No comments about The War Against Terrorism.

2 comments about My Life as a Revolutionary: Reflections of a Former Guerrillera.

1. My wife is originally from Ecuador and her best friend is from Colombia. So, through staying with her friend's wonderful family in Pasto, I have had the opportunity to explore and experience this vibrant country full of some of the most kind and generous people I have ever met. Tragically, Colombia's history, from far into the past until today, has been marred by devasting political violence and warfare.
   
   When Maria Vasquez was a young, idealistic student she joined a group of revolutionaries, known as the M-19s, hoping to transform Colombian society. Vasquez is an excellent writer who paints a vivid and compelling portrait of her youthful adventures and political activites. That is why I give this book a high rating.
   
   Unfortunately, Vasquez's actions included such atrocities as robbery, kidnapping and hostage taking at a foreign embassy. Obviously, her actions caused suffering to many innocent people. She and other M-19 guerillas also receiving military training in Castro's Cuba and Gadaffi's Libya. In contemporary terms she would likely be called a terrorist. Vasquez does take some responsibility for her actions in the final chapter. But most of the book is a highly romanticized account of her "glory days" as a guerilla, in which little remorse is expressed. In that respect I was disappointed.
   
   Still this book has an amazing story to tell and I do recommend reading it. But, sadly, instead of changing Colombia for the better Vasquez and her fellow M-19s only continued Colombia's brutal legacy of political violence and killing. This beautiful country and its people deserve better!



2. "My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary; Reflections of a Former Guerrillera," by Maria Eugenia Vasquez Perdomo is primarily a guerrilla narrative of Colombia's violent past. To this end, the author provides an intimate understanding of "how" young urban and rural Colombians flock to revolutionary movements. However, this book has two major shortcomings. First, the author fails to adequately explain "why" Colombians turn their back on establishment institutions to promote change. And secondly, Vasquez makes a very feeble attempt to demonstrate contrition for living the life of a terrorist for 18 years.
   
   On that note, it is no surprise that the Spanish-language version of this book was awarded the Colombian National Prize for Testimonial Literature in 1998. Colombian readers have a good understanding of the absence of political, economic, social and land reforms inside their country. American readers of this text should be warned to pay close attention to the strong 22-page historical "Introduction" by Arthur Schmidt. Otherwise, they will never completely figure out "why" Colombians join guerrilla organizations. The author fails to give a comprehensive understanding of significant historical events. For instance, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the Bogotazo, La Violencia, The National Front, the controversial 1970 elections and Camilo Torres take a back seat to her day to day anti-imperialism, anti-oligharchy, anti-sectarianism guerrilla activities. Had the author dedicated more time to weave Colombia's complex history to her narrative this would be a benchmark book.
   
   Still and all, this is an extremely valuable text. Vasquez is harassed, hunted and tortured by state institutions. She also renounces motherhood twice for her senior leadership position in the M-19 guerrilla organization. Consequently, her explanation of the turmoil on the Colombian urban campus and the era of war for the sake of peace is useful. Moreover, information on legendary M-19 leaders, Jaime Bateman, Gustavo Arias (a.k.a. Boris), Carlos Pizarro, Ivan Marino Ospina, Antonio Navarro, and Alvaro Fayad is priceless. It just would have made more sense for the author to have developed a better "connect" between the revolutionary consciousness and Colombia's long history of state-inspired violence.
   
   Bert Ruiz

4 comments about "All-American Monster": The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh.

1. 'All American Monster', by Brandon M. Stickney, chronicles the life of convicted Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, from childhhood up to, but not including, his trial. Keeping in mind that his trial had not yet occured, I found it incredulous that the entire book was written on the assumption that McVeigh was guilty. The author even went as far as telling us what McVeigh was thinking as he watched the Murrah building explode. I'm sure writers need to make some assumptions when doing an unauthorized biography, but I found the assumption of guilt a bit unsettling. One has to wonder about how much editing was done from interviews with those that know McVeigh, in order to fit the bias of the author. To his credit, Stickney seems to have put a lot of legwork into this book, and interview numerous people. You get a general idea of who Tim McVeigh was as a teen, but from there on, I don't think the author was able to get past his own political ideas to give the reader an accurate view. Mr. Stickney even went as far as 'correcting' the political views expressed by Jennifer McVeigh, Tim's sister, in a letter she wrote to her local newspaper. A biography shouldn't be used as a personal forum for an author's own beliefs. I found it both irrelevant and unprofessional. Perhaps there just wasn't enough information available, or those who know McVeigh just didn't want to talk about him, but there was a fair amount of repitition throughout the book, and I felt it could have been 100 pages shorter, and nothing would have been missed. In short, although the book had quite a few facts, and a fair amount of research was done, I found the book much too biased to be a truely accurate story of Timothy McVeigh. Thanks, Kary



2. I got this because I wanted some insight into how the story all came about and definitely more information.I got it here.A lot of questions were answered here,so if you want insight and revelation into what happened and why this book is a good place to start.I liked it because it was so informative.I considered that a book should have a certain amount of information to be able to be fair and the writer is fair to all sides.



