Customer Reviews

America at Night: The True Story of Two Rogue CIA Operatives, Homeland Security Failures,Dirty Money, and a Plot to Steal the 2004 U.S. PresidentialElection- by theForm

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

America at Night starts on a sunny day in the Hollywood Hills, but it soon turns dark, moving, sinuous and sinister, through the back streets and back rooms of New York, Washington, Beirut, Miami. It is a frightening story of homeland security failures and of rogue ex-CIA operatives beating the U.S. security services at almost every turn. As frightening as this true story is, it is equally entertaining, because it is beautifully written in the style of a thriller, and it is satisfying, perhaps especially because in the end the truly astonishing and evil villain of the story is brought to justice with surprising results. The whole thing would be unbelievable were it not extensively documented and corroborated. Reading America at Night was the best few hours of reading I've experienced in years.

America at Night is one of the most riveting books I've read in a long while. I absolutely couldn't put it down. Not only is the story completely intriguing, but Kolb--unlike many true crime authors--can really write. The man is obviously a born storyteller. And in this case, the story he's telling happens to be true--which makes the book all the more fascinating. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in how politics really works in this country, or anyone that just enjoys a compulsive, compelling read.

With the 2008 Presidential elections approaching, everyone interested in the secret war conducted beneath the surface by both major U.S. political parties should read this book. For fans of spy novels, this book is written in the style of espionage fiction, but it is even more compelling and frightening because it is true (and extensively documented and corroborated both inside the book and on the author's website). For those interested in political intrigues, as I am, this book is riveting. Though, in the case of the story told in this book, it is Republican covert operatives (a fascinating pair of former CIA agents, now con men claiming that they are still CIA agents, while making millions for themselves) working against the interests of the Democratic candidate for President during the 2004 election, as the author admits, both parties probably conduct this sort of covert political operation against the other party in most major elections. But the intricacy and audicity of the plot revealed in this book must be unique. It is an amazing read.

This book has some very interesting insight into a real story that depicts how some things work in this world... how someone can get all the way to the "kitchen" with the Bush's and be an outlaw. Very well written novel also! Only con would be some far fetched conspiracy theeories laid out at the beginning of the book and never proved during the book.

I'm sure most of what Mr. Kolb says is true about Hirschfeld and Sensi but I suspect he uses this capital to serve his ultimate goal -- to trash everything Republican. As a hit piece of this magnitude he is unconvincing. Ironically, if the picture Kolb has painted of these two con men is accurate and their abilitiy to use powerful figures is proven, then why is he not looking to find innocence in the many Republican politicians that seem to have been used? Why does he automatically see conspiracy on a wider scale within the GOP?

He seems to trust "The Gray Eminence" and other people he has actually talked to like Engin Yesil. John Kerry is a war hero (Bush a poseur). He uses the term neo-con as a perjorative. Wolfowitz, Rice et al are war mongers out of touch with what....the omniscient benevolence of the Kerry team? A balanced outing of the "facts" would have at least included some rebuttal. There is none. He says at the beginning he is non-partisan. Nice try.

He believes he is saving the world from evil. Has Kolb read Bill Sammon's book "At Any Cost - How Al Gore Tried To Steal The Election"? How that egalitarian and progressive organization, the Chicago Daley Machine was called in as a fixer for the Florida recount? There is no paucity of evil in America. Why be seletive?

The fact is that both parties have operatives. Both parties are involved in scullduggery. And because of the hightened political climate both parties have a stake in deeming the other an enemy. I think the day of a mere advisarial relationship between left and right is over.

We all pick sides. Kolb is on the Democratic team.

An entertaining book, as long as you don't believe the far-fetched conspiracy theories. The author takes a fact here, a factoid there, on and on and tries to put them together for a grand conspiracy. As far as I could tell, it's really just the story of some con men, talented and interesting though they were.

This started off as interesting, but I lost interest when he started writing page after page about Muhammud Ali as the greatest man who ever lived. Toward the end, the book became a reason to bash the right, although the author claims he isn't. Kold is a left wing partisan, and it shows. Too bad, as the books holds real promise.

