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.