3. Although this book is does not take a sympathetic approach to McVeigh's story, it becomes pretty apparent how McVeigh may have been lead astray. He was abandoned by his mother, had an emotionally detatched father, etc. Shows both sides of this tragedy. The tragedy of the bombing and the trajedy of McVeigh's disenchantment with America; especially after he was treated like a human guinea pig by the army. Very interesting book, I couldn't put it down.



4. I'm mainly writing this review because I wanted to counter some of the negative things that have been said about "All-American Monster." If Stickney has come across to some reviewers as biased, there's a reason for that and that is that all the available evidence pointed to McVeigh's guilt! He later even admitted as much himself, showing no remorse for the children that he killed, calling them, as I recall, "collateral damage." But Stickney's greatest accomplishment here is in fleshing out just how an American war veteran with no truly distinguishing characteristics pulled off the single worst case of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. It's the same thing that has been said about the Nazis, that whole banality of evil thing. McVeigh was a total loser who decided to let his boredom and hatred lead him down a road that caused the destruction of innocent lives. As Stickney has deftly chronicled here, he was no different than any other work-a-day stiff living in any corner of this country--except that he decided to lash out at a perceived enemy (the "government"), that was in reality made up of people just trying to make a life for themselves, thereby gaining himself notoriety and priming the country for the greater human toll of 9/11. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to plumb the roots of evil.

No comments about War & Terror: Feminist Perspectives.

5 comments about In The Red Zone: A Journey Into The Soul Of Iraq.

1. Although he died while free-lancing in Iraq, I am thankful that this great journalist was able to write this book before he left us. It is an extremely interesting look at life in Iraq, the Iraqi people, and the challenges we face there. I'm sorry about his untimely death, and wish he could have stayed around to write many more compelling and inspiring books such as this one. God bless his family and bless the memory of this brave man.



2. First, let me say that Steven Vincent died for this book. He was murdered because he wrote brutally honestly about the dark underbelly of Iraq, about how here (and much of the Middle East) life is cheap and what passes for culture twists minds and perpetuates continued ignorance in the majority of the populace. Steven is gone now, but his opus is still available and if you only read one book about Iraq in your entire life, then In the Red Zone should be that one book.
   
   I read this book in one sitting, from cover to cover, all 240 pages in the span of about six hours. Everything you need to know about the war, Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, the occupation, what the future could hold - it's in here. The good, the bad and the ugly are all laid out for you. This book will be of equal fascination to both pro and anti-war readers because Steven didn't sugarcoat a thing when he wrote In the Red Zone. He didn't sugarcoat Iraq one iota and he died for it.
   
   Life is cheap in cultures that glorify death. Steven found that out the hardest way. His death has a silver lining - Nour - his brave Iraqi intrepreter. She was shot by the same vicious parasites that killed Mr. Vincent but survived and is still somewhere in Iraq (as far as I know), guarded, silenced or both. Steven and Nour are microcosms of the relationship between America and Iraq. Read In the Red Zone. It will force you to make adjustments to everything you thought you knew. In the Red Zone is Chapter 1 in the story of 21st century. Other Americans and Iraqis will be stepping forward to write Chapter 2. Are you one of them? Which side will you step forward on?



3. Freelance journalist Vincent first visited Iraq in September 2003. While other reporters sheltered in insulated compounds or heavily-fortified hotels of the "Green Zone," he lived and traveled in the "Red Zone," that is without security and among ordinary Iraqis. In all, Vincent has penned one of the best-written accounts of post-Saddam Iraq, one of the few that captures the debates, issues, and contradictory emotions that Iraqis are juggling.
   
