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Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America
From the New York Times bestselling coauthors of Under Fire --the riveting story of the kidnapping and murder of CIA Station Chief William Buckley.
After a deadly terrorist bombing at the American embassy in Lebanon in 1983, only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the William Buckley. But the new Beirut station chief quickly became the target of a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh.
Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley's abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen government documents as well as interviews with Buckley's co-workers, friends and family, Burton and Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.
After a deadly terrorist bombing at the American embassy in Lebanon in 1983, only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the William Buckley. But the new Beirut station chief quickly became the target of a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh.
Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley's abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen government documents as well as interviews with Buckley's co-workers, friends and family, Burton and Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.
398 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 23, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
January 21, 2021
If you think the CIA is heroic and seeks to spread freedom and democracy around the world and especially the Middle East, this book is for you. If you believe that Zionists are fine, upstanding and decent folk who want to do nothing more than defend the frontiers of their colonial-settler state, then this book is or you. if you believe that Shi'ites are brutal, backward thugs who live in slums, then this book is for you. if you think Palestinian refugee camps are terrorist centres, and that Palestinians themselves are inherently corrupt and cowardly savages, then this book is for you. If you think unsourced material probably based on Mossad disinformation is enhanced by blacking out words, sentences and paragraphs to give it a 'redacted' appearance, thereby enhancing its credibility in some way in the eyes of the naive, this book is for you.
In fact, there are some excellent, intelligent books available on the Middle East, and aspects of the Lebanese civil war in particular.
This isn't one of them.
In fact, there are some excellent, intelligent books available on the Middle East, and aspects of the Lebanese civil war in particular.
This isn't one of them.
July 30, 2023
Iran was among the first countries in the modern era to weaponize Islam (which begins with the total subjugation of women) and no country is better proof of the destructive nature of this policy than Lebanon. U.S. policy in Lebanon and most of the ME was catastrophic at worst, and ineffective at best throughout the 1980s, almost worse than our foreign policy blunders in the GW Bush era. The British, for all of their condescension towards America about our inexperience in global diplomacy, cocked things up pretty royally when they ran things and literally drew the map of the modern Middle East. If you had to vote on which country has the best record in the region, you'd have to put your money on Israel for the simple fact that they have survived this long.
Lebanon is more or less a metaphor or a reflection of the Arab and Muslim world when it comes to building a modern society. They are just crap at it. They're all about 1,000 years behind the modern social democracies of Western Europe. Perhaps Muslims should begin at the beginning and adopt habeas corpus and see how things go from there.
This book was an excellent review of the hellfire that has been the Levant for the past forty years or so, in which invasion has been followed by assassination, followed by horrific car bombings, followed by reprisals, ad nauseam.
Iran has been behind the curtain during most of the war of terror erupting from Beirut during this period, fueled by petrodollars from Ayatollah Khomeini’s Shia dictatorship.
If people in America’s intelligence services take one thing away from this book (and I hope they all read it) it should be that there is no military or violent solution to the quagmire we have greatly helped to create. But we never seem to learn this, time after time.
I said that we should have launched a war against ignorance after 9/11 by bombarding the ME with cheap computers and internet access for all. We should have dropped plane-loads of books on the Shia ghettos in Beirut and the Sunni slums of Damascus. The only way out of the violent darkness that has engulfed the entire region is by light created by enlightenment. We should be backing the most liberal and forward-thinking clerics just as the Saudis have been financing the most fanatical religious leaders whose answer to any problem is violence.
We have to make a counter-offer to the people there who now are only presented with fanaticism and the empty, childish promise of religion.
Back in my military service days we heard the apocryphal story of the Soviets castrating one of those responsible for kidnapping one of their people. I remember the right-wing knuckle-draggers and mouth-breathers in my unit expressing how that’s how we should have gone about business in Lebanon. These are probably the same creeps who are in favor of torturing our prisoners. If we are going to be the same sort of animals as the Syrians and Iranians, they why are we fighting against them? We should just join sides and roll over everyone on the planet.
Or…we could actually stand for something as a nation, things like human rights and dignity for all. I think we could do that and still flourish as a people.
Lebanon is more or less a metaphor or a reflection of the Arab and Muslim world when it comes to building a modern society. They are just crap at it. They're all about 1,000 years behind the modern social democracies of Western Europe. Perhaps Muslims should begin at the beginning and adopt habeas corpus and see how things go from there.
This book was an excellent review of the hellfire that has been the Levant for the past forty years or so, in which invasion has been followed by assassination, followed by horrific car bombings, followed by reprisals, ad nauseam.
Iran has been behind the curtain during most of the war of terror erupting from Beirut during this period, fueled by petrodollars from Ayatollah Khomeini’s Shia dictatorship.
If people in America’s intelligence services take one thing away from this book (and I hope they all read it) it should be that there is no military or violent solution to the quagmire we have greatly helped to create. But we never seem to learn this, time after time.
I said that we should have launched a war against ignorance after 9/11 by bombarding the ME with cheap computers and internet access for all. We should have dropped plane-loads of books on the Shia ghettos in Beirut and the Sunni slums of Damascus. The only way out of the violent darkness that has engulfed the entire region is by light created by enlightenment. We should be backing the most liberal and forward-thinking clerics just as the Saudis have been financing the most fanatical religious leaders whose answer to any problem is violence.
We have to make a counter-offer to the people there who now are only presented with fanaticism and the empty, childish promise of religion.
Back in my military service days we heard the apocryphal story of the Soviets castrating one of those responsible for kidnapping one of their people. I remember the right-wing knuckle-draggers and mouth-breathers in my unit expressing how that’s how we should have gone about business in Lebanon. These are probably the same creeps who are in favor of torturing our prisoners. If we are going to be the same sort of animals as the Syrians and Iranians, they why are we fighting against them? We should just join sides and roll over everyone on the planet.
Or…we could actually stand for something as a nation, things like human rights and dignity for all. I think we could do that and still flourish as a people.
November 24, 2025
Beirut Rules is an account of the 1984 kidnapping of CIA station chief William Buckley, who was taken by the terrorist group Hezbollah, led by terrorist master-mind Imad Mughniyeh, and brutally tortured to death. The book details the massive, and often desperate, U.S. intelligence and military effort to find and rescue Buckley, and bring Mughniyeh to justice. It provides an inside look into the spycraft, bureaucratic infighting, and the harsh realities of counter-terrorism in the chaotic environment of 1980s Beirut. I found it to be a page-turner (but I do have a particular interest in this subject).
4.5 stars out of 5.
4.5 stars out of 5.
January 26, 2021
January 25th, made it to page 16. The most interesting aspect thus far is the fabrications and the submissiveness to the standard American propaganda lines of “Palestinians being the bad guys” and the perpetrators of hostilities in the Middle East. You open the book and start with a glossary, in which you find Black September Organization being a covert arm of Yasir Arafat’s Fatah group: it was just never proven.
