Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent
Those of you interested in global politics will enjoy this latest report from Stratfor. This time it is the first chapter of a book named, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, by Fred Burton.
Burton is vice president for counterterrorism and corporate security at Stratfor. But it is his former life that he writes about. He is the former deputy chief of the Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of State’s counterterrorism division. The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), is the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe.
From the book’s cover:
Burton, a member of DSS’s tiny but elite Counterterrorism Division, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums. From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to facing down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against Terror.
In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan-classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”
Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time. Burton’s work at Stratfor continues to illuminate the threats posed by international terrorists and tells us what we can do to minimize risks.
You can read the first chapter of the book at this link.
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He is the former deputy chief of the Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of State’s counterterrorism division. The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), is the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe.