Book Description
From the dawn of humankind to today's global complexities, this monumental volume presents world history from an original perspective that provides fresh insights with every colorful spread. Few references are as invaluable, all-inclusive, and satisfying to browse. For readers of all ages, world history is easily accessible, depicted as never before—so that events occurring simultaneously around the world can be viewed at-a-glance together. For example, Texas Instruments launched the pocket calculator the same year the Soviet Union launched the first manned space station, in 1971. Columbus sailed from Spain the year Martin Behaim constructed a terrestrial globe in Nuremberg. The California Gold Rush followed the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, and the Greek dictatorship of Papadopoulos is overthrown the same year Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed and U.S. president Nixon resigns, in 1974. The book's innovative time line truly sets it apart, allowing readers to scan across a spread and explore a single area or compare contemporary societies across the globe.
This remarkable resource also contains dozens of maps; scores of sidebars; hundreds of illustrations; and thousands of events, milestones, personalities, ideas, and inventions. Throughout, vivid illustrations depict artworks, artifacts, portraits and dramatic scenes, while sidebar topics range from local customs and lifestyles to the effect of climate change on human migration. Drawing on National Geographic's vast resources, this concise yet comprehensive, one-of-a-kind work is as rewarding as it is compulsively readable.
Customer Reviews:
A very good book, but..........2007-07-19
A very good book but inadequate packaging from Amazon resulted in me having to give my father a damaged book on Father's Day.
Not What I Was Expecting.......2007-06-12
This book does not give a very deep look into any of its historical events. It is merely a visual time line. It's not deep. You won't get much history from reading it. You will simply get a better undersanding of how world history events overlap each other. I wouldn't buy it if I had it to do over.
birds-eye view.......2007-04-05
This is an excellent source for obtaining a quick, clear, and coherent context for an event or a period. For example, if you want to know what the rest of the world was doing when the Conquistadors sailed onto the shores of South America, this book is the best first step in your research. The entries are concise and the layout is attractive.
Very good book but I have to take issue with something important.......2007-04-02
I like the way the book covers things like the cave man section. It mentions that humans learned to walk upright about 4 million years ago. Then it proceeds on to describe the ice age of only thousands of years ago and mentions things like the domestication of dogs by humans. In the world at a glance section of the book it talks of Homo Erectus nad Neanderthals. It also covers recorded ancient, medieval, and modern history all pretty well too. Now for the thing I take issue with. When describing Saddam Hussein's illegal (according to the UN)invasion of Kuwait--the book actually gives the wrong year. It gives 1989 as the year of his invasion rather than 1990. Then it gets something important right when desccribing his use of chemical weapons against Kurdish civilians. This is referring to his deadly, genocidal Anfal Campaign he conducted in the 1980's against Kurds (more than 100,000 kurds killed by him in just one year!).
National Geographic Concise History of the World.......2007-02-13
Very explicit and easy to follow. Great for referencing your travels and world history.
Book Description
General Sada paints a picture of Hussein, his regime-and his country-that is at once personal and truthful, compelling and sobering.
Customer Reviews:
Saddam's Secrets.......2007-10-15
General Sada reveals how Saddam moved much of the WMD stockpile to Syria, taking advantage of a call for assistance in a flood. He used airplanes from Iraqi Airways to make fifty-six trips to turn over to Syrian Army Ordinance his stockpile for safekeeping. Sada also reveals much of what was taking place in Saddam's quest for nuclear weapons. He was an insider and had first-hand knowledge of what was really going on.
This is the Book the Leftist Establishment has Fahrenheit 451'd.......2007-09-17
I have been reading Georges Hormuz Sada's harrowing account of life in Iraq during the ruthlessly cruel regime of Saddam Hussein. He seems like an honest man worthy of our respect. And yet, I strongly suspect that "Saddam's Secrets" was only a modest success. The leftist dominated MSM and intellectual institutions pretend it doesn't even exist. Try finding anything on Google.com. The results will be virtually fruitless. The author, who was a close advisor to Saddam, has been effectively dropped into a Fahrenheit 451 memory hole. Sada is thankful that the Bush administration liberated Iraq. He also tells the world about the late dictator's weapons of mass destruction. These are truths the leftist establishment prefers to ignore. There is no doubt in my mind but that Sada's name would constantly be in the news if he told the leftists what they wanted to hear. The "elite" university crowd would pay him thousands of dollars for a two-hour lecture.
Georges Sada's book reminds me why I'm so lucky to be an American. Our citizens, after all, are not murdered for casually disagreeing with the country's leader. Sada is a very brave man. We owe it to him and ourselves to be victorious in Iraq.
Iraq from a TRUE INSIDER.......2007-07-12
Gen Georges, born & lived in Iraq all his natural-born days, a rare "Assyrian Christian", which perhaps is why Saddam trusted him and sought out his opinion, though he rarely followed it. Georges told him "2+2=4", when all the other sycophants were telling Saddam "2+2=9". How different things might have been!! A very skilled fighter pilot, Georges rose to one of the highest position in the Air Force, which gave him the opportunity to train in the US and the UK. At the time of writing, he was in the Defense Dept of the present Iraqi government. He was true to his government since he was a true patriot, but realized how horribly evil Saddam was. He says the bad dude was constantly scheming for his own ends, though his government was supposed to be "socialist" (didn't we hear that from another government which collapsed in 1990 after more than 70 years in power? As of the writing (copyright '06), Georges was quite hopeful. It would be interesting to hear this thinking at this juncturre!!