As a matter of fact, it sounds quite unlikely given Arafat’s role in the Oslo negotiations. On the contrary, Israel and the US consistently vetoed any UN Security Council resolution regarding the illegality of the ever expanding israelian settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
Page 10-11 talk about Iranian sciite “Islamic fundamentalists” and “Tehran emissaries tasked to introduce the cult of suicide bomber”. Iran is definitely depicted as one of the ultimate evils. But let’s remember what role the United States played in Iran the previous decades: without going too deep into details, the United States overthrew a democratically elected moderate government to restore in 1953 the Shah and remove democratically elected Mossadegh for opposing US/UK oil companies drilling operations, spiraling an escalation of violence and repression in the country. Suppose for a minute that a European secret organization came to United States to overthrow Congress and restore Queen Elizabeth monarchy. It would be safe to assume that Americans would start to fight back. But with regards to Iranians, this would be inconceivable and they would therefore be “terrorists”.
Still page 11, on June 6 1982 sixty thousands Israeli troops crossed Lebanon to remove Palestinians terrorist infrastructures that threatens residents of northern Israel: this picture is quite interesting. Not even for a second this action is presented for what it actually is: outright Israeli invasion. The “Palestinian terrorists” were essentially refugees who were in Lebanon because the Israeli themselves kicked them out of their homes basically at gunpoint. Now suppose for a second that Canadian troops crossed the northern border into Buffalo to push away American citizens in the name of Canadian safety: would American be the terrorists? Or similarly native Americans fighting back against the American army: is the right to defend or wanting to reclaim your own home only granted to certain societies?
June 2, 2019
I had the opportunity to listen to Fred Burton, a retired US State Department Special Agent with the Diplomatic Security Service and the current VP of Intelligence at Stratfor (an American geopolitical intelligence platform and publisher) talk about his latest book, co-authored w/ Sam Katz, “Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah’s War Against America.”
“After a deadly terrorist bombing at the American embassy in Lebanon in 1983, only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. But the new Beirut station chief quickly became the target of a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh.
Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley’s abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen government documents as well as interviews with Buckley’s co-workers, friends and family, Burton and Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.”
This book is not for the faint of heart, and I often found myself shaking my head --at the brutality of the region and the numerous missteps our government and Intelligence Agencies continued to make.
If you have any interest in the Middle East, the CIA, or history in general, this book is a must-read.
You can follow Fred Burton and Sam Katz on Twitter: @fred_burton & @Samuel_M_Katz.
A quick side note, back in 1997, Sam Katz wrote “Anytime Anywhere,” an eyewitness account about the stories of NYPD ESU Officer John D’Allara and Truck-Two.
Recently, Sam and I spoke about Officer D’Allara and his death during 9/11. It just so happens that I have worn Officer D’Allara’s name on my wrist (a bracelet) for the last 18 years, and you can read about his life in one of my blogs here:
https://cealbanese.com/2018/09/14/sep...
“After a deadly terrorist bombing at the American embassy in Lebanon in 1983, only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. But the new Beirut station chief quickly became the target of a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh.
Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley’s abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen government documents as well as interviews with Buckley’s co-workers, friends and family, Burton and Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.”
This book is not for the faint of heart, and I often found myself shaking my head --at the brutality of the region and the numerous missteps our government and Intelligence Agencies continued to make.
If you have any interest in the Middle East, the CIA, or history in general, this book is a must-read.
You can follow Fred Burton and Sam Katz on Twitter: @fred_burton & @Samuel_M_Katz.
A quick side note, back in 1997, Sam Katz wrote “Anytime Anywhere,” an eyewitness account about the stories of NYPD ESU Officer John D’Allara and Truck-Two.
Recently, Sam and I spoke about Officer D’Allara and his death during 9/11. It just so happens that I have worn Officer D’Allara’s name on my wrist (a bracelet) for the last 18 years, and you can read about his life in one of my blogs here:
https://cealbanese.com/2018/09/14/sep...
December 17, 2018
Normally more like a 3 star book for me - an okay read on a very interesting topic. While the style was occasionally a bit melodramatic for my taste, the main problem is the book is full of distracting and annoying redactions. I have no idea why the authors/editors choose this approach instead of simply editing/rewriting those sections - these redactions are not used when the authors are directly quoting a partially declassified report or something like that, they are redacting their own writing. Maybe I'm missing something (other than what has been blocked out in the text) but I just don't get it. Less grouchy readers may not find this to be a deal-breaker but it really irritated me, so I ended up deducting/redacting a star from my rating.
October 29, 2025
This is a Non-Fiction about Beirut CIA and War. I read this book by listening to the audiobook, and I liked the audiobook ok. This book moves slow at times, and I did find most of this book interesting. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.
November 26, 2018
“The Near East Division never formed a task force to retrieve Bill.”
This is the story of the kidnapping of William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon. It was the beginning of the USA’s war on terror that continues to this day, with no end in sight. I received an Advance Copy of this book so there were many sections that were blacked out or redacted. I am sure the finished book will read as exciting and thrilling as this copy did to me. I now understand that the finished book still has the redactions to show the sensitivity of this information.
I learned that the United States had its hand tied on how the CIA could act in other countries thanks to Congress and the Church Commission. The CIA was caught in several regime turnovers that made Congress nervous so they clipped their wings. This book reports the facts, it does not get into whether it was right or wrong. I liked that about the book as so many books written today are one sided and biased.
The US was looked at as a country that could be manipulated by kidnappings and bombings. Our hands were tied on many options and the terrorists took advantage of that fact. Some of this book was very hard to read, torture and mistreatment is never pleasant.
If you are interested in the history of our dealings in the Middle East, you will like this book. It is a very human story of men and women who risk their lives for information to keep us safe.
I was gifted this book by the publisher and I am very grateful.
This is the story of the kidnapping of William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon. It was the beginning of the USA’s war on terror that continues to this day, with no end in sight. I received an Advance Copy of this book so there were many sections that were blacked out or redacted. I am sure the finished book will read as exciting and thrilling as this copy did to me. I now understand that the finished book still has the redactions to show the sensitivity of this information.
I learned that the United States had its hand tied on how the CIA could act in other countries thanks to Congress and the Church Commission. The CIA was caught in several regime turnovers that made Congress nervous so they clipped their wings. This book reports the facts, it does not get into whether it was right or wrong. I liked that about the book as so many books written today are one sided and biased.
The US was looked at as a country that could be manipulated by kidnappings and bombings. Our hands were tied on many options and the terrorists took advantage of that fact. Some of this book was very hard to read, torture and mistreatment is never pleasant.
If you are interested in the history of our dealings in the Middle East, you will like this book. It is a very human story of men and women who risk their lives for information to keep us safe.
I was gifted this book by the publisher and I am very grateful.
January 4, 2020
In Beirut Rules, Fred Burton does a fantastic job weaving a primer on the conflicts engulfing the modern middle east around the heartbreaking story of the capture and eventual murder of the Beirut CIA Station Chief. Beirut Rules is a great read anytime, but is especially timely considering the current Iran-induced chaos engulfing Iraq.
