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The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power | 
 enlarge | Author: Ronen Bergman Ph.d.
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 90977
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 141655839X
Dewey Decimal Number: 955.054
EAN: 9781416558392
ASIN: 141655839X
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In the years since 9/11, the U.S. war on terror has focused on al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Coverage of Iran has been devoted almost exclusively to its nuclear ambitions. Yet, as Ronen Bergman's groundbreaking reporting in this vital investigative history reveals, for thirty years, Iran has been the world's leading sponsor of global terror and stands as the most formidable sponsor of terror in the world today.PBergman, one of Israel's top investigative reporters, gained unprecedented access to extra-ordinary sources from top to bottom in the Mossad and intelligence agencies around the world. Based on over ten years of research and more than three hundred exclusive interviews with key intelligence figures, he reveals that Iranian terrorist masterminds have crisscrossed the globe, conducting bombings and assassinations with impunity -- even renting apartments and planning bombing attacks in New York City. Iran's proxy, Hizballah, has virtually taken over southern Lebanon and threatens Israel with high-powered weaponry supplied by Iran. Iran and Hizballah worked closely with al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist groups in developing their terrorist operations, and Iranian commandos trained Iraqi insurgents in the crafts of suicide bombing and the building of the roadside bombs that have killed so many U.S. troops in Iraq.PIn response, and largely beneath the public's radar, a vast clandestine war has been fought with Iran and Hizballah on one side and the CIA, Israel's Mossad, and their European counterparts on the other. The full story of that secret war, told for the first time here, will fundamentally change the debate about U.S. national security priorities.PA new axis of evil is emerging from Iran and spreading around the world, and Ronen Bergman shows that the CIA and Mossad have so far been unable to thwart it. IThe Secret War with Iran/i is riveting and urgent.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Written by an Israeli journalist who had access to secret Mossad documents October 17, 2008
Frederick Dungan (Riverside, CA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Written by an Israeli journalist with access to secret Mossad documents and insider knowledge about what has, is, and will be happening inside Iran. The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is very much in evidence. In an age when hack journalists and armchair generals give birth to 2 or 3 books a year off the tops of their heads in pretty much the same way that Zeus gave birth to Athena, it is reassuring to know that there are still a few writers like Bergman who have the integrity to do the job right. Bergman sets a standard for political analysis that others will find hard to follow. If you want to know how the Ayatollah and the mullahs came to power and what they intend to do with it, this book is a must read.
 A lot of data, but a wasted effort October 1, 2008
Mladen Andrijasevic (Israel)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Ronen Bergman's book is full of facts and events and is indeed a treasure chest if one is looking for this kind of information. But the glue that was to hold it together, the reason WHY Iran, Hezbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are doing what they are doing is nowhere to be found. A Martian landing on planet Earth and reading the book would indeed have no clue, and would probably get more insight by just examining the meaning of the name of the organization Islamic Jihad than he would have gotten from the pages of this book. br / br /In other words, Ronen Bergman who has interviewed 300 people, 200 of whom decided to remain anonymous, would have come up with a much more powerful work had he read the works of Ibn Warraq, Ibn Ishaq, Robert Spencer, Serge Trifkovic or Bat Ye'or and put everything in context. Alas, the myriad events depicted in the book are all hanging in the air. Factually true and interesting, but without a wider context their significance is wasted. br / br / br /On top of this, some of his comments really turned me off. For instance, on page 242 he writes:" Accompanying the long struggle between Israel and its terrorist enemies has been a running debate about the morality of both sides. Israel's defenders cannot stand it when critics charge that each side is equally culpable in the cycle of violence. They insist that there is a crucial difference between targeting civilians, as terrorists often do, and targeting militants, notwithstanding any 'collateral damage` caused by strikes against Hezbullah or Hamas leaders. In practice, however, each side borrows methods from the other. Hezballah often targets the Israeli military. And in the case of the 1994 operation, Mossad killed a low-level brother in hope of luring Moughniyeh to a crowded funeral." br / br / br /So here we have the comparing of the incomparable. On one side the assassination of the brother of the most wanted terrorist, wanted by both the US and Israel , the brother, who himself was a bodyguard of a Hezbullah official , with the countless deliberately targeted murders of Israeli civilians in pizzerias, shopping malls and buses. Only a leftist mind turned to mush is capable of making such a comparison. br / br /One would be tempted to forgive the author and appreciate the enormous effort in gathering the data for this book. Perhaps the data itself will be compelling enough to convince the reader of the magnitude of the threat. Yet without explaining Ahmadinejad's eschatological beliefs it is a wasted effort. br /