The Devil in Disguise.......2007-03-10
The author of "Saddam's Secrets," Georges Sada, is an Assyrian Christian born and raised in northern Iraq. He was a General in the Iraqi Air Force. Besides being the best pilot in the entire Iraqi Air Force he was also the only one who defied Saddam every time he was asked to comment, describe or advice on any crazy matters that came to Saddam's vile and morally reprehensible mind. However, others close to Saddam who tried to defy him in answering the same crazy questions wound up with their head chopped off. Georges preserved his Christian values and told Saddam the truth and nothing but the truth -----and God helped Georges Sada. Saddam was stupid, and ignorant, but exceptionally cunning. He knew he needed someone to tell him the truth regardless of how deplorable it was for him to accept it.
*Excerpt: "Ever since Saddam seized power in 1979--and, really, for a decade before that--we knew that truth was whatever the leader said it was. I Saddam wanted two plus two to equal nine, then everybody would say it was nine."
According to the author, Saddam was a stupid and ignorant, unknowledgeable man, however, "Saddam was cunning, crafty, clever and an expert in manipulation: "I've often said he was a genius. Like the communist leader Josef Stalin, on whom Saddam modeled himself, he was truly a genius at doing evil. He was a man without a conscience. He was ruthless and brutal, and there was nothing he wouldn't do to achieve his own ends. He killed many times and ordered the brutal murders of hundreds of thousands of [his] own people."
The author tells how Saddam managed to trick the world into believing he did not have weapons of mass destruction. He goes into detail how Saddam managed to hide all evidence of WMD's and how he managed to move all of them out of Iraq under the noses of the United Nations weapons inspectors.
The reader will find out it was a stroke of "good" fate the United States got rid of Saddam when it did. Saddam was about to unleash a barrage of attacks with WMD's against Israel which would have, more than likely, started another world war.
*Ending Excerpt: The author of "Saddam's Secrets" ends his powerful novel by stating the following: "I love my country, and I only want good things to happen in Iraq from now on. Even though I am a member of a minority in Iraq, as an Assyrian and a Christian, I have always tried to be faithful and do my duty at all times. I wanted to fulfill my commitment as an officer and a gentleman to the best of my ability. If I had tried to write or speak about the situation in Iraq during those years, it would have been propaganda. It would have been just one more boast for a regime the whole world knew was corrupt and destined to fail. And I would have never have written such a book."
One thing for sure, if everyone in Iraq were like Georges Sada, Iraq would be a peaceful and honorable country.
I strongly recommend this book to every human being. Not only should the book be read in the United States of America but everyone in the rest of the world. Doing so will help better understand the problems with Iraq and what made it so violent and how it got to where it is now.
Sadam's Secrets, the truth about WMD.......2007-03-09
Due to the political climate and motivations that we are wrestling with in America over the war in Iraq, I wanted to find something that more honestly described the conditions in Iraq during the rule of Sadam Hussein and possibly learned the truth about the WMD that existed prior to the US led wars of Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. In "Sadam's Secrets" we read a detailed, and believable account of a man who lived and survived inside the world of Sadam Hussein as an airforce general with a personal first hand knowledge of the dictator's history, methods of operation and decisions that recklessly pushed his nation into war with his neighbors and eventually led to the two US invasions.
Book Description
The riveting, action-packed true story of the first soldier to challenge the war in Iraq.
As a 1st Lieutenant and Infantry Platoon Leader for the U.S. Army, charged with leading 38 young men in Iraq, Paul Rieckhoff was proud to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who served during Vietnam and WWII respectively. He and his soldiers spent almost a year in one of the most dangerous and volatile areas of Baghdad. And what they encountered there was chaos: not nearly enough troops, no humanitarian aid, no body armor, no radios, and no real plan for what to do after Baghdad fell.
Rieckhoff was shocked to see that sometimes the greatest challenges his platoon faced did not come from enemy combatants. He saw fi rsthand the disastrous results of disbanding the Iraqi army, sending thousands of armed, angry, and unemployed men out into the streets. And he saw what happened when we tried to conduct a war on the cheap, by bestowing government contracts to the lowest bidder and sending our military into battle inadequately protected and armed. What followed, over the next ten months, set him on a course that would forever change his life.
When he fi nally came home from his tour of duty, Rieckhoff vowed to tell Americans the truth about what was going on in Iraq. He demanded accountability from elected officials and was the first Iraq veteran to do so publicly. He created Operation Truth, the first and largest veterans' group specifically for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through this organization, he has become a leading spokesman for troops, veterans, and their families, and a critical voice in the ongoing debate surrounding this conflict.
What is really happening in Iraq? Should we be there? Should we stay? Rieckhoff is in a unique position to answer these crucial questions. Not only was he on the ground in the heat of battle but he is also on the front lines politically at home. He provides a grunt's-eye view of the harrowing, bloody battles on the streets of Baghdad and a patriot's vision of where America has gone wrong and how it can reset its path.
Customer Reviews:
Honesty will get you nowhere.......2007-10-14
I had a hard time putting this book down. Sure, we are getting bombarded with Iraq War memoirs and most are worthy of a glance, but this one, with its predictable end, still is one of the better ones. I have not heard of one person who spoke galiantly of Paul Bremer (except for GWB) and this author is no exception. What he endured is embarrassing for the military and the people who were all for this war in the end.
