What are the risks to global security when a disrupter rises to lead a nuclear-armed superpower? Imagine a leader who publicly vows “to smash adversaries in the teeth”; or who issues an off-hand ...nuclear threat to a foreign adversary while talking to a group of school teachers, saying “we have rockets which can land precisely at a preset target 13,000 kilometers away. This, if you want, is a warning ….”Two generations ago the world’s most volatile saber rattler was in the Kremlin. Nikita S. Khrushchev had threatened the use of nuclear weapons against France and the United Kingdom in...
This book is a direct result of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. Drawing upon many documents declassified under this law, the authors demonstrate what US intelligence agencies learned about ...Nazi crimes during World War II and about the nature of Nazi intelligence agencies' role in the Holocaust. It examines how some US corporations found ways to profit from Nazi Germany's expropriation of the property of German Jews. This book also reveals startling new details on the Cold War connections between the US government and Hitler's former officers. At a time when intelligence successes and failures are at the center of public discussion, US Intelligence and the Nazis also provides an unprecedented inside look at how intelligence agencies function during war and peacetime.
George W. Bush came to office assuming he would be a peacetime president whose leadership would be judged by how he managed long-term domestic challenges to American society. “Our national courage ...has been clear in times of depression and war,” he said in his first inaugural address, “when defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.” The few foreign shadows that he mentioned
In December 1985, Duane "Dewey" Clarridge set out to shake the administration out of its lethargy on the terrorism account. Clarridge, who had overseen William Casey's Contra war against Nicaragua ...before becoming chief of the CIA's European operations, believed that it was essential to create a unit within the CIA's directorate of operations that focused solely on counterterrorism. "We thought it was time to go on the offensive against terrorism," recalled Turco, Clarridge's deputy in the European division, who would follow him as deputy into counterterrorism.2 It was an important achievement for US counterterrorism experts. The expulsion disoriented the ANO, which had to relocate its personnel to Libya and Lebanon. But the more important accomplishments would come later in 1987. The PLO had an interest in undermining Abu Nidal and helping the CIA. So, too, did the Jordanians and the Israelis.14 Working with allies, the CTC developed a strategy for undermining the ANO from within. Having discovered that the ANO was a deeply paranoid organization, the CTC decided to work with its allies to magnify that paranoia. In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin had killed or sidelined his most talented lieutenants out of fear; perhaps Abu Nidal could be made to do the same thing. Salah Kahlaf, alias Abu Iyad, who was Yasser Arafat's chief of intelligence, provided information to the CIA on the progress of these efforts as the PLO collected defectors from the ANO.15 More dramatic than the defections were the assassinations-provoked by US or allied disinformation-of Abu Nidal lieutenants by Abu Nidal himself or his henchmen. In November 1987, Jasir al-Disi (Abu Ma'mun) and Ayish Badran (Abu Umar), reputedly the best officers in the ANO's "people's army," were killed in Lebanon on Abu Nidal's orders. The two men were accused of being Jordanian spies, and once they were arrested, tortured, and killed, Abu Nidal then purged their supposed allies in the army. Dozens of other officers were subsequently shot and buried in a mass grave in Bqasta Faouqa, Lebanon.16 Also murdered in 1987 were Ibrahim al-Abd, from the finance directorate; Mujahid al-Bayyari, from the intelligence directorate; and Muhammed Khair (Nur Muharib) and Mustafa Umran, from the ANO's political directorate.17 In October 1988, Abu Nidal killed his former deputy, Abu Nizar.18
Chronicles US counterterrorism efforts prior to the emergence of al Qaeda beginning in the early 1970s & the radicalization of the Fatah movement. Much attention is given to detailing the successful ...work against the Palestinian Abu Nidal organization. It is suggested that this success may shed some light on why the scale of the new threat against the US may not have been understood. J. Zendejas
This book is a direct result of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. Drawing upon many documents declassified under this law, the authors demonstrate what US intelligence agencies learned about ...Nazi crimes during World War II and about the nature of Nazi intelligence agencies' role in the Holocaust.
The Presidency of George W. Bush brings together some of today's top American historians to offer the first in-depth look at one of the most controversial U.S. presidencies. Emotions surrounding the ...Bush presidency continue to run high--conservatives steadfastly defend its achievements, liberals call it a disgrace. This book examines the successes as well as the failures, covering every major aspect of Bush's two terms in office. It puts issues in broad historical context to reveal the forces that shaped and constrained Bush's presidency--and the ways his presidency reshaped the nation.
The Presidency of George W. Bush features contributions by Mary L. Dudziak, Gary Gerstle, David Greenberg, Meg Jacobs, Michael Kazin, Kevin M. Kruse, Nelson Lichtenstein, Fredrik Logevall, Timothy Naftali, James T. Patterson, and the book's editor, Julian E. Zelizer. Each chapter tackles some important aspect of Bush's administration--such as presidential power, law, the war on terror, the Iraq invasion, economic policy, and religion--and helps readers understand why Bush made the decisions he did. Taking readers behind the headlines of momentous events, the contributors show how the quandaries of the Bush presidency were essentially those of conservatism itself, which was confronted by the hard realities of governance. They demonstrate how in fact Bush frequently disappointed the Right, and how Barack Obama's 2008 election victory cast the very tenets of conservatism in doubt.
History will be the ultimate judge of Bush's legacy, and the assessment begins with this book.
More than half a century later, Berry was the highest-ranking openly gay person in the federal bureaucracy, and was the head of the agency that had once worked with the FBI and the D.C. vice squad to ...root out homosexuals from public service. The two men were both at the White House when Obama signed the order, and Kameny led Berry to the Oval Office window that looked out at the fence where, in 1965, Kameny had led his first protest.
