Chasing Shadows
A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice
Published on 22. May 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-230-33991-0 (ISBN)
Description
On a warm Saturday night in July 1973 in Bethesda, Maryland, a gunman stepped out from behind a tree and fired five point-blank shots into Joe Alon, an unassuming Israeli Air Force pilot and family man. Alon's sixteen-year-old neighbor, Fred Burton, was deeply shocked by this crime that rocked his sleepy suburban neighborhood. As it turned out, Alon wasn't just a pilot - he was a high-ranking military official with intelligence ties. The assassin was never found and the case was closed. In 2007, Fred Burton - who had since become a State Department counterterrorism special agent - reopened the case. Published to widespread praise, Chasing Shadows spins a gripping tale of the secret agents, double dealings, terrorists, and heroes he encounters as he chases leads around the globe in an effort to solve this decades-old murder.
Reviews / Votes
'This book represents an extraordinary history of Fred Burton's determined pursuit of justice in the unsolved case of a murder in his hometown when he was a teenager. It demonstrates the uses and abuses of international power and how international loyalties are bought and sold. The story is told in the manner of political thriller with all the twists and turns one would expect. It is constructed and written to draw the reader in and who will inevitably find it difficult to put down.' - Defence Viewpoints, UK Defence Forum Review for Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Expert: 'With spy thriller suspense and the clarity of a police report, former special agent Burton's State Department saga reads like a brewing-storm prequel to the current 'war on terror.' - Publishers Weekly 'This book reads like a le Carre spy novel... Shorn of ideological rights and wrongs, it's a fascinating look at what counterterrorism really means on a day-to-day level.' - BooklistMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Basingstoke
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
449 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-230-33991-0 (9780230339910)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Fred Burton is one of the world's foremost experts on security, terrorists, and terrorist organizations. He was deputy director of the Counterterrorism Division of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service and is currently a vice president at Stratfor, a global intelligence agency known as the "shadow CIA."He isthe author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent and has appeared on the Daily Show, Glenn Beck and Anderson Cooper 360, and on Fox, ABC, and CBS radio. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times, among others. He lives in Austin, TX. John Bruning is a military historian andthe co-author ofHouse to House. He lives in Independence, Oregon.
Content
The Long Pursuit
The Crime
The Lion of Hatzor
The Investigation Begins
Dvora's Quest
Conspiracy Theory
Rolling Thunder
Stealing the MiG-21
The Bear's Black Eye
The Fate of the Evidence
The Suspect List
Origins of Terror
The Birth of Black September
The Shadow War Begins
Unbridled Vengeance
Coming into Focus
The CIA's Involvement
Tracking the Killers
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Timeline
Notes
Bibliography
Index