5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Eye Opening Work, February 7, 2010
Alireza Jafarzadeh has written an excellent, eye opening, examination of the Iranian regime and its attempts to acquire a nuclear bomb. This book changed my perspective in multiple ways, and is still an extremely important work even three years after its publication in hardback and two years after it first appeared in paperback.
Jafarzadeh isn't simply a policy analyst who doesn't have direct connections with Iran, as he illustrates throughout the book he has many contacts within Iran and multiple ways to get, and confirm, intelligence. In this book Jafarzadeh does not simply confine his analysis to the Iranian attempts to acquire a nuclear bomb under the leadership of President Ahmadinejad, he analyzes the Iranian attempts to acquire the bomb ever since the earliest days of the regime during the Iran-Iraq war under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Jafarzadeh also does an excellent job of showing how Khomeini and the leadership of the Iranian revolution clearly did not install the kind of government they'd promised before taking power, and it's clearly not the kind of regime the Iranian people want. Jafarzadeh illustrates numerous anti-regime demonstrations in Iran throughout the years. He also places the most recent outbreak of anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations in context. The Iranians are, quite clearly, not simply angry their most recent election was stole from them, but that Ahmadinejad's first election was also marked by clear fraud on the part of the Iranian regime. Ahmadinejad in his first election finished third, until the Guardian Council "found" an additional one million ballots after the Interior Ministry had announced results that the Guardian Council clearly did not like. Given this context, the explosion in political demonstrations after the most recent election is not surprising. This is the kind of context that the news media does not usually provide.
Jafarzadeh's discussion of the role of Iran in Iraq since the American-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein completely changed my perspective on that war. Saddam was an evil dictator, but he was by far less dangerous to the world than the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime is dedicated to establishing an Islamic government world wide, starting in Iraq. Jafarzadeh uses the Iranian constitution as well as secret documents written by the Iranian regime to show just how involved Iran is in Iraq, and the problems that involvement has caused both the American and other coalition forces.
Jafarzadeh's book gets a little slow during some of the technical discussion of what Iran has done in their attempts to acquire the bomb, which is a drawback for those not previously versed in the science of nuclear weapons or nuclear energy. He concludes with a chapter illustrating what he believes to be the different options for the United States and the world in dealing with Iran. He quite quickly rules out a military option because, has he shows throughout much of the book, Iran's nuclear facilities are far too widespread and well protected underground for a military operation to work. Iran's nuclear ambitions cannot be thwarted with a single strike, such as Israel's strike on Iraq's nuclear weapons program during the 1980's.
Other than how slow the book gets during the technical discussion of Iran's nuclear program as it was when Jafarzadeh wrote the book, his writing style also leaves a bit to be desired at times. On occasion he turns a very odd phrase, but otherwise the writing is pretty solid.
This book really changed my view on how important it is for the United States and the world to take a very hard line stance against the current Iranian regime.
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25 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive and authoritative; a must-read on Iran, February 18, 2007
This review is from: The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis (Hardcover)
The Iran Threat is a fairly comprehensive and well-referenced book
on the Iranian mullahs' nuclear program. I became interested in
reading the book partly because of the strong reviews it has
received by distinguished individuals, but also because of the
significance of the topic itself.
The author, Mr. Jafarzadeh, is an authoritative figure on Iran, on
the Iranian mullahs' nuclear plans, and on the Iranian mullahs'
involvement in international terrorism and nowadays the destructive
role they play in destabilizing Iraq.
Mr. Jafarzadeh was indeed the first to reveal the mullahs' nuclear
program in 2002; he was also the original source in exposing many of
the Iranian mullahs terror acts, for example, the bombing of a
Jewish center in Argentine in 1994. Thus he has earned his
reputation as a well-informed and reliable source.
The book is organized in five parts. Each part is divided into
multiple chapters. A brief review of each part follows:
I. A Study in Terror. This part is organized in three chapters in
which a comprehensive background is provided of the Iranian mullahs
internal repression, the so-called" reform movement and its role in
Ahmadinejad's rise, and the true meaning of Ahmadinejad's
"presidency." Detailed, entertaining, and well-documented background
is provided.
II. Iran's Grand Plan. The author elaborates on the Iranian' regime
fundamentalism ideology and its plans to impose a backward "Islamic"
rule on Middle East and elsewhere. This part is well-referenced and
numerous examples, quoting the mullahs' officials, are given. We
learn that we cannot ignore Ahmadinejad's rhetoric like his desire
to wipe out Israel. He and the mullahs are very serious in expressing
their wishes.
