Customer Reviews

Torpedoed: An American Businessman's True Story of Secrets, Betrayal, Imprisonment in Russia, and the Battle to

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A very well-written, no-holds-barred account of Ed Pope's ordeal in today's Russia. This book makes it clear that the Russian government still continues many of the more odious Soviet practices, especially when it comes to their paranoia about foreigners and the treatment of accused defendants. Ed Pope and Tom Schactman give numerous insights into today's Russian system of "justice," making it clear that having no hard evidence against a defendant (whether a foreigner or a Russian) is not a problem for the prosecution, when it is backed by the FSB and the courts. This should make Western businessmen who have any dealings with Russian military or industrial institutions have second thoughts. As a former naval intelligence officer myself, I would rate this as a five-star book that should be read by all intelligence professionals, as well as all those who would do business in today's Russia. Terry Wilton, LCDR USN (Ret.).

A truly great account of a tragic life experience. Very well written and captivating. (no pun intended) After following Mr. Pope's ordeal in the news, this puts the pieces togeather for an insiders view of the incident. After reading and understanding more what happened, this book should be required reading for anyone foolish enough to consider trading with the "new Russia". A great story, too bad the human toll was so great to get it.

This ultimate publication, "Torpedoed" is a true life story of Ed Pope, that is very well written and will be a classic for people who are most anxious to read and learn about Ed's 235-day of imprisonment. This book is informative, adventurous and is most note worthly for Ed's many dedicated years as a Naval Intel Officer, that will be of great interest to young Americans, who are seriously considering a future as a Naval Officer or military career.

Ever since Ed Pope was imprisoned in Russia, and released last year, I have been curious about the details of his story. What was the torpedo technology that he was after, why was he imprisioned, how did he survive and how did his wife get support from home? In this outstanding book Ed tells it all!

There are many levels to this story. Ed's successful career as a decorated Naval officer. His story of doing business in post 1989 Russia for over 10 years. The specifics of being in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and ultimately his survival within the Russian judicial system. The humanitarian back drop of his Dad's critical illness at home and his wife's work behind the scenes to rally support are all aspects of Ed's story.

It became apparent after he withstood psychological mistreatment for almost a year that the Russian KGB really didn't know who they were dealing with!

A great Christmas gift. This book should be under every Christmas tree as a gift for the person who:
1. loves a great suspense novel
2. loves Naval technology
3. loves a story of good overcoming evil

Not only good reading for adults, but also a great story for our young adults about the reality of doing business in another country. After reading this book, I'll never take for granted our justice system where a person is "innocent until proven guilty".

thanks Ed Pope for sharing your story!!

It is apparent from the beginning that Edmond Pope felt he was something special from being retired from the Navy and founding a company which specialized in projects related to propulsion through water. It appeared that he felt with all the Navy top secret clearances, they alone should be sufficient for obtaining information from those in Russia willing to sell. He knew about the danger of obtaining the information and how his room was bugged and, this was a risky international business he was in. It seems through his narration, nothing came as a surprise to him when whe was held over in the beginning. His ordeal in the prison showed that he had undergone suffient Navy training not to break him completely. By all accounts his wife was very instrumental in getting public attention to his captivity. The most obvious thing that came out of this writing, was that no where could he convince anyone until he was captive for nearly three months for help either from Penn State where he was wroking for or from our government representatives. It was expecially evident, our most highly impressive Pennsylvania State Senators Arlen Spector or Rick Santorum, who representated him gave no reponse to his wife when she requested their help. Only after he was well on his way of getting a pardon from the Russian president, did Spector or Santorum get on the bandwagon behind Pope. I guess it shows that they only play when things are in a positive mode. The book was very interesting and written well and held your attention throughout.

I read books cover-to-cover, good or bad. Good books because I can't stop, bad books because of my morbid fascination that such junk gets published. That being said, I cannot finish this book.

If Ed Pope was not spying, the Russians should have locked him up for profound manifestation of delusions of grandeur. This guy has an extraordinary ego ... . When I get the stomach to finish this book, I want to go back and count the number of times Ed declares himself "right" when everyone else was wrong.

Did our military really approve 126 top-secret clearances for this guy? If so, this issue raises serious questions about our national security. I suspect the navy was as sick of Ed as you will be (if you buy this book), and to pacify his passion for intrigue, declared any trivial tidbit of knowledge Ed possessed as "top secret."

I'll bet most of Ed's 'security clearances' were bestowed in this manner: "Oh, and by the way Ed, divulge to no one the location of your parking spot or the number of pens in your pocket protector ... that's top secret information." Further, I'll bet as soon as Ed obtained these 'clearances' he showed his coworkers where his car was located, and emptied the contents of his geek-badge, just so he could admonish them to take the information to their graves.

On second thought ... go ahead and buy this book. Misery loves company.

An incredibly poorly written book, chock full of inconsistencies and contradictions. I forced myself to finish it, which was not as painful as Pope's prison experience, but....

Mr. Pope makes the point many times that he knew he was dealing on the edge of legality. Indeed, he blames some of his troubles on his associate, Kiely, for having brought into Russia "papers that I had pleaded with him to leave at home" [p 124]. Well, Pope says he knew he was being watched, he tells us he knew his hotel phone was bugged and he made that plea in a phone call from Moscow to Kiely in the US. So why the surprise??

To illustrate his point that Putin is a bum, he accuses him of making cheap election promises [sound familiar?] to reschedule London and Paris Club debt [p. 85]. But Putin can't do that; Russia is the debtor!

He knows some of his cellmates are government stooges and yet cites their statements to support his understandable anger at the Rusian government.

The Pope story tells us something about Russian bureacracy and its vestigial military industrial complex. Let's hope it does not tell us much about our own bureaucracies.

Sorry, Captain Ed, but having lived in Moscow for almost seven years and having read most of the books dealing with Russia since Gorbachov, I have to recommend putting yours at the bottom of anyone's reading list.

I met this man in person. The ordeals he went thru, its just insane. But he made the best of his time in purgatory.
This is another example of burachcy.
For those of you who dont have a clue how the world really is
please read this book.

This book looks like mystery but not like honest and
serious story.Authors described everything too primitive and without
proper proofs.

It took me two days to read Pope's book. I enjoy reading books about the former Soviet Union and its KGB, fictional or not. This book got me glued to the pages.

Should I have been a little surprised at the non-justice handed out to Pope-old Soviet style? No. There is no justice, no matter if it is the U.S.S.R. or Russia.

Therefore, the sentence of guilty and 20 years in prison for Pope showed me that the Russia of today is like the Soviet Union of yesterday. No mercy from the judges, no matter how innocent Pope was. Just how blind or deaf were those "Soviet" judges in the Moscow City Court?

The judges were from the old Soviet school of law. They were only following orders of the FSB (or for that matter, the former KGB).

Yet, it didn't take another Russian spy (like Rudolph Abel) to be exchanged for Pope (as it was in the case for Francis Gary Powers).

The Russia of today did show me that there can be leniency from Putin and the Pardoning Commission, which the book described as an interesting committee.