1 comments about Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals' Plot Against Hitler.

1. This fine little book goes well beyond it's putative story, the plots to assassinate Hitler. It delves into several war campaign details, reporting a surprising amount of information about the Germans' war against Russia. It contains many eyewitness recounts of conversations with Hitler, explaining his thinking as the war in the East progressed -- and then failed to progress. All of this background, which portended the ultimate destruction of Germany, gave rise to the various schemes to kill Hitler. The only real shame in the entire scenario is that none of the conspirators was willing to simply walk up to the dictator and ignite a bomb. Most lost their lives anyway, after several failed attempts to rid the world of a monster.

No comments about Life of Abraham Lincoln - A short Book.

No comments about Bond Plays: 6: War Plays and Choruses From After The Assassinations (Methuen Contemporary Dramatists).

No comments about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

5 comments about Accessories After the Fact.

1. Reading this book makes you wonder how many police departments and courts actually did what they were supposed to back in the 1960s, and how they're doing today. Ms Meagher does an excellent job breaking down the Warren Commission's report and demonstrating that their synopsis of events is based on multiple errors, misstatements, and wishful thinking. Having come out before most of the "conspiracy theory" genere that surrounds JFK assassinations tories today, Ms. Meaghers book stands above all of them. She refuses to let her book wander into sensationalism, does not implicate UFO's or any such things, nor does she mix in photos which claim to show the truth but are often blurry, grainy or totally unrevealing to the lay reader. Instead, she stays on target, picking apart the Warren Commission's flawed analysis with nimble wit and skill.



2. Ms. Meagher's book is well documented, insightful and detailed. She skillfully takes the reader through discrepancies in the Warren Commission report and lays it all out for the reader. Her conclusions are based on facts that are very clearly presented, and on common sense. At no time did I get the impression that this book was attempting to influence my views on the work of the Warren Commission. Ms. Meagher spells it out for the reader step by step.



3. Of all the books about the JFK assassination, why is ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT out of print? If you want to read books on how the Norweigian mob hired hitmen from the Planet Glixorg and had the assassination covered up by their media insider, Soupy Sales, there are dozens of books. But the one book to take a serious look at the Warren Commission's Report, to pick apart its inaccuracies, and to analyze its contradictions, is becoming harder and harder to find. Even Gerald Posner, in his tantrum, CASE CLOSED, could not lay a finger on the late Sylvia Meagher's masterwork. Why? Because it is a precise, unimpassioned, and brilliant piece of exploratory surgery on a very sick Warren Report. This book proves the Commission had a single purpose, and finding the truth was not that purpose. The lack of access to Sylvia Meagher's ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT is, to me, a tragic mistake and possible proof of a continuing cover-up.



4. Back in the early 70s I worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide on a Senate Commitee trying to reopen the Kennedy assassination or generate support for a House investigation. This was in the post-Garrison era and the credibility of anyone challenging the Warren Commission was suspect. (We now know that many of Garrison's failings were due to sabotage, but back then he was still radioactive to Senators, Representatives, and their staffs.)
   
   Anyway, after all the backlash following the Clay Shaw acquittal it was still a tough sell, and the typical Congressman would give you no more than 5-10 minutes time to make your case, so we needed a one or two page list of powerful bullet points demonstrating that Oswald could not have acted alone, if he acted at all, and showing that the Warren investigation was compromised by the FBI and the CIA. These were serious allegations, so each
   point had to be backed up by solid proof.
   
   At the time, there were 5-6 serious books damning the Warren Commision Report: Inquest, by Edward J Epstein; Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane; Six Seconds in Dallas by Josiah Thompson; Whitewash by Harold Weisberg; and They've Killed the President by Robert Sam Anson.
   
   In creating that fact sheet, no book was more carefully documented than Accessories after the Fact, and no book was more comprehensive and meticulous.
   
   When we had to source each bullet point Meagher's book did the best job in directing us to the proof.
   
   I left the Hill in 76--before the HSCA was created, and it has always bitter disappointment to me how its own work appears to ha ve been sabotaged, not unlike what happend to Garrison.
   
   In the years since I have retained a keen interest in this topic, and at last count have read over 40 books. Meagher's book still remains one of the two or three best books written about JFK's death. In fact I consider it one of the best forensic investigation reports I have ever read in 25 years of practicing civil rights litigation.



5. this book smashes the Warren report into a million peices in an unbiased way based upon facts logic and evidence.Mrs.Meagher proves that Oswald was innocent and that the warren report was a sham!she examines and dismantles every so called evidence the report had on oswald!!Oswald was innocent we the people are his defense counsel!this book has to be reprinted get it out there!!highly recommended!

5 comments about American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics.

1. This book was great. It was full-filling, Clarke places the asssasins and victims in their times (their environment). For instance, when I first read about Boothe and Lincoln I did not know that President Lincoln was targeted for kidnapping and then scheduled to be handed over to the confederates with the help of Boothe and his associates (which failed and lead to the assassination). This book was indepth, but easy to read. For people interested in assassinations this book is a must, and if for the people who are not "it is definitely interesting." This book should be used as a text book for criminology classes at the University level because of its multi-dimensional structure and scholarly presentation.



2. For those of you familiar with the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins, this book is essential to understand the show's themes in a historical context. Clarke suggests that there's something uniquely American about these assassinations, and his conclusions are as brilliant as they are disturbing.



3. I first came across this book in preparation to direct the musical "Assassins". It was extremely helpful, because of its extremely insightful look into the 16 men and women who have tried (successfully and unsuccessfully) to assassinate national political figures, including (but not limited to) the President. Clarke has a simple, easy to read chapter on each assassin. He explains that very few of these people were actually insane, and goes on to suggest that thinking them insane does not serve to explain them, and therefore does not help to prevent future assassinations. He explains their actions without excusing them, and allows us to understand them and their acts without presuming them "insane" or "evil" ahead of time. I highly recommend this book.



4. Princeton University Press published this book by a Political Science professor at Arizona. It is a psychological study which aims to sort various assassins into several "types."

   While the book has a certain merit when discussing 19th Century political murderers and mandmen, it is full of outright disinformation about the murders of the Kennedy brothers. Oswald never met Sylvia Duran; she was tortured by the CIA and forced to "confess" that she had met him. CIA officials such as David Phillips have admitted under oath that the visitor to the Embassy where Ms. Duran worked was NOT Oswald. See Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, University of California Press 1992.




5. Beware disinformation my eye -- this is a thoughtful treatise on the assassin's mind. JFK conspiracy buffs focus on ballistics which, like statistics, can be molded to make your case. But knowing the true Oswald is the best immunization against the conspiracy nuts, for no narcissistic depressed loner like Oswald would EVER have been recruited by ANYONE for ANYTHING! The JFK conspiracy industry is just the insane underbelly of our already narcissistic and paranoid country.

No comments about The Sixteen: The Sensational Story of Britain's Top Secret Assassination Squad.

5 comments about The Berlin Conspiracy: A Novel.

1. Move over Tom Clancy. Tom Gabbay is here. His first novel, The Berlin Conspiracy, is interesting, plausible, historical, with just enough romance and intrique built in to keep you turning pages. If you like this genre, you'll love this book. Gabbay is a force to reckoned with.



2. The year is 1963. Jack Teller is a disillusioned former C.I.A. agent who is called back in the game by an unknown informant who has key information regarding a plot to assassinate President Kennedy during his visit to Berlin. He will only speak to Jack. When Jack re-enters the spy world, he finds that it is sometimes hard to decipher the good guys from the bad.
   After a slow start, this novel evolves into an interesting tale of espionage.



3. What a great read! A good "old-fashioned" spy story, set against the backdrop of cold-war Berlin, "The Berlin Conspiracy" features lots of action, intrigue, spying and counter-spying, and a believable and interesting main character.
   
   It is a very well written thriller, with a tight and fast moving storyline that is above your run-of-the-mill, conventional thriller. I enjoyed it thoroughly - my only complaint being this somewhat silly scene of a chain-reaction explosion in a garage, which had no bearing whatsoever on the story. That scene felt like a feeble attempt at comedy; or maybe Gabbay was trying to make his book more appealing to a movie director who believes that in every spy story there have to be a few cars being blown up ...
   
