "the father of the Islamic bomb," Pakistan's A.Q. Khan, and a revealing portrait of decades of behind-closed-doors decision-making inside the American and Pakistani governments…..(Read Express, 9 Jan 08)

Justice For All: Jeff Brienholt

The Jihad Next Door: The Lackawanna Six and Rough Justice in the Age of Terror by Dina Temple-Raston

Here’s a little secret: the United States government would rather Americans in search of adventure not travel abroad to join some other country’s army, to fight in wars to which we are not a party…how do we prevent Americans from following their wanderlust if it includes going abroad to engage in violence? When they go and we find out about what they did, we cannot very well bomb them. Instead, we subject them with criminal prosecution, like we do people who cheat on their taxes. We say that they should take this not-so-secret prohibition seriously. Go to jihad training camp, go to jail. People on the bubble will hopefully get the message….(NEFA, Review by Jeff Brienholt, 8 Jan 08)

Spy of the Cumberland topic of Civil War Roundtable

Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland will be discussed Tuesday, Jan. 15 by author Bill Christen at the monthly meeting of the Middle Tennessee Civil War Roundtable. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in Bradley Academy. Pauline Cushman, said P. T. Barnum, was the "greatest heroine of the age."…..(Murfreesboro Post, 8 Jan 08)

Blind Faiths

The Suicide of Reason, by Lee Harris

…Harris, the author of "Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History," devotes most of his book to identifying and distinguishing between two kinds of fanaticism. The first is Islamic fanaticism, a formidable enemy in the struggle for cultural survival. In Harris's view, this fanaticism has acted as a "defense mechanism," shielding Islam from the pressures of the changing world around it and allowing it to expand into territories and cultures where it had previously been unknown……(New York Times, 7 Jan 08)

Seeds of Hate

 JIHAD AND JEW-HATRED: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11, by Matthias Küntzel

…(Kuntzel) takes anti-Semitism, and in particular its most potent current strain, Muslim anti-Semitism, very seriously indeed. His bracing, even startling, book, “Jihad and Jew-Hatred” (translated by Colin Meade), reminds us that it is perilous to ignore idiotic ideas if these idiotic ideas are broadly, and fervently, believed. And across the Muslim world, the very worst ideas about Jews — intricate, outlandish conspiracy theories about their malevolent and absolute power over world affairs — have become scandalously ubiquitous…..(New York Times, 6 Jan 08)

What Islam Wrought

GOD'S CRUCIBLE: Islam and the Making of Europe 570-1215, by David Levering Lewis

…God's Crucible begins with the rise of Islam in the 6th and 7th centuries from the ruins of the conflict between imperial Rome and imperial Persia. This rise, Lewis writes expansively, is nothing short of "the greatest revolution in power, religion, culture, and wealth in history." In the aftermath, the Fertile Crescent, the vast area of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, was forfeited to the Islamic upstarts in the Arabian peninsula…..(Washington Post, 6 Jan 08)

The Other Jihad: Islam's War on the Hindus

The Art of War on Terror:  Triumphing over Political Islam and the Axis of Jihad, by Moorthy Muthuswamy

…Moorthy Muthuswamy explores this little-known and vastly under-reported Muslim campaign against Hindus. Muthuswamy addresses the methodology and ideological basis of political Islam, illuminates the 60-year history of jihad in India, specifies the roles played by the countries he identifies as being part of the "axis of jihad," and sets forth potential solutions to the jihadist threat. The roots of this jihad on the Indian sub-continent began in 1947, when the British departed South Asia and granted

Book Review

The Suicide Of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the Enlightenment, by Lee Harris and Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11, by Matthias Küntzel

Several authors have published books on radical Islam's threat to the West since that shocking morning in September six years ago. With "The Suicide of Reason," Lee Harris joins their ranks. But he distinguishes himself by going further than most of his counterparts: he considers the very worst possibility - the destruction of the West by radical Islam…The German scholar Matthias Küntzel tells us this is a mistake. He takes anti-Semitism, and in particular its most potent current strain, Muslim anti-Semitism, very seriously indeed. His bracing, even startling, book, "Jihad and Jew-Hatred" (translated by Colin Meade), reminds us that it is perilous to ignore idiotic ideas if these idiotic ideas are broadly, and fervently, believed…..(International Herald Tribune, 4 Jan 08)

Spy Vs. Spy
The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France, by Simon Kitson