April 1, 2019
In the past 15 or so years, I came to believed that George W Bush broke the world with his response to 9/11. His misplaced war with Iraq unleashed all the viruses that were just bellow the ground in the Middle East.
Shame on me. I was in college, in DC, reading newspapers and following events in the Middle East when William Buckley was abducted and murdered, when the other hostages where captured and released, when Colonel Higgins was abducted. I was an adult and yet, memory works in strange ways.
Its not that I forgot any of it but somehow as 9/11 came and went, followed by the invasion of Iraq and the raise of ISIS, the civil war in Lebanon faded.
It should not have.
The "hostages for sale" trade that I thought was invented by Chechen militia groups after the first Russian-Chechen war of the early 90's was just a first grader’s attempt an a science fair project, compared to what had been happening in the mid 80's in Lebanon.
Sadly, the Chechen militias where learning from the best.
Shame on me, that I forgot it all and I am grateful to this strange, overly patriotic book for reminding me. This one is definitely for the bookshelves.
Shame on me. I was in college, in DC, reading newspapers and following events in the Middle East when William Buckley was abducted and murdered, when the other hostages where captured and released, when Colonel Higgins was abducted. I was an adult and yet, memory works in strange ways.
Its not that I forgot any of it but somehow as 9/11 came and went, followed by the invasion of Iraq and the raise of ISIS, the civil war in Lebanon faded.
It should not have.
The "hostages for sale" trade that I thought was invented by Chechen militia groups after the first Russian-Chechen war of the early 90's was just a first grader’s attempt an a science fair project, compared to what had been happening in the mid 80's in Lebanon.
Sadly, the Chechen militias where learning from the best.
Shame on me, that I forgot it all and I am grateful to this strange, overly patriotic book for reminding me. This one is definitely for the bookshelves.
October 27, 2018
BEIRUT RULES is thoroughly fascinating, absorbing, and terrifying story, all mixed into a great book. Even though I lived through these years as a young adult, I was stunned at how little I knew about the events described here. The terror that these agents lived with and the staggering number of them that lost their lives in service to our country is both sad and inspiring. What really caught my attention was how much of this book had been redacted. Makes me wonder what they removed and why we shouldn’t know the information. Very thought provoking.
March 28, 2021
Never has a book shed so much light upon such a controversial subject : Lebanon and the rise of Hezbollah.
This book is addicting , written in a thriller like manner , following the original timeline of the rise of Hezbollah.
The reader is thrown directly into the Beirut 80's , a city with daily bombings , mass slaughters , ethnic cleansing , guerillas around every corner, Israel occupying the southern part of the country while US and western countries are trying to figure out what the hell their peacekeeping efforts are worth.
The story begins with the total obliteration of the US Embassy in Beirut , a seven story building , performed using a truck going at full speed packed with a ton of explosives.The truck penetrates the security fence and breaks through the main entrace of the compund and stops into the lobby. The dead-man switch detonates and the building evaporates killing around 100 officials and injuring hundreds.
From here on we find out that the perpretators are shia individuals from the Beka'a Valley , a region inhabited by the poor shia minority of Lebanon. This region will become the perfect recruitment center for the emerging terror faction - Hezbollah.
Iran sends a couple of thousands special agents to start preparing this new Resistance Movement .
The constant cash flows from this big brother will enchance the new faction in areas such as bomb making , kindnapping , warfare , quality of life thus securing a steady and consistent flow of young men ready to die in the waar against Israel and its allies.
The first action will be introducing a new form of assymetrical warfare : bombing suicidial attacks on Western presence in Beirut basically exporting Ayatollah Khomeini's islamic revolution to Lebanon.
The situation escalates ,in the upcoming years diplomatic compounds around the world turn to dust , civilians from all walks of life are abducted , tortured and killed , airplanes are sabotaged , USA and especially Israel retaliate with lethal force and deadly precision.
A complete timeline of why the things are as they are in Lebanon , how Hezbollah raised to power , the constant long reaching arm of Iran and meddling in Beirut affairs , the always ready to facilitate/intermediate Syrian neighbour.On the other hand we start with the impotent CIA that does almost nothing in the 80's and 90's to save its abducted citizens , which after the Reagan administration slowly starts showing its teeth , esoecially after 2001.
Last but not least, Israel, always vigilent , always ready for an eye for an eye operation , always seen as a pariah by western powers for defending its citizens.
Great read !
This book is addicting , written in a thriller like manner , following the original timeline of the rise of Hezbollah.
The reader is thrown directly into the Beirut 80's , a city with daily bombings , mass slaughters , ethnic cleansing , guerillas around every corner, Israel occupying the southern part of the country while US and western countries are trying to figure out what the hell their peacekeeping efforts are worth.
The story begins with the total obliteration of the US Embassy in Beirut , a seven story building , performed using a truck going at full speed packed with a ton of explosives.The truck penetrates the security fence and breaks through the main entrace of the compund and stops into the lobby. The dead-man switch detonates and the building evaporates killing around 100 officials and injuring hundreds.
From here on we find out that the perpretators are shia individuals from the Beka'a Valley , a region inhabited by the poor shia minority of Lebanon. This region will become the perfect recruitment center for the emerging terror faction - Hezbollah.
Iran sends a couple of thousands special agents to start preparing this new Resistance Movement .
The constant cash flows from this big brother will enchance the new faction in areas such as bomb making , kindnapping , warfare , quality of life thus securing a steady and consistent flow of young men ready to die in the waar against Israel and its allies.
The first action will be introducing a new form of assymetrical warfare : bombing suicidial attacks on Western presence in Beirut basically exporting Ayatollah Khomeini's islamic revolution to Lebanon.
The situation escalates ,in the upcoming years diplomatic compounds around the world turn to dust , civilians from all walks of life are abducted , tortured and killed , airplanes are sabotaged , USA and especially Israel retaliate with lethal force and deadly precision.
A complete timeline of why the things are as they are in Lebanon , how Hezbollah raised to power , the constant long reaching arm of Iran and meddling in Beirut affairs , the always ready to facilitate/intermediate Syrian neighbour.On the other hand we start with the impotent CIA that does almost nothing in the 80's and 90's to save its abducted citizens , which after the Reagan administration slowly starts showing its teeth , esoecially after 2001.
Last but not least, Israel, always vigilent , always ready for an eye for an eye operation , always seen as a pariah by western powers for defending its citizens.
Great read !
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2019
4.5 Stars -- a tick off because this is a non-fiction book collated and written by two writers, not a release of government documents. So, the use of redactions throughout the book was rather unnecessary.
Nevertheless, this is a stunning book. I was rather dense at the time the majority of this book was written -- the 1980s. I knew of the Iran Hostages of 1979-81, and I knew of the Beirut barracks bombing of American servicemen in 1983, but before this book, I couldn't tell you a thing about before, during or after that period.
****EDIT -- I never read others' reviews until I finish mine, and I feel a little better knowing that there were a lot of people, apparently around my age, that didn't know what happened below.****
I thought of using bullet points about what I learned in the first 15 pages, but I'll simply rattle them off.
