Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals ? A Real-life Drama [Hardcover]

David Race Bannon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2006

David Race Bannon's missions take him from investigating the bombing of KAL flight 858 and infiltrating prisons in Korea to the disappearance of London's most notorious child pornographer to searching out terrorists and criminals in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With all the style and tension of Clive Cussler, Bannon tells the tale of how he was recruited and trained as a "cleaner"-tracking down, interrogating and "eliminating" child pornographers who his boss at Interpol had determined were beyond the reach of other law enforcement agencies. From his carefree days as a Mormon missionary in South Korea, Bannon claims he quickly moved into petty smuggling; a short stint in a South Korean prison; a cover identity teaching close combat training to Belgium's elite police forces; a romance with a sultry French antiterrorist combatant (daughter of a wealthy banker with her own villa in the south of France); and, following her death on a joint mission, his assignment to the top-secret Archangel unit of Interpol. From here on, the story takes off. Though describing his former self as always gallant and perfectly efficient, Bannon never misses an opportunity to share the moral and emotional torment that came with his license to kill-nor, for that matter, does he miss a chance to use a cliche or bad pun. If there is any truth to be found in this story, his former collaborators on both sides of the law must be allowing its publication only because they realize how completely implausible it all sounds. In a small category with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind-Chuck Barris's tale of game show host as CIA assassin-this "real-life drama" should appeal to fans of fast-paced thrillers.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A hot-ass read! -- Tech-TV

A shocking tale...a thriller! -- Coast to Coast AM with George Noory

An important book. -- Mark Fuhrman, author of Murder in Brentwood

Frightening and challenging. -- National Public Radio

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: New Horizon Press (August 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882822314
• ISBN-13: 978-0882822310
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

146 of 164 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeking Bannon, October 15, 2003

By 

Geoffrey Ries (Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals ? A Real-life Drama (Hardcover)

Race Against Evil is a fascinating, highly readable and weighty addition to the relatively small number of worthwhile books about Interpol. It is a remarkable achievement that any student of the intelligence community should read.

Often regarded as a mystery, Interpol (the world association of national police forces for mutual assistance in the fight against international crimes and criminal conspiracies) is analysed and exposed in this book by a retired officer of the organisation, and its inner workings scrutinized. Untold tales of undercover work, conspiracies and outstanding bravery constitute Bannon's personal account, in which he avoids more than a brief description of Interpol in the 1930s and the murky years when it fell into the hands of the Gestapo, focusing instead on its renaissance in the 1980s.

Interpol is one of the world's most elusive organisations. Its operations remain veiled from scrutiny and to write about Interpol risks harassment and prosecution, as former members and current commentators know to their cost. Like Britain's most celebrated spymaster, William Stephenson (known by the telegraphic address, Intrepid, used for the British Security Coordination (BSC) office he ran in New York), David Bannon has been taking flak for his autobiography, Race Against Evil. But the life of the professional spy is by nature one of secret accomplishment and shadowy triumph. Trying to shine a light into this world, especially twenty years on, is a daunting exercise. If it accomplishes nothing else, it should serve to remind us of the dark world faced by such individuals.

Like so many Interpol agents, Bannon contributed silently, exercising his skills behind the scenes. The nature of the business is that he and his colleagues went largely unsung. It's part of the mythology. Efforts to emerge from the shadows naturally engender scepticism. Large, reliable news services have validated many of the facts presented in the book. Only one source - a small weekly (circ. 9,000) in the southern United States - questioned Bannon's intelligence adventures, doing so without interviews, research or qualified reportage and therefore it is irrelevant to an educated discussion of the verifiable facts presented in the book.

There is little question that Bannon has an honourable record and that he served Interpol admirably. His publications in Asian affairs and many translations - he read history at Seoul National University - are easy for any competent researcher to confirm. The larger question relates to the substance of his clandestine career. In this, the enigmatic nature of Interpol has pretty well doomed Bannon from the start. The fact that Interpol is still shrouded in public contradictions and official secrecy makes for a challenging research environment. To this day, many of the people from Bannon's Interpol circle cling tenaciously to their code of secrecy. It is very difficult to pry information from them.

Of great interest are Bannon's personal details of French-born master spy Jacques H. Defferre, to whom Interpol gave the code name Archie, who died this year at age 67 in Marseilles, France. Protean in his exploits, Defferre served as a commissioner in Interpol. During the Vietnam War, Jacques Defferre set up Interpol's spy operations in Asia and coordinated the exchange of intelligence between France and South Korea. In this capacity, he also served as a trusted and confidential intermediary between South Korea's President Park Chunghee and Interpol. Defferre's influence extended to helping shape Interpol intelligence and special operations capabilities, namely the investigative branch Rosetta and its enforcement arm, Archangel, both assigned to investigate international child traffic. Among the operations undertaken by Defferre as head of the Rosetta Division at his La Verpillere based operation was assassination of slavers. Accounts of his division's successes helped inspire awareness of the child sex trade at international conferences. A full accounting of Defferre's service has proven elusive: a reflection of the trade of intelligence and the personality of those with a vocation for it. I suspect Defferre was amused by all the controversy surrounding him. That he seems to have taken many of his secrets safely to the grave is the spy's ultimate achievement.