During the German occupation of France in World War II, Suzanne Desseigne, a French woman with fascist sympathies, initiated contact with the Nazis. She became the mistress of a German soldier who recruited her to conduct espionage missions against the collaborationist Vichy regime in Southern France and French North Africa…Mr. Kitson is a historian's historian: a patient, meticulous master of the archives, a disciplined analyst, a servant of the evidence. His study of the French counterintelligence service's pursuit of German spies during the collaboration is not calculated to appeal to a mass market. Yet the imaginative reader will find the germ here of at least a dozen characters to populate a sensational spy novel…..(New York Sun, 2 Jan 08)

Kennedy Assassination and Soviet KGB Connection Explored in Book

Programmed to Kill, by General Ion Mihai Pacepa

…Pacepa was unique in the Cold War: the highest ranking intelligence officer to defect from the Soviet bloc. He was Ceausescu’s top strategic adviser, and the acting chief of the Romanian secret intelligence service. His defection resulted in the total shutdown of the Romanians’ clandestine activities, making him unique in the history of modern espionage…Pacepa painstakingly takes us through the documentary evidence, including invaluable material on Soviet bloc cyphers that throws new light on Oswald’s letters to KGB officers in Washington and Mexico City……(International Analyst Network, 2 Jan 08)

December 2007

The spy who finally came in from the cold

Berlin to Bond and Beyond – The Story of a Fleming Man by Judith Lenart.

After Antony Terry’s death in 1992, Judith Lenart found herself sitting at her stepfather’s desk, arranging his funeral…Reading through the letters, suspicion arose within her. Had her stepfather been a spy? And so began an investigation into the background of a man who was at times a war hero, a foreign correspondent and, it seems, and agent for MI6...It tells how Terry had been recruited by Fleming as an intelligence officer and posted to various European countries under the guise of a foreign correspondent with the Sunday Times. Fleming ran an intelligence agency called Mercury which used foreign correspondents working for the Sunday Times’ parent company Kemsley Newspapers, for which he was foreign manager, as spies….(Kent News, 26 Dec 07)

Raw intelligence

The Kaoboys of R & AW: Down Memory Lane, by B. Raman

India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), by Maj. Gen V.K. Singh

Inside IB and RAW: The Rolling Stone that Gathered Moss, by K. Sankaran Nair

THESE three books by officers of distinction should serve to initiate serious discussion on the intelligence services. Obsessed with secrecy, the services try to cover ineptitude with repression……(Hinduon Net, 19 Dec 07)

Customs official in secrets inquiry over nuclear revelations

…Police and officials from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have searched the home of Atif Amin for evidence that he passed classified information to the American authors of a book about the worldwide nuclear proliferation network. Amin was in charge of Operation Akin, an investigation into links between British companies and the illegal network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani scientist who helped build that country's nuclear arsenal. The investigation is the subject of a book recently published in the US, America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise. Its authors, David Armstrong and Joseph Trento, contend that in 2000 Amin uncovered evidence in Dubai of the Khan network's involvement in establishing Libya's nuclear program but was ordered to drop his inquiries and return home, at the request of the CIA and MI6. The Libyan program and the Khan network were not exposed and halted until 2003…..(Guardian, 19 Dec 07)

From the Shadows to the Silver Screen

…this unassuming ex-Green Beret and former CIA agent (Mike Vickers ) engineered the clandestine arming of the Afghan rebels who drove the Soviet Union out of their country nearly a quarter century ago in what was the largest covert action in the spy agency's history. The critical role Vickers played gets only modest attention in an upcoming movie about former Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas… Unlike Wilson, who retired from Congress in 1996, Vickers remains deeply involved in secret programs. Now the Pentagon's top special operations official, Vickers advises Defense Secretary Robert Gates on counterterrorism missions around the world, manages the budget for U.S. commando forces and mediates the inevitable disputes among the generals over the best way to track down the enemy…..(AP, 15 Dec 07)

The Communist Roots of Palestinian Terror

The following is chapter from David Meir-Levi's new book, History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression. The Terrorism Awareness Project previous printed his history of the "right-wing" influence on Islamic extremism, "The Nazi Roots of Palestinian Nationalism and Islamic Jihad." Taken together (with his entire book), these chapters show that Islamofascism is a political, not merely a religious force; and the potent and deadly offspring of the totalitarian ideologies of the past…..(FrontPage, 14 Dec 07)

