Customer Reviews

Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I was excited to read this book but I have now put it down and will not finish it. As a matter of fact I would like a refund. Just the inconsistencies with his parachute training are suspect and inaccurate for 1971. HALO school is something you remember I don't care how many drugs you try to obliterate your memory with. I was airborne infantry/parachute rigger in the Army and attended HALO school in 1980. I supported the Military Freefall Committee (SF HALO School) in 1979/80. The author stated that he attended HALO school in Yuma, AZ in 1971. Training at Yuma did not start until the late 80's. His statement that he trained in the wind tunnel at Wright Patterson AFB in 1971 is also not accurate. HALO school did not start utilizing the wind tunnel until the late 80's early 90's. In 1980 our pre-freefall practice was conducted on desk tops and then the first jump was a complete freefall from 12,500 ft, no wind tunnel. These inconsistencies and others lead me to believe that the HALO information was gleaned from the modern day internet research or from watching the Military Channel. I am not going to waste my time reading any further. I am not so naive that I think our gov't agencies do not employ assassins. I am also not so naive that I think this was one of the hired assassins.

In his account about his time in Istanbul, Haas writes about the notorious Gulhane Hotel and the "Tent". The Gulhane was well known among hippies and travelers to Istanbul in the late 60s as a very cheap place to stay while the Tent was a structure the hotel had put on its roof that cost travelers even less to flop down for a night or two.

But the Tent no longer existed when Haas says he was in Istanbul; in late 1971 or early 1972(Haas is not very clear about this). I'm not exactly sure when the tent was taken down but I heard sometime during 1969 that it was removed as a result of a December 1968 shootout between an American drug dealer and the Turkish police. But it was definitely no longer on the hotel's roof in April 1970 when I passed through Istanbul on my way back from India.

Haas's mention of this shootout, which included the drug dealer's name, and his description of the junkie inside the Tent cooking up opium in a spoon and shooting up sounded very familiar when I read it because I had included the incident about the junkie in an article I wrote about the shootout and the drug dealer that I had posted on my website from 2002 to about 2006(along with the article I also posted FBI and U.S. State Department documents about the drug dealer and the shootout which I had obtained through FOIA requests. But, during my research, I had discovered that after 1969 nothing, ever, appeared in print about the shootout that actually named the drug dealer-until my article).

Also, Haas's description of the Tent is exactly how I described it in my article: I wrote that it was made out of canvas and corrugated iron. But it was actually made out of plastic sheet and wood frame! This was pointed out to me by a reader who had also stayed there but I never bothered to correct the article while it was still posted on the internet.

Haas's publishers will be issuing his book in paperback this August. As I've raised these issues elsewhere on the web, it will be interesting to see whether the paperback edition includes a corrected description of the Tent and a revised timeframe for when Haas says he was in Istanbul.

This book is totally lacking in credibility. I find it representative of an alarming trend to publish obviously false tales and call it non-fiction. Skip this one if you are looking for real works on intelligence, there are much better books to read.

I bought the book about 18 months ago and never got around to reviewing it. Let's just say that just about all of the inconsistencies have been pointed out ad infinitum (no, the CIA doesn't recruit drug-addled 19-year-old college dropouts with nothing to offer the world). I'm sorry I never got around to reviewing it while Haas was still alive. I'm also embarrassed for the US Army Reserve Command who employed Haas and did nothing about his lies, even going so far as defending his rights of "free speech" and not taking a position on his book or even giving him the slightest reprimand (Haas claimed that he went TDY under false pretenses, among other things). However, I will post an article from Russ Bynum of the Associated Press. Notice carefully what Paula Weiss, CIA spokesperson, has to say about Haas. For all of the conspiracy theorists who claim that the CIA will never confirm or deny employment, I think this part in the article pretty much sums it up: "The CIA denied Haas had ever worked for the agency. 'This individual was not a CIA employee ever,' said CIA spokeswoman Paula Weiss." There you go. For all of you Kool-Aid drinkers who will still play the game that Haas played and say, "Well of course they would say that," I can only say that there is no hope for you and that you need to do a serious self-examination of your own critical thinking abilities. To paraphrase Sam Harris, somebody could tell these true believers in Haas that their significant other is cheating on them and they will require hard evidence. However, this guy comes along and writes a bunch of unproven and wild claims and you buy it hook, line, and sinker. Here's the article...

Author of disputed CIA book kills self on accident

By RUSS BYNUM (AP) - 26 August 2010

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- To his wife and friends, Roland Haas was a patriotic hero who secretly risked his life for the U.S. government during the Cold War, yet critics denounced him as a "James Bond wannabe" who fabricated a memoir claiming he had been a CIA assassin.

Regardless of which version is true, police and Haas' family insist the gunshot that killed the 58-year-old author in west Georgia last weekend was an accident, a fatal fluke without intrigue or any connection to his disputed past.

Haas was found dead Saturday night behind his car at a roadside in Newnan, a quarter-mile from his home. Investigators say he accidentally shot himself in the leg and bled to death after the bullet pierced his femoral artery. They found Haas' own gun on the ground by his head.

Three years earlier, Haas published "Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin." In the book, he claimed to have worked as a Cold War secret operative in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He wrote that he had assassinated international drug dealers, helped Soviet officers escape East Germany and had been tortured in an Iranian prison.

The book was denounced as a hoax by several former CIA officers who said Haas' spy story was too outlandish to be true. The author's wife stands by his memoir and said her husband wasn't a man who told elaborate lies.

