Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush [Hardcover]

Barry M. Lando (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2007

An investigative history of Western complicity in Saddam Hussein's crimes reveals the story his trial never will.

In February 1991, the Shia of southern Iraq rose against Saddam Hussein. Barry M. Lando, a former investigative producer for 60 Minutes, argues compellingly that this ill-fated uprising represents one instance among many of Western complicity in Saddam Hussein's crimes against humanity. The Shia were responding to the call for rebellion from President George H.W. Bush that was broadcast repeatedly across Iraq by clandestine CIA stations. But, just as the revolution was on the brink of success, the United States and its allies turned their backs: U.S. troops destroyed huge weapons caches to prevent them from falling into rebel hands and blocked rebels trying to reach Baghdad. In the end, tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, were massacred.

Because of restrictions imposed by the Special Tribunal prosecuting Saddam Hussein, the extensive role of the U.S. and its allies in his crimes will never be explored at his trial. But as Web of Deceit demonstrates, the nations that now denounce Saddam most prominently secretly backed the dictator from his rise to power in the 1960s and '70s to his offensives in Iran and, despite warnings, took no action to stop his invasion of Kuwait. They also turned their backs when he used chemical weapons against the Iraqi people and persisted in international sanctions long after they had proved ineffective and, for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, lethal.

Web of Deceit draws on a wide range of journalism and scholarship to present a complete picture of what really happened in Iraq under Saddam, detailing—for the first time—the complicity of the West in its full and alarming extent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Iraq invasion of 2003 was only the latest in a long line of episodes of Western manipulation in that country, which owes its existence—and its complex and troubled demographics—to the designs of British imperialists. Lando, a 60 Minutes investigative producer and filmmaker, carefully arranges all the threads of modern Iraqi political history and liberally doles out the guilt. Though the subtitle mentions Churchill and Kennedy, the book covers the period from WWI through the 1970s in the first two chapters, with the bulk devoted to Iraq after 1989. Through extensive quotes from politicians, statesmen and official documents, Lando exposes the duplicity and ulterior motives that have pervaded the West's dealings Iraq. From the CIA's artificial prolonging of the Iran-Iraq War to the legendary betrayals of the Kurds and Shiites, the result has been death and destruction on a massive scale. Though the prose is sometimes dry and Lando's focus on Machiavellian politics makes it hard to get a clear view of Iraqi society, his book offers readers a grasp of the country America has broken more than perhaps any other. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A former investigative journalist with 60 Minutes, Lando here presents a scathing account of the American role in creating, misleading, starving, and ultimately destroying Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The brunt of his argument is that the U.S. has routinely played Iraq for profit and strategic advantage yet consistently evaded responsibility for exacerbating the carnage of its destructive wars and humanitarian crises. In a chapter on the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, Lando describes U.S. efforts to appear neutral while feeding information and selling weapons to both Iran and Iraq. The first Gulf War, he argues, was precipitated by mixed messages between Washington and Baghdad about the consequences of an attack on Kuwait. So, too, did the U.S. falsely imply that it would come to the aid of Kurdish rebels, leaving them to be massacred by Saddam Hussein. But Lando's harshest criticism is of the U.S.-enforced sanctions, which led to a horrific humanitarian crisis, the effects of which ironically plague U.S. forces trying to maintain order today. Lando is, however, no apologist for Saddam Hussein, and this account certainly does not whitewash Iraq's aggressive foreign policy. Fast-paced and thick with realpolitik, this account is sure to draw attention. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; First Printing edition (January 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590512383
• ISBN-13: 978-1590512388
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on the history of Anglo-American imperialism in Iraq, February 20, 2007

By 

Future Watch Writer (Washington, D.C. Area) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books on Anglo-American policy towards Iraq. Its key virtue is placing the current disaster in the context of a long pattern of war crimes and lies, going back to Winston Churchill and World War I. It was Churchill, not Saddam, who initiated the use of poison gas against civilians as a means of control. In the 1980's American satellites helped direct Saddam in the use of massive amounts of poison gas, including nerve gas, against Iranian troops. In 1991 America called on the Shiites to rise up and then did nothing while Saddam slaughtered them. I could go to list even more dishonest and criminal acts by England and America but I suggest you just read the book. If you are skeptical about any assertions in this review, just go read the book. It speaks for itself and is very well-documented.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional collection of ninety years of factual history, March 9, 2007

By 

MountainRunner "Matt Armstrong" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush (Hardcover)

Barry Lando's Web of Deceit opens with a detailed chronology of events concerning Iraq beginning in 1914. With an entry for nearly every year, there is but a handful of instances three gaps in time, Lando sets the factual and methodical tone and tenor of the book.

The book's ten chapters describes the creation and evolution of Iraq. In the first chapter, beginning in 1914 and spanning four and a half decades, Lando begins with a brief but useful look at pre-Twentieth Century history of the region. The real meat is the British and French actions and deals to divy up the region, which Lando uses to draw stark parallels to the current American involvement in Iraq.

The rest of the book focuses Western and Soviet involvement in shaping Iraq through support, both explicit and implicit, whether accident or not. The book concludes in August 2006 in the appropriately titled chapter "Full Circle: The Occupation" that itself concludes by reminding the reader of history 80 years before when the British occupied Iraq.

