Review: Terminal Compromise

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Information Operations
Amazon Page
Amazon Page
5.0 out of 5 stars The ORIGINAL Information Warfare Book of Books
October 16, 2007
Winn Schwartau
I am so very glad this book has been reprinted and is now available again from Amazon. I have known the author ever since I ran into him in the 1990's lecturing on America's vulnerability to an electronic Pearl Harbor. This book started as non-fiction and scared the lawyers so badly that they insisted he write it as a non-fiction novel.

This is one of the most compelling plots, and is the perfect starter book for anyone who wants to begin understanding cyberwar, cyber espionage, and homeland vulnerability. Then read everything else Winn has published.

He is the ORIGINAL, the “real deal,” and one of the talents I most admire in the Information Operations arena.

See also:
Information Warfare: Second Edition
Cybershock: Surviving Hackers, Phreakers, Identity Thieves, Internet Terrorists and Weapons of Mass Disruption
Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids: (and Parents & Teachers Who Haven't Got a Clue.)
Spies Among Us: How to Stop Spies, Terrorists, Hackers, and Criminals You Don't Even Know You Encounter Every Day
Zen and the Art of Information SecurityCorporate Espionage: What It Is, Why It's Happening in Your Company, What You Must Do About It
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time

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Review: Digital Fortress–A Thriller

3 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Intelligence (Government/Secret)
Digital Fortress
Amazon Page

3.0 out of 5 stars Marginal Mish-Mash, Annoying to the Intelligence or Digital Professional

October 7, 2007

Dan Brown

This could have been a great book, but the author chose to mix up a kludge of capabilities, fabrications, and red herrings that in the end do nothing other than irritate the intelligence or digital professional looking for a good read.

The “chapters” are 3-6 page vignettes. The book is totally out of touch with reality and I seriously question whether the author actually had help from two “anonymous” NSA employees.

NSA is cash poor–it does not pay well, all of the money goes to beltway bandits that over-charge for single-point technology solutions and outsourced butts in seats.

There is no 5 story crypto vault. Crypto is the LEAST important aspect of what NSA does–pattern analysis and finding links between specific communications devices is 80% of what they do.

NSA does not run clandestine human agents (at least not legally) and it does not do break & entry, that is done by a special CIA unit that is has been my privilege to help on multiple occasions when I was in the clandestine service.

The NSA translation capabilities are largely software, not hardware.

Navy Commanders are in their 30's and 40's, not “56” and certainly not also Deputy Directors of NSA, a flag officer position generally held by a civilian while the Director is a three-star flag officer.

Bottom line: this book is flawed on so many levels I explicitly do not recommend it to anyone, professional or casual.

A *much* better story was told by Winn Schartau in the late 1980's, see his excellent novel (more truth than fiction), Terminal Compromise. Buy it used, it is still on the mark. Other books by Winn Schwartau that are much better than this low-rent pulp are Pearl Harbor Dot Com; Cybershock: Surviving Hackers, Phreakers, Identity Thieves, Internet Terrorists and Weapons of Mass Disruption; and Information Warfare: Second Edition.

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Review: While America Sleeps–How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Religion & Politics of Religion, Security (Including Immigration)

America Sleeps5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Offering in the Public Interest

July 28, 2007

Wells Earl Draughon

While I am not quite prepared to say the US should be a white, Christian nation, in part because the Native Americans and the people of color we brought here in slavery have every bit as much right as we do to the place, I *am* prepared to say that we need to emulate the Spanish and issue an expulsion edict for all Muslims who refuse to adopt our customs. Any Muslim that continues to beat their wife and demand that she dress in Muslim fashion, should be shown the way out of here. Any Muslim that speaks or hears without protest the advocation of the murder of Americans on American soil should be immediately evicted with all property confiscated. Indeed, I am beginning to believe that we should outlaw foreign ownership of anything and especially land, as well as absentee landlords, and of course revoke corporate personality.

I am going to list some books at the end of this review because while the author is utterly brilliant and on point, he overlooks all the evil things the US Government is doing “in our name,” and I will be the first to say we cannot restore our Republic unless we first restore both our moral compass and the sovereignty of We the People, demanding that the Constitution and Electoral Reform be the only two issues that matter henceforth.

The authors table of contents says it all, and I have never seen a better more organized laydown of content than this one, so good that I am spelling it out here because for many, the table of contents alone is sufficient (but I urge buying the book, it is very readable and thought-provoking).

An Economy in Hock
La Reconquista (the Reconquering, Mexico has gotten all the way back to the Guadalupe-Hidalgo line)
Absolishing Self-Defense
Subordinating Ourselves
Subordinating Our Culture
Subordinating Our Country
An Ideology of Submission
Enforcing the Ideology
Disabling Americans
Spreading the Ideology
Can America Be Saved?
Reclaiming the Individual
Reclaiming the Economy
Reclaiming the Government
If All Else Fails

This is an enormously important book that speaks to the heart and mind of every person of any race or faith who believes in America the Beautiful, in dignity, justice, and liberty for all. That's not what we stand for today, and that is a travesty of epic proportions.

One final observation: the author is completely correct in all that he says, but we have to recognize that it is the virtual colonialism, unilateral militarism, and predatory immoral capitalism (a class war on both our workers and middle class and those of other countries) that are the foundation for the mass immigration toward America. There is plenty of money for peace–for just one third of the $900 billion a year military budgets of all nations, we can resolve every single one of the ten high-level threats to humanity identified by the United Nations (with LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft representing America) and created infinite stabilizing wealth, what Medard Gabel calls in his forthcoming book, “Seven Billion Billionaries.” We know what needs to be done, we have to take back control of the US Government from the corrupt politicians and crooked Wall Street gangs that have legalized the marginalization of the majority of all citizens.

The blind support for an Israel that is both fascist and genocidal, combined with the idiocy of hundreds of billions of dollars for Egyptian arms purchases and total subservicen to the depraved and desposit Saudi regime are signs of a government that is totally out of touch with both reality, and the possibilities of peace and prosperity. No one in Washington cares about us, only about their next bribe or paycheck or lunch hour.

The books below are a tiny subset–see my lists for many more.
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage

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Review: Wars of Blood and Faith–The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century

5 Star, America (Anti-America), Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Civil Affairs, Country/Regional, Culture, DVD - Light, Diplomacy, Force Structure (Military), Future, Geography & Mapping, History, Insurgency & Revolution, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Religion & Politics of Religion, Security (Including Immigration), Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, War & Face of Battle

Blood and Faith5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Read This More Than Once, and Learn Each Time

July 22, 2007

Ralph Peters

Ralph Peters is one of a handful of individuals whose every work I must read. See some others I recommend at the end of this review. Ralph stands alone as a warrior-philosopher who actually walks the trail, reads the sign, and offers up ground truth.

This book is deep look at the nuances and the dangers of what he calls the wars of blood and faith. The introduction is superb, and frames the book by highlighting these core matters:

* Washington has forgotten how to think.
* The age of ideology is over. Ethnic identity will rule.
* Globalization has contradictory effects. Internet spreads hatred and dangerous knowledge (e.g. how to make an improvised explosive device).
* The post-colonial era has begun.
* Women's freedom is the defining issue of our time.
* There is no way to wage a bloodless war.
* The media can now determine the war's outcome. I don't agree with the author on everything, this is one such case. If the government does not lie, the cause is just, and the endeavor is effectively managed, We the People can be steadfast.

A couple of expansions. I recently posted a list of the top ten timeless books at the request of a Stanford '09, and i7 includes Philip Allott's The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State. Deeper in the book the author has an item on Blood Borders, and it tallies perfectly with Allott's erudite view that the Treaty of Westphalia was a huge mistake–instead of creating artificial states (5000 distinct ethnic groups crammed into 189+ artificial political entities) we should have gone instead with Peoples and especially Indigenous Peoples whose lands and resources could not be stolen, only negotiated for peacefully. Had the USA not squandered a half trillion dollars and so many lives and so much good will, a global truth and reconciliation commission, combined with a free cell phone to every woman among the five billion poor (see next paragraph) could conceivably have achieved a peaceful reinvigoration of the planet with liberty and justice for peoples rather than power and wealth for a handful.

The author's views on the importance of women stem from decades of observation and are supported by Michael O'Hanlon's book, A Half Penny on the Federal Dollar: The Future of Development Aid, in which he documents that the single best return on investment for any dollar is in the education of women. They tend to be secular, appreciate sanitation and nutrition and moderation in all things. The men are more sober, responsible, and productive when their women are educated. THIS, not unilateral militarism, virtual colonialism, and predatory immoral capitalism, should be the heart of our foreign policy.

