by Joseph J. Trento
2004, Car­roll & Graf
ISBN 0786714646
432 pages.

Publisher’s Descrip­tion

After decades of writ­ing and research about Amer­i­can intel­li­gence, Joseph Trento has writ­ten the most author­i­ta­tive indict­ment of CIA splin­ter groups, two gen­er­a­tions of Bush fam­ily involve­ment in ille­gal finan­cial net­works, and the fund­ing of the agents of ter­ror. Pre­lude to Ter­ror reveals the his­tory of a cor­rupt group of spymasters-led by Ted Shackley-who were fired when Jimmy Carter became pres­i­dent, but who main­tained their intel­li­gence port­fo­lio and used it to cre­ate a pri­vate intel­li­gence net­work. After this rogue group helped engi­neer Carter’s defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these for­mer CIA men planned and con­ducted what became the Iran-Contra scan­dal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme ele­ments in Islam. The CIA’s number-one front man, Edwin P. Wil­son, was framed by Shack­ley and his cohorts so that Wilson’s oper­a­tions could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA direc­tor George H. W. Bush was recruited into this net­work, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal fam­ily, is told in detail, as well as how this group’s manip­u­la­tion of the CIA bureau­cracy allowed Osama bin Laden’s fundrais­ing to thrive as al Qaeda flour­ished under Saudi and CIA protection.

Joseph Trento has been an inves­tiga­tive reporter on the national secu­rity beat since 1968. He had some scoops in the 1970s, and kept at it through the 1980s and 1990s by cul­ti­vat­ing insid­ers such as James Angle­ton, William Cor­son, and Robert Crow­ley. Through them he man­aged to inter­view dozens of other retired spooks. Now he is pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton DC.

THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT.
Avail­able commercially.