From armcahir warriors in the rear to high-ranking officers behind air-conditioned offices safely protected by SCUD bunkers and the like, this book gives a very good perspective of the army in 2003, Baghdad in 2003 and the general feelings of the Iraqis at the time. This book is not perfect, though (sometimes the pages are filled with anger and malice). But I grant the author that because he risked his life and the life of his platoon to carry out his mission. He has the right to feel the way he does, and I respect him for that. I'd rather read an honest portrayal about a war than an embellished report written with an agenda in mind.
Still, it makes one wonder how we can ever succeed in Iraq with the things described in this book. I finished it wondering if the officers were for this war to get their careers punched; in 2003 many thought the war would take three to nine months. Three months into the war, that view no longer existed. The author made a point throughout the book to remind us of the senselessness of this operation. This book is definitely not a book found in a recruiting office.
A book befitting our time.......2007-09-21
The J Affect
Paul Rieckoff is a true patriot. His book, Chasing Ghosts, shows a soldier amidst the chaos of war and puts the reader as close to the front lines in the war on terror as you can be without being there. As we sit back home, comfortable in our easy chair and watch the news, we see stories second and third hand concerning the war. Paul places the reader with his troop, giving a remarkable, educated, and honest recall of the war from the front. When we hear a story, briefly describing the latest guffaws and blunders from our leadership who never served, Paul gives us the direct affect it has on the soldiers on the front lines of this unique battle as well as what affect it may have in the near future back home. While reading, you have to wonder what might happen if all our soldiers were his equal. From his pre-war training, through his time on the battlefield of Baghdad, to his reaction upon returning home, Paul keeps his story open, without political agenda. His only agenda is for the accountability of leadership and the ability to recognize what supporting our troops really means. His arrogance is delightful. His prose keep his story moving well. This is a good recommendation to anyone watching the flapping heads on television and want to know the real story from the front.
Chasing Ghosts-Not enough stars to accurately rate this one.......2007-09-19
Incredibly written. One of thew best books I've read in years. Whether you are for or against the war, you leave this book with a whole new respect for the men and women that have put their lives on ther line for us!
Reviewed by John D. Merrill.......2007-08-21
Chasing ghosts is the recounting of the first fourteen months of the US invasion of Iraq and the personal results of one soldier's life. Running chronologically, the book describes the expectations of this skeptic and how his sense of purpose in the invasion was tenuous to begin with and waned when the reports of WMDs were not valid and there was not clear way out once Saddam fell.
Paul continues with the growing insurgency and the bonds of American soldiers who were fighting them. He outlines the policy ideas and changes that directly affect the troops on the ground. He describes the experiences with the invasion and how their roles turn to peacekeepers and police for the volatile parts of Iraq. He was clear to include the specific details of when his company and platoon first noticed organized insurgency and when the first one of his company was killed by insurgents. Paul describes the high tensions of keeping the peace, dealing with thieves and opportunists, and worst of all; the American Media. He wraps up his time in Iraq with recounting his, self-described, movie like departure from Iraq.
Once out of Iraq, his story continues in his quest to be heard about his concerns for the troops in Iraq and America in general. He describes the problems for soldiers returning home. One of his friends from Iraq had returned home and suffered from post traumatic stress and after he had returned home had gone missing. Paul's frustrations were not from post-war trauma as much as the posturing and politics behind the home front. He makes it clear that the power that be in Washington, both Republican and Democrat, have show their interests in the welfare of the troops are more lip-service than anything else. He begins to speak on behalf of the servicemen he considers family. Much like his tour in Iraq, he chronicles his progress working with "Operation Truth," the non-profit organization for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans. He has spoken to the President and several Senators, including Kerry and Clinton. He is trying to be heard and in this book he gets his message across.
An adept glimpse of the myth of war.......2007-08-19
Rieckoff has captured the spirit of urban combat and humanizes the humanitarian ideals of American forces and Iraqis alike with his heartfelt memoir. His work is an important addition to a reader's understanding of an environment laced with ideological undertones which combine religion, politics, ethics and morality. Distant observers of a little understood war will gain an insider's view of horrific events, yet not be overly subjected to gory details. When the last page is read, the real costs of war will be better understood, and this will lead to knowing why it is important to support our troops abroad and at home. As a Vietnam vet, I can relate to the writer's views. I salute him and the men he led during their deployment.
Book Description
A member of one of the most distinguished and honored families in Iraq, Mayada grew up surrounded by wealth and royalty. But when Saddam Hussein's regime took power, she was thrown into cell 52 in the infamous Baladiyat prison with seventeen other nameless, faceless women from all walks of life. To ease their suffering, these "shadow women" passed each day by sharing their life stories. Now, through Jean Sasson, Mayada is finally able to tell her story-and theirs-to the world.
Customer Reviews:
There's something missing.......2007-08-22
When it comes to autobiographical or biographical books, like this one, and the events recounted are mainly dramatic and very sad, the impulse is to rate it with 5 stars. However, I find that this particular book, or rather, its narrative, seems to be lacking that something or other which would put the whole thing into a more tangible perspective. Of course one cannot but sympathise with Mayada and all the "shadow women" and what they went through as described (imprisonment and torture in Iraq).
