Customer Reviews

Treachery: How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies

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I just picked up this book yesterday after reading about it on the Drudge Report, and I'm blown away by what Bill Gertz has uncovered. It's truly shocking what the French and Germans (and many others) have gotten away with, and how they've been willing to arm basically anyone who has enough cash to buy weapons.

Even more frightening is Iran, which has announced publicly that it is pursuing nuclear weapons. Well, as Gertz reveals, the Iranians are much further along than many people have suspected. The tales of the intelligence failures on this and other matters are jaw-dropping.

I have to say, I'm a little puzzled by the comments of the previous reviewers who immediately attacked the book for omitting the role that the U.S. has played in arming dangerous regimes. It seems they haven't actually read the book, because Gertz devotes a whole chapter to the United States. We did in fact make some serious mistakes in arming Saddam, as Gertz shows, but he also makes a very convincing case that much more damaging were our lax security efforts, which allowed our enemies to steal our military secrets.

Just read the book, and you'll see that Gertz is the real deal.

First of all, Bill Gertz is a master at the art of gumshoe reporting. The extent of his research is boggling and I celebrate the totality of his indexing in this book. (I like books with good indexes) His personal interviews combined with hours of digging through mundane documents of bureaucracy have certainly paid off. If any government wanted to both compile and analyze the details Gertz did, how many committees and sub-committees would have had to be assembled?

His documentation on China supplying weapons to al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 is no less than maddening. What have those weapons been used for? Were they used by al Qaeda assisted terrorists in Beslan?

Russia and France don't come out looking any better in their cooperation with Saddam Hussein after the 2003 Iraq war broke out. Huh, no wonder they were comfortable with the UN status quo.

Gertz absolutely shames the UN in their exploitation of the "oil for food" program. Make sure you have a bottle of antacid handy before getting too deep into this - otherwise a person could end up burning a hole through their esophagus.

His conclusions were a little simplistic and pretty obvious. He suggests we need 1. good reliable intelligence 2. the ability to execute quickly on that information 3. cooperation from allies.

Much of Gertz work suggests international alliances are to be pursued with great care. Or, at a minimum, pursuing trusting relationships with some countries may be downright foolish. Trust takes time to rebuild. It's true in personal relationships. It's true with international ones as well.

This book is a must read. Find out how France and Russia helped Sadam Hussein. Read about the hypocrisy of the french and how french supplied missiles and nuclear weapons were found in Baghdag.

Must reading for all Americans. Find out how our "friends" and foes have been secretly helping the enemy.

I obtained an advanced copy of this book, and I was so enthralled, I read it straight through. The subtle intensity of the story wouldn't let me put it down. It was aptly detailed and really made me think about the way the government is running things. The author clearly seems to have incredible sources and contacts, and I am frankly all the more knowledgable because I have read it. As a reporter myself, I have been starved for an intelligent political book such as this one. I don't want to give away any details, but I would HIGHLY Recommend this book for those interested in the real deal behind America's National Security.

Zut Alors! Nothing new here about the French. That country has been friends with the US only when they had a vested interest served in doing so. The French have typically done this, going all the way back to the American Revolution and the Barbary Coast (once helping, once hamstringing US efforts). That Gertz reveals the venal nature of Chirac and his crony-ocracy as involved in thwarting the UN sanctions and attempting to avert US military action should surprise no one. It is surprising that Gertz leads off his book with the French and then the less offensive Germans before dealing with the Russians and the Chinese. The documents at the back of the book show these countries to be friends of the civilized world in name only. Saddam's army was found to have 12 million Russian items, 377K Chinese items and only 115k from France. Many of these items arrived after the UN sanctions were in place and were purchased with funds pilfered from the oil for food program run by Annan and the UN.

Gertz's salient assertion is that the biggest struggle is still ahead as we demilitarize those that would subvert freedom for personal gain. Hopefully after Beslan, the Russians have begun to change course and restrict arms and technology transfers to despots with petro-dollars to spend. Hopefully the Chinese are also reassessing their support of the DPRK as they tumble like a rabid puppy into the anti-proliferation spotlight. Unfortunately, it seems these autocratic governments are but a financial crisis away from dumping modern armaments and technology at the feet of the highest bidder.

...to make you mad. Our alleged friends - and if not friends, then not enemies - were the arsenal for Iraq between the Gulf Wars, and today US and British troops are being killed in Iraq with weapons Hussein bought with skimmed UN Food for Oil dollars from Russia, France, Germany and China. (These are the same "allies" that the current administration is being criticized for not successfully soliciting support from for the war! "Allies" owed money by Iraq for arms.) This is a detailed read that gives a very compelling case for looking at current events in the Middle East through different lenses that what you hear on the network news. It's liable to make you mad to read it.