Before outside countries got involved, the civil war in Lebanon, which began in 1975, was prior to Israel entering southern Lebanon. The poor majority Shiites thought they were liberators, but soon found out that the forces helped set up Israeli intelligence sites in the country.
This drew in Syria, and their Soviet-Union weapons into the conflict -- so that Russia is militarily backing Syria is not a new development.
Lebanon had a newly-elected president, and during a speech, someone backed by Syria put a half-ton of explosives in the room above where he was speaking that leveled the building. This really hurt the U.S., because, in listing CIA assets, not only was the president-elect one, but the head of Black September, the Palestinian group that assaulted the 1972 Munich Olympics, was a CIA asset.
This also brought in Iran into the mess. A 15-year-old Shiite boy drove a car filled with explosives into the Israeli military HQ, being the first suicide bomber outside of the Iran-Iraq War -- thanks to the Iranians.
All of this later led to the kidnapping of the CIA Chief of Station in Beirut, William Buckey, which was described into the Prologue and followed throughout the book. All told in the first 15 pages.
It is a very dense 360-page book, but a book that I won't forget.
Nevertheless, this is a stunning book. I was rather dense at the time the majority of this book was written -- the 1980s. I knew of the Iran Hostages of 1979-81, and I knew of the Beirut barracks bombing of American servicemen in 1983, but before this book, I couldn't tell you a thing about before, during or after that period.
****EDIT -- I never read others' reviews until I finish mine, and I feel a little better knowing that there were a lot of people, apparently around my age, that didn't know what happened below.****
I thought of using bullet points about what I learned in the first 15 pages, but I'll simply rattle them off.
Before outside countries got involved, the civil war in Lebanon, which began in 1975, was prior to Israel entering southern Lebanon. The poor majority Shiites thought they were liberators, but soon found out that the forces helped set up Israeli intelligence sites in the country.
This drew in Syria, and their Soviet-Union weapons into the conflict -- so that Russia is militarily backing Syria is not a new development.
Lebanon had a newly-elected president, and during a speech, someone backed by Syria put a half-ton of explosives in the room above where he was speaking that leveled the building. This really hurt the U.S., because, in listing CIA assets, not only was the president-elect one, but the head of Black September, the Palestinian group that assaulted the 1972 Munich Olympics, was a CIA asset.
This also brought in Iran into the mess. A 15-year-old Shiite boy drove a car filled with explosives into the Israeli military HQ, being the first suicide bomber outside of the Iran-Iraq War -- thanks to the Iranians.
All of this later led to the kidnapping of the CIA Chief of Station in Beirut, William Buckey, which was described into the Prologue and followed throughout the book. All told in the first 15 pages.
It is a very dense 360-page book, but a book that I won't forget.
December 31, 2019
Interesting, detailed history lesson surrounding the taking of hostages and eventual death in captivity of CIA Beirut Chief of Station William F. Buckley in the 1980s. The redactions got a little annoying - leaving in half a page of blacked out text in various places really isn't helpful to anyone - and the authors' obvious bias on some topics (such as "Iran is eeeeevil") grated on occasion and should be taken with a grain of salt, but otherwise this book is certainly worth the read.
October 27, 2018
Burton and Katz in an earlier book, Under Fire, detailed the 2015 terrorist attack on an American Embassy facility in Benghazi, (see my review). That event resulted in the death of the American ambassador and three other security employees. Here, they address the terrorist crimes of the Eighties against American government personnel and facilities, as well as average citizens in the war-torn Mideast. These earlier assaults resulted in the murder of hundreds of Americans.
The book opens with several chapters setting the violent context of the area, detailing the ongoing struggle of Israel against regional armed opponents such as Fatah, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Funding, guidance, and trained troops for much of this opposition, the authors write, came from the theocratic Iranian government. In November 1982 a terrorist car bomb struck and destroyed the Israeli military and intelligence center in Tyre. Lebanon. Seventy-six Israelis and 15 local detainees were killed in the explosion. The method of attack would be repeated in the years ahead, with even more horrific loss of life. In chapter two, the subsequent master of the bombing attack, Imad Mughniyeh, is introduced and his early career described.
Imad's wrath was forcefully turned on the Americans on April 18th, 1983. He sent a pickup truck filled with explosives and propane crashing into the U.S. Embassy. Seventeen Americans were among the sixty-three fatalities that resulted from the bombing. A number of those Americans were CIA personnel attending a security meeting. More carnage lay ahead.
William Buckley was a decorated Korean war veteran, and an experienced special operations officer in Vietnam, now serving in the CIA. He came to Beirut as the new Station Chief. He took over the shattered office and started making the group functional once again. His group operated now in space made available in the British Embassy.
Iran and its Lebanese surrogates struck American interests again on Sunday, October 23, 1983. They smashed another explosive-laden vehicle into the Marine Corps Barracks. This time they "killed 220 marines, 18 Navy corpsmen, and 3 soldiers." Just after the blast a second truck was sent into the housing units of the French Multi National Force. That killed fifty-eight French paratroopers. Although the American Ambassador requested the White House to retaliate, there was no reaction from America. The terrorists expected reprisals. When none came they felt they now had a free hand in Lebanon. Buckley endeavored to develop more hard intelligence on the hostile Shiites in the ghettos south of Beirut.
His efforts came to an end in March 1984 when two carloads of terrorists intercepted him on the way to work and kidnapped him. He was then subjected to torture and interrogation until he died over a year later. The authors detail the efforts to find Buckley, although later some employees felt that his recovery was not adequately pursued. The wealth of knowledge Buckley had of CIA operations and plans provided rich pickings for his captors. Some questioned why someone with such critical information was sent to such a dangerous location.
The same question would be raised with the 1988 abduction of Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, the
military chief of the UN peacekeeping in Lebanon. He too was held in captivity where he underwent interrogation and torture. His body was dumped near a Beirut road in December 1991. Buckley's remains were recovered under similar circumstances a week later.
The Mideastern terror campaign included aircraft hijackings, one of which included the murder of a Navy diver, Robert Stethem who was a passenger on the ill-fated TWA 847 flight. The terrorist bombings went global with the destruction of an Argentine Jewish Center in retaliation for a fatal Israeli attack on a ranking Hezbollah official. Burton and Katz detail these incidents at length.
The story concludes with a CIA honors ceremony in 2009. First, however, the authors trace the intervening lives of those immediately responsible for the carnage visited upon the United States and its allies in the bloody cauldron of the Mideast.
As with Under Fire, this book is deeply researched through the literature and through personal interviews with participants and knowing observers. End notes identify the written sources. The chronology the book provides makes for a compelling story. That may have resulted in the outline-like narrative of this review. But, read this book, get all the details, chilling as they are. There is a glossary for a quick check of the many, easily forgotten acronyms. I am informed by the publisher, who provided my advance reading copy, that the final version does contain photographs.
Beirut Rules is not only searing history, it presents current events for today. It led me to add a new shelf to my Goodreads library: terrorism.