However this time, and unlike some previous work I read by the same author, I felt that the book lacks in substance a bit, some points have not been explained clearly and, in my opinion, the frequent descriptions of Mayada's fortunate background blur some more fundamental issues.
Jean Sassons books.......2007-07-25
This is the third book by Sasson that I have read. They appear to be somewhat of a formula with a certain story line and something titilating added. I believe that she ran out of material for her Saudi Princess books and so has now went to Irag. Considering the state of affairs in the middle east, I believe that she would not be able to write the truth of the womens lives, as if she did, she would be unable to live there.
Need to Know Info.......2007-07-19
If there is any question in your mind why we are in Iraqi fighting what seems a useless war then read this book.
I agree that it is time for our soilders to come home. We have done our part. This books explains why we needed to go better than anything any politician could say.
Mayada and all the shadow women, known and unknown, suffered as much as the Jewish people did under Hitler. I hope Saddam and Adolph are getting back what they gave tenfold in their corner of hell.
The horror of Saddam's Iraq.......2007-02-09
It is easy to speak about the war in Iraq when safe and well-fed. But Mayada's story of prison and torture in Saddam's Iraq is a powerful testimony calling for justice against a regime that ranks with Stalin in brutality. Mayada's account covers everything from rubbing shoulders with Saddam and others in his entourage to meeting falsely accused prisoners undergoing incredible torture and humiliation. She exposes life inside Iraq from the luxurious elite to the oppressed victims, revealing fear and tyranny that Westerners can only imagine. Despite the troubles in post-Saddam Iraq, Mayada exclaims that despite the current strife Iraq is better off now that Saddam is gone. After reading her story, I couldn't agree with her more.
The torture chamber of Iraq........2006-12-14
As the author vividly shows in her books, the Middle East is not a fair place for women. As with her earlier books about Saudi Arabia, Sasson shows the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. This regime tortured and killed people regardless of whether they were Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, women, men or children. This was an evil regime. The author through Mayada tells of the torture regime of Saddam. One can only wish that Saddam could get the same deal while he awaits his fait.
I read this book with the expectation it would show something more about Iraqi society. What I got was the story of Mayada and her family story. One wonders how life is for the poor Iraqi women, who have no connections in the government. Other than that, a nice read about the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein.
Book Description
Long before the beginning of the Second Gulf War, the Special Forces and other clandestine teams of the Coalition's various services were already operating in Iraq.
This spectacular new book shows these highly specialized teams in action, fulfilling their missions well ahead of the arrival of the conventional forces. Even today the Special Forces, mainly US and British, are waging a merciless war against terrorists of all kinds who proliferate in Saddam's former empire.
The book is profusely illustrated with hundreds of shots taken at the heart of the action on the ground in Iraq, showing all the clothing and equipment used by the Special Forces.
Eric Micheletti's previous book from the "Raids Magazine" group at Histoire and Collections, Special Forces - War against Terrorism in Afghanistan, was a huge success here when it was published last year.
Customer Reviews:
spec ops fashion show.......2006-07-27
this is the second of eric micheletti's book on special forces in the middle east conflicts,the first dealing with afghanistan.if you liked that book,you'll like this one.if you did'nt,well..sorry..you probably wont care for this one.this book is a photo collection of special forces in iraq,along with a few"runway models"displaying the latest in spec ops fashion.if you are interested in military uniforms and gear(you are called a "geardo"...sounds like weirdo)this is one for your library.some of the pictures are from digital cameras and are a bit fuzzy(or is that "pixilated"?),but you will see plenty of pics of special forces,SEALs,marine recon and AFSOC.even CIA,SAS,grom and others.i do think the chapter on the operators of the other nations involved(coalition forces)is too short.and you wont see much of the new"digital"camo patterns that are all the rage in military fashion.also note...this book is not a "rah rah"account of the war in iraq.the author is a long time combat journalist.he has been around the uglier parts of the world and"seen the elephant"more than even the most jaded CNN reporter.he takes no cheap shots at the soldiers,but nor does he sugar coat the conflict.that he is french may upset some.nonsense.if you know anything about eric's work,you know he has a deep admiration of the troops,of many nations.long story short..if you have an interest in military gear as a collector,collect action figures,or just want to see some pictures to go with those"i was there"books(think jawbreaker or roughnecks or such)this book is a good start.also,the book ends with pictures of some of the operators who gave their lives in iraq.did you know 2 of the"green berets"lost where women?they belonged to the civil affairs units,which are part of special forces.they are airborn trained and wear the green beret,even though they arent what we think of when we think of special ops.remember them....all of them.
pretty good.......2006-07-19
Once again I'm pretty impressed with this line of books(the first one being Special Forces War in afghanistan). People complained about the first book being inaccurate and other stuff that really didn't matter. The truth is that this book has "examples"of what special forces has over there as well as real pictures of soldiers in action. It's a very visual book with tons of cool stuff that people like me ,like to see. The facts I haven't really gone over to know how accurate it might be, but take into consideration that this is a book done by somebody making books, not some guy actually in the Special Forces. Half of the stuff that probably goes on ,the public will never really know. So take evrything with a grain of salt ,and you'll be all right. I love these books. Although the first one was a little better, but who cares, at least they brought another one out. Enjoy
Customer Reviews:
The Zionist State.......2007-06-26
Amazing book on the inner workings of Mossad, Israeli govt, CIA, the Republicans, Democrats, etc. What a bunch of gangsters. Even the cynical will be surprised.
