Review: Russia Upside Down by Joseph Weisberg

This book is a joke. It’s a joke on how demented and caustic American mainstream media has become that you only read opinion pieces on how evil the bad guys are (Trump, Putin, Xi, Elon being in the lead). It’s also a joke on how nobody engages with the public on how to de-escalate the situtation with Russia. It’s also a joke on how simple yet practical the suggestions by the author are which can result in somewhat less animus relations. It’s also a joke, however, on the book itself because most of the suggestions are backed by hearsay like “I heard this…”, “I read this…”. Wish it was slightly more academic in its research. The book is more of a rebut than a refute.

Weisberg himself joined CIA but from what one can gather reading the book, he hardly worked there as went away for a year to take care of his ill father and then resigned after coming back. Still he doesn’t shy away from repeatedly stating “when I was at CIA…”. Well, everyone deserves a chance to pat one’s back for sure. He has brought together several suggestions on how US – Russia can normalize their relations, but they are more oriented towards the extremely biased, and hand-in-glove left-illiberal media. He also counters many famous, standardized narratives which have been paraded long enough to paint Russia and Putin as evil of the highest order. He does refer to few reports here and there but majorly to anecdotal evidence. One interesting postulate he brings forward is of that even the harshest Russian critics of U.S.S.R felt bad when U.S.S.R collapsed because it was their region. They were critics of the communist rulers and politicians but not of the region in itself because there was absolute mayhem after the collapse, a manifold increase in corruption and cozying up to the powers.

A book which is different than the league but not serious enough to garner any major support from anyone whatsoever. Intent is good though not backed by hard work.

Review: README.txt by Chelsea Manning

Readme.txt

I remember back in the days when Bradley Manning had become famous for outing secrets of the abuse of power by powers that be. However, some time later, it was Chelsea Manning who was being named. In those days, I had no idea of trans issues and was sort of confused that why is Bradley being called Chelsea and what’s with this ‘transition’? How can a man transition into a woman by growing long hair? Identities are complex and had no idea about transitioning and other related topics.

Nevertheless, README.txt is an important chronicle of how Bradley grows up in a broken household, struggles to find a footing in life, and often disdains authority. His experiences of longing for belonging and growing up in a conservative America and then experiencing homelessness are touching and makes one understand the struggles he had to go through. Somehow he ends up joining the U.S. Forces after walking into their recruitment camp. But his struggles don’t end there. He tells you how, as a trans person, he constantly faced harrassment. He was good with computers from a very young age, and that’s what propelled him to be in Intelligence in Iraq. However, the journey wasn’t as straightforward.

The interesting bits of the story for most readers would be where he starts uploading classified war material onto Wikileaks, including the infamous Collateral Damage video from Iraq. He writes about the lax information security practices which exist, like the ability to copy data just by plugging in a USB, or writing data to DVDs which could just be carried over to one’s personal barracks. He was however outed as someone who was uploading these secrets by Adrian Lamo, the disgraced hacker who was contacted by Bradley to garner support and advice for making these acts of the U.S. in Iraq more visible to the world. Lamo told the agencies about this and Bradley was arrested. Bradley’s arrest is painful to read to put it mildly. He writes about this cage in Kuwait where he is put in solitary.

After years of struggle and intentional bureaucratic wrangling, he is sentenced. However, Obama, the same guy who doubled down on dissenters and leakers, pardons Bradley (now Chelsea), probably in an effort to burnish his own image, apparently fearful how he would be remembered. Chelsea however is not bereft of biases against Trump and conservatives. He clubs his own sufferings and then goes on an unintelligent tirade that all minorities of colour, gender, religion are being persecuted.

It’s an important book to be read to understand how authoritarian U.S. works when something doesn’t suit it.

Review: Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

Permanent Record

I was quite surprised that Edward Snowden wrote this book. Because he had categorically stated, when he had exposed spying by American agencies like NSA, CIA etc., that he wanted the focus on the various programs of surveillance and spying and not on him. He had purposefully kept himself out of spotlight by giving very few interviews. The writing of this book may have been motivated by financial reasons because Snowden’s assets had been frozen by the US authorities.

Snowden is not only intelligent but also courageous. He exposed the evil ways in which NSA and the likes went unhindered in their assault on freedom of regular citizens like you and I.

