Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent (2008)

Author: Fred Burton
Title: Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent
Pub date: 2008
Genre: Espionage/ True Crime

Agent Fred Burton worked for over a decade in the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the security and intelligence division of the U.S. State Department. During his tenure at DSS, Burton led the Department's counterterrorism unit. Burton investigated the kidnapping of westerners in Beirut, the Pan-Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, the assassination of Pakistani President Zia ul-haq, and the hunt for Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the first World Trade Center Bombing in 1993. Burton provides a rare and clear-eyed look into the "Dark World" of counterterrorism. His focus is on the 1980s and early 1990s, when terrorism was rarely give a thought by most Americans. Yet Burton's story shows that the struggle agaisnt international terrorist groups goes back decades, and, like viruses, the enemy is always mutating and evolving. The book shows that the fight against terror groups is won with good human intelligence, sober analysis, and solid police work, bnot with the excesses shown on shows like Fox's 24. There are a dizzying amount of people plotting against America, the book warns, yet it is reassuring to know that we have people like Fred Burton, serious, determined, and steady, rather than Jack Bauer, to help protect us.

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