Mixed Feelings..........2003-10-18
For those who are interested in MidEast affairs (as myself) this covers a fascinating topic and is written in a fluid style, which adds up to a truly gripping read.
The only reason for which I am not awarding this book 5 stars (and were it possible 6 or 7 stars) is the fact that many of the claims are indeed extreme...
Too much of the book simply adds up to bill this as complete fiction. Several other books (amongst which "The Samson Option", written by a renown journalist) have been based on Ben-Menashe's knowledge. Investigations have sprung up in the US and in Australia. Of course, these haven't lead far, but this is a serious case of the poeple in power charged with investigating the people in power - so what would you really expect?
Whilst I was reading this book I kept my copy of "Israels Secret Wars" at hand to verify events, facts and dates, and together with a bit of searching around the net, the essence of it all seems to add up.
Right from the start the author makes his embitterment with the "system" clear, so accusing him of having an axe to grind is pretty lame - add to that the fact that amongst his sworn enemies (at the end) was the media mogul R. Maxwell (who unleashed the full weight of his media empire to destroy his credibility) and you end up without much of a case...
****************************
TO SUM IT UP: You have to be deeply cynical, but alas perhaps realistic, to accept all that is stated in this book. In the end, however, I am one who believes that where there's smoke, there's got to be some fire as well, and this book discloses a hell of a lot of smoke!
Better Spy Fiction Than Ian Fleming.......2002-12-13
After reading this book I didn't know how to react to much of it. Many of the claims are plausible, many are wildly implausible, and some of the information is just plain factually wrong. Sharon left the IDF in 1973, not 1970 as Menashe says. Shamir retired or "was retired from" the Mossad in 1965 not the "early 1970s." Ben-Menashe is the first person who claims that the IAF has B-52s--two squadrons no less--but he doesn't say where Israel hides these massive eight-engine bombers. He also claimed that the murder of an old American Jewish cripple by Abul Abbas' organization on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro was an Israeli plot to discredit the PLO. Ben-Menashe doesn't really document any of his claims but asks us just to trust him. His first whopper is to claim that Shimon Peres had been paid millions by Lockheed while defense minister. Since all of Israel's American fighters were built by McDonnel Douglas or General Dynamics this seems highly unlikely. Israel does use the Lockheed C-130, but the Lockheed scandal in Europe at the same time was to get the Belgians, Dutch, and Italians to purchase F-104 Starfighter interceptors. This is typical of Ben-Menashe--he seems to take bits of news and spin it into a plot like a Hollywood screenwriter.
Ari Ben-Manashe's experience.......2002-05-01
An excellent well documented book by a high level Israeli agent. I have to give Sheridan Square Press's publishers Ellen Ray & Bill the Credit for the content as the author did the same. Most of us out of the publishing, or, media business are not skilled writers. Sheridian Square Press out of N.Y., N.Y. did the same service for the deceased Jim Garrison in his book "On the Trails of Assassins" documenting events leading up to the events of the Kennedy asassination that Oliver Stone made a movie of.
Exceeds five stars!.......2002-04-23
This was a fantastic read. If you really want to know about the workings of world intelligence agencies from the inside, how they manipulate other countries, people, events then you must read this book. Better than a James Bond novel!
As you read further and further into the book you become more and more entangled in the world of espionage and paranoia. Gripping to the end.
Book Description
In the wake of 9/11 no one knew when the next attack would come, or where it would come from. America's enemies seemed gathered on all sides, and for several nerve-racking months, we lived in fear that the perpetrators might be plotting another action or, worse, that our most dangerous enemies -- al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's murderous regime in Iraq -- could be banding together against us.
The Bush administration and CIA director George Tenet warned against complacency and pointed to growing indications that al Qaeda and Iraq were in league. But their case was undercut by unnamed intelligence officials, skeptical politicians, and a compliant media. So America relaxed. A comforting consensus settled in: Osama bin Laden was an impassioned fundamentalist, Saddam a secular autocrat. The two would never, could never, work together. ABC News reported that there was no connection between them, and the New York Times said so too, and pretty soon just about everyone agreed.
Just about everyone was wrong.
In The Connection, Stephen Hayes draws on CIA debriefings, top-secret memos from our national intelligence agencies, and interviews with Iraqi military leaders and Washington insiders to demonstrate that Saddam and bin Laden not only could work together, they did -- a curious relationship that stretches back more than a decade and may include collaboration on terrorist acts, chemical-weapons training, and sheltering some of the world's most wanted radicals.
Stephen Hayes's bombshell Weekly Standard piece on this topic was cited by Vice President Cheney as the "best source of information" about the Saddam-al Qaeda connections. Now Hayes delves even deeper, exposing the inner workings of America's deadliest opponents and providing a clear-eyed corrective to reams of underreported, politicized, and just plain wrong information.
The Connection is both a gripping snapshot of the War on Terror and a case study in how bureaucratic assumptions and media arrogance can put us all at risk.
Customer Reviews:
never received book.......2007-10-14
Bad - I never got my book and having a hard time trying to trace it back thru this maze in amazon.
written by a fool to be read by wingnuts.......2007-07-23
Seriously, how could anyone take this seriously? All of its claims have been debunked. My favorite is the guy in the Iraqi army who happened to have the same name as a higher-up in Al Qaeda.
Smarter wingnuts, please.
