Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab-American Patriot in the CIA

by Nada Prouty

"Nada Prouty served her country loyally, with distinction, and, as universally acknowledged by her colleagues, with great personal courage as a CIA covert officer. This tale of rampant trampling of citizen's rights is a vivid reminder of the responsibility of citizens to be vigilant against unaccountable government overreach if we hope to keep a strong democracy, where the rule of law prevails and where a citizen is presumed innocent until proven guilty."
-Valerie Plame, author of Fair Game When Nada Prouty came to the United States as a young woman, she fell in love with the democracy and freedom of her new home. After a childhood in war-torn Lebanon with an abusive father and facing the prospect of an arranged marriage, she jumped at the chance to forge her own path in America-a path that led to exciting undercover work in the FBI, then the CIA. As a leading agent widely lauded by her colleagues, she worked on the most high-profile terrorism cases in recent history, including the hunt for Saddam Hussein and the bombing of the USS Cole, often putting her life on the line and usually getting her man. But all this changed in the wake of 9/11, at the height of anti-Arab fervor, when federal investigators charged Prouty with passing intelligence to Hezbollah. Lacking sufficient evidence to make their case in court, prosecutors went to the media, suggesting that she had committed treason. Prouty, dubbed "Jihad Jane" by the New York Post, was quickly cast as a terrorist mastermind by the relentless 24-hour news cycle, and a scandal-hungry public ate it up. Though the CIA and federal judge eventually exonerated Prouty of all charges, she was dismissed from the agency and stripped of her citizenship. In Uncompromised, Prouty tells her whole story in a bid to restore her name and reputation in the country that she loves. Beyond a thrilling story of espionage and betrayal, this is a sobering commentary on cultural alienation, the power of fear, and what it means to truly love America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2011

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Uncompromised’ is a powerful and timely memoir. Prouty grew up in Beirut Lebanon in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s in an oppressive culture. Her parents were even more severely female hating than most. A civil war was right outside her windows and inside her house there was mental and physical abuse. I could almost grok the brutality of the war but the over the top hatred of she and her sisters by her mom, dad and Fadi, younger brother, made no sense. Sadly ALL the violence rang true. In her late teens she and her older sister escape to America and start attending a Michigan university. They make many mistakes along the way which most young people do.

After getting her masters in accounting Nada applies to the FBI and is hired. Later she parlays her intelligence and Arabic language and culture skills into a CIA post. She does some excellent (and extremely dangerous) work in America’s post 9/11 war against terrorism. Then her family strikes again. Her n’er do well brother attempts to wrest his millionaire brother in law’s business from him by betraying he and his oldest sister’s tax irregularities. The FBI has promised him a reward for fighting terror and his brother in law is a handy target since he’s hiding his income by stashing it in the Middle East where the IRS can’t find it. The FBI uses this to nail the brother in law for IRS fraud and for suspicion of funding Mid East terrorism. Fadi hates Nada because she’s a success. In his jealousy and his sense of entitlement he also implicates her as a counter spy. This is too good to be true for the overzealous FBI investigators. They see the situation as a chance to make a huge name for themselves in America's fight against terror. Call the press!!

I was amazed at how quickly Prouty’s FBI and CIA co-workers and higher ups, who’d heaped praises on her and given her very delicate missions to complete, suddenly poofed when she was being investigated. They withdrew their support in an attempt to deflect any backwash. Prouty and her husband (also CIA) are on their own, their bank accounts frozen, reporters holding them hostage in their house, friendless and family who’s persecuting them.

Finally Prouty begins to fight back using the one of the vehicles that had convicted her. The media. She appears on 60 Minutes and the public and US Government begin to look into her situation. She’s able to reinstate her naturalized US citizenship and get her bank accounts unfrozen and best of all start rebuilding her reputation.