The book opens with several chapters setting the violent context of the area, detailing the ongoing struggle of Israel against regional armed opponents such as Fatah, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Funding, guidance, and trained troops for much of this opposition, the authors write, came from the theocratic Iranian government. In November 1982 a terrorist car bomb struck and destroyed the Israeli military and intelligence center in Tyre. Lebanon. Seventy-six Israelis and 15 local detainees were killed in the explosion. The method of attack would be repeated in the years ahead, with even more horrific loss of life. In chapter two, the subsequent master of the bombing attack, Imad Mughniyeh, is introduced and his early career described.
Imad's wrath was forcefully turned on the Americans on April 18th, 1983. He sent a pickup truck filled with explosives and propane crashing into the U.S. Embassy. Seventeen Americans were among the sixty-three fatalities that resulted from the bombing. A number of those Americans were CIA personnel attending a security meeting. More carnage lay ahead.
William Buckley was a decorated Korean war veteran, and an experienced special operations officer in Vietnam, now serving in the CIA. He came to Beirut as the new Station Chief. He took over the shattered office and started making the group functional once again. His group operated now in space made available in the British Embassy.
Iran and its Lebanese surrogates struck American interests again on Sunday, October 23, 1983. They smashed another explosive-laden vehicle into the Marine Corps Barracks. This time they "killed 220 marines, 18 Navy corpsmen, and 3 soldiers." Just after the blast a second truck was sent into the housing units of the French Multi National Force. That killed fifty-eight French paratroopers. Although the American Ambassador requested the White House to retaliate, there was no reaction from America. The terrorists expected reprisals. When none came they felt they now had a free hand in Lebanon. Buckley endeavored to develop more hard intelligence on the hostile Shiites in the ghettos south of Beirut.
His efforts came to an end in March 1984 when two carloads of terrorists intercepted him on the way to work and kidnapped him. He was then subjected to torture and interrogation until he died over a year later. The authors detail the efforts to find Buckley, although later some employees felt that his recovery was not adequately pursued. The wealth of knowledge Buckley had of CIA operations and plans provided rich pickings for his captors. Some questioned why someone with such critical information was sent to such a dangerous location.
The same question would be raised with the 1988 abduction of Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, the
military chief of the UN peacekeeping in Lebanon. He too was held in captivity where he underwent interrogation and torture. His body was dumped near a Beirut road in December 1991. Buckley's remains were recovered under similar circumstances a week later.
The Mideastern terror campaign included aircraft hijackings, one of which included the murder of a Navy diver, Robert Stethem who was a passenger on the ill-fated TWA 847 flight. The terrorist bombings went global with the destruction of an Argentine Jewish Center in retaliation for a fatal Israeli attack on a ranking Hezbollah official. Burton and Katz detail these incidents at length.
The story concludes with a CIA honors ceremony in 2009. First, however, the authors trace the intervening lives of those immediately responsible for the carnage visited upon the United States and its allies in the bloody cauldron of the Mideast.
As with Under Fire, this book is deeply researched through the literature and through personal interviews with participants and knowing observers. End notes identify the written sources. The chronology the book provides makes for a compelling story. That may have resulted in the outline-like narrative of this review. But, read this book, get all the details, chilling as they are. There is a glossary for a quick check of the many, easily forgotten acronyms. I am informed by the publisher, who provided my advance reading copy, that the final version does contain photographs.
Beirut Rules is not only searing history, it presents current events for today. It led me to add a new shelf to my Goodreads library: terrorism.
April 7, 2019
It’s a very good book detailing a crucial period in the history of the Middle East and how Hezbollah’s terrorist acts started. With perfect language and an amazing description I have enjoyed every chapter of it. I totally recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the middle east and the civil war in Lebanon. Also the audiobook by Ben Shapiro is -hands down - the best way to interact with this book.
April 18, 2022
I received this book as an advanced copy from the publisher based on my reviews of Burton's previous books. As a disclaimer, I should mention that I am personally acquainted with Fred Burton, as we went to school together and grew up in the same town. We still run into each other occasionally at events that support the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad where Fred was a long time member.
This is the second collaboration between Burton, chief security officer for Stratfor (a global authority on security & terrorism) and Samuel Katz, an international expert on Middle East security and former member of the IDF. Like their first book, Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi, the duo puts together a compelling, edge of the seat accounting. In Beirut Rules we learn the story of the kidnapping, torture & murder of Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley. Detailing the political climate of the Middle East during the 1980's, Beirut Rules introduces us to a young terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh, who made a name for himself as a brutal purveyor of car bombs and other acts of terror in his late teens. Mughniyeh, in short order, launches Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization & later becomes 2nd in command of Hezbollah.
I was a young adult in the early 80's and aware of the bombings of American interests in Beirut, including the US Embassy bombing in 1982 and the bombing at the military barracks which killed 241 American peacekeepers in 1983. However, I never knew the full story of the US involvement in the Middle East during that time period or what was behind the desires of terrorists to carry out these bombings. And I certainly did not know anything about our CIA operations. Beirut Rules is redacted in several places and it's my understanding that the authors and publisher have chosen to leave the redactions in place to indicate that even 35 years later there are still many details that remain classified. We may never know much of what took place during this time.
In a nutshell, the major take aways for me were these:
1. The Middle East in the 1980's was a powder keg. Anti-Israel sentiment was high and that continues to this day.
2. The US was not prepared for the terrorist response to their presence with the UN Peacekeeping Force or their CIA station.
3. Due to both political considerations & classified intel derived from sources on the ground, our hands were tied to the extent that an all-out effort to locate and rescue Buckley was not going to happen. The inability to act on his behalf was a heartbreaking frustration to his fellow officers and friends from his days as an Army officer.
4. As civilians, the American people can't ever know the full truth of many of the actions of our government overseas. The troubling piece of this also is how unwilling they might be to locate and rescue any of us should we fall into the wrong hands outside of the US. The bottom line concern for us would depend on the interests of our government.
I am never disappointed with the stories my friend Fred Burton writes. He and Katz have once again given us an accounting that gives us at times more info than we thought we wanted; however, discover later that it is info we need as the story further unfolds. I highly recommend this book.
This is the second collaboration between Burton, chief security officer for Stratfor (a global authority on security & terrorism) and Samuel Katz, an international expert on Middle East security and former member of the IDF. Like their first book, Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi, the duo puts together a compelling, edge of the seat accounting. In Beirut Rules we learn the story of the kidnapping, torture & murder of Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley. Detailing the political climate of the Middle East during the 1980's, Beirut Rules introduces us to a young terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh, who made a name for himself as a brutal purveyor of car bombs and other acts of terror in his late teens. Mughniyeh, in short order, launches Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization & later becomes 2nd in command of Hezbollah.