The author, while entertaining, has created a web of fiction out of unrelatd events and makes wild leaps that can't be corroborated or verified. The so-called documentation only puts people in certain places and does document the actual crimes of Mr. Sensi and Mr. Hirschfeld. The rest is so improbable as to be laugh out loud funny. When the turk proclaims that Larry saved his life because Hirschfeld rented an office across the water where he could be sureveilled OR sniped at is the height of non-sense. The only case of someone actually ending up dead that involved Mr. Hirschfeld turned out in the end to be a red-herring because the facts showed NO foul play. Mr. Kolb may have been all he claims but he likes to drop names of the famous more than facts. The best part is where he proclaims he is neither republican or democrat but oddly enough every villain he faces (in his mind anyway)is a republican. Even when two democrats blow his cover while covering their own behinds he finds a way to feel they were just doing what they felt they had to do. Anytime someone feels the need to tell you they don't have an axe to grind you need to wonder why they would tell you that. Especially when you stop to consider that it is all supposed to be extensively documented. If it's a documented fact then you don't need to tell anyone your motivations. Assuming you're a decent person you're just doing the right thing. On the other hand when you're making wild unsubstantiated and unprovable claims you have to say something.

I tried to read it with an open mind. But toward the end Mr. Kolb apparently hadn't felt he had made the case strong enough so he tries to tie it in to, wait for it, yep, you guessed it, Watergate. That old boogeyman of the right-wing conspirators. For Pete's sake it is over man. Watergate is over. Nixon is dead. Mark Felt is outed as deep-throat. Everyone that went to prison did their time. It's over.

Supposedly, Kolb was the only guy in the world who figured out that these two were going to fix the 2004 election and ruin Kerry. The only problem is there is NO documentation that supports that wild theory. There are the slightest threads of connections that Oliver Stone couldn't create a conspiracy out of and the reason you know it isn't true is A)it never came to pass B)the guy that Sensi and Hirschfeld were after, they had started on in 1996! correction later in the book it's 1986! What foresight! C) Every bad guy in the book is a republican (not that there aren't bad ones, but there are good and bad everywhere, but he only sees bad guys when he sees a republican) and they were all involved in either Wateregate or Clintons impeachement. Let's just remember folks that there were more than a smattering of democrats who got on the old impeachment bandwagon for good or for ill. It may make them political hacks it does not make them evil henchmen.

Now I gave the book a 2 because as I said the guy writes well. He is deluded but he writes well. Secondly I found the actual things those two guys were up to absolutely fascinating and scary as hell. They really were very bad guys. But sorry folks Mr. Kolb didn't bring them down. The FBI was all over these guys.

That brings up an interesting point. It is alledged these two were CIA at some point. Probably were. Mr. Kolb makes the point rather firmly that spooks don't like to arrest other spooks. And they don't like to arrest lackeys when they can hang back and ultimately nab Mr. Big. Then he spends the rest of the book wondering why no one grabs these two and arrests them. If they really are looking for the republican kingpin who masterminded it all (oh yeah spoiler alert, it's Karl Rove) why would they arrest them. After all they are trying to get Mr. Big.

Mr. Kolb should come out of the closet and admit he's a democrat shil and he should take up his pen and write thrillers and fiction. I'd be a big fan. But for this I want someone to give me my money back because I bought it as a work of non-fiction.

As an example of the fiction part. It is well established in the congressional record that Joe Wilson lied, read that told a big fib, when he wrote that he A) wrote a report that detailed that Iraq had not tried to buy yellow cake from Niger B) that he was sent there by the office of the Vice President. It is well known by those who wish to be educated and not blinded by political partisanship that Mr. Wilsons trip 'validated' the claim and that his wife offered him up in a memo to her boss at the CIA as the man for the job. But Mr. Kolb who should know better since he has all the facts on everything according to him that this is the case and yet he states in the book that it was the other way around. Oh yeah his 'documentation' was from the guy who lied. Try the congressional for the truth where Mr. Wilson admitted he lied. If he (Mr. Kolb) can't be relied on to give the facts about this then the rest of his treatise is in question.