1 comments about Drugs in Afghanistan: Opium, Outlaws and Scorpion Tales.

1. I ordered "Scorpion Tales" after seeing an advertisement for it in an academic catalogue. The book has a catchy title and I thought it might help me with my own research on drug issues. I received a complimentary copy and put in on the shelf. It was the middle of the semester and I had little free time and stacks of other books and articles to read.
   
   One weekend, out of curiosity, I decided to browse the book. I was instantly hooked. I read it in two days. The author, David Macdonald, is an experienced sociologist and a fine story teller. General readers and academic specialists will find much of value in the book, especially in terms of drug issues and the history and culture of Afghanistan. Few other non-fiction books have provided such an earthy, fine-grained account of the human drama of drug use and abuse. I also learned much about the conflictive environment and history within which Afghans struggle to cope with poverty and suffering by cultivating, trading or consuming a wide variety of intoxicating substances.
   
   Among the book's many virtues, I thought the "scorpion tales" motif/metaphor was very well-chosen. (I won't give away the punch line of the story, but suffice it to say that Afghanistan drug folklore is itself mind-bending). I also appreciated the way the author discusses many different drugs (not just opium and heroin) without reifying distinctions between legal, illegal, semi-legal, etc. The treatment of new emerging drug trends, involving some remarkable substances, is another contribution. Additionally, the book provides an even-handed discussion of policy dilemmas and problems (including U.S. responsibility for many of Afghanistan's troubles).
   
   Scorpion Tales deserves a wide audience.
   
   Howard Campbell, Ph.D.
   El Paso, Texas (USA)

5 comments about The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (A National Security Archive Book).

1. This book is heavy reading -- heavy in the sense that it helps to fill in a missing part of American and world history. It can be a bit overwhelming, like any good history book, but we are nevertheless indebted to Peter Kornbluh for his hard work in bringing this hidden history to light.
   
   History shows us today that the U.S. government was not so much worried about stemming the tide of communism in Chile as it was concerned that other nations, especially in Latin America, would be inspired enough by the "independent, rational socialist state" under Chilean President Salvador Allende to try something similar on their own. Witness this statement in Kornbluh's book from a secret Nov. 5, 1970 memo that Henry Kissinger prepared for then-president Richard Nixon (three years before the Pinochet coup): "In fact, as noted, an 'independent' rational socialist state linked to Cuba and the USSR can be even more dangerous for our long-term interests than a very radical regime."
   
   This book's historical value is undeniable. It would have been good if Kornbluh could have shared more copies of the secret documents and less of the story narrative. But this book, as it stands, is excellent. Highly recommended.



2. In his review of "The Pinochet File" below, Mr. Ryan Setleiff blithely concedes that a "handful were regrettably persecuted and tortured." Viewing life through rose colored glasses allows one to summarily dismiss the history of mayhem and death that have been the result of shoring up corrupt client regimes worldwide through force of arms, and, tutelage in the methods of torture.
   
   While--state--interests (protecting overseas investments) can be seen as having served in the overthrow and murder of President Allende, perhaps a little diplomacy, and, a great deal more of urging our favorite dictatorial regimes to extend the franchise to the "least among (them)" would forestall the appeal of the very "leftist" movements Mr. Setleiff and others dismiss so readily.
   
   Rather than fostering the lining of corrupt official's pockets (on-deposit in Manhattan) by force of arms, and, through state-torture, American interests would be better served through broadening the franchise of prosperity by way of inclusion through economic development. (inclusion, incorporation, cooptation, etc.) Nothing other than economic development--a shared stake fostering an obligation to an ordered society--has ever worked.
   
   Any rigorous libertarian historian soundly condemns state torture. In "The Pinochet File" the proof is in the pudding.