I was a young adult in the early 80's and aware of the bombings of American interests in Beirut, including the US Embassy bombing in 1982 and the bombing at the military barracks which killed 241 American peacekeepers in 1983. However, I never knew the full story of the US involvement in the Middle East during that time period or what was behind the desires of terrorists to carry out these bombings. And I certainly did not know anything about our CIA operations. Beirut Rules is redacted in several places and it's my understanding that the authors and publisher have chosen to leave the redactions in place to indicate that even 35 years later there are still many details that remain classified. We may never know much of what took place during this time.
In a nutshell, the major take aways for me were these:
1. The Middle East in the 1980's was a powder keg. Anti-Israel sentiment was high and that continues to this day.
2. The US was not prepared for the terrorist response to their presence with the UN Peacekeeping Force or their CIA station.
3. Due to both political considerations & classified intel derived from sources on the ground, our hands were tied to the extent that an all-out effort to locate and rescue Buckley was not going to happen. The inability to act on his behalf was a heartbreaking frustration to his fellow officers and friends from his days as an Army officer.
4. As civilians, the American people can't ever know the full truth of many of the actions of our government overseas. The troubling piece of this also is how unwilling they might be to locate and rescue any of us should we fall into the wrong hands outside of the US. The bottom line concern for us would depend on the interests of our government.
I am never disappointed with the stories my friend Fred Burton writes. He and Katz have once again given us an accounting that gives us at times more info than we thought we wanted; however, discover later that it is info we need as the story further unfolds. I highly recommend this book.
September 12, 2021
Once gloriously hailed as the Paris of the Middle East, Beirut - after the brutal civil war from 1975-1990 - is now lovingly called the Beirut of the Middle East. When looking at what can be interpreted as "failures" of the United States, especially re: involvement in 'foreign policy' type endeavors abroad, a repeatable pattern seems to emerge that shows US capabilities excelling at automation, mass production, and gathering signals intelligence but utterly falling short when it comes to (friendly) assets in theater and human intelligence.
In the center of the fissionable malignancy that was much of Lebanon, right next door to a police force (and city - Beirut) compromised by clan affiliation, was the United States, looking to do good in a country skewered by religion, politics, and frustration with murder as part of the Beirut landscape. Walking on and among the egg shells was the CIA, MI6, the Iranians (SAVAK/SAVAMA), Syrians, KGB, East Germans, Algerians, Italians and the French all plying their spy trade in Lebanon, on the hunt for good and workable HUMINT. As such, the CIA and SY team (later DSS) became the first responders, in a city without law (looking for the missing CIA COS). If Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, Lebanon has been the graveyard for America's best intentions in the Middle East - and there's a saying about "best intentions", too.
Almost like a badly dubbed 1970s Chinese Kung Fu movie, the fun thing about BEIRUT RULES (countering the gloom of terrorism and the constant threat on American interests) are the redactions, as they seem that they are (most likely) extended by the author(s) to let the surrounding sentences help make some sense of the paragraph a few times throughout the book, though comically apart from their original meaning. Moreover, the text lovingly references the author (Fred Burton) several times (eg: a young DSS agent assigned to the HLTF) and tidbits that give the discussion of a grim chapter in US affairs in the Middle East levity (a bar named 'The Bunker' w/the slogan 'The safest place to get bombed.') lend credence that he's the real deal.
Painstaking background work, tight chronology, and insights into the Middle East state of mind and affairs make BEIRUT RULES primarily step one to understanding the region, the policies, the aggressive brand of diabolical that combined with highly skilled execution arraigned a campaign of hatred vs America starting more or less with the first of suicide murders on the "Day of Martyrs", November 11, 1982. After the renewal of active strife in the Middle East following September 11, 2001, BEIRUT RULES is a must-read for getting a grip on an area in chaos, countries at war, and fanaticism on a rampage. BEIRUT RULES is fascinating, shocking, and timely - after all, there is no statute of limitations for kidnap, torture, and murder; and definitely not for messing with the United States.
November 10, 2018
VP of counterintelligence for intelligence firm Statfor, former DSS agent, author Fred Burton along with the former editor of Special Operations Report, author Samuel M. Katz write an absorbing and gripping account of US history in Beirut, Lebanon focusing on the abduction of the CIA station chief William Buckley (1983) in Beirut Rules. For many this cosmopolitan city along side the Mediterranean Sea offers up a series of striking contradictions; beauty, modern business, European money, tension, war and violence at the hands of one of the United State's greatest foes, Hezbollah. It's a place for the fearless like the late William Buckley who I loved immediately. He was the antithesis of reluctant as he assumed the position with clarity, his own personal style and a high regard for those who worked for him in one of the most dangerous posts in the world. This book explains why the Middle East is such a complicated arena to balance in terms of political relations and why Islamic terror has increased. I couldn't put it down. Complete with glossary, photos, acknowledgments, notes and index.
September 7, 2022
This book is heavily biased and substantially redacted by CIA/federal censorship. The book is overtly American/Israeli-supremacist - which isn't surprising given the service background of the authors and the intended readers of this book. Being a serviceman myself, I can understand the level of asymmetrical justice and patriotism that is required for one to serve in overseas battlefields and/or the foreign service. On the other hand, there's a whole bucket of salt and reader's research required to fully balance out the views depicted in this book. Wholly in that one-sided sense, the book winds a highly engaging narrative that shows the backstreets of CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies as they operate in Lebanon, Yemen, and Kuwait, and fight against (but also precipitate) the rise of Hezbollah. The book gives a picture that can only be given by an insider, and the tactical details offered herein itself warrant a good read. Additionally, it made me appreciate better the role of Marines in battle, and why this service branch has such a different ethos than other carrier/airbase-based services.
November 27, 2018
Fascinating book told from the perspective of someone who was there (see Fred Burton’s CV...) I remember many of the events detailed and knew both the Buckley and Higgins stories...being able to get the behind the scenes story with little political spin . The authors make a strong case against Islamic extremism and iran. They also detail the case against Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. If you had an inkling that Obama’s nuclear deal with iran was wise, think again...
June 29, 2019
This is a fantastic look at life in Beirut. The author is nuts to do this stuff, but it really lets you get a feeling about life in a part of the world so different from our own. Well written and compelling.
November 8, 2018
Great book. Well written. Tells the stories of the terror activities during the 70's 80's and 90's with a lot the intricacies of the players laid out, but without a lot of the confusion of factions, of which there are many. It is well laid out and easy to follow. Not a particularly happy story, to say the least, but very informative and thought provoking.
October 18, 2018
Excellent telling of not only the kidnapping and death of William Buckley, but of some of the genesis of unrest and terror in the Middle East. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
October 24, 2018
Impressive! A Must read for those interested in fight against Terrorism.
December 1, 2018
Outstanding book that tells of the chaos that was Beirut in the 1980s.
January 17, 2019
I won this book in the giveaway! Fred Burton is an awesome story teller and picked the perfect subject to keep me entertained.
June 18, 2020
Outstanding summary of that episode in history.
October 31, 2025
A fast-paced and well-researched work..