I found the book to be an exceptional and quick paced read. I also found myself constantly reading hit frequent endnotes. This book is an "investigative history" as the jacket describes, similar to Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City (a book Lando would have benefited from but was probably not released in time for his deadlines), but much broader and with greater reach-back in terms of both time and beyond the immediate superficial players. Lando peels back more layers while not getting analytical. He simply lays out the facts in an effective and accessible chronological manner creating what is essentially a compendum of the essential material analyzing (and criticizing) of Iraq, notably the Iraq War media and texts, through 2006.

I gave Web of Deceit five stars on Amazon because while it doesn't break any new ground in the 21st Century not already documented in other books like Fiasco, Imperial Life, or Plan of Attack, Web of Deceit does, provide a strong 20th Century history, including recent history, overview absent from the above three. Overall, I found this book to be a very good overview of what really is "Western complicity in Iraq" through nine decades of history motivated by short term strategies. However, the book does not feel as neutral as Fiasco or Imperial Life. It felt emotional as if it was trying to convince through facts and not just laying out the facts. Regardless, Web of Deceit should be reading lists (or syllabus) where understanding Iraq or understanding external involvement in creating despicable regimes is required. Lando's book is an strong collection of facts providing a broad overview without sacrificing detail.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The One Book No US Politician Will Read, That You SHOULD Read, June 18, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush (Hardcover)

This is one of two books that I have read together, both documenting the decades of deceit by both the US and UK governments, and to a much lesser degree, by France, Germany, and Russia, among others.

The two compelling facts that stay with me as I put the book down, are two:

1) From Churchill to Kennedy to Bush (Cheney), all of our Presidents in the US, but most especially Reagan, Bush, Clinton (Brzezinski), and the current and failed crew of neo conservatives that use Bush Junior as a talking doll, have been complicit--let me spell that again--complicit in the mass murders, the massacres, the torture that we first condoned and now practice ourselves. The US White House denizens are all long overdue for formal indictment, at least by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The author documents, very ably, a long string of broken promises (e.g. to the Bedouin leader for a free Arab state in return for help in WWI, to the Kurds, etc.) and complicity in mass murder. In the author's views, the sanctions are a war crime against the children, women, and elderly of Iraq, a war crime that lasted thirteen years.

2) Salaam Hussein was a creature spawned in large part by the CIA. Although I have spent 30 years in the intelligence business, it was not until I embarked on my broad non-fiction reading program that I have been able to understand that the CIA specifically, but all the rest of the classified intelligence community, is complicit in mass murders, genocides, running cocaine into the US to wipe out poor communities now addicted to crack, made affordable by the CIA's drug runners, and made politically kosher because Wall Street demands drug money--laundered drug money--for its liquidity.

I join Lee Iacocca in asking, "Where is the outrage?" There is not a candidate for President today, not even Ron Paul, who can outline in chapter and verse, as I now can on the shoulders of the 900+ authors whose hard-earned insights I have absorbed these past six years, the evil that Lionel Tiger and others show is inherent in industrialization and the centralization of power. We need to destroy the current corrupt elections process, implement electoral reform across the board, and start putting bright honorable people in office, instead of these nakedly immoral and profoundly evil creatures who will inflict any sacrifice, impose any burden, on We the People so that they may profit.

A few of the many gems from this superb work:

1) All our Presidents in recent time have lied to us, and the most humiliating of all of these lies was not the weapons of mass destruction, but the abandonment of the Kurds and the refusal to listen when Iraqi generals approached Iraqi dissidents who in turn came to the Department of State only to be shunned away. Salaam Hussein promised to leave Kuwait, but US wanted to destroy his army, and refused to hold off on what proved to be 40 hours of pure slaughter. Gulf II was not only more lies, but the active suppression of facts and dissident views, not least of which were General Tony Zinni's views--he was called a traitor by Condolezza Rice, who appears to know nothing of honor, decency, and truthfulness.

2) CIA is creating more long-term havoc than it is worth. I am finally persuaded, with absolute certainty, that we need to get out of the covert action business. CIA should become the National Analysis Agency, and the small clandestine arm should be limited to multinational operations against transnational crime and terrorism, with an Inspector General in every Station.

3) Jimmy Carter, advised by Zbig Brzezinski, comes out of this book looking both more ignorant and more unscrupulous than Reagan or either of the Bushies. Brzezinski not only masterminded the tacit okay for Pakistani development of nuclear weapons in return for aid in Afghanistan, he also began the process of helping Salaam Hussein acquire, develop, and utilize weapons of mass destruction, and I hold Brzezinski directly accountable for the mass murder of Kurds, Iraqi Shiites, and Iranians.

There are many other notes from this book that I have, but rather than lay them out here I am going to simply say that this book moves to the top of my list of books on evaluating the Iraq misadventure that has given us a $2 trillion debt and 75,000 amputees whose lives are forever shattered ***for no good reason***

The betrayal of the public trust by both the Executive and Congress, by both politicians and senior civil servants and military flag officers, has been outrageous. The author uses the words ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, amorality, illegality, hypocrisy, and cynicism sparingly. This is not a vendetta book. This is a reasons indictment and joins a host of other books that demand the immediate impeachment not only of the sitting President and Vice President, but also of the Republican ***and*** Democratic leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I am ashamed of our Republic and what these amoral thieves have done "in our name." I am disheartened by the knowledge that all of our brave troops have died, been disabled, and suffered for ***no good reason.*** This makes me very angry. Angry enough to begin speaking out, pleading with America to wake up and find within itself the means for a non-violent restoration of the Constitution and We the People as individuals with liberty for all, lest America be disgraced, and our children's' futures sacrificed, forevermore. Shame, shame, shame.

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