Thanks Tim~ I posted that earlier on PGWB board, but looked up some information about Gordon Thomas. There is a lot out there, and I downloaded many many pages with the intent to read several pages a day, like a mini-novel....If he is anyplace close to right, it is indeed something to which we should be paying attention...
GORDON THOMAS bio...and website
Author, Screenwriter, Novelist, Film Producer, Intelligence Expert
gordonthomas.ie
Up
Sept 2001
GORDON THOMAS is the author of thirty-eight books published world-wide,
several of which have dealt with various aspects of the intelligence world.
As a foreign correspondent his assignments have ranged from the Suez Crisis
in 1956 to Tiananmen Square in 1989.
He has written a number of novels and screenplays and has been awarded the
Critic's and Jury's prizes at the Monte Carlo Film Festival, an Edgar Allan
Poe Award and three citations from the Mark Twain Society for Reporting
Excellence.
His current non-fiction book, Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors, is
to be filmed. A previous best-seller, Voyage of the Damned, received 5
Academy Award nominations.
His books have sold over 45 million copies in 36 countries. Five have been
made into major motion pictures.
Having worked as a foreign correspondent, Gordon has first-hand experience
of the dire consequences of unsuccessful foreign policies. Korea, Vietnam,
Algeria, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran - he has covered them all. But it was Tiananmen
Square which left him most bruised.
"If you see kids rolled out 14 foot long by tanks … I've seen a lot of death
and horror but this was something else".
Forty-five years of reporting has given him a shelf of best-sellers - and
the skills he needed to persuade the men and women of Mossad to talk to him.
Thomas was born on the floor of a house in a graveyard, in Wales. During the
'30s Depression his mother was visiting his grandparents, cemetery-keepers,
when she went into labour. A blizzard prevented her reaching hospital.
Because his father served in the RAF, young Gordon spent his childhood
abroad. But it was while Thomas was at school in England that he wrote his
first book, Descent Into Danger, the true story of a British agent in Russia
during World War 11.
"I wrote the whole thing in 30 exercise books. I had no idea how to find a
publisher. I looked up the first one, Alan Wingate, and sent him a letter.
The book was accepted. Descent Into Danger was also serialised by the
Express Newspaper Group and I was given a job."
In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Express newspapers sent Thomas, who could
speak Arabic, to Egypt as a junior reporter.
"One by one all the senior correspondents, legends of the 1940s and 1950s,
were expelled and there was only me. I got my first big exclusive when
Nasser told me in a moment of aberration that he intended to nationalise the
Suez Canal. I filed the story. Two hours later the phone rang and it was
Lord Beaverbrook himself. He said 'I hope you're right because if you're not
your career is over'. At three o'clock the Egyptian Foreign Office denied
any plans. The stock markets tumbled. At 6 o'clock Nasser nationalised the
canal."
When BBC 2 started Thomas joined as the first resident writer. " I started
'Tomorrow's World', 'Horizon' and 'Man Alive'. I became a writer, director
and producer".
He made documentaries on Dr Christian Barnard, the heart surgeon, and Dr
Joseph Issels, the controversial cancer specialist. But television seemed
"too ephