Reviews (Books & DVD) – Page 28 – Public Intelligence Blog

4 Stars A Capstone Work But Only For Prior Readers

John LeCarre

This book has been over-promoted. The ga ga reviews from the fake news mainstream media led by the New York Crimes are probably paid for, and do not accurately represent the value of this book. In a nutshell, it is a good read but only for those who have read all of Le Carre's prior work and particularly the George Smiley series.

Former spies like myself, and incoming trainees, might appreciate the sprinkling of tradecraft throughout the book.

Continue reading “Review: A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre”

2018/04/062018/04/09

Review: Enclosure – Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror

6 Star Top 10%, Country/Regional, Crime (Government), Geography & Mapping, Justice (Failure, Reform), Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Religion & Politics of Religion, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Gary Fields, ENCLOSURE: Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror (University of California Press, 2017), Paperback, US$29.85, Kindle $16.17.

This is easily a six-star work of history, political economy, human rights & atrocities, and cultural engineering.

Continue reading “Review: Enclosure – Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror”

2018/02/242018/02/28

REVIEW: Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus UPDATE to Include Rebuttal

6 Star Top 10%, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Intelligence (Spiritual), Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Religion & Politics of Religion, Truth & Reconciliation

REVIEW: Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus

Joseph Atwill

6 Stars –Destroys the Catholic Church in Compelling Detail

In brief, this book compares Wars of the Jew written by courtiers of Caesar, and The New Testament – by this author’s account also written by courtiers of Caesar. The explicit intent was to create an official religion that would put down the Jewish zealots rebelling against Caesar, and in the process, train the masses to turn the other cheek, render unto Caesar all that is Caesar’s, and love the enemy. If true, and I believe the author has made this case most compellingly, then the Roman Catholic Church is perhaps the most significant and successful psychological operation in modern history; the Pope and the Vatican are bastards in every possible respect; and the time has come to end the Vatican’s diplomatic immunity.

Continue reading “REVIEW: Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus UPDATE to Include Rebuttal”

2018/02/222018/02/22

REVIEW: The Square and the Tower – Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook

3 Star, Culture, Research

Niall Ferguson

3 Stars – Half-Assed History from a Courtesan

Niall Ferguson is neither Will Durant nor John Lewis Gaddis. He is far removed from Howard Zinn. He is, in effect, an intelligent idiot, a courtesan historian. While the book’s intent may remind one of Eric S. Raymond’s classic essay on “The Cathedral or the Bazaar,” or the book by Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, the author – while spectacularly qualified in conventional, which is to say, “approved thinking,” – offers so many false notes in this book in relation to what I know to be true, that I consider this book largely worthless.

Continue reading “REVIEW: The Square and the Tower – Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook”

2018/02/172018/02/18

Review: The Trident – The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Leadership

Jason Redman with John R. Bruning, Foreword by Robert M. Gates

5 Stars Authentic, Humble, Healing, NOT Your “Normal” Leadership Story

This book brought tears to my eyes by page 71. This is not your “normal” leadership story. It blends three leadership stories from one personal experience: a personal failure of leadership stemming from the mix of arrogance and alcohol; a positive enabling leadership environment (not at all the norm for the Department of Defense) that helped this warrior grow; and finally, the personal triumph of being one with God, country, team, and family after being broken by wounds that would have killed most others.

Continue reading “Review: The Trident – The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader”

2018/02/172018/02/18

Review: EPIDEMIC – America’s Trade in Child Rape

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Crime (Government), Crime (Organized, Transnational), Culture, Research, Justice (Failure, Reform), Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Lori Handrahan, PhD

5 Stars Compelling Overview of Government-Approved Child Abuse

I am a Commissioner on the treaty-mandated Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Human Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse. I was not able to get the Commission to drop the Sex word because it is too limiting. Child abuse includes not only kidnapping and slavery and sex as well as physical abuse, but also torture, ritual murder, casual murder, and the harvesting of child blood, bone marrow, and body parts. This is the first book I have found that does three things:

Continue reading “Review: EPIDEMIC – America’s Trade in Child Rape”

2018/02/142018/02/11

Review (Guest): Eyes on Havana: Memoir of an American Spy Betrayed by the CIA

Intelligence (Government/Secret), Worth A Look

Book by Verne Lyon and Philip Zwerling

Review by J. Michael Springmann

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE CIA

READ THIS WELL-WRITTEN BOOK!!! Why? For a reality check. Americans, even those who work for the federal government, have a distorted view of reality. Here's what one U.S. government employee said about this work: “I can't possibly believe that the United States of America would send a CIA official to Cuba to poison school children's milk.” Well, Verne Lyon worked for the CIA, that Agency sent him to Cuba, and the CIA ordered him to poison school children's milk. (See pp. 103-104 ).

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Eyes on Havana: Memoir of an American Spy Betrayed by the CIA”