Epitomised in the public imagination by James Bond, Interpol's svelte and glamorous image has been peeled away by Bannon's searching revelations to reveal a less savoury truth. Here is the story of Interpol's recruitment of former criminals during the 1980s; campaigns against child sex rings in Europe and Asia; Operation Archangel; and many other little-known operations. The dealings of the Belgian Beast Marc Dutroux, the Wonderland Club, and North Korean labour camps, among others, are also fully explained, as are the many tensions that have existed and to some extent still exist between Interpol and its sister intelligence organisations especially in contentious areas such as Thailand and South Korea.

It is impossible, under the laws presently shielding Interpol, to write about its daily activities. But Interpol has a history, and this book reveals a great deal. Here for the first time is an operational history of Interpol's activities and attitudes. Bannon's is a searching story of the characters and situations in which the games have been played, and of twenty years of international political intriguing, spying and thuggery - all in the name of intelligence.

By Geoffrey Ries, a former intelligence officer.

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable Account, October 1, 2003

By 

Linda Kurisko (Allentown, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals ? A Real-life Drama (Hardcover)

Race Against Evil is David Bannon's unforgettable account of how be became part of the mysterious underworld that is child slavery--the first and only account by an Interpol agent--and it is as amazing and intriguing as the flamboyant, deadly, terrifying world it portrays. Bannon's inclusion of excerpts from actual Interpol documents bring the events of this tale chillingly to life. He narrates this thrilling account of his own experiences as an undercover Interpol agent who successfully infiltrated the dangerous world of child slavery. During an eighteen-year period, but particularly for about five years in the 1980s, Bannon adopted flexible personae to "buy in" to child trafficking networks. Though it reads like a thriller, this work also provides listeners with much concrete information about Interpol intelligence and financial operations, as well as the grotesque world of child sex slavery.

Bannon's descriptions of sex slavery rings are shocking, but since his book's publication, the problem has garnered international attention. Delegates to the U.N. General Assembly heard U.S. President George W. Bush condemn the international trade in sex slaves on Sept. 23, 2003. The State Department estimates that at least 800,000 women, children and men are sold across borders each year, Bush said, some "as young as five, who fall victim to the sex trade. This commerce in human life generates billions of dollars each year." Bannon's exposure of the existence of rings in the borders of the U.S. has elicited criticism, but the president didn't gloss over the facts. "This problem has appeared in my own country," Bush said, "and we are working to stop it." Bannon is not the only one to label child sex slavery as evil. President Bush condemned the "special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable." He said, "We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil," adding, "The trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time."

To understand the terrible human cost of this evil commerce in children, Bannon's Race Against Evil is essential for public libraries with crime collections.

60 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literate Thriller, May 18, 2003

By 

Theresa Rowland (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals ? A Real-life Drama (Hardcover)

Major Bannon's book is a nail-biting thriller and a revealing expose of the inner workings of Interpol. More importantly, it is a literate revelation of a man's painful role in fighting international crime in the only way he knew.

Bannon has carefully crafted a story that is legitimate in every detail and is told in an exciting style that keeps the pages turning. Not since John le Carre and John D. MacDonald has there been such a literate anti-hero and not since Truman Capote and Ann Rule has non-fiction been so well told. It's easy to miss that Bannon is a great storyteller because his art never once inhibits the book, which flies along at such a riveting pace that it will leave the reader breathless at such unsung heroism and heartsick at the cruelty of life.

Bannon's relationships are detailed with tact and honest candor. He uses well-known cliches as a method to quickly involve us in characters; then he subverts these stereotypes to reveal the depth of the real people he met. Bannon's literate craftsmanship allows us to experience his first impression; then we discover with him that that cliches, like first impressions, are only sketches of the deeper person within. This is particularly true of his boss, Commissioner Defferre, who is revealed as a complex man burdened with a mission and a relationship with the author that is heartfelt and complicated. Bannon shares much of the dark, caustic humor shared by his colleagues in moments of stress or rest. What may seem like a corny joke to the reader is actually revealed as darkly clever and refreshingly honest when understood in the context of the horrors surrounding the people in the book. The shallow and less witty who fancy themselves literate and require that every pun has three meanings will never comprehend the lives of these great men and women whose honesty and humor kept them sane in the face of such tragedy.

Descriptions and dialogue do much more than simply propel the thrilling action of Major Bannon's life. The book is filled with the sights and sounds of the places he worked. There are so many cultural and artistic bits of information woven into the story that it's easy to miss them. Korean poetry, American television, Belgian comic books, performance art, folk tales, and fascinating descriptions of what it felt like to eat and walk in these wonderfully different places. When we travel with him to a country or city, whether a castle or temple, park or graveyard, Major Bannon crafts in the history of the place and it's importance not only to the story but also to the people who lived there.

It is the people that make this book so unforgettable. Bannon's greatest gift is the way he blends dialogue into the action. We have a real sense of what it was like to be with these interesting people and to feel, as they so often did, the comfortingly human need to say unrelated absurdities or acidic truths at the most inappropriate times. They were faced with the unthinkable and, through Bannon's descriptions and recreation of dialogue, we understand the truth of evil and the overwhelming power of goodness in the hearts of men and women who fight it.