3. After September 11th 2001 the big question on the mind of American's was, `Why do they hate us?' Although the bloody military coup of Gen. Augusto Pinochet was over 30 years ago (ironically September 11th 1973) the lessons and ramifications still resound today. The main villain of the story is Nixon National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger but more so it's the belief that a purity of ideology trumps all other foreign relations concerns. Kissinger is quoted as saying "We [the United States] set the limits of diversity" and in Chile allowing a democratically elected Socialist to remain in power was unacceptable. The author writes, "This would be the first record of an American president [Nixon] ordering the overthrow of a democratically elected government".
   
   I am no fan of neo-conservativism but one aspect of the movement I can appreciate is the desire to merge foreign policy with morality. Whether this has actually occurred is a debate for another book. Kissinger took such an amoral approach to foreign policy with his `realpolitik' that it's no wonder so many people around the world despise the United States. The United States did everything it could, including imposing economic sanctions using the World Bank, financing propaganda and fostering discontent among the military in order to bring down popularly elected president Salvador Allende. The goal was to wreck the economy and create conditions for a right wing takeover. So desperate to destroy Allende were Kissinger and Nixon that the CIA formed a working relationship with Patria y Libertad, a self-proclaimed neo-fascist paramilitary group that engaged in acts of terrorism including bombings who modeled themselves after Hitler's Brownshirts. After the violent coup that cost the lives of thousands of Chileans the U.S. government supported the brutally repressive Pinochet regime by reopening the spigot of foreign money and even selling military hardware while Pinochet's supporters rounded up and executed leftists. Chile wasn't just supported by the U.S. it was favored to the point where it was receiving 80% of all Title I Food for Peace in Latin America and $30 million from AID in housing guarantees compared to $4 million for the rest of Central and South America. Chile became the fifth largest customer of U.S. military weaponry falling just behind Iran.
   
   There were at least as many people in government against what the United States was doing as for and the Republican leadership felt compelled to deliver endless and blatant lies to Congress in order to cover up their actions. This was a nasty, filthy piece of work that did incredible damage to the credibility of the United States and its place as a moral guidepost for emerging countries. So now Chile has come full circle with the election of Socialist Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria to the presidency. Venezuelian president Hugo Chavez has already learned that the United States still intends to set the limits of diversity with a U.S. backed coup attempt in 2002.
   
   This is such an important book and if more American's were aware of history we might be less inclined to automatically blame others and spend more time correcting our own moral failings. When American's remain ignorant they become confused by the anger and resentment of others particularly in South America and the Middle East because people in those regions remember American actions quite well. This is not a blame America book but it is a look at actions that no American should be proud of. Chile is but one example of an amoral U.S. foreign policy and the more American's become aware the more we can improve in the future.



4. This book provides all of the relevant documents on Pinochet and is an excellent addition to a study of Chile. Pinochet was a brutal dictator who held his country hostage with the support of the United States. If you are looking for a book that covers this time period I would recommend A nation of Enemies. If you are looking fore the original research though this book cannot be beat.



5. "The Pinochet File" exposes in stunning detail the truth behind the infamous September 11, 1973 coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile and the United States' guilt in the event. Peter Kornbluh has produced a vast, important, priceless document about how the United States happily sponsored the destruction of democracy in a small South American country and helped install a dictatorship of death and terror. This is a horror story, no question, and it must indeed have been frightening to live in Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet if you were a free thinker. Kornbluh shows disclassified documents that detail how the CIA, under orders by President Richard Nixon (who else?), conducted covert operations in Chile to destroy the country's economy once Allende, a socialist, was elected president. Of course the White House could not accept a socialist government in the Americas, much less an ELECTED one. Henry Kissinger is reported here as stating that we should not allow countries to go Communist because of the irresponsibility of their own people, a chilling look into the thinking processes of men not only like Kissinger and Nixon, but like Bush and Cheney. In a sense that is the most important aspect of this book, the way it is still so relevant to our current situation in the world. The April 2002 coup in Venezuela against Hugo Chavez's government, which luckily failed, has all the fingerprints of U.S. involvement, much like the Chile case. Kornbluh meticulously documents both the rise and fall of Allende and the installment of the vicious military junta headed by Pinochet. Kornbluh goes on to report on the various detention centers and concentration camps spread through-out Chile during the regime's years in power, including Colonia Dignidad, an infamous German community said to house Nazi war criminals where Pinochet made alliances to use the spot as a horrific torture center. One of the most surprising chapters in the book, which will be a revelation to many readers unfamiliar with the Chilean story, is the one dealing with American citizens who were unfortunate enough to be in Chile during the coup and were either arrested, tortured or killed. The infamous Operation Condor is described here as well, a clandenstine terrorist network set-up by the military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina to kill any resistance in the hemisphere, all of this ignored by the CIA. "The Pinochet File" will shock many, anger others, it is a darker chapter of not just Latin American history but of our own as well. In a time when we are asking questions about terrorism and foreign policy, it is important to look into the not so distant past because it will tell us how we got here.