Reveiw the reviewers.......2006-12-13
It seems to me that the reviews posted here are more politically slanted than most book reviews should be. Probably what would be most disheartening to the 5 star awarders is that so soon after publication the "fair market" value given to this book by the "free market" is as used, one cent.
If it looks like a Duck and sounds like a Duck, it is a Duck!.......2006-10-26
You definetly should read this book! Don't believe what the 1 Star writers are saying. They don't want you to know the truth! The Left claims that Bin Laden would never side with Saddam because of their beliefs, yet the Left is adamant that Osama bin Laden was funded by the United States. Go figure!
We all knew there was a connection and Stephen Hayes demonstrates so with great care! There is a connection with al Qaeda and Iraq and the book explains it in detail!
Not Even Good Fiction.......2006-08-06
Its amazing with all the resources of 911 Commission at their disposal, they could not find an operational link between Hussein and al Qaeda. If the Commission could only get the Bush/Cheney team to testify under oath, there wouldn`t even be a debate. Perhaps Hayes should spend time reading their final report which claimed there was no link between Iraq and 911.
But Hayes like his other conservative peers have a gift of throwing half truth and innuendo at their faith based readers to come to ludicrous conclusions.
Book Description
Authors Efraim Karsh and Inari Rautsi, experts on Middle East history and politics, have combined their expertise to write what is largely considered the definitive work of one of the world's most reviled and notorious figures. Drawing on a wealth of Iraqi, Arab, Western and Israeli sources, including interviews with people who have had close contact with Saddam Hussein throughout his career, the authors trace the meteoric transformation of an ardent nationalist and obscure Ba'th party member into an absolute dictator. Skillfully interweaving a realistic analysis of Gulf politics and history, and now including a new introduction and epilogue, this authoritative biography is essential for understanding the mind of a modern tyrant.
Customer Reviews:
A Standard Text That is Immune from Present-Day Biases.......2007-02-06
I recently began to read this book because it was published in 1991 (following the Persian Gulf War) and thus long predates the current (2007) catastrophe in Iraq, with all the attendant biases arising out of the American invasion and occupation. I am simply a lay reader with a desire to know more about the modern political development of Saddam and Iraq and am not qualified to evaluate this book. HOWEVER, as a reality check I looked at a couple of objective sources to help me make a judgment about whether the book is worth reading. The answer is unquestionably yes.
First, if you check on Amazon.com (or the Library of Congress catalogue at loc.gov) for other books by the principal author, Efraim Karsh, you will see that he has published a large number of academic monographs on many aspects of Middle East politics, both before and after this book was written. The most recent of these was published in 2006 by Yale University Press, and there are many others spanning three decades. He was teaching at King's College, University of London, when he wrote this Saddam biography in the early 1990s and is still there, now as Professor and Head of the Mediterranean Studies program at King's.
Second, I looked at one university on-line catalogue, in this case Princeton University because of its strength in Political Science and International Relations, to see whether they long ago sent this book to off-campus storage (or worse) or still consider it relevant. At Princeton there are SIX copies of this book currently on reserve in the main university library. This suggests that Princeton professors and librarians still consider the book to be of great value for students of the Middle East and the current Iraq crisis.
I have therefore given this book five stars not because I feel qualified to evaluate it but because it has received alot of criticism from other readers who say a variety of negative things about the authors and the book. Given the principal author's outstanding record of publication, and the fact that he holds the senior professorship in Mediterranean Studies at one of Britain's finest universities, I think that the book at least merits serious consideration for those trying to get an understanding of what Saddam and Iraqi politics were like before the United States invasion.
Dull.......2006-03-23
This novel was not bias as other have said but it was very difficult to understand. It is incredibly all-over-the-place in terms of information. Information about a particular event may be scattered throughout the novel, making it difficult to truly understand an event that occured in the book. I had to do a novel study on this particular book and I found it frustrating because it was contradictory. This novel gives you the straight facts and nothing else.
Same old biased and unneccessary demonization.......2005-05-04
I gave this book a try because I at least thought that even though this book is a negative portrayal of Saddam Hussein, I did not think that the authors would be so biased.
This book is just the same old redundant hodgepodge of 'evil Saddam' mania that has been sweeping the US since the early 1990s. While many of Saddam Hussein's acts were ruthless and he certainly did abuse his authority, he DID do some good for Iraq, as strange as it may seem. If anyone here is looking for a fair and balanced book about Saddam Hussein, I highly reccommend 'Saddam Hussein-Politics of Revenge' by Said K. Aburish. The author himself worked for Saddam's regime until he quit because of his objections to Hussein's policies. If you want to read a good book about Saddam, don't waste your time with Saddam Hussein: A Political biography.
not as bad as others made it out to be.......2005-02-11
Having nearly finished this book, I have to say that while the book is not perfect and certainly not the best book on Iraqi politics out there, I found it to be informative and easy to read. Maybe because I've had to read so many books for school that are largely theoretical and unreadable, this book doesn't seem as bad to me as it would to others.
The subject matter is pretty straightforward. The book covers Hussein's political life up until the end of the first Gulf War in 1990. The authors do allow personal opinion to pop up from time to time, but compared to some of the other books on Iraq out there right now, I don't find it to be particularly troublesome in this instance.
If you have only a passing interest in Iraq, this book probably isn't for you. I think that people with an active interest in Iraq or the Middle East should read the book along with many others.