The Spy Of Saigon

Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, by Larry Berman

…For nearly 20 years An was North Vietnam's master spy--and at the same time ace correspondent for, successively Reuters and Time magazine, functioning as well as a funnel of information for everyone from The New Yorker's Robert Shaplen to David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan to reporters from every American television network and correspondents from Australia to France. Along the way, he saved the lives of some, kept others from making catastrophic errors of fact and judgment--all the time, passing critical strategic and tactical information to those in the communist military hierarchy……(Forbes, 12 Dec 07)

Documentary on Vietnam’s most famous spy begins this week

…The 12-part documentary, entitled Huyen Thoai ve tuong tinh bao Pham Xuan An (The Legend of Intelligence General Pham Xuan An), will show never-before-seen footage of the war that is stored in the US troops’ document warehouse…During 23 years as a double agent, his life was always in danger. He always carried suicide drugs in case he suddenly needed them, but luckily, due to his talent and skill, he never had to resort to such measures. A year after the country unified in 1975 with the fall of US-backed South Vietnam regime, An was honored to become the “Hero of the Armed Forces”. The documentary film was completed just after he passed away at the age of 79.....(Thanhnien, 11 Dec 07)

Book: Islam and Political Violence

Islam and Political Violence, by Shahram Akbarzadeh and Fethi Mansouri

…The new book "Islam and Political Violence" brings together the current debate on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship between the Muslim world and the West and argues we are on a dangerous trajectory, strengthening dichotomous notions of the divide between the West and the Muslim world. Acts of violence by extremist groups and the war on terror have added fresh uncertainties to an already complex global order and heightened a widely felt sense of insecurity in the West and the Muslim world……(Alarab Online, 11 Dec 07)

Operating Beyond the Law: Israeli Agents in the US

Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal, by Grant F. Smith

…Smith tells of four laws that regulate the sphere within which AIPAC operates in the US: the Logan Act, which prohibits unapproved diplomacy on behalf of the US; federal election laws, which govern funding of campaigns and prohibit nonprofit corporations from coordinating political action committees (PACs) nationally; the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), which requires disclosure of foreign agents and their activities in the US; and the 1917 Espionage Act which prohibits unlawful disclosure to another state of US national intelligence that is damaging to the US……(Dissident Voice, 10 Dec 07)

On trail of a superspy on the payroll of Cuba

True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy, by Scott W. Carmichael

Ana Montes is not nearly as well known as Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, or the other traitors who spied against the United States in recent years. Her near-anonymity is no doubt due to her being arrested just 10 days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. But that is not to say that the damage she caused the country was any less significant…..(Philly Inquirer, 9 Dec 07)

 "Zigzag," fantastic true tale of a double agent

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal, by Ben Macintyre

…I've never read a better true spy tale than "Agent Zigzag," the story of Eddie Chapman, a charming British criminal who metamorphosed into one of the most brilliant double agents ever run by the Brits…Chapman's story has been told before, but Macintyre has incorporated recently released information in files declassified in 2001 by the British secret service MI5….(Seattle Times, 7 Dec 07)

Extraordinary New Book Promotes the Preservation of Democratic Freedom by the Western World

The Persian Atom by John Oak

…the author explains how Iran's secret services are undertaking industrial espionage to discover specific details of Columbus, a new-generation missile secretly being built by a joint venture of defense companies from France, Israel and Portugal. Protecting critical and classified information within each facility from the adversary is of the utmost importance, but where there is a will there is a way. On the other hand, defining the shape of Iran's anti-aerial defense of both its nuclear centrals and uranium enrichment locations is at stake. The book describes operations developed by Iran secret services and other intelligence services in France, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Portugal and Ukraine with the purpose of taking advantage of each other's weakest links and loose ends…..(Press Release Web, 6 Dec 07)

At Last, the Final Word on Joe McCarthy

Blacklisted by History -- the Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies, by M. Stanton Evans

…the great controversy over Communism in government, which roared on from 1946 to 1954. The liberals took the position that the degree of Communist infiltration of government was greatly exaggerated, and depicted McCarthy as the chief exaggerator. In public eyes, the controversy seemed more or less settled in 1954, when the Senate officially "censured" McCarthy…..(Town Hall, 6 Dec 07)