5 comments about Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001.

1. I'm writing this review, but I really don't think it is possible to put this book into words. Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 is by far the most personal and emotionally compelling book I have read about the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I honestly think every American should read this book - now more than ever. Some people seem to be forgetting the inhumane horror and emotional trauma of that day, and this book takes you back, quite vividly, to what you saw and felt during and after the terrorist attacks. The husband and wife team of Mitchell Fink and Lois Mathias interviewed a great number of people connected to the deadly events, from witnesses and survivors to emergency services personnel to Ground Zero volunteers and the families of Flight 93 passengers. Eighty one personal accounts fill the pages of this book.
   
   I have only recently been going back and reading about 9/11 - suddenly, I finally felt ready to revisit what happened that day. I am learning that the personal tragedy and horror was much more extensive than I realized. The personal stories in this book introduce a number of observations and facts that were too gruesome to make it in to any news broadcasts. I knew that a number of people jumped to their deaths, but I did not realize the number of jumpers was as high as it actually was. I had also never thought about the danger those jumpers posed to rescue workers trying to get into the Twin Towers that morning. One fireman, for example, was killed by a falling body. The newscasts didn't talk about what happened when those bodies hit the ground, but the witnesses in this book do, and it's pretty gruesome stuff. Then you have descriptions of the carnage seen by rescue and recovery teams, and it's just unimaginably awful. The things these witnesses describe will break your heart, but their stories are also full of heart-warming stories of heroism and selflessness. Everyone knows the story of Josephine Harris and the miraculous survival of the Ladder 6 team she was with, but this book is bursting with personal acts of heroism by ordinary men and women who epitomize the unsung hero. Virtually everyone who survived the attacks credits someone else with saving his/her life. One account that sticks out in my mind is the group of men who transported their handicapped coworker down dozens of flights of stairs to safety; they could have abandoned him and worried only about saving themselves, but they didn't. The man whose life they saved makes a profound point: if they had been a little slower or unlucky and died that day, no one would ever have known about those selfless acts of heroism. It makes you realize that some of the greatest acts of courage and sacrifice that took place that day will be known only in heaven.
   
   Many of the individuals whose stories are recorded here talk about the emotional effects of the experience. Many ask why they lived when those around them died, and they talk about the emotional trauma (and, for some, sense of guilt) that will be a part of their daily lives from now on. In the same vein, a few give voice to some profound perspectives. It is awful that a fireman was killed by a jumper, but one individual points out that it probably saved the lives of the firemen who carried their fallen comrade to safety because it kept those men from entering the building just before it collapsed.
   
   Many of these accounts come from policemen, firemen, Port Authority personnel, emergency service workers, and those who worked tirelessly to recover bodies in the days and weeks following the tragedy. I was also happy to read about some of the 300 search dogs who contributed so much to the effort, as well. A majority of the book relates to the attack on the World Trade Center, but there are also a number of accounts from those on site at the Pentagon as well as loved ones of the brave passengers of Flight 93. I was actually most interested in the stories of regular people who lived through the events, though; those are the stories I can most easily identify with, especially when I ask myself how I would have reacted in their situation. So many of those people showed great bravery and humanity, and it's really uplifting to read about those "little" but powerful stories that you never heard about on the news. It renews your faith in humanity and really drives home the point that the terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children without a single twinge of guilt will never achieve their goals.