Four on one side as useful propaganda, three in larger context September 28, 2008
Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
ON STRIKE UNTIL AMAZON STOPS DELETING FAVORABLE VOTES FROM FANS AND COUNTING NEGATIVE VOTES FROM THOSE WHO HATE THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE BOOK BEING REVIEWED MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT THE REVIEW. br / br /I was torn between three stars (the book is terribly flawed in the larger scheme of things) and four stars for the very interesting and well-presented details that while they are strictly from an Israeli perspective and the book is almost certainly an Israeli propaganda operation against the US public in general and US Congress and generals more specificially, are in and of themselves correct. br / br /The author focuses exclusively on painting the Iranians in the worst possible light, while ignoring the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian misdeeds, and never mentioning the 42 of the 44 dictators that the US Government regards as its best pals because they pretend to support the Global War on Terror (GWOT) which is the ninth high level threat to mankind. br / br /I settled for three because this book is completely out of context, grossly exaggerates the Iranian threat, and fails to demonstrate any semblance of the relative costs and benefits of waging peace. Just prior to sitting down with this book for a few hours I read a much shorter monograph (free online), "U.S. Counterterrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding Costs, Cultures, and Conflicts" by Donovan C. Chau. His top-level premises are instructive, and condemn the book on Iran to three stars: Dr. Chau suggests that our three priorities for defeating sub-saharan terrorism must be: br / br /1. Seizing and holding the moral high ground br / br /2. Winning the stuggle for perceived legitimacy br / br /3. Pursuing restrained counterterrorism responses br / br /I will not belabor the point further--it is flat out NUTS for the USA to be spending $60 billion a year on the 4% it can steal with largely worthless technology and largely incompetent human spies; and $600-900 billion a year on a heavy metal military that is next to useless in 90% of the situations we face into the future. br / br /Israel, the US neocons that were party to the 935 lies that led America to war in Iraq, now an occupation, and both of the political parties in the USA that share the spoils while looting the US taxpayers, have become cancers on humanity. In no way does this condone terrorism or excuse the terrible depravity and dereliction of the Arab regimes, but in the larger context, I see very clearly that the US and Israel are pursuing their own terrorist tactics "in our name," while completely abandoning the much more sensible and much more likely to succeed grand strategy (neither country has a strategy, only campaigns of tactics) of striving for a prosperous world at peace. br / br /For the single stupidest book ever created by US Generals that totally agrees with this book: br /Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror br / br /For additional information helpful to those who wish to be fully informed and not be held hostage to one point of view: br /A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility--Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change [this book is free online search for title] br /Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography) [This book is free online search for title.] br /The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century br /The Lessons of History br /Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush br /Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA br /The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage) br /The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History br /Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
 Disappointing when it comes to history September 22, 2008
Winston (Canada)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am basically disappointed by this book. I am in no way to judge the sections that deal with the sabotage of the Iranian regime nuclear programs and I think in that regards his heart is in the right place. I am also concerned about the Iranian regime nukes. But I am knowledgeable enough to claim that author has failed so bad when it comes to history of Islamic revolution, names and places of events. For instance, author keeps calling Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the "Iranian Republican Guard". Such entity does not exist in Iran. Republican guard was of an Iraqi origin and it belonged to Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Iran doesnt have a republican guard. Secondly, the author has used the name "Mohammed Reza Cyrus Pahlavi Shah". I dont know where he got the Cyrus from. The late Shah of Iran's name was HIM Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This Cyrus thing is a really silly thing. I have no clue where they got this fake thing from. Moreover, the author does tell story as if he thought the readers of his book will all be ignorant and uneducated when it comes to the Iranian history. Attacks made by the Iranian regime on western nations are very well known and it is no secret. Unfortunately, this book is not what I call an important read on Iran. It's an okay book. And again errors of this sort has made me to give this book only 2.5 stars out of 5.