   In the Red Zone fills a void left by the many think-tank pundits, academics, and journalists who wrote books in the wake of Saddam's fall, where the Iraqi voice is often lost. Vincent's account has the advantage of bringing to light his encounters with ordinary Iraqis. Among other experiences, he was in Karbala when a series of bombs killed 140 in the city in March 2004; and while traveling in Basra, he was briefly interrogated by U.S. intelligence. He makes no attempt to cover the minutiae of daily Iraqi politics but instead takes a big-picture approach.
   
   That said, In the Red Zone has its limitations. There is little discussion of the Kurdish issue and minor errors of fact pop up--for example, the date when Iran's Safavid dynasty began.
   
   In contrast to the usual journalistic practice of adding color to an article by including an occasional man-on-the-street interview, usually conducted by an Iraqi assistant, Vincent provides a deeper insight into Iraqis. He introduces the reader to Qasim, a Baghdad art gallery owner who, because of a club foot, managed to avoid the carnage of the Iran-Iraq war; Assad al-Abady, deputy director of the Iraqi National Organization for Human Rights; a secular Sunni woman torn between her love of freedom and the "humiliation" of having it delivered by foreigners; a Fallujah policeman who swears blood lust against Americans after U.S. soldiers kill his son; a Shi'ite taxi driver still euphoric over liberation; and a Christian woman in Basra whom Vincent later learns had been raped in her youth by Saddam's police.
   
   Vincent also spent time with foreigners. He details a long conversation with a Canadian antiwar activist who lectured him about U.S. "human rights violations" but would not condemn insurgent terrorist attacks on Iraqi civilians or visit Saddam's mass graves. Vincent also describes a surrealistic encounter with CodePink, an American peace group, during which one member doubted that Saddam really was that bad. He also notes the Iraqi reaction to Western peace groups. "How can people accept for so long the crimes of a dictator, then rise up to try and stop a war begun to remove that dictator from power?" one Iraqi lawyer asked. "Antiwar activists should examine their consciences."
   
   Michael Rubin
   Middle East Quarterly
   Summer 2005



4. I make it a point to read pretty much every book that comes out about Iraq and environs. Though there has been no recent shortage of first-rate books about the region, this one packs a punch like you wouldn't believe.
   
   To tell you the truth, I haven't seen the book since I first lent it out. The guy I lent it out to lent it out to someone else and so on and on. That I have yet to get it back should tell you something.
   
   The basic story is that Steven Vincent was your typical dingbat liberal living in the Big Apple as an art critic, believing that God was in his heaven and that all was right with the world . . . and that in particular Islam was a basically peaceful but tragically misunderstood religion.
   
   Then September 11th happened, and in a fit of shock, grief, duty, and curiosity, Vincent hied himself off to desert lands as more or less a roaming reporter for hire.
   
   The book relates his transformation from smug liberal to one who was truly concerned about constructing a fairer portrait of the chances for peace and progress over there.
   
   So far, so good. And whatever you think of his politics, and whatever your position on the war is, and blah blah blah blah.
   
   Listen: the thing that really pushes this book over the edge into the realm of greatest books I've ever read is what happened to Vincent after he wrote it. I won't spell it out here, but you can easily find out on the net.
   
   God, knowing the real ending makes the final third of this book unbearable. Truly unbearable. Some of the most emotionally exhausting and harrowing reading I've ever done.
   
   See, he meets this woman named Nour. And God! God! I can't take it.
   
   Sparrow, O sparrow!



5. This book manages to deliver a concise, beautifully written account of Iraq, as seen through the eyes of Iraqis and foreigners living there in the early post-Saddam years. We hear from Iraqi men and women of all backgrounds, American "activists", soldiers, policemen, and clerics...to name but a few!
   Mr. Vincent begins his journey on the highway that leads from Jordan to Baghdad. This highway gives the reader a pretty good idea of what Iraq as a whole will be like. On it, shiny SUVs and junkmobiles alike zoom at breakneck speed through the desert, avoiding roadside thieves and potholes. Should travelers need a break, they can lounge on one of countless picnic tables installed in years past on this road by Saddam's "planners", and refresh themselves with blasts of wind and sand under the 116 degree sun.
   The author travels to Baghdad, the Sunni triangle, Kirkuk, Basra, and to the Holy Shia cities in the south. He reports the views of the cynics, and the disillusioned, as well as those of the (not at all scarce) intrepid optimists who persist in believing in the possibility of a democratic Iraq.
   Mr. Vincent doesn't mince words as he describes the many unpleasant and even horrible scenes he finds throughout the country, but also of the growing pockets of Iraq reclaimed from destruction. Throughout he gives a very even-handed account, such that we can identify with both foreigners and locals, and with passionate Iraqis on opposite sides of many ideological wars.
   I found his chapter on the Shiite pilgrimages and holidays, excellent. (In order to gain entry to these, he poses as an American Shiite, and must recite boilerplate Muslim creed in his broken Arabic). Here, we join him in his immersion and admiration of the Shiites' as he recounts their history of perseverence in the face of centuries of Sunni domination, but we also join him as he confides his more cynical verdicts on the Shia glorification of bloodshed and death he witnesses during several religious celebrations.
   I also found his chapters on life in Basra outstanding. Here Mr. Vincent recounts his experience under the wing of a brave and iconoclastic Muslim woman, Nour, a Basra native. As his guide, she risks her reputation and indeed her life (she receives serial threats from those who view her as out of line), as she guides him to interviews with mullahs, fanatics, moderates, opportunists, party figures, and soldiers, and translates for him their warnings, criticisms, and their....occasional admiration, accompanied by pleas to carry on, and report the truth about Iraq and their dreams for its renewal as a nation finally free from dictatorship to us, the future readers of their story.

