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Research – Government FOIA Requests

The following works were referenced by me in the writing of this novel. In the research, I have depended heavily on U.S. government Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, as well as on the work of other writers, from James Bamford to Norman Mailer to T.E. Lawrence. I have listed the following books in the order of their usefulness to my novel, not in the proper alphabetical order.

POLITICS & SPYCRAFT
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda & the Road to 9-11. Lawrence Wright. Random House, 2006.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden. Steve Coll. Penguin, 2004.
The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency. James Bamford. Penguin: 1982.
Declare. Tim Powers. New York: Random House, 2002
Night Heron. Adam Brookes. NY: Hatchette/Redhook, 2014.
The Official Senate Report on CIA Torture. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.
The Armies of the Night. Norman Mailer. New American: 1968.
“The World According to Dick Cheney” Film Directed by R.J. Cutler, 2013.
Chatter: the Echelon Surveillance Network & the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping. Patrick Keefe. Random House, 2006.
Intelligence Wars. Thomas Powers. New York: Harper, 2003.
Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy. Lindsay Moran. Berkley, 2005.
A Colder War. Charles Cumming. London: Random, 2013.

CHINA
Hong Kong and Macau. Steve Fallon. Lonely Planet Guidebooks: 2004.
The Man Who Stayed Behind: An American in China’s Wars. Sidney Rittenberg and Amanda Bennett. Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Holy Warriors: The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet. James Morrison, 2002.
An Illustrated Handbook of Chinese Qigong Forms from the Ancient Texts. Beijing: Singing Dragon Press, 2013.
A Translation of the Ancient Chinese the Book of Burialzang Shu by Guo Pu. Juwen Zhang. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
The Secret of Everlasting Life: The First Translation of the Ancient Chinese Text on Immortality. Richard Bertschinger. Beijing: Singing Dragon Press, 2011.
Foundations of Theory for Ancient Chinese Medicine: Shang Han Lun and Contemporary Medical Texts. Guohui Liu. Beijing: Singing Dragon Press, 2015.

ARABIA
Understanding Arabs: A Contemporary Guide to Arab Society. Margaret Nydell. New York: Hatchette, 2012.
Living with Djinns: Understanding and Dealing with the Invisible in Cairo. Barbara Drieskens. Beruit: Saqi, 2008.
The Arab Mind. Raphael Patai. New York: Amazon Publishing, 2007.
The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Ibn Khaldun. Istanbul: The Olive Press, 2015.
Beauty in Arabic Culture. Doris Behrens-Abouseif. New York: Marcus Weiner Editions, 1905.
Arabic Culture and Society. Hazza Abu Rabia (Editor), Maha Darawsha. NY: Cognella Academic Publishing, 2013.
T.E. Lawrence. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. New York: Bybliotech, 2013.
The Holy Qur’an. Abdullah Yusuf Ali. London: Wordsworth Edition, 2014.

9-11 / WAR ON TERROR
IRAQ: The logic of withdrawal. Anthony Arnove.
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007.
CBS News What We Saw: 9-11. New York: CBS, 2002.
“Leap.” Brian Doyle, The American Scholar, 2003.
World Trade Center: The Giants That Defied the Sky.
Peter Skinner. New York: Metro Books, 2002.
Men of Steel: The Story of the Family That Built the World Trade Center. Karl Koch. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2003.
The World Trade Center: The History of the Construction, Destruction, and Rebirth of a New York City Landmark New York: Charles River, 2016.
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan.
New York: Random House, 2011.
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. Sid Jacobson, Ernie Colón. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.

 

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Interview: James Angleton

INTERVIEW SUBJECT, 1987:

JAMES ANGLETON, FORMER CHIEF OF COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE,
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (C.I.A.)
I asked the dying man how it all went so wrong. 
With no emotion in his voice, but with his hand 
trembling, [CIA spymaster James] Angleton replied:
“Fundamentally, the founding fathers of U.S. intelligence 
were liars…Outside of their duplicity, the only thing they 
had in common was a desire for absolute power. I did things 
that, in looking back on my life, I regret. You know,
the CIA got tens of thousands of brave people killed… 
We played with lives as if we owned them… You were in a 
room full of people that you had to believe would 
deservedly end up in hell.” Angleton slowly sipped his 
tea and then said, “I will see them there soon enough.”

 – Joseph Trento, The Secret History of the CIA

 

James Angleton

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1984 – published on this date

George Orwell’s seminal novel 1984 was published on this date in 1949

The voice from the telescreen was still pouring forth its tale of prisoners and booty and slaughter, but the shouting outside had died down a little. The waiters were turning back to their work. One of them approached with the gin bottle. Winston, sitting in a blissful dream, paid no attention as his glass was filled up. He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The longhoped-for bullet was entering his brain.

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.