   If you like spy stories in the vein of Len Deighton or (the early work of) John le Carre, then this definitely is a book for you!



4. This is a great read! "The Berlin Conspiracy" is a classic espionage thriller that brings to mind McCarry, DeMille and Forsyth--and I can't give higher praise than that to a novel in this genre. Gabbay does a great job of transporting us back to the Kennedy era, when an unfettered CIA, the Berlin Wall, the Bay of Pigs and all the rest made for the golden age of American espionage. There is a humorous, irreverent protagonist reminiscent of DeMille's leading men, McCarry-esque intrigue and a "Day of the Jackal" style nail-biter ending. A suspenseful, smoothly written and unputdownable debut effort from Mr. Gabbay--I look forward to reading more novels by this welcome new talent.



5. Tom Gabbay is a grat new voice in suspense fiction. This is an extremely well crafted story which rings true as if it were Non Fiction. Set in Berlin in the days prior to President Kennedy's visit there it is a riveting story of intrigue with a cast of memorable characters. Gabbay's plot is well crafted and fast paced and for those of us who remember the cold war era, a little frightening. Great indroductory novel and I hope Mr. Gabbay writes many more.

No comments about Master Index to the J. F. K. Assassination Investigation: The Reports and Supporting Volumes of the House Select Committee on Assassinations and the.

5 comments about Sacred Geography: A Tale of Murder and Archaeology in the Holy Land.

1. Caveat Emptor.

   The fascinating world of Albert Glock is wasted in this wretched display of "yellow" journalism. The first 25 pages tempt the reader with Glock's difficult and languid childhood. After chapter 3, the author loses perspective of his topic, instead providing us with a hackneyed description of Glock's revolutionary methods to find the Palestinian's common ancestors.

   Part two of "Sacred" squanders what could have been a fascinating study into the mind of the radical archaeologist. Instead we are presented with Fox's opinionated and, at times, churlish investigation of Glock's murder.

   If Fox remembered the Birzeit professor's suggestion that the "answer lies in the archaeology", than perhaps he would have foraged deeper into the cultural and intellectual historical influences that formed his eccentric archeological methods.




2. All I have to say is-

   I've read it, and it's good, but I recommend this book's original version- Palestine Twilight. For some reason, the title was changed when it came to America, and some elements were edited out.




3. A well-written, compelling account of the politics and various agendas of two centuries of archaeology in Palestine and Israel, as well as as a troubling and eye-opening study of social, political, and crime issues in Israel and the Occupied Territories in the '90s.



4. The phenomenon that catalyzes - and paralyzes -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be the riddle of our age. By reopening this 1992 murder investigation, journalist Fox reveals how much wider a puzzle it is. Why has this patch of earth attracted so much political, cultural, and religious investment?
   
   Investigating the murder of Dr. Albert Glock, director of the Palestinian Institute of Archaeology, Fox uncovers the key role Biblical archaeology, an opportunistic subdiscipline founded on the idea that the Bible is a true chronicle of history, has played in Palestine's tumultuous history.
   
   Since the age of the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, the field has been replete with religious charlatans and swashbuckling adventurers, generals and statesmen, all mining Palestine for biblical wonders to advance their own causes. Fox calls this "negative cosmopolitanism", meaning the identification of many people with one place -- the region's most insoluble problem.
   
   Making the landscape fit the map has served the modern state of Israel, Fox claims, yet soon enough he admits his bias, writing that he "took to rooting for the Palestinian underdog."
   
   Regarding the Hague Convention's 1954 prohibition of excavation in occupied territories, the author gleefully reports Professor Glock's circumventions, while reminding us "all respectable archaeologists" refrained from excavating, "except the Israelis."



5. How important can archeology be today? Unbelievably crucial. In this part of the world it is the justification for worldview, religion, the meaning of life. It seems all of the parties involved come off are charlatans, awful human beings, and trying to justify their own criminality via archeology. This poor Dr Glock gets ineptly kmixed up in it and gets himself killed.
   No matter how complex the issues of Palestine/Israel appear, they are clearly more complicated. And they are international, national, and LOCAL.
   The book is clearly written and fun to read. Do not expect an answer.
   I would have liked even more archeology.