No comments about Spectrum of Terror.

5 comments about Blackout.

1. Well I'm absolutely disapointed ! I like to read books with airplanes and am ready to forgive a lot of wrong plots, impossible survivals and so on.
   But this book is very strange. Leaders of major organisations are playing dumb - just an example : CIA tells the President, that a jumbo pilot may have been blinded by crashing into a smaller jet, because the explosion of the smaller jet before his cockpit was so bright - and still its known, that the jumbo was absolutely free of damage - and the President is buying that explanation ...
   Well, most of the people in the book are unrealistic and unpleasant. Women in the wrong footwear drag ablebodied man that try to resist through the forrest of Vietnam ... and so on. Just buy another book. This one is just plain bad.



2. Blackout was an amazing book by Nance and I strongly suggest it to all pilots. The conspiracy was amazing and the true story uncovered in the last 3 pages and the thrills ended on the last page! Bravo Nance, I'm now a huge fan!



3. Not having read any of Nance's works, I decided to take a chance and picked up Blackout from the bargain book table. I'm glad I did. Nance takes the reader on a page-turning adventure than starts with the unexplained crash of a U.S. passenger jet in the Caribbean. The story quickly shifts to a meeting in Hong Kong where an FBI agent Kat Bronsky (who specializes in airline terrorism) meets up with Washington Post reporter Robert McCabe (who claims to know something about the downing of the plane). Nance then chronicles the efforts of this pair to uncover the truth regarding the downing of the first jet (and those that come later). Blackout is clearly a page turner that grabs the reader early and keeps him guessing. Prepare for some level of sleep deprivation as you stay up too late in order to read "just one more chapter."



4. when i picked up blackout i was excited to start reading it because i love to read these types of books. the book grabs you right from the begining and, as a reader, you dont want to put the book down. but, as the book goes on the plot just seems so unlikly. the conditions surrounding the crash just didnt really make since to me. (eg. people at the highest levels of government not knowing what was going on and, the way the crash happend). all in all the book was OK but not the best. it doesnt compare to a book such as Airframe.



5. It's been a few years since I read this book, but I can still remember how much I enjoyed reading it. It's another great Nance book, filled with action and adventure. In my opinion, this was one of the last books he wrote that were astounding, the only exception being "Saving Cascadia", and he definitely goes out quite well at that. If you've never read his books, this is one that is worth your time.

3 comments about Contra Terror in Nicaragua: Report of a Fact-finding Mission: September 1984-January 1985.

1. This is an important historical record. Don't expect any lavish prose or entertaining reading. This is "just the facts", documenting case after case of attacks against civilians by lavishly US funded and orchestrated Contra forces in the 1980's.

   In the book, you get an introductory explanation of the methods and sources for the information, followed by background information of the political climate. Then you get a number of selected individual cases of attacks on civilians that are thoroughly detailed with names, dates and descriptions. Each of these stories is told over a couple pages each. Lastly are a cronology of Contra attacks on civilians between 1981 and 1984 which seems to list a couple hundred instances with a short description of each, and the source notes.

   Many cases are compiled from the reports of groups like America's Watch, Center for Constitutional Rights, Washington Office on Latin America...etc. Many are compiled from eye-witness and victim's affidavits, and from the extensive report of Reed Brody's fact finding team from between 1984-85 in Nicaragua.