2. It isn't just about people's experiences, but a great deal about how they changed. This was a very important book to have compiled and put down on record. It's almost an American obligation to read these personal accounts and ponder the gravity of that day for those who were there. If we were only left with replays of video/media accounts (or with repugnantly self-absorbed documents on the topic such as Barbash's On Top of the World) then I don't think future history would have the documentary material needed to grasp the shock and pain.
   
   The strength of character and ingenuity of New Yorkers comes through very powerfully, and they must be proud of that.



3. I am legally blind and receive talking books free from the Library for the Blind. I just finished "Never Forget: An Oral History of 9-11-2001. Usually when I finish a book I send it back to the library and move along to the next book. This book is different, I want to own a copy. In years to come I want my children to be able to take it down and read about that day from people who were there, who can put that all important human realism to the event. If the details are boiled down to facts and figures it will become just another date to remember just long enough to pass a history test.



4. I picked this up at the library and almost read it in one sitting deeply moving and sad, the book contains eyewittness accounts...the saddest one was a call from flight 93 to his wife...
   
   I also became very angry...angry that we have in the white house did absolutely NOTHING to thwart this attack. Him and John Ashcroft had PLENTY of forewarning since he took office. They recieved 300 emails with what was goign to happen, and (...)allowed it to happen. He also used 9/11 and the emotions from that event to launch an illegal unjustified war that is looking more and more like Vietnam.
   
   If you read this through and you still support Bush, you are morally bankrupt and should be ashamed of yourself



5. I could only read a few chapters a day, because the content was very depressing and difficult to read. However, it is something that Americans should read to know the true suffering and heroism that happened on that day. I did not know anyone in NYC personally, but I feel now after 5 years that I really understand the magnitude of this event.

5 comments about The Ultimate Terrorists.

1. In order to determine the severity of any potential threat, that threat needs to be analyzed in terms of the enemy capability and intent, and of the friendly vulnerability. Jessica Stern, in The Ultimate Terrorists, expertly addresses all of these factors in her analysis of WMD terrorism. By doing so, Stern enables the reader to form an educated opinion on this topic. Whether the reader is a national policy maker, academic researcher, military professional, emergency service provider, or simply an American citizen, this book offers valuable analysis of a viable threat to national security. The Ultimate Terrorists is highly recommended for reading.



2. It is an interesting testament on the nature of human beings that even intellectuals in the west continue to relate only HALF the story in this terrorism equation. Terrorism is abhorrent, no doubt, but people like Dr, Stern know full well that the west is not wholly the victim here.

   A considerable number of people in the east and south have and continue to suffer from terrorism sponsored and supported in western capitals. The examples are manifold, and they should be mentioned and condemned also, if only for completeness.




3. The Ultimate Terrorists joins other timely publications in providing an assessment of differences between post-Cold War perceived threats and the modern reality of imminent terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction. From the threat of nuclear materials to biological warfare, The Ultimate Terrorists provides chapters which assess the new sources of terrorist activity.



4. This book must be one of the easiest books to read and understand on the subject. Sageman's book is great and Hoffman is excellent, but to me, this book was the best! The others go over terrorist inception much more, but Stern is more interested in the WMD proliferation. If there was ever a terrorist book that one could curl up to near a fireplace, this is it.



5. This book was well worthwhile. I am pleased that Amazon
   had it in stock, and shipped it right out. I am a graduate
   student and I needed this book in a fast manner so I could
   read it and then report on it.
   
   Amazon was very accommodating to me. I certainly will use
   this source in the future. Thank You.

No comments about Preparing for Terrorism: The Public Safety Communicators Guide.

No comments about Surveillance After September 11 (Themes for the 21st Century Series).

5 comments about The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria.

1. This book recounts the heroic faith and works of "ordinary" monks living in dangerous times!



2. This is an enjoyable, but slightly dry book. It is definately hard to actually sit down and read without ones mind trailing off! But as I labored through it I came to enjoy the writers style, and actually feel the importance of the information about the trappist monks of Algeria!