Russian Spies of the Future

The concept of the illegal officer was—and still is—unique to Russian intelligence, and it constituted an extremely closely guarded secret. In 1964 I became a deputy chief of the Romanian espionage service, the DIE, but it was not until eight years later, when I became responsible for supervising Romania’s illegal operations, that I understood how little I had known about this super-secret intelligence discipline until then…President Putin’s new Cold War has moved the illegal officer to the forefront again. The Russian daily Vzglyad (The View) reports that George Blake—an alleged Briton who now lives in Moscow—has published a new book, Transparent Walls. The forward of this book was signed by Russia’s spy chief, Sergey Lebedev, himself. “Despite the book being devoted to the past, it is about the present as well,” Lebedev writes. I am sure he is correct…..(FrontPage, 4 Dec 07)

Story of ancient "beauty-spy" Xi Shi retold

Siren of China, by Michael Tang

The legend of Xi Shi, one of the four ancient beauties of China, has it all: love, war, espionage, revenge. Michael Tang's new English book "Siren of China" retells the 2,500-year-old story for Western readers. Probably the most celebrated woman in Chinese history, Xi Shi is synonymous with "beauty" in Chinese. Her magnificent looks and valor as a spy dispatched to destroy her king's enemy has inspired poets and writers for 2,500 years……(Xinhua, 4 Dec 07)

November 2007

Jihad in India

The Art of War on Terror: Triumphing over Political Islam and the Axis of Jihad, by Moorthy Muthuswamy

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Moorthy Muthuswamy, an expert on terrorism in India. He grew up in India, where he had firsthand experience with political Islam and jihad…..(FrontPage, 29 Nov 07)

Brothers of Invention?

Jihad and Jew Hatred, by Matthias Kuntzel

…Kuntzel concludes this rather brief (~ 60,000 word) analysis of what he terms the “ideological roots of Islamism,” by calling for the West to challenge those putative “roots.” But his noble admonition—of vital importance—is thoroughly undermined by the author’s failure to provide a coherent assessment of these ideological roots consistent with a sound doctrinal and historical understanding of the permanent Islamic institution of jihad, Islam’s foundational, continuously expressed Jew-hatred, and their nexus with the modern totalitarianism and Jew-hatred of the Nazi movement…..(FrontPage, 29 Nov 07)

U.S. Tells Iran: Become a Nuclear Power

Editors note: The following is an excerpt from The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and The Middle East Crisis (by Reese Erlich).

…A declassified document from President Gerald Ford's administration, for which Kissinger was Secretary of State, supported Iran's push for nuclear power. The document noted that Tehran should "prepare against the time--about 15 years in the future--when Iranian oil production is expected to decline sharply."1 The United States ultimately planned to sell billions of dollars worth of nuclear reactors, spare parts and nuclear fuel to Iran……(Foreign Policy in Focus, 28 Nov 07)

New Travel Book: ‘Children of Jihad’

Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East, by Jared Cohen

…“Written with candor and featuring dozens of eye-opening photographs, Cohen’s account begins in Lebanon, where he interviews Hezbollah members at, of all places, a McDonald’s. In Iran, he defies government threats and sneaks into underground parties, where bootleg liquor, Western music, and the Internet are all easy to access…Gripping and daring, Children of Jihad shows us the future through the eyes of those who are shaping it.”…..(World Hum Blog, 27 Nov 07)

Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam

Movie Review: Joel Gilbert has pulled off a remarkable tour de force: in “Farewell Israel” he has produced a technically sophisticated, visually imaginative, scholarly documentary that manages in the space of 145 minutes to investigate the belief system and history of Islam, the development of the Arab-Israel conflict (more accurately the Muslim-Jewish conflict) and the aftermath of 9/11. The documentary’s enormous achievement is in bringing all this together to show incontrovertibly the total misunderstanding of Islam….(FSM, 27 Nov 07)

The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In

The spread of Islam, first through conquest, then migration, has had a tremendous impact on the world in which we live. Today, certainly by Hollywood and the Western media, that impact is usually framed in terms of terrorism…In The Great Arab Conquests Hugh Kennedy wades through the mass of often fragmentary, confused, and contradictory sources to provide his readers with a cautious and balanced, yet powerful and engaging narrative of the great Arab conquests.…(Blog Critic’s Magazine, 27 Nov 07)

Book Dispels Okla. City Bomb Conspiracy

On-Scene Commander, by Weldon Kennedy

…In his new memoir, "On-Scene Commander," former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy criticizes those who believe federal authorities did not find all the people involved in the terrorist attack's planning. He spoke to The Oklahoman newspaper for a story in Saturday's editions……(AP, 24 Nov 07)