This book provides details of Snowden growing up and being a computer geek right childhood due to his dad. And then he decides not to continue his education beyond high school. However he did get a job as a security guard and due to lax intake requirements back then and the overwhelming open positions, he was taken in later in a technical position. Snowden exposes not only the various different programs used by the government to spy, but also how embassies worldwide have become only spots for surveillance and nothing more. He writes how he went to Switzerland and Japan to strengthen the data collection practices. He also is unabashedly critical of the main stream media (not as much as Greenwald though).

Towards the end, Snowden recounts his escape from Hong Kong and how, while at Moscow airport, is interrogated by the Russian agents and asked to cooperate with them so they could take care of him. Ultimately he refused and stayed there for many months. Finally, because he was attracting too much attention at the airport, he was given permit to exit the Moscow airport. He has lived in Russia since then.

‘Permanent Record’ is a must read book. It should be made mandatory in schools and colleges and I wish it becomes a manifesto of sorts for our freedom and tyranny of governments and technology.

Review: Missing Man by Barry Meier

Missing Man

Barry Meier has crafted a thriller in Missing Man, tracking the disappearance of Robert Levinson (Bob), a former FBI agent and who was later working as a contractor to CIA. Bob disappeared when he went to Kish Island from Dubai for a “side trip” to reach a nut head Dawud Salahuddin. The purpose of Bob’s visit was to get information from Dawud about Iraninan regime’s possible methods which may be resorted to in the future in case US imposed sanctions on Iran due to uranium enrichment. Dawud was constantly feeding him how Rafsanjani had spread his tentacles into financial crime and money laundering and had even invested in various projects in Canada. Barry’s narration doesn’t keep you on the edge of the seat, but is more like an undercurrent of suspense which links the whole plot together.

Bob was struggling financially to keep up with the expenses for his family as his childrent (seven of them) went from school to college to their jobs and finally married life. Bob had worked in FBI for multiple decades and had forged strong connections within the intelligene and law enforcement agencies. When he started working as a CIA contractor in the hopes of getting more excitement and possibly better remuneration, he was dishing out copious amounts of reports for his handler Anne Jablonski, who teaches yoga. The financial unit of the CIA wanted dirt on the political elite in Ian and Bob made a connection with Dawud via the journalist Ira.

This book however is also an eye opener that the FBI and CIA are after all two arms of the government, where bureaucracy and red tape have rusted the piston as with any other departments of the government. The details about how Bob used to struggle to get his contracts finalized on time, reaching out to different departments within CIA for additional budget, and even spending money from his own pocket with the hope that eventually the bills would be tabled for reimbursement. But it is also a story we all know too well: government’s shirking away from owning up when things go south. After Bob was reported missing, CIA refused to acknowledge that Bob had gone to Iran (Kish) at its behest. The intelligence agencies were trying (not sincerely enough though) to get information about Bob through other means: Russian oligarchs, Kurdish fighters, Iranian exiles. Then there were people who had contacted the Levinson family through the website setup by them to give them tips. Somebody even sent emails few times from a Gmail id “osman.muhamad@gmail.com” but initially the emails were marked as hoax by the agencies, a decision which came to haunt them later. [The recovery email associated with it is “nsa******@gmail.com”, where the “*” may represent any characters but probably could be 6 characters. However, presence of “nsa” at the beginning of the recovery email might indicate that the person behind both of these email ids is trying to mock the US authorities]

Nobody still knows the complete truth about Bob, though there was a military court order from Iran which was shared by an Iranian exile in Germany. As much as one would want to dig deeper into the mystery, the outline is that Bob was a victim of the worsening relations between Iran and US. He was probably detained as a collateral for bargaining in negotiations. None of it worked though it seems when in 2020 the Levinson family released a statement that they were contacted by the authorities in US to inform them that it was believed that Bob had died while in custody in Iran.

I would highly recommend this book to understand how the world of spies is not as glorious as depicted in movies, and how they too are not above the shenanigans of government inefficiencies and inter-agency rivalries. Then there’s media too which played along the CIA version that Bob wasn’t their agent in the hope that it would be safer for Bob that way in captivity. It would have been a dramatic victory if Bob had been located or even released, but that were not to be (yet).

Review: Spooked by Barry Meier

Spooked

It has become fashionable to appear anti-Trump to sell anything, from t-shirts, to Netflix shows, to books, to magazines, to newspapers, to news shows, to slogans, and even politicians. There only rallying point? Anti-Trump-het. Credence? Anti-Trumpism. Validity? Anti-MAGA. I am surprised that people in US have become so dumb that they can be sold any potion with ‘anti Trump’ properties and it will instantly become a best-seller.

This book is no different, even though it is somewhat balanced in its criticism of newspapers, journalists, even agencies of all kinds. However the cast of central characters in this book is as spooky as it can get: ex-spies working as spies-for-hire, journalists using these spies as sources, weak primary sources being presented as gospel of truth. They say that there are lies and then there is journalism and this book proves that.

The central theme of this book deals with the Steele dossier which was released when the Democrats were trying their best to pull down Trump. All media houses covered it as if that so-called dossier had the ultimate truth within it. Yet none even issued an apology when years later it was discovered that the primary source of the that dossier was unreliable and the author Christopher Steele never even bothered to meet his primary source.

However, this book is not just about that, but covers way more breadth than one can comprehend in one reading. It is astounding to see the underbelly of journalism and I am surprised that this book hasn’t gained that kind of traction it deserves. I have consistently lost confidence in today’s journalism, but after reading this book, there is no way I am ever going to trust all these mainstream newspapers and their so-called “exclusives” and “expose”. It is mind-numbing to read about the politicking that goes behind lobbying and how journalists collaborate with private spies to dig out dirt on politicians and political parties they don’t like. And you thought journalists ought to be neutral? Good luck with that.

This is a must read book for anyone out there who is trying to form an opinion about the kind of world we have created, and especially those who espouse journalists as the beacons of truth (whatever ‘truth’ means). The kind of sordid and murky details that are covered by the author, and the extensive references (in terms of books and articles and even documentaries) make this a great read and no amount of praise would be enough, notwithstanding the fact that Meier was himself associated or maybe still is with New York Times whose bias is as clear as the sky on a starry night. Yet, despite of Meier’s own inclinations, this book will reward you by making you believe in often quoted CIA agents’ supposed famous line: welcome to the real world.

Review: Black Site by Philip Mudd

Black Site

Black Sites are pretty (in)famous creations and quite ingenious one at that. It is only a conniving mind that can come up with such a thing. And the silence of the Western ‘liberal’ media to criticize Democrats like Obama & Biden for not closing it is shameful and a blot on the media and a direct slap on the face of ethics of journalism. But of course you will read all sorts of criticism of Bush & Trump. Mudd covers the backstory of how the Black Sites came to be and the challenges that were involved. He does not divulge many details and shrouds them under pseudonyms. Most of the study is done of Zubaydah. And then he delves into the practices of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ deviced by the well-know two psychologists. Towards the end he veers towards Guantanamo and the various ways in which some of the detainees there were caught or how some others gave up by seeing KSM in a bad state.

This is an interesting book however lacks the juicy details. You can read it if you have some free time on your hands. But don’t expect to learn anything pathbreaking by doing so.

Review: Operation Ajax by Daniel Burwen and Mike De Seve

Operation AJAX

 

There have been quite a few books about Mossadegh’s overthrow and how oil has come to dominate its political tribulations. However, a graphic novel about a crime so serious deserves utmost attention. For it makes complex machinations easier to understand for those who rarely read; but does it beat Palast’s picnic in reaping the goods? Well, no. But you can’t really compare these two here. Because for understanding a Palast, you have to read it thrice: the first two times to enjoy his satire, the last time to link-up the stories. Ajax even manages to put in a few pages of the original TPAJAX documents. It shouldn’t come as a surprise why democracy is thriving everywhere. Ah, just about everywhere.

 

In the beginning there is a cast of characters – Iranian, British and American. The narrator is somebody out of the Ivy league and lands a job with the CIA. And after anger, depression and self-questioning gets thrown in the Iranian cauldron in the 1950s. He is nightmarish about it in his old age, and can’t help but shout at his aging wife and wake up amidst nightmares, just like the Mossad agents in Munich. Anyone who thinks Churchill was a great statesman should just read a few pages of this one to understand why he was not. And if they still believe he was, then probably my definition of a statesman is skewed. The moment when black oil is discovered in the parched horizons of the then Persia, the capitalists eyed it green with greed and got most of the oil in exchange of few million dollars here and there to the Shah dynasty. But in comes Mossadegh, a European trained lawyer, who can’t stand this and ends up as the Prime Minister and nationalizes oil. But the Brits won’t have a thing of it and choke their economy with sanctions and naval blockades. Before they could kick-off the Third World War in the Midde East, the grand-daddy of all steps in and plans a perfect coup, to be executed by the Ivy-leaguers of CIA. What money can’t buy can be bought with a little more than money. Throw in the Red-scare, along-with paid off Majlis, local thugs, buttered mullahs and bribed journos, and you have got the best ingredients for having a democracy on its knees with a noose around its neck.

This graphic novel is a grim reminder of the fact that our values and morals stand good only till they serve us. The moment they start stinking, you got to burn them and grow new ones. And it makes for an interesting gift to anyone interested in Middle East, Iran and Democracy.

Go, read it.

Review: All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer

All The Shah’s Men (Image source: Amazon)

When I came across this book as a suggestion by an online retailer, I couldn’t be happier. It fitted perfectly as the missing first part of my trilogy of books on Iranian politics, with the other two being The Oil Kings and The Guests of the Ayatollah. Unwittingly though, I have read these three books in the reverse order from the chronological perspective. Though I hadn’t ever heard of Stephen Kinzer, but the reviews were good enough apart from the description to lure me into buying it. However, since I read the reviews of In the Name of Sorrow and Hope on Amazon (http://goo.gl/exbfD) I have begun to trust reviews with a less trusting eye, and more so after reading an article on Forbes about fake reviews (http://goo.gl/sJY0R).

 

The golden shiny cover of the book gave it a look of a classic book, but it also had an ugly red colored circle proclaiming it to be a ‘national bestseller’. I personally like books which don’t proclaim what praise they have got on the front page. On the back cover is fine, but on the front page is being superabundant. Books usually by universities like Oxford, Cambridge etc. don’t indulge in such foolish and naive braggadocio. The preface to the 2008 edition told me how “more than half a century had passed since the United States deposed the only democratic government Iran ever had” and how Iran would have been different had the “United States not sent agents to depose” Mohammad Mossadegh and how “the United States deposed a popular Iranian nationalist” in 1953. It continued to explain how “the British secret service worked with the CIA to depose Prime Minister Mossadegh” and that the “United States  violently interrupted Iran’s progress toward freedom by overthrowing Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953” and how Akbar Ganji, an Iranian dissident, reported “Iranians will never forget the 1953 U.S.- supported coup that toppled the nationalist, moderate, democratic government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh” and that “Operation Ajax, as the CIA plot to depose Prime Minister Mossadegh was code-named, brought immense tragedy to Iran“. After such tortuous harping about the “deposition of Mossadegh” I wondered how could this book make it to the list of “national bestseller”; and it made me think about the state of the “nation” where it was so!

 

I did not buy this book to know “how” it was done, but rather “why” it was done. But hope was not in sight especially after reading what was coming up. The author intelligently suggests that the current Iranian crisis can be handled with negotiations just like the way it was done with China and North Korea. Yes, that sounded like a baritone amongst a barrage of squeaks. But it died down when he goes on to say that “in the interest of the United States to promote all manner of social, political, and economic contacts with people” the United States should “invite as many Iranians as possible to the United States and flood Iran with Americans, ranging from students and professors to farmers and entrepreneurs to writers and artists“. People don’t go and settle down in other countries to promote goodwill amongst two arguing nations, but rather as an after effect of goodwill between two countries. It left me wondering what else I could have done with Rs. 996/-.

 

The author, being a journalist, expectedly starts with events on 15th of August, 1953 and rewinds back to give a fascinating yet somewhat aloof overview of the history of Iran. He starts from how “migrants from Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent began arriving in what is now Iran nearly four thousand years ago“, continues to Darius, Cyrus and Xerxes and the fights of the Zoroastrians with the Arabs and the ultimate triumph of a different form of Islam, Shia Islam, in the region. He explains how the British imperialists exploited the region for oil and power and how ultimately the United States, resisting earlier under Harry Truman but gave in under Dwight D. Eisenhower, became a party to overthrow Mossadegh. The book covers how the Qajar dynasty was thrown out with the rise of Reza Khan and the later ascent of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It ends with a very fleeting view of the Iranian revolution. Completing this book gave me a better understanding of the 1979 revolution’s roots and would recommend it to be read as a beginner’s book on understanding West Asian politics.

 

At last I am convinced that I could have done nothing better with those Rs. 996/-. And also to never judge a book neither by its cover, nor by its preface!