Bill Gertz has performed a great service to the American people in writing this book. A reporter specializing in national security issues, Gertz chronicles how nations such as France, Germany, Russia and China have dangerous weapons and highly sensitive weapons intelligence into the hands of rouge, terrorist nations. He also provides an overview of many other problems America faces through the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"The transfer of dangerous weapons and related technology is the most significant threat to U.S. national security for the foreseeable future," states Gertz. But as Gertz documents, the "Axis of Evil" (Iraq, Iran and North Korea) have mightily benefited by the sales and transfer of weapons material and intelligence. This is an alarming development. Companies in nations we are allied with have endangered the U.S. and the rest of the world by giving weapons and information to dangerous, terrorist states. The motive seems to be sales profits. Unfortunately, as the sources cited in the book make clear, these friends of ours made little or no effort to prevent such transfers. In too many cases it appears that those respective governments were complicit in the transfers.

Nations like Syria, Lebanon and Pakistan have also benefited from weapons sales and transfers from France, Germany, Russia and China. Gertz goes so far as to describe Lybia and Syria as "The New Axis of Evil." He devotes a whole chapter in discussing the recent activities of these two nations, solidly supporting his conclusion.

As Gertz notes, a vast number of these transfers, by our friends and foes alike, were in direct violation of international treaties and agreements. Indeed, he even has a chapter on the failures of the U.N. and IAEA to tackle this serious problem. In some cases, rogue nations have used the international agencies and programs to further their own WMD programs.

His book finishes with some conclusions and suggestions on how we can get even tougher in confronting the problem of WMD proliferation and military technology transfers. He recommends, among other things, the expanded use of covert action forces that can rapidly deploy and deal with actionable intelligence. Gertz also provides some positive analysis of a memorandum by Michael Pillsbury, which focuses upon new strategies for dealing with these matters.

Gertz has conducted numerous interviews with top American defense and intelligence officials, including Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. He has also had access to many classified documents and reports, supplementing much publicly available information that is all but ignored by Old Media. As a result, his book is well researched, solidly supported, highly informative, and extremely timely.

Treachery : How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies is a book that should be read by all americans.

do that, then call your congressman and do something about it.

In light of the ongoing revelations of the "oil for food" scandal at the United Nations, as well as other details of treachery among our supposed allies, this book is more timely than ever right now. Gertz documents how, time after time, America's "friends" have stabbed us in the back, even as we have tried to deal in good faith with them. The treachery and naivte and stubborness and selfishness of these "allies" has not only hurt the United States, but they have betrayed the cause of freedom and have seriously jeopardized their own existence, thanks to the more cunning long-term plans of global terror organizations. The Liberal media establishment has done a generally poor job of reporting the facts documented in this book. Why? Because sometimes the facts don't line up with the Liberal political agenda, and since the NY TIMES and CBS take their talking points from the Democratic Party, then the media would RATHER bury the truth and propagate lies. This book by Bill Gertz is a healthy antidote to all of that. Read it and be amazed--and maybe angered--at the amount of deceit perpetrated against America by our European "friends" and our own media.

Gertz opens his book with the harrowing tale of a USAF A-10 "Warthog" pilot who was nearly killed when his plane was shot down over Iraq by a - what else? - French missile. He doesn't stop there, chronicling how the Vichyite regime of Chirac ships tons of advanced weaponry to countries like Iran and Syria, or how Putin's "democratic" Russia, itself undergoing a terrifying terror war that recently saw the savage murder of hundreds of children, also doesn't mind helping our enemies in both the Islamofascist world and in North Korea - or a China that floods the American market with toys - but also has flooded the arms stockpiles of murder groups like Al Qaeda and Hamas.

To the previous reviewer who compared this to the shipment of arms to the Contras - it really isn't worth a comment except that the Contras helped bring democracy to Nicaragua whereas his taliban, al qaeda and hamas friends have brought nothing but terror and savagery to the world.

Gertz to his credit (and while I thought him to be a bit "over the top" in previous books) cites documents, sources, and facts to buttress his case that our so-called allies are NOT. Chirac might be John Kerry's friend - but his actions time and time again have proven he is NO friend of America. The French will not, even under a Kerry administration, help us in Iraq, but as Gertz points out, they will never fail to provide aid and comfort to our enemies.

A sober, and important read.