'Signed, Mata Hari,' by Yannick Murphy

…The Mata Hari -- or Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, as she legally was known -- who speaks from the pages of Yannick Murphy's layered, unself-consciously sensual and achingly beautiful third novel, "Signed, Mata Hari," is her own best advocate. Over and above the incriminating circumstances cataloged by her accusers, she is utterly convinced of her innocence not only by the exculpatory force of her own explanations but also by the fact that she had, since girlhood, "cheated death."….(LA Times, 21 Nov 07)

Muslim democracy: An oxymoron?
Democracy in Muslim Societies, by Zoya Hasan

…The editor's introductory essay asserts that a "shift from Arab to Asian societies" as units of analysis is an "intellectual move" challenging stereotypical discussions of Muslim politics after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The message is that the political language of Islam is not uniform and one has to delve into the national contexts and peculiarities of each case….(Asia Times, 21 Nov 07)

Artificial Intelligence

CURVEBALL: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War, by Bob Drogin

…A better word for the defector, in fact, was “fabricator.” With marvelous chutzpah, the source had made it all up. He had landed in Munich in November 1999 looking for asylum and wound up in the grim Zirndorf holding center. He wanted an immigrant visa and money. So, drawing on bits and pieces of his personal experience and a lot of reading on the Internet, he persuaded the German Federal Intelligence Service that he had information it coveted…..(New York Times, 18 Nov 07)

Book Review:

The Death of the Grownup (How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization) by Diana West

...A culture with no confidence can not defend itself.  We have defaulted in our war against radical Islam, calling it euphemistically “a War on Terror.”  Ms. West contends this is a result of “Moral paralysis born of the conditioned response to suspend judgment.” We no longer have “a resilient set of moral beliefs.” She further attacks this “neutrality and suspended judgment” as dangerous to our very survival......(FSM, 17 Nov 07)

Demystifying Islam

JOURNEY INTO ISLAM: THE CRISIS OF GLOBALISATION, by Akbar Ahmed

…Written primarily for a Western readership, this journey is more into the Muslim world, rather than into Islam— two intimately connected and intertwined terms, but nevertheless separate. Akbar Ahmed, an ex-Pakistan bureaucrat and now Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, sets off on an anthropological survey of the Muslim world, motivated by a situation where “Defining Islam was no longer a question of … the nature of God … but had become disturbingly politicized,” casting “a shadow over adherents … around the globe.”…..(Deccan Herald, 17 Nov 07)

Book offers first-hand view of Cold War Army Reserve intelligence

Army Intelligence in the Guard and Reserve 1948-1998, by Army Col. William Bridge

…active duty Army only thought Reserve Component soldiers came together once a month and during their two weeks a year to drill “and play cards.” Nothing was more untrue, he said.Some top people were members of the reserve forces doing intelligence work, and one of them today is the president of Lithuania, a man named Valdas Adamkus…..(Sierra Vista Herald, 15 Nov 07)

In book, FBI agent says Saddam Hussein cried at last meeting

The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack, by Ronald Kessler

…Until 9/11, Saddam thought UN sanctions would go away and he (Hussein) could make a nuclear bomb. His prewar weapons of mass destruction deceptions were a ruse to convince Iran - whom he feared - that he had an arsenal…..(New York Daily, 13 Nov 07)

Saddam Hussein Faked Having WMDs to Trick Iran

…Though jailed and facing certain execution, he believed, Saddam still thought he would be viewed as one of the region's great leaders in a thousand years, he told his FBI interrogator…..(Counterterrorism Blog, 13 Nov 07)

Book Excerpt: Perfect Spy

During the Vietnam War, Time reporter Pham Xuan An befriended everyone who was anyone in Saigon, including leading American journalists such as David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan and Stanley Karnow, who came to regard him as a friend and trusted source. But what none of An's friends knew was that he was a spy providing strategic intelligence to Hanoi, smuggling invisible ink messages out to the jungle in egg rolls and living a dangerous double life……(Forbes, 13 Nov 07)

Outlook: Another Haven in Pakistan

Conde Nast Portfolio writer Douglas Frantz and D.C.-based writer Catherine Collins, authors of "The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets ... and How We Could Have Stopped Him," were online Monday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss their Outlook article about A.Q. Khan and the Bush administration's refusal to force Pakistan to give him up.The transcript follows…….(Washington Post, 12 Nov 07)