Totally Biased.......2004-05-01
When i first picked up this book, i thought that it would get me to understand Saddam Hussein better, better even without knowing him that well, i knew that this book is biased from the way it described him. I'm not a big fan of him and i think that he got what he deserves, but i know that from what he did in Iraq he deserves more credit for the way Iraq was in the late 80's. i would not recommend this book.
Book Description
Scott Ritter is the straight-talking former marine officer who the CIA wants to silence. After the 1991 Gulf War, Ritter helped lead the UN weapons inspections of Iraq and found himself at the center of a dangerous game between the Iraqi and US regimes.
As Ritter reveals in this explosive book, Washington was only interested in disarmament as a tool for its own agenda. Operating in a fog of espionage and counter-espionage, Ritter and his team were determined to find out the truth about Iraq’s WMD. The CIA were equally determined to stop them. The truth, as we now know, was that Iraq was playing a deadly game of double-bluff, and actually had no WMD. But to have revealed this would have derailed America’s drive for regime change.
Iraq Confidential charts the disillusionment of a staunch patriot who came to realize that his own government sought to undermine effective arms control in the Middle East. Ritter shows us a world of deceit and betrayal in which nothing is as it seems. A host of characters from Mossad, MI6 and the CIA pepper this powerful narrative, which contains revelations that will permanently affect the ongoing debates about Iraq.
Customer Reviews:
kt99l.......2007-05-14
This book is a waste of time. It is nearly impossible to read and not worth waisting your time on. Get (you can just Google it in google video) and watch 9/11 mystries instead it is far more intresting and might even get you to look at Iraq differently.
A rehash of "Endgame", but a fascinating read - buy it!.......2007-02-17
This book seemed to be a rehash of his 1998 "Endgame" but I couln't put it down. Ritter is an outstanding writer, and even if this was fiction, I would recommend it because it is a circuitous story of strategy, intrique, counter-plots, and gamesmenship. All of these things surround the basic story of his frustrated effort to do his job and reach an authoratative conclusion as to the status of WMD in post-Gulf-War Iraq. He details the impact of the Necons and their efforts through the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) to put pressure on the Clinton presidency to adopt a policy of regime change in Iraq as a policy that would most address the security needs of Israel, then how Secretary of State Albright and the CIA effected that policy by undermining the inspections. He resigned in 1998 in protest, and wrote his first book 'Endgame'. A great read and essential to understanding the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Useful study of Iraq's disarmament.......2006-05-23
Scott Ritter helped to lead the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), whose job was to oversee Iraq's disarmament after the 1991 war. From September 1991 to August 1998 UNSCOM worked to compel Iraq to provide a full account of its weapons. By contrast, US policy was to carry out limited inspections, which would be bound to fail, so that the USA could still claim that Iraq was concealing weapons.
Ritter shows how the CIA used UNSCOM as cover for its own intelligence-gathering effort in Iraq, compromising UNSCOM's integrity and independence. He "reveals the role played by the USA in manipulating, suppressing and fatally undermining the inspections process in support of a different agenda - regime change. Many American and many, many more Iraqi lives have since been lost in support of this agenda. The world may yet pay the price for the CIA's decision to use disarmament as its smokescreen."
Security Council Resolution 687 (1991) called for sanctions to be lifted once Iraq had been disarmed. Iraq complied with the requirement to disarm, destroying all its WMD in the summer of 1991. Hussein Kamal, head of Iraq's Military Industrial Commission, responsible for all Iraq's WMD programmes, told the truth when he said, "All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear - were destroyed."
But the US state had no intention of abiding by the UN's promise. Its policy was to maintain sanctions by refusing to let UNSCOM find out that Iraq had disarmed and to lift the sanctions only when the regime had been changed.
Contrary to the Butler Report and other official whitewashes, there was no intelligence failure. The CIA and MI6 knew that Iraq was no threat, and they told Bush and Blair. However, as Ritter writes, "Intelligence is always at the service of a country's national interest. But when intelligence is misused in support of politicians' agendas, that national interest is undermined ..."
Iraq Confidential.......2006-04-25
The book gives good insight into of the runup to the Iraq war and to why we are in such of a mess now in Iraq. The information presented does indeed make one mad because of the many lies that our Government has told us during two administrations.
Worth the read, remember the context.......2006-04-03
I'd love to read a few memoirs from other key actors in Ritter's spy drama. Obviously he's got one big grudge against the CIA as run by the Bushes and Clinton, and possibly with very good reason, but it would be nice to hear some of these stories from other perspectives.
Nevertheless, his is a perspective very much worth reading. He walked in some of the highest intelligence circles of the U.S., U.K. and Israel leading up to the current Iraq War -- he knows interesting people.
If you EVER believed this war was about disarming somebody or making us safe from secret nasty weapons, I don't see how you can after reading this book.
Book Description
Now updated—the book that takes readers to Baghdad and beyond.
From the almost daily terrorist incidents, to difficulties encountered by the U.S. and coalition forces, to the changeover of power and sovereignty, todayÂ's readers are fascinated by this war- torn country and its people. In this new edition, readers will find dramatic new photos and detailed maps, and new chapters on the invasion and subsequent military occupation, internal struggles and terrorism activity, ongoing controversies concerning weapons of mass, and much, much more.
• The only popular reference designed to give you a comprehensive yet accessible guide to Iraq
• New dramatic photos of combat, political upheaval, and significant events
Customer Reviews:
Neocon's dream book.......2007-06-21
I sure hope the second edition is a bit more objective in its prescriptions for what to do in there, because the first edition reads like a neocon's propaganda ploy for invading the place. Maybe that's why Dubya did it; he's a complete idiot and this book is all he read about the place. It is strong on the ancient history and early 20th century history, but the book turns into hagiography when it gets to Saddam Hussein and all his attempts to obtain WMD. After the Gulf war with all the inspections he was subjected to , all the surveillance, the UN checks, the economic sanctions, is it really logical to believe he'd be able to run a weapons program of the size Dubya, Condi, Dick, Wolfie, and the rest of the vulcans insisted he had? Sorry, but it just fails the laugh test, especially since it would have been so easy even at that time to verify that those aluminum tubes were not suited for centrifuges, that yellowcake had not been obtained at all let alone from Niger, that Saddam had no sympathy for or ties with Al Qaeda, and there was no meeting between Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence agents in Prague or anywhere else.
Excellent! I Now Understand Iraq Better! .......2006-08-14
This book is a very comprehensive description of Iraq. Iraq shouldn't be a country and probably will never be from my current understanding. The British formed the country for their own convience and to control the Middle East so they could keep oil flowing. When they lost strength, the United States jumped in, again to keep oil flowing. The Americans have copied just about every mistake the British ever made, we just haven't pulled out yet. What a mess and I don't think anyone can get around the fact that the Kurds need a country. Very interesting book and it gave me room to understand and think!
Great for the total beginner.......2006-08-11
I read the 2002 edition from the library which was obviously before the invasion and subsequent capture of Saddam Hussein. I found this a great book for a total novice. It explains the progress of events in Iraq in very simple terms and takes time to repeat the main points of interest many times, which I found useful in such a complex topic. Just because it presents the concepts in a simple manner does not mean it is simplistic - scholars of the subject might find it basic but I think even most well educated westerners would learn a lot from this text. The most important point for me was that it was very readable. My only criticism was that there were no way near enough maps and those that were in the book were pretty badly drawn and without detail. I would have liked many more maps, especially showing location of troops during the various battles, relationship of the arab states, location of shiite/sunni strongholds, arab/persian, kurdish strongholds. Overall well worth the effort of reading.
I actually enjoyed the fact that this was written before the US invasion since it gave a great before the fact perspective on the situation and wasn't tainted by our the current sorry situation we all find ourselves in.
A little imperfect in his moral conclusions about Saddam.......2005-04-15
I"m not sure why the book's author feels that stopping Saddam Hussein back in 2003 was anything less than a good thing. The former Iraqi leader got a million Iraqis and Iranians killed in the war between the two nations from 1980 to 1988, Saddam killed thousands of ethnic Kurds in Iraq and robbed those Kurds he didn't kill of almost any rights, caused 25% of Iraqi kids to starve (a Unicef report made in 2002 showed this), took over the nation Kuwait to pay off war debts, afer being expelled from there in the deadly Desert Storm he tried to take over again in 94, etc. What did the guy have to do before we decided he had to be taken out of power---destroy half of Japan? Tragert you should know better than almost anyone else that Saddam was worse for his own Iraqi than the coalition has ever been.
Proofreaders needed; or As the Chalkboard Screeches.......2003-04-04
Much if not most of this book is helpful and provides a much needed historical review and provides a context for today's events. Mr. Tragert's handling of ancient history is adequate, but nothing a good ten minutes in an encyclopedia could not equal. His treatment of the Epic of Gilgamesh is mercifully short and he touches lightly upon the similarities between it and the Bible without falling into the trap of claiming this as proof that the Old Testament redactors borrowed this legendary material to include in their own cosmology.
I would have rated his book higher except for one glaring mistake which set my teeth on edge which is the reaction I get when someone scratches a chalkboard with their fingernails over and over again. On page 44 he says, "Like the Greeks who followed them, the Sumerian religions were pantheistic and their gods were anthropomorphic." Feeling like an idiot, I consulted another annoying feature of this book which are the little boxes that appear throughout the text with little "nuggets" of information. This one was "Desert Diction" and defined pantheism as, "...{The} belief in a group of gods where each represents a specific human action, or emotion, or a physical element, such as one for the sun, and one for the moon." Let me guess, a group of gods would be a pantheon (Greek pan means all; theos means god or gods), thus pantheon would mean all of the gods. I may be an idiot, but I am not in kindergarten. What this informational "nugget" has done is define polytheism (poly=many + theoi=gods) not pantheism. Pantheism means all is god; it equates god with the cosmos.
I do have to give Tragert credit in that he misdefines pantheism consistently throughout the book. But if his defintion is correct, then all of my dictionaries are wrong, not to mention most if not all of the authors who have written on the subject like C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Aldous Huxley, etc...or I am really a Complete Idiot.
While this may seem to be a small thing, it is disconcerting nonetheless,and raises the possibility of other not quite so obvious errors and misdefintions that might slip by unnoticed. Despite these caveats and the annoying way it is set up, this Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iraq is worth reading and is a useful tool.
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Theories for Everything: An Illustrated History of Science
Almanac of World History (National Geographic)
National Geographic Visual History of the World (National Geographic)
National Geographic Almanac of American History (National Geographic)
Work: The World in Photographs