The title gives the impression that the book deals specifically with the kidnapping, torture and murder of Buckley. The narrative is broader than that, and Burton covers the Lebanon hostage crisis in general, and even Hezbollah’s other terrorist attacks, like the embassy bombings, the barracks bombings and the hijacking of TWA 847. A lot of the book deals with Imad Mughniyah, and the authors provide a great portrait of him, his career, and of Iran’s role in supporting Hezbollah, although the source material for these sections seems a bit murky at times. The book ends with Mughniyah’s 2008 assassination in Damascus in a joint CIA-Mossad operation. They note how Buckley and other high-profile hostages often worked in Lebanon without much personal security. In retrospect this seems kind of amazing, but if you’re a diplomat or intelligence officer, it’s not necessarily a good thing to have a big profile, or big security details.
The book is heavily redacted for some reason (odd given how long ago these events happened), and inevitably this hurts the flow of the narrative. It makes you wish Burton would have just rewritten the whole narrative. Strangely, the authors were the ones who decided to redact their own writing, but if the information is too sensitive, why didn’t they just leave it out altogether? Are they trying to give the reader hints? Bafflingly, there’s even redactions in the endnotes, which might make some readers suspect the reliability of what Burton and Katz wrote in the text. Some of the redactions even deal with how the hostages were tortured. I might not be eager to read those details, but why are they a secret?
The narrative often focuses on people who don’t seem that important to the story. Also, somewhat disturbingly, the authors refer to Buckley’s torture, and use that word explicitly, but when describing an incident where Israeli troops rough up a Hezbollah operative they use the term “physical pressure.” (Though, to be fair, they don’t skip over the details of how he was abused in custody) The authors also bring up the lack of reliable human sources the Americans and Israelis could rely on in Lebanon, but don’t really examine why this was so challenging. There is also little on the Reagan administration’s Middle East policies, and also little on why many Lebanese groups were suspicious of the US. The authors don’t even clearly explain why Hezbollah was kidnapping Americans. The authors also seem obsessed with Mughniyah, and they seem to attribute every anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorist actions in Lebanon to him, without giving a clear picture of what exactly his role in this history is.
The authors also write of the CIA being “castrated” after the investigations of the 1970s, and seem glad that the Agency’s paramilitary capability was “rebuilt” after 9/11. This part could have been researched better. The CIA did operate under tighter requirements to keep Congress informed (through presidential findings/MoNs and briefings to the newly formed intelligence committees, for example), and those investigations did spark a struggle to regulate US intelligence and covert action, but Congress didn’t “castrate” the CIA. Presidents assigned many covert actions to the Agency after those investigations, in countries like Angola, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua, some of the biggest paramilitary operations in CIA’s history. The Angola operation was carried out even as these investigations were being concluded.
Sometimes, to build tension, the authors add details that they couldn’t possibly know, like Buckley sweating before his kidnapping. This becomes a problem, as the authors repeatedly make statements as if they are established facts, but don’t make clear what sources they got these from. Some of these statements deal with such minute details as what a certain Iranian’s Beirut office looked like. I assume Burton uses some insider knowledge, since he served at DSS, worked on the investigations of the Lebanon hostage crisis and debriefed some of those hostages, but it’s impossible to assess many of his statements. At one point the authors bring up the Palestinian Black September operative Ali Hassan Salameh and assert that the CIA paid him millions of dollars. It’s true that the CIA used him as a backchannel contact, but this is the first I’ve read of the CIA paying him anything. The authors also conclude that while Hezbollah kidnapped and murdered Buckley, his interrogation and torture was conducted by Iranian IRGC personnel. However, just two pages later they write that Hezbollah operatives tortured him. The footnotes don’t offer any explanation for where they based either of these statements on, either.
The narrative is dramatic and engaging but it can be poorly written at times, with repetitive phrases, or the authors making points that they already made a few pages or even sentences ago. The style can get breathless as well.
Overall, this is a rich and mostly well-written work on an interesting subject, but I was puzzled at some of the conclusions it reached, and how.
The title gives the impression that the book deals specifically with the kidnapping, torture and murder of Buckley. The narrative is broader than that, and Burton covers the Lebanon hostage crisis in general, and even Hezbollah’s other terrorist attacks, like the embassy bombings, the barracks bombings and the hijacking of TWA 847. A lot of the book deals with Imad Mughniyah, and the authors provide a great portrait of him, his career, and of Iran’s role in supporting Hezbollah, although the source material for these sections seems a bit murky at times. The book ends with Mughniyah’s 2008 assassination in Damascus in a joint CIA-Mossad operation. They note how Buckley and other high-profile hostages often worked in Lebanon without much personal security. In retrospect this seems kind of amazing, but if you’re a diplomat or intelligence officer, it’s not necessarily a good thing to have a big profile, or big security details.
The book is heavily redacted for some reason (odd given how long ago these events happened), and inevitably this hurts the flow of the narrative. It makes you wish Burton would have just rewritten the whole narrative. Strangely, the authors were the ones who decided to redact their own writing, but if the information is too sensitive, why didn’t they just leave it out altogether? Are they trying to give the reader hints? Bafflingly, there’s even redactions in the endnotes, which might make some readers suspect the reliability of what Burton and Katz wrote in the text. Some of the redactions even deal with how the hostages were tortured. I might not be eager to read those details, but why are they a secret?
The narrative often focuses on people who don’t seem that important to the story. Also, somewhat disturbingly, the authors refer to Buckley’s torture, and use that word explicitly, but when describing an incident where Israeli troops rough up a Hezbollah operative they use the term “physical pressure.” (Though, to be fair, they don’t skip over the details of how he was abused in custody) The authors also bring up the lack of reliable human sources the Americans and Israelis could rely on in Lebanon, but don’t really examine why this was so challenging. There is also little on the Reagan administration’s Middle East policies, and also little on why many Lebanese groups were suspicious of the US. The authors don’t even clearly explain why Hezbollah was kidnapping Americans. The authors also seem obsessed with Mughniyah, and they seem to attribute every anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorist actions in Lebanon to him, without giving a clear picture of what exactly his role in this history is.
The authors also write of the CIA being “castrated” after the investigations of the 1970s, and seem glad that the Agency’s paramilitary capability was “rebuilt” after 9/11. This part could have been researched better. The CIA did operate under tighter requirements to keep Congress informed (through presidential findings/MoNs and briefings to the newly formed intelligence committees, for example), and those investigations did spark a struggle to regulate US intelligence and covert action, but Congress didn’t “castrate” the CIA. Presidents assigned many covert actions to the Agency after those investigations, in countries like Angola, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua, some of the biggest paramilitary operations in CIA’s history. The Angola operation was carried out even as these investigations were being concluded.