Curveball, Swing and A Miss

…Drogin's book refutes its subtitle, which is: "Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War." Curveball did not cause the war; rather, he greased the slide to war by nourishing the certitudes of people whose confidence made them blind to his implausibility……(Washington Post, 11 Nov 07)

Inventing the dots

Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War, by Bob Drogin

…“Curveball” offers a squalid and up-to-date procession of real-life fools, traitors and game-players seeking to brighten their rotten lives. Principal among them is an Iraqi chemical engineer who pitched up in Germany without a visa in 1999. He asked for political asylum and knew that he would greatly improve his chances of getting it if he could make himself interesting to the intelligence services. Which he did. Before long he had their rapt attention, as well as his own code name, Curveball…Information taken from his testimony cropped up in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002 (which maintained with “high confidence” that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons); in George Bush's state-of-the-union message in January 2003 (which included a reference to “mobile weapons labs designed to produce germ-warfare agents”); and in Colin Powell's presentation to the UN the following month (which featured computer-generated images of those mobile weapons labs, based on descriptions and drawings by Curveball)……(Economist, 2 Nov 07)

Book on India spy agency hits nerve

India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), by Maj. Gen. V.K. Singh

…the reaction to the book has ignited sharp debate over why India, which likes to trumpet its 60 years of independence, continues to cling to a colonial-era Official Secrets Act inherited from British rulers, who used it to control a population increasingly restless for freedom. Efforts to amend the law have come up empty……(LA Times, 2 Nov 07)

The battle at Islam's heart

…The Siege of Mecca is a marvel of investigative journalism. Trofimov is not particularly good at filling in the background history of Islam or Saudi Arabia. And his attempts to paint a picture of what is happening simultaneously in Washington and Paris, Tripoli and Islamabad, leave much to be desired. Some of his suggestions, such as that most Saudis, including my friend Sami Angawi, were stupid enough to believe that the Mahdi had really arrived, are disingenuous….(New Statesman, 1 Nov 07)

US writer fights gagging order on al-Qaeda claims

…Although Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book Funding Evil was published only in America, Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz turned to the London courts to bring a successful libel action against the author. She, in turn, is asking a New York judge to defend her right to freedom of speech by making Mr Justice Eady’s order unenforceable in the US…..(Times Online, 1 Nov 07)

October 2007

‘India, Israel planned to hit Kahuta in 1980s’

Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Conspiracy, by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark.

India and Israel had secretly planned to hit Pakistan’s nuclear facility in Kahuta in 1983-84, but backed off when the CIA tipped off then president General Ziaul Haq……(Daily Times, 29 Oct 07)

Taking down terrorist Web sites

The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, Thomas X. Hammes.

…"While we have a few Americans who take similar action against mufsidoon (evildoers) Web sites, why don't we encourage Americans/western 'geeks' to go after these Web sites? Exploit them, disrupt them, shut them down, post false information, and create distrust. This will not be a government-controlled or directed effort…..(Washington Times, 29 Oct 07)

God, gold and Islam

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World, by Walter Russell Mead

…The idea that religiosity can motivate modernization was developed before by towering intellectual figures such as Max Weber or Alexis de Tocqueville. Weber explained how the Protestant work ethic fostered capitalist production, and Tocqueville showed how religion in America enhanced democracy. Mead posits a similar yet updated argument…..(Turkish Daily, 29 Oct 07)

A Perfect Spy

AGENT ZIGZAG: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, by Ben Macintyre.

ZIGZAG: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman, by Nicholas Booth.

It’s rare that a single war story inspires two books in the same season. But even by World War II standards, the exploits of Eddie Chapman, a professional Soho criminal turned double agent for the Germans and the British, are extraordinary….(New York Times, 28 Oct 07)

Five books on terrorism you aren’t allowed to read
Authors whose books on terrorism have been ‘erased from the map’ by English libel actions - that is, effectively banned in the UK - tell British readers what they’re missing out on……(Spiked, 26 Oct 07)

Of the Words of War and the War of Ideas

WORLD WAR IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, by Norman Podhoretz

In his bellicose new book Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, declares that the current Iraq war is only one front (Iran being another) in what he calls “World War IV,” a “long struggle against Islamofascism,” which like the cold war (the one he counts as “World War III”), “will almost certainly go on for three or four decades…..(New York Times, 26 Oct 07)