Investigative Journalism at its best- Iran's War with the West September 22, 2008
Shalom Freedman (Jerusalem,Israel)
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is an extremely important book. It describes in a detailed, richly documented, and clearly - argued way the thirty year secret war between Iran and the West, primarily, the United States and Israel. It opens with a description of the twilight of the Iranian monarchy, and tells the story of Khomeini's coming to power. It shows the blindness of American Intelligence services, and their failure to have a full grasp of what was going on in Iran. The theme of the failure of Intelligence, both of U.S. and Israeli sources, and the element of denial in that failure is one central theme of the book. br /The book also details operational decisions which at the time seemed a choice of the lesser of two - evils but in the long run proved critically wrong. One of these was the Israeli decision and this with American approval to arm Iran against the growing power of Saddam Hussein. This decision helped save the Islamic Republic from collapse. The book illuminates the whole Iran- contra affair and provides clear evidence of knowledge of the affair at the highest U.S. government levels. br /If the mistakes of the U.S. and Israel are one central theme, the other is the determination, comprehensiveness, and ruthlessness of Iran's war of terror against the West. Bergman claims that time and again Iran and its surrogate Hizbollah outsmarted and dealt telling blows to Israel and the U.S. Successful terror bombings such as two in Beirut on the American Embassy in April 18, 1983, and on the Marine contingent at the Beirut Airport October 23, 1983- on the Israel intelligence service facility at Tyre in Southern Lebanon November 1982 , or the US. Army installation at Khobar in Saudi Arabia were devastating tactical and strategic successes. The terror drove the U.S. from Lebanon, and it put Israeli intelligence services into a process of denial which was no doubt part of the unpreparedness which led to the failures of the 2006 War with Hizbollah. br /Bergman gives a lot of credit for Hizbollah's terror successes to one operative Imad Mougniyeh who was behind most of the spectacular operations. He was responsible for more American deaths than any terror force before 9/11. Another surprising revelation of this work is that despite the stereotypical conception of Shiite- Sunnite enmity in the matter of terror the Shiite operatives of Mougniyeh and the Sunni operatives of Al-Quaeda have trained and worked together. br /This book traces how Hizbollah rose to power in Lebanon. It tells the story of how an Israeli arms- dealer and traitor supplied Nachum Manber supplied Iran with the basis for its chemical WMD. It tells the story of Iran's dealings with Russia in regard to acquiring technology for a nuclear weapon, and shows how it thwarted in that route found a way to the technology through Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Kadeer Khan. It gives convincing evidence as to how Iran has fooled the IAEA and the world and continued to progress towards nuclear weapons. br /More than any book I have seen it traces through affair after affair the battle of wits and intelligences between the two sides, and shows how far too often the Iranians have had the upper hand. br /It concludes with a description of the successful Israel operation against Iran's strongest state ally, Syria's nuclear facility. It also briefly describes the July 2008 assassination of Imad Moughniyeh, which came too late to save hundreds he had been responsible for the death of. br /It concludes by connecting the failures of intelligence in the United States and Israel with larger social trends , including a loss of confidence in government. It suggests that Iran and Hizbollah have proven more sophisticated adversaries than the U.S. and Israel have ever known before in the Middle East. It points out that the failures of the 2006 war have led to a tightening of the Iranian- Syrian alliance. And it warns that Iran is not simply interested in protecting its own regime but is rather an aggressive exporter of its own revolution, determined to acquire nuclear weapons. He points to recent successes of the U.S. and Israel , the defection of General Askari, the Israeli stealth attack on the Syrian nuclear facility, the `mishap' at the VX gas facility at al- Safir as a sign of improvement in the functioning of Western intelligence. But Bergman points out also that the Iranians have in supporting terrorist forces in Iraq through the patronage of the Iranian revolutionary guards done great damage there. The Iranians and Syrians have rearmed Hizbollah and taught Hamas in Gaza its war tactics in anticipation of their next round with Israel. br /This book shows how if there is one power in the world central to the campaign of terror being waged against the West, it is Iran. And the book concludes with Iran on the verge of attaining the nuclear capability which will increase exponentially its capacity for inflicting horror. br /The book traces the historical record, and does not as it might have go into the possible scenarios which are to come in the war. br /This book is solid, factual, the very best type of investigative journalism. I recommend it to anyone who really wants to know what has been going in the Middle East, or part of it, in the past thirty years. br / br / br / br /
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