This is a cautionary tale about being an outsider, dealing with prejudice (racial, religious and gender) but mostly it’s about overcoming oppression. She first learned about how unscrupulous individuals will exploit others to gain power and money when she lived through Beirut’s ideological and religious civil war. This was in conjunction with the extreme gender bias her parents displayed. Gender bias is endemic in many Mid East societies but her parents had very little value or love for their three daughters. They taught their youngest, Fadi, a boy, to beat and mentally oppress his older sisters in emulation of their attitude. The FBI investigators and prosecutors were rogue agents who saw a way to make a name for themselves and gain power just as Fadi did. Sadly Prouty was in their line of their fire. The career she loved was ruined and for awhile her belief in her adopted country was destroyed. This book is another step in recovering both.

Prouty’s writing isn’t inspired but it’s clear. On the surface this book can seem self serving and I suppose some will read it that way but it rings true to me. She was on the front lines on our war on terror. On her many undercover missions to the Mid East she had her eyes and heart open and used her inside knowledge to help bring bad guys to justice and to prevent them from carrying out their horrible deeds. She did so at great risk to herself. In my opinion she’s an American patriot who we should be proud of and who should continue to be proud of herself.

[Tara Chevrestt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I'm still reeling a bit from what this woman has gone through. First of all, her memoir is extremely well told. I was expected a lot of telling, no showing and was pleasantly surprised to find myself hooked from the get go. She tells her story well, keeps the reader hooked, educates as well as entertains.

Feels kinda wrong to be entertained by a memoir such as this. The book starts in Lebanon.. Nada comes from an abusive household. Her parents considered her and her sisters worthless.. didn't even celebrate their birthdays. They doted on her brother, gave him the better food, paid for his education, held the girls down so he could beat them. Yea, shocking stuff.

Nada doesn't dwell on that overly long though. Soon she is finding a way to escape to the U.S. where she finds "not all Americans were on drugs or in a constant state of drunkenness" after all. (LOL!!! That made me laugh.) There's a sham marriage, her family coming and taking over, her break from them, another marriage, obtaining a job with the FBI and finally having a "family" within that organization, an organization that later betrayed her.

She talks about Pan Am flight 73 hijacking. Though she went on a bit too much about this, I found it fascinating. Having been a child in the 90s, I wasn't aware of this history. Shocking stuff. She also talks about a murder case. Then she moves on to the CIA...takes covert missions until her pregnancy hinders the investigation.. and just wow. I'm gonna stop there.

The anthrax on the plane.... OH MY. I was biting a finger nail while reading that.

The books ends with her family again. Their mess, their accusations, their greed and hate got her in trouble with the FBI and CIA. Very sad and exciting story both. Well done. I think this woman could have a career as a writer if she never goes back to law enforcement.

[Mh Weyler]

It is an autobiography of arab who immigrated to the US and worked for various government agencies, including the CIA. At times, she seems a bit overdone in the defense of herself, but a fascinating story nonetheless--especially to better understand other cultures. It gives great insight into the mindset of a Druze and greater clarity on life in the middle east.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Uncompromised' opens with a M16 being shoved into Nada Prouty’s face while she was on a secret mission for the CIA in Bagdad. How did she get there?

She started out as one of the verbally abused and beaten daughter of a Lebanese family. She was raised as a Druze, a religion that combines Christianity, Judaism and Muslim beliefs. Not only were she and her sisters maltreated by her parents, she was in a religious minority that did not get much respect. How did a brave young woman emerge from that background?

Culture and her father's financial benefit demanded that she be married off to another Druze with higher financial assets. Also Lebanon was undergoing political upheaval and it wasn't safe to be a Druze in her neighborhood anymore.

Nada Prouty tells her life story with drama and poignant details from the time that she was a girl trying to survive her father and her brother's beatings, to her trip to Detroit to meet up with her older sister and then get an education as a ticket out of her heavily prescribed life.

She has a very strong will to survive, a keen intellectual mind, athletic body and demonstrated her cleverness at a very young age. She had to be in order to escape the beatings as much as possible. This is the story of her journey from girlhood to CIA agent and her
problem that put her career and citizenship into jeopardy. It is also the story of her role in many high profile international investigations.

I enjoyed reading about her life journey and learning more about our investigative institutions. It kept my interest throughout the book.

I recommend this book to all who are interested in the Middle East, the FBI and CIA.

I received this book as a win from the Library Thing but that in no way influenced my review of this book.

[Tracy Towley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not familiar with Nada Prouty's story prior to receiving Uncompromised from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program and I'm not sure I can say I'm particularly glad to know it now. Mostly it was just completely disgusting and made me embarrassed for my country and what was done to her.

Nada was born in Lebanon and came to the United States both to get away from her incredibly oppressive family and to get an education. She made some mistakes when she was first here, most notably marrying a man in order to gain citizenship, but her eventual service to our country should have made up for it. She went on to serve in both the FBI and the CIA and by all, er, most accounts her first -hand knowledge of the Middle East and the Arabic language were extremely valuable.

Then of course she gets completely shafted for no real reason. You can see it coming a mile away, not just because of the revealing title, but because it's set up in a pretty obvious way.

Overall this was an interesting read, though, again, it embarrassed the hell out of me. I also found the flow to be a little off. The first 3/4 or so dealt with her life in Lebanon, her immigration to the United States, and her service to the intelligence communities. Then it dealt with the 'fall' and that portion felt a little rushed and wasn't nearly as detailed.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncompromised is a powerful memoir. Nada Prouty, a former FBI and CIA agent, tells the story of how she came to be involved in the War on Terror, and how she was accused of spying for Hezbollah. She starts her story with her childhood in war-torn Lebanon, providing an interesting and important background to both who Nada is as a person and her desire to serve the United States in the fight against terrorism. She then goes on to tell of her immigration to America, and how she became first an FBI agent, and then later a CIA spy; finally, Nada concludes with the devastating story of how she became known as "Jihad Jane," when she was falsely accused of spying for Hezbollah.

The writing is fairly simple, yet works very well for Nada in telling her story. There were some parts where she discussed her former colleagues, especially in discussing her time at the Bureau, where I was a little off-put because she described her unwavering commitment to justice and often compared it to her colleagues' lack of concern about the mission; while it may very well be true, the tone bothered me a bit, in that it made her come across as having a holier-than-thou, "I'm more patriotic than you are" attitude. But for the most part, I very much enjoyed reading Nada Prouty's story, and I think it is definitely an important and timely one to be shared today.

[Les Gehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nada Prouty is a Hero.
Her brother and father are Assholes.
Kenneth Chadwell is an Asshole.
Kenneth L. Wainstein is an Asshole.
That being said, Uncompromised: The Rise and Fall of an Arab-American Patriot in the CIA by Nada Prouty is an incredible history of a woman able to overcome a very difficult childhood in Lebanon to make herself into an American hero. She has suffered through an immense amount of difficulties, magnified by abuse from an abusive father, to become a solid citizen and a major contributor to the battle against Islamic terrorists. This book will make you mad, and make you appreciate all the fine men and women that work to keep us all safe. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested about terrorists and the people who fight them.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book that definitely kept the pages turning. The author was simply trying to serve the country that she'd grown to love, but our government sure did make it difficult for her.

Overall I found the writing to be fine, but it felt like the end was a little rushed. About 3/4 of the book is a build up to the ridiculousness, and then it's just sort of rushed through. I felt like the reasons she was set up should have been gotten into with a little more depth.

I would certainly recommend it to a friend and I'm glad I read it. Also, thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for the copy of this book!

[Janille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a GREAT story - but I had to give it three stars for the organization and narrative of the writing. But Nada's story is compelling and heartbreaking at the same time.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guilty. And a liar.

[Bon Shoemaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping story of just how wrong the US government can get it wrong.