"There are a lot of things that happen all over the world that nobody knows about, and it's supposed to be that way," said Marilyn Haas, his wife of 30 years. "To me, he was a hero. He was a patriot."

Before his death, Haas spent more than 15 years as a civilian intelligence officer for the Army Reserve at Fort McPherson outside Atlanta. When his book was published, former CIA polygrapher John F. Sullivan was so outraged he wrote a letter to Haas' commanders, asking why they would employ a man trying to pass off fiction as fact.

Sullivan, who has written two books of his own, said Wednesday he was sorry to hear Haas had died. But Sullivan insisted Haas' memoir contradicts everything he knew about the CIA after 31 years with the agency.

"I'm convinced his entire book was a total fabrication," said Sullivan, 71, of Reston, Va. "He was a James Bond wannabe. And he profited from it."

The CIA denied Haas had ever worked for the agency. "This individual was not a CIA employee ever," said CIA spokeswoman Paula Weiss.

Lt. Col. Bernd Zoller, a spokesman for the Army Reserve, confirmed Haas was employed as a civilian intelligence officer, but said the job mostly dealt with maintaining computer networks and security.

"For the Army Reserve, there's not a whole lot of intelligence gathering," Zoller said.

Coweta County sheriff's deputies found Haas when two passing motorists heard a gunshot and called 911. One witness who pulled over told investigators Haas was bleeding but said he was OK. He died before an ambulance arrived.

Coweta County sheriff's Maj. James Yarbrough said Wednesday police are confident nobody else fired the shot. He said investigators suspect Haas may have stopped his car because he was having medical problems.

Haas' wife said he had open-heart surgery in November and afterward suffered a mini stroke. More recently, she said, Haas had surgery to remove a kidney that left him with nerve damage to his hands.

"Honestly it was a fluke accident," Marilyn Haas said. "Nobody else was involved."

This book represents the work of a totally deluded individual who has absolutely no understanding of the intelligence community and lacks credibility in everything that he writes. He paints a picture of a world that does not exist and expects people to be gullible enough to buy into his fantasy.

I never wrote a review before but felt compelled to so after reading this book. I was very disappointed after reading this book. The author portrays the book as factual but in my opinion it is pure fiction. If you are seeking a factual, realistic book then you should pass on this.

Let me preface this by saying that I have not read this book and I do not plan on it. The problem, as it should be very easily seen, is that the book is a lie. The same way that, every day, former military members and others with no military background are outed for wearing medals they did not earn or telling stories of actions in which they were not present.

There are no "assassins" in the CIA. This is open-source information you can find online. There is a Special Activities Division which is military in concept, and there are case officers who run sensitive sources around the world. While the CIA has been part of assassination attempts around the world (notably, multiple unsuccessful attempts on the life of Fidel Castro), there are no persons who are "trained" to be assassins. Further, the selection and recruitment process for the CIA is and always has been strict. While not every officer has been great (think Aldrich Ames), they were not drug-addled, ROTC students - made even more ridiculous by the fact that a person like this would be chosen to become a long-term, highly-trusted asset of the most advanced and capable intelligence organization in the world.

Lastly, everyone associated with the author has come out and stated that he is a liar. Former CIA case officers, the Army and others have stated that he did NOT participate in clandestine activities, was not associated with the CIA and worked in the Army's INSCOM as a DA Civilian - which is far from being a trusted American icon.

I can answer pretty much every question someone might have and I would be proud to refute the authors claims. If you want to read about an American hero, read about Michael Murphy or any other person who gave everything to save their friends or their country - not some liar who wrote this book to rape the honor of those real heroes.

High on ego, short on plausible fact.

I can almost picture Mr. Haas sitting at his computer typing out the super positive reviews and inserting links to purchase the book. Good time-saving idea.

I am not hear to speak of the validity of the book. Frankly, I don't care if it is true or false. What I didn't like was how boring it was. 99% of the book is about a guy's ho-hum boring existence. One entire chapter was about him driving around the middle east doing pretty much nothing.

His descriptions of the actual assassinations took only a few sentences. Even if theses stories were true, it was such a bore-a-thon that he should have embellished them. He always killed everyone with one knife stab or gun shot, or neck break. No struggles, no almost getting killed himself, no being spotted and having to run for cover. Amazing how the guy can sit parked in a car for hours or days and nobody notices this or even walks by.

If the story was true, it was so boring that it never should have been written. If it was false, it should have been embellished to make it better.

I did watch part of a video on YouTube with the author. He was telling a story that sounded like he was making it up as he went along. I had to stop watching after 20 seconds.

The ugly truth is the CIA isn't now and never was the formidable operation that Hollywood wishes it was. The CIA hasn't had assassins on its payroll, even as contract operatives, since Vietnam. The Haas story is pretty good fiction though. He has walked his wannabe persona through the settings he would have the reader believe he frequented as an assasin. But any close analysis will quickly reveal the many, many, inconsistencies that are inevitable when one makes up a tale and calls it true. The intriguing thing is, why have there been no consequences for this book at Haas's real job? The lack of blowback does not necessarily mean his employers know his story is true. In fact, if it were, it would never have reached publication, and it is likely Mr. Haas would not be with us. So why no consequences? I'm guessing it can't hurt to have our enemies wonder if we do have secret assasins. For a company that's been largely incompetent in its operations these last forty years, a bogeyman assasin is better than nothing. Saddam had his fictional WMDs to frighten the Iranians. We have our Haas-men to do the same...