The book is organized into sections I was not expecting but that both make sense, and add to the whole. Part I is 17 short pieces addressing the Twenty-First Century Military. Here the author focuses on the strategic, lambastes Rumsfeld for not listening, and generally overlooks the fact that all our generals and admirals failed to be loyal to the Constitution and instead accepted illegal orders based on lies.

In Part II, Iraq and Its Neighbors, we have 24 pieces. The best piece by far in terms of provocative strategic value is “Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East Would Look.” Curiously he does not address Syria or Lebanon, but I expect he will since the Syrians just evacuated Lebanon and Syria and Iran appear to be planning for a pincer movement on Baghdad after they cut the ground supply line from Kuwait.

A handful of pieces, 5 in all, are grouped in Part III, The Home Front. The best two for me were “Our Strategic Intelligence Problem” in which he points out that more money and more technology are NOT going to make us smarter, it is humans with history, culture, language, and eyes on the target that will tease out the nuances no satellite can handle. He also points out how easily our satellites are deceived. I share his anguish in the piece on “Lynching the Marines.” I called and emailed the Colonel at HQMC in charge of the defense, and offered a heat stress defense that I had just learned about from a NASA engineer helping firefighters. If the body gets too hot, the brain starts to fry, and irrational behavior is the norm. The Colonel declined to acknowledge. That told me all I needed to know about how the Marines were all too eager to hang their own.

Part V was the most unfamiliar to me, covering Israel and Hezbollah. In 17 pieces, the author, an avowed supporter of Israel, pulls no punches, tarring and feathering the Israelis for being corrupt (selling off their military supplies on the black market (to whom, one wonders, since the only people in the market are terrorists?) confident the US will resupply them) and militarily and politically incompetent. To which I would add economically stupid and morally challenged–Stealing 50% of the water Israel uses to do farming that is under 5% of the GDP is both nuts and short-sighted. See the brief by Chuck Spinney at OSS.Net.

Part V, The World Beyond, is a philosophical tour of the horizon, from water wars and plagues (see my lists for books on each of the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challengers), to precision knifing of Russia, France, and Europe. Darfur, one of over 15 genocides being ignored right now (Darfur because Sudan pretends to be helping on terrorism and the US does not have the will or the means to be effective there) is touched on.

The book ends marvelously with a piece on “The Return of the Tribes,” a piece that emphasizes the role of religion and the exclusivity of cults and specific localized tribes. They don't want to be integrated nor do they want new members.

Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places)
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

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Review: Devil’s Game–How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (American Empire Project)

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Religion & Politics of Religion, Terrorism & Jihad, War & Face of Battle

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

Complements Web of Deceit

June 21, 2007

Robert Dreyfuss

Robert Dreyfuss interviewed me once, for a piece in WIRED or Mother Jones, and I remember him as a serious, methodical person. It is no surprise to find him producing this meticulously documented and objectively constructed history, a perfect complement to Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush, on whose Amazon page I have a more detailed review of the overall topic.

The author captures the essence in his own introduction: the US was so focused on anti-communism and anti-Soviet campaigns that it deliberately chose to sponsor extreme rightist Islamic fundamentalists, fascists in their own way as the extreme right in America is today (see American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America).

The author is very specific in addressing how the US feared “nationalism, humanism, secularism, socialism” in its obsession with countering the Soviets, and so it chose to aid Islamic fundamentalists who opposed those more rational and publicly-oriented altneratives. In essence, the premise of the invasion of Iraq, that we are doing it to spread democracy, is yet another big lie–we have been denying democracy to the Arabs every since Roosevelt met with the Saudi king and formed a pact with the devil himself.

I totally agree with the author as he documents and sums up his own view that “A war on terrorism is precisely the wrong way to deal with the challenge posed by political Islam.”

The author offers four prescriptions for US action, and at the end here I list some relevant books that provide a broader context:

1) Remove the grievances–US troops in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, support for Israel's genocide against the Palestinians, support for Israel's plans to attack Iran

2) Abandon imperial pretentions in the Middle East

3) Refrain from seeking to impose preferences–political, economic, cultural, or religious, on the region

4) Stop making bellicose threats against Islamic nations from Iran to Sudan (and I would add, to Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and others)

I am reminded by this book of the common sense prescriptions in Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. The raw fact is that the global literature is coming around to three points of view that are inter-related:

1) Bin Laden is largely right and on firm grounds in taking on both the debauched Saudi regime and the amoral unilaterally invasive US

2) Dick Cheney has committed so many high crimes and misdemeanors, with similar high crimes at the operational level (warrantless wiretapping on Americans, rendition and torture of all others) that America has lost all moral legitimacy both at home and abroad

3) We have the wrong global strategy, indeed we have no global strategy–we are trying to put out a forest fire with a hammer.

Some of the reviewers jump to conclusions, for example, the CIA was NOT really trying to ramp up the war in Afghanistan, until Congressman Charlie Wilson made it his personal vendetta. There is a much larger context within which American incompletence at world affairs can be judged, and it includes the shortcomings of the US educational system, the corruption of the US electoral system, and the grotesque dysfunctionality of the “winner take all” US system of governance. I hope some of the books below–or at least my reviews of them–will provide addtional context for this excellent work. See Web of Deceit for detailed comments I choose not to repeat here–the two books are a good combination with some overlap.

The American Empire Project has produced some really first-rate books on their chosen theme, and for this they are to be praised.

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times
The Black Tulip: A Novel of War in Afghanistan
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)

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Review: The True Cost of Conflict/Seven Recent Wars and Their Effects on Society

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atrocities & Genocide, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Government), Misinformation & Propaganda, True Cost & Toxicity, War & Face of Battle

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Ten Years Ahead of Its Time, Now Part of “True Cost” Meme,

January 4, 2007
Michael Cranna
This book was ten years ahead of its time in relation to the emergent “true cost” meme that is exploding as the public acquires access to more information and the tools to make sense of that information.

The author has done a first-rate job of looking at seven conflicts and their costs or (rarely) benefits. This is precisely the kind of analysis that is needed if Congresses and Parliaments are to be educated and weaned away from the bankers fondness for war and credit for war as a profit harvesting opportunity.

I recommend that in addition to this book, the reader consider General Smedley Butler's book, “War is a Racket,” and the superb book by Cees Wiebes, “Intelligence and the War in Bosnia” (see my review for lessons learned).

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Review: Target Iran–The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change

4 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Congress (Failure, Reform), Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), War & Face of Battle, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

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Critical Piece of the Puzzle, Not the Whole Picture,

December 27, 2006
Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter was proven correct about Iraq not having weapons of mass destruction, and this alone demands our respectful attention to his views of the foolishness of attacking Iran.

There are other reviews of the substance of this book that are excellent, so here I just wish to contribute three supporting observations:

1) Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror by LtGen Thomas McInerney and MajGen Paul Vallely, was published in 2004 and lays out the complete plan for US military domination of the Middle East, with Iran following Iraq, and then Syria etcetera. As lunatic as the plan may be (see my review for more details) it is a plan that will be carried out as long as Dick Cheney remains Vice President and George Bush Junior remains a fool who is clearly in way over his head.

2) Howard Bloom, who understood the coming Sunni versus Shi'ite world war for the soul of Islam, writing about it in The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History, now warns of a likely Iranian masterplan that first used Ahmed Chalabi to lure the American neo-cons into Iraq, and now has lured four carriers, two strike groups and an amphibious group within range of the supersonic Sunburn missile that carried a nuclear warhead, can explode a carrier, and travel at 3.0 Mach straight line, or 2.2 Mach when zig-zagging.

3) In addition to Scott Ritter's excellent analysis of how Iran can turn off the oil supply in Iran, portions of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Kuwait, it is helpful to consider the extreme vulnerability of the US land supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad. A slide by Webster Tarpley showing this vulnerability is posted above.

Ritter gets a lot of respect from me–his integrity took him from a relatively minor position as a Marine Corps field grade officer, and elevated him to the role of speaker of truth for the public. I think he is right–the US will attack Iran, ostensibly in support of Israel–and this will be the greatest disaster of the 21st century, setting off a true world war between Sunni and Shi'ite in which the Christians are the “collateral damage” while the Jews experience a new form of genocide. I just shake my head, feeling helpless, wondering what it takes to get Scott Ritter's important knowledge in front of Congress.

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