III. The Secret Insurgency. This part reviews the mullahs' terror
network in Iraq (which is widely exposed). The author provides
details of the flow of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and infiltrators
into Iraq. Staggering but well-referenced numbers are given.
IV. March to the Bomb. Here the author discusses the mullahs'
history of deception, extensive militarizations, concealment and
lack of cooperation with the international community, and
Ahmadinejad's role in advancing the mullahs race for the bomb.
V. If and When. The author discusses the consequences of a nuclear
Iran and defines a viable Iran policy that will result in change in
Iran but without military confrontations.
The last chapter converges with an important question: how to deal
with the mullahs? The author is inherently against war and military
confrontations (he gives many reasons throughout the book why war is
not an acceptable or viable option). The author also gives many
reasons why engagement/appeasement will fail (look what happened
during the Khatami's "moderate" presidency and all the support it
received from the international: many authors were murdered in
serial killings, more women were stoned to death, the mullahs'
nuclear program was accelerated, and the road for Ahmadinejad's
presidency was paved).
A better solution, according to the author, is to isolate the
mullahs and support the Iranian people and their struggle for
democracy. The author discusses the mechanisms.
This book is an important contribution to the current political
affairs in Iran. It is well-referenced. In my opinion, no
meaningful discussion about Iran can take place without considering
this book warnings and the author's suggestions for a solution to
Tehran's threats.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Ex-Patriot Sounds off, July 20, 2008
This is a spirited, urgent and sage call for sanity in approaching the emerging Iran problem from a Fox News Middle East analyst, and ex-patriot. While not always the most balanced of renditions, the author's background makes him well positioned to have a firm grasp on the meaning of the history of the region, a sordid history that he clearly believes has led to the present international crisis over Iran's emerging nuclear capability. And while he speaks from the platform offered up to him by the hard right end of the U.S. political spectrum, he is by no means just a "parrot" of the Fox News party line.
His main points are all well-developed and worth serious reflection. They are that: (1) the larger threat, the unanticipated rise of an undemocratic Islamic revolution with Iran emerging as the regional hegemon, is in the main a U.S creation; (2) far from restoring stability to the region, invading Iraq, has actually tipped the balance of power in the direction of the radical and reactionary Mullahs; (3) sitting on its enormous oil reserves (and away from the limelight of the American media) Iran, unlike the U.S. and Israel, has been busy building enduring international economic alliances with the emerging powers of Asia; in particular real politics with with Russia, China, and India are likely to bear fruit; (4) U.S. short-sighted policies in the region, have come back to haunt us, long-term -- now boxing us and our erstwhile ally, Israel, as well as the moderate forces within Iran, into a narrow set of unpalatable and ultimately self-defeating options; and (5) that while pre-emptively taking out Iran's embryonic nuclear program seems to be the only robust (but not entirely sensible) option remaining for the U.S. or for Israel, it is far from cost free, but is one likely to end in an international debacle of the likes of the fiasco in Iraq; (6) however, allowing Iran to develop its nuclear weapons, is even a far worse option; and (7) that whatever happens, time and the forces of history seem to be on Iran's side.
The author makes no bones about identifying the ultimate sources of the current crisis as the long term damaging effects of the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran, that of Mossadeq, and the fact that the international community "winked" at the development of Israel's own nuclear weapons, resulting in a dramatic increase in insecurity in the region and a failure to develop a nuclear weapons free zone that may have been able to stem the tide of nuclear weapons' development in the Middle East.
He carefully points out that it was the overthrow of that Mossadeq government that led to our support of the hero of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Allatollah Khominei, the same hero that we had to later denounce, and who later also denounced us as "the Great Satan," and who is now responsible for the current very unpopular regime that is on the verge of testing its first nuclear weapon.
Although ambivalent about what will and will not work -- all options have serious "down sides" -- the author still, if only instinctively opts for a non-confrontational approach. As part of the conclusions, State Department Arms control Czar, Robert G. Joseph's seven reasons why Iran should not be allowed to develop the bomb are quoted, but Joseph too offers only anemic suggestions on what to do.
There is a great deal here to chew on, much insider history on the ebbing-and-flowing on internal Iranian politics and the book is well documented enough to serve as not only food for thought for the casual reader, but also as good reference material for experts doing research on nuclear weapons issues in the region.
Four stars
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