Sometimes, to build tension, the authors add details that they couldn’t possibly know, like Buckley sweating before his kidnapping. This becomes a problem, as the authors repeatedly make statements as if they are established facts, but don’t make clear what sources they got these from. Some of these statements deal with such minute details as what a certain Iranian’s Beirut office looked like. I assume Burton uses some insider knowledge, since he served at DSS, worked on the investigations of the Lebanon hostage crisis and debriefed some of those hostages, but it’s impossible to assess many of his statements. At one point the authors bring up the Palestinian Black September operative Ali Hassan Salameh and assert that the CIA paid him millions of dollars. It’s true that the CIA used him as a backchannel contact, but this is the first I’ve read of the CIA paying him anything. The authors also conclude that while Hezbollah kidnapped and murdered Buckley, his interrogation and torture was conducted by Iranian IRGC personnel. However, just two pages later they write that Hezbollah operatives tortured him. The footnotes don’t offer any explanation for where they based either of these statements on, either.
The narrative is dramatic and engaging but it can be poorly written at times, with repetitive phrases, or the authors making points that they already made a few pages or even sentences ago. The style can get breathless as well.
Overall, this is a rich and mostly well-written work on an interesting subject, but I was puzzled at some of the conclusions it reached, and how.
March 15, 2020
Whenever I'm watching international news and an expert is consulted through a live feed in their office, I try to get a glimpse of any books that may be on a shelf in the background. This is how I discovered Beirut Rules. During a BBC program covering recent events between the US and Iran, they interviewed a foreign policy expert through a video chat where he was sitting at the desk of his office. There in the background I could make out the title of just one book. It was Beirut Rules.
Beirut Rules is a worthwhile read for gaining perspective in modern Middle Eastern warfare as well as gaining a historic perspective on Lebanon's tragic civil war. Really it will take many books to gain any clarity on the years of conflict, as there was much going on. There were many groups within Lebanon at war for their own interests, and then there were also so many outsiders involved in peacekeeping and or fighting a proxy war. Books on Lebanon during this period are fascinating, and Beirut Rules is no exception. It truly is interesting.
Many points can be taken from this book. A few I noted are as follows:
*US intelligence could not figure out what was going on in Lebanon. Even when important officials were kidnapped, trying to figure out who did the kidnapping and why was often outside of US intelligence's grasp. This doesn't mean US intelligence was incompetent, but rather, speaks to the extremely convoluted nature of the conflicts in Lebanon.
*The US, while it looks like a military giant in the world, was made to look weak many times in Lebanon. Even with US firepower, sectarian conflicts were not containable, and Americans couldn't be protected. The US embassy was not safe, (got blown up,) a Marine base set up at the airport wasn't safe (also got blown up) and the CIA station chief was kidnapped in broad daylight. No place was safe for Americans in Lebanon during the civil war. It's hard to imagine anyone thinking the invasion of Iraq was going to go well, if they consider how things went in Lebanon.
*Israel went to much greater lengths to bring back its hostages and/or take vengeance than the US was willing to do. It's maddening realizing the amount of time certain US prisoners were held without a strong effort from the US to rescue them. William Buckley and William Higgins were patriots, and the US should have done more. Are we to believe the US couldn't?
*Prisoner trading agreements can have grave consequences. The Jibril agreement gave release to 1150 prisoners held by Israel, one of which was Ahmed Yassin. Yassin would go on to found Hamas. There may have been no Hamas if Ahmed Yassin was kept in prison.
*A lot of nations sure feared the wrath of Hezbollah! Saudi Arabia had the opportunity to help the US capture a wanted terrorist leader transferring planes at the airport of Riyadh, and decided not to let them do it because they feared retaliation.
*The subtitle of the book really could be changed to "Hezbollah's war against the west" instead of "against America." I'm going to speculate that the publisher thought that would sell more copies of the book. The truth is Hezbollah also terrorized certain European nations, and was especially interested in war with Israel.
* Warfare is ugly, and it makes everyone do ugly things. After reading of so many frustrations and failures on the side of Israel or the US in Lebanon, and reading so many atrocities Hezbollah committed, the reader is left wanting justice. Or vengeance. However, what's the deal with an Israeli officer using a stick to forcefully sodomize a valuable figure taken prisoner in captivity as part of an interrogation? No matter how bad a bad guy is, I can't imagine that being an appropriate way to handle anyone. Kill someone bad, fine. But sodomize with a stick? This was a very minor detail in the book, just one sentence in one paragraph on one page in the book. But it really had me thinking war brings out some terrible behaviors.
Beirut Rules is a worthwhile read for gaining perspective in modern Middle Eastern warfare as well as gaining a historic perspective on Lebanon's tragic civil war. Really it will take many books to gain any clarity on the years of conflict, as there was much going on. There were many groups within Lebanon at war for their own interests, and then there were also so many outsiders involved in peacekeeping and or fighting a proxy war. Books on Lebanon during this period are fascinating, and Beirut Rules is no exception. It truly is interesting.
Many points can be taken from this book. A few I noted are as follows:
*US intelligence could not figure out what was going on in Lebanon. Even when important officials were kidnapped, trying to figure out who did the kidnapping and why was often outside of US intelligence's grasp. This doesn't mean US intelligence was incompetent, but rather, speaks to the extremely convoluted nature of the conflicts in Lebanon.
*The US, while it looks like a military giant in the world, was made to look weak many times in Lebanon. Even with US firepower, sectarian conflicts were not containable, and Americans couldn't be protected. The US embassy was not safe, (got blown up,) a Marine base set up at the airport wasn't safe (also got blown up) and the CIA station chief was kidnapped in broad daylight. No place was safe for Americans in Lebanon during the civil war. It's hard to imagine anyone thinking the invasion of Iraq was going to go well, if they consider how things went in Lebanon.
*Israel went to much greater lengths to bring back its hostages and/or take vengeance than the US was willing to do. It's maddening realizing the amount of time certain US prisoners were held without a strong effort from the US to rescue them. William Buckley and William Higgins were patriots, and the US should have done more. Are we to believe the US couldn't?
*Prisoner trading agreements can have grave consequences. The Jibril agreement gave release to 1150 prisoners held by Israel, one of which was Ahmed Yassin. Yassin would go on to found Hamas. There may have been no Hamas if Ahmed Yassin was kept in prison.
*A lot of nations sure feared the wrath of Hezbollah! Saudi Arabia had the opportunity to help the US capture a wanted terrorist leader transferring planes at the airport of Riyadh, and decided not to let them do it because they feared retaliation.
*The subtitle of the book really could be changed to "Hezbollah's war against the west" instead of "against America." I'm going to speculate that the publisher thought that would sell more copies of the book. The truth is Hezbollah also terrorized certain European nations, and was especially interested in war with Israel.
* Warfare is ugly, and it makes everyone do ugly things. After reading of so many frustrations and failures on the side of Israel or the US in Lebanon, and reading so many atrocities Hezbollah committed, the reader is left wanting justice. Or vengeance. However, what's the deal with an Israeli officer using a stick to forcefully sodomize a valuable figure taken prisoner in captivity as part of an interrogation? No matter how bad a bad guy is, I can't imagine that being an appropriate way to handle anyone. Kill someone bad, fine. But sodomize with a stick? This was a very minor detail in the book, just one sentence in one paragraph on one page in the book. But it really had me thinking war brings out some terrible behaviors.
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