3. From a tragic and almost incomprehensible act of barbarity, the author has fashioned a beautifully nuanced work of art that succeeds in bridging a good portion of the chasm now separating the Judeo-Christian and Muslim worlds. With great sensitivity and understanding of these seemingly antagonistic cultures, Kiser has succeeded in constructing an uplifting and heart-felt story that not only instructs the reader, but successfully addresses and perhaps heals some of intercultural bitterness rampant today.



4. Algeria is one of those places that you know of, but you dont know much about. There are Muslims there, the French USED to be there, and it's in Africa.
   
   But this story really brings Algeria to fruition. You see what a diverse nation it is; Arabs and Berbers; Francophones and Arabaphones; Conservatives and Liberals; Radical Muslims and 21st Century ones. It's with this diversity in mind that one can deal with the tragedy of this story at all. This is really a great book if one is interested in the story of Islam in Africa, the French in Africa or Algeria in general.
   
   I really connected with the monks and the difficulty the Church faces in Algeria. It also made me realise the love required to even stay sane in such hostility. Love was their oxygen.



5. Interesting book filled with facts and interesting opinions about an important event, an important country, and an important effort to live together made by Christians and Muslims. Kiser includes a valuable bibliography and time line at the end.

3 comments about The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us.

1. As I said, this guy belong to the bunch of people who are trying very hard to get the US to fight Israel's war for them while Israel never lose even 1 soldier. It is the repeat of event just before the Iraq war. They now aim to destroy Iran under false pretexts and want the US to do that job for them. That is why all these propaganda and beating of drums of war. The content of the book basically is:
   
   Those evil Moslims are coming to invade your country, enslave you, rule over you,and convert you.... Bomb them! bomb them! bomb them!.....
   
   That is all there is to it.
   If you fooled me once, shame on you. If you fooled me twice shame on me. Do not be taken for a ride by these warmonger profiteers again!



2. Not worth the time and money. Mr. Wohlstetter's preface tells all. He's not an historian or political science type, and he thanks a number of neoconservative organizations for their "help" in writing this very short book. As a result, it's a predictable screed that's sort of rambling and disjointed.
   
   It has poorly managed footnotes, no appended list of footnotes, a skinny and general bibliography, and no index of names and events. The conclusion and call to action are frightening, reflecting the failed tactics of the Bush administration and in opposition with the currently succeeding strategy now being applied by General Petraeus and other newly appointed members of the cleanup crew.



3. Personally I think this book is good for a modern look as to what is going on with Islam and it's threat to our society. We have such a large misconception about it and while I do not necessarily agree with all of the author's 'predictions' I do think that a stand needs to be made against the modern threat. I heard him on a radio talk show recently and I like what him and the host were talking about; that the Muslims are the one's you see making death threats (if not killing people) and the Muslim extremists are the one's saying it is a religion of peace.
   So now you can look forward to everyone else's comments refuting mine. Enjoy... and may Christ bless you!

No comments about Dangerous Brown Men: Exploiting Sex, Violence and Feminism in the 'War on the Terror'.

1 comments about Dead for Good: Martyrdom and the Rise of the Suicide Bomber.

1. Dr. Barlow's examination of suicide bombers, their mentality, motivations and history provides a broad overview of this issue as it relates not only to its use as an act of intentional terrorism, but as an explanation of some of the political and religious ideologies possessed by the suicide bomber as well. To the author's immense credit, however, it is anything but a dry, academic work. On the contrary, the book is insightful and well researched. Using superb writing, Barlow grabs hold of the reader by offering the reader a look into the lives, culture and idiosyncrasies of a people not often examined.
   
   Hugh Barlow's literate and thought provoking review of the history of suicide bombers and their quest to purify their faith by eliminating the infidels, and in doing so reaffirm their divine right to rule the world, can cause one to rethink many of the traditional notions once held. This is a great book and a must read.