   What you will see here are the tactics used by the people that the US government was hailing as "freedom fighters", and whom Reagan called "the moral equals of our founding fathers". The overriding point, and what this book shows, is that the attacks against civilians were not random errors, or the acts of a few renegade contras. They were conscious, pervasive and intentional policy of the leadership.

   I'm writing this review over 15 years after the publication of this book, but it's very important to know what our government was really doing. And, in the year 2002, When "terrorism" is on everyone's mind, and you hear our leaders repeatedly saying things like: "there's no justification for attacking civilians" or how we must go after any evil "states that sponsor terrorism", it's important to remember the not too distant history, and consider how well our own government would measure up to these principles.




2. This book is the result of an 1984 fact-finding mission to Nicaragua undertaken by Reed Brody, who is now with Human Rights Watch. It is based on a rigourous methodology involving sworn affadavits of personal eyewitness accounts of atrocities. The witnesses were interviewed with no Nicaraguan government presence or interference.

   The book consists of detailed descriptions of numerous attacks on civilians by the Contras. A section is devoted to attacks on coffee pickers; there is one on attacks on farms and villages, and another on attacks on civilian vehicles. Also included are sections on kidnappings and rapes.

   When it appeared, this book was considered dangerous enough by the Reagan administration that Brody was publicly denounced by President Reagan who attempted to smear his reputation.

   Unfortunately, "Contra Terror in Nicaragua" is accurate. It provides a glimpse into the Reagan administration's policy of directing systematic violence at a civilian peasant population for the purpose of ousting the government of Nicaragua. It will be recalled that this government won internationally certified elections in 1984 and was the choice of the people. The campaign of violence was unremitting and lasted about nine years.

   Brody's book is an important historical document on an extremely sad and disturbing episode in American foreign policy. The people in Washington who were responsible for this are rightly regarded as war criminals. This includes John Negroponte, currently US ambassador to Iraq. From 1981-84 he was overseeing operation of the Contras from their bases in Honduras, where he was US ambassador.




3. We now have a presidential candidate who chants to an old Beach Boys tune Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran and who twenty years ago voted to bomb Nicaragua. Here we may read the devastating results of that anti-life policy. It is no joke. War is no joke. War is hell.
   
   Every US citizen needs this year to read this book, to remember our taxpayer supported terrorist army which blew up health care clinics, schools and the simple bamboo homes of very poor people.
   
   Reed Brody is the former Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York, and as a skilled prosecutor, knows the rules of evidence in presenting a compelling case beyond any reasonable doubt.
   
   In this book he leaves no room for doubt regarding the crimes against humanity committed by our government against the poor people of Nicaragua twenty years ago. He presents undeniable testimony of incidents of crimes against humanity committed by our mercenary terrorist guerrilla army, inclduing rapes, kidnappings and deadly attacks against civilian vehicles, farms and villages and agricultural workers.
   
   He lays open the case in a compelling introduction, he states in two and half dozen incidents, and concludes with an afterword and with three appendices entitled: Verfication, in which he describes the methodology and adherence to reliable rules of evidence; Who are the contra?, in which he describes at great length the make-up of the leadership as well as their illegal "private" US funding, and closes with a long chronology of contra attacks up to that time.
   
   In this present era of imperial warfare, in which approved journalists are "embedded" within the attacking US army and thus kept from performing their free and independednt function, in which news reports are heavily Redacted by the media monopolies to keep the US public from an informed decision and to cover up our present crimes against humanity, and in which independent reporters of other nations are fired upon by our troops to keep the truth of our barbarous war crimes from emerging, we must remember this time when it was possible for courageous US citizens to travel to the scenes of our terrorist attacks upon civilian populations and report them to us at home, truthfully and undeniably. Let us study carefully these cases of Atty. Reed Brody, examine his methodology, and even if unable to travel to Fallujah and Guantanamo and elsewhere to report back the abuses by our troops, at least we can work so that never again we suffer under another rogue president who commits our nation to A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq, 2001-2007.

1 comments about Collateral Damage: The Psychological Consequences of America's War on Terrorism (Contemporary Psychology).

1. COLLATERAL DAMAGE: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICA'S WAR ON TERRORISM goes beyond other books which focus on terrorist tactics to consider the long-term psychological impact of terrorism on this country. From the increased stereotyping of and prejudice against foreigners in general and Arabs in particular to increases in domestic hate crimes and depression, militancy and anger, COLLATERAL DAMAGE examines national reactions to terrorism as a whole and is essential for any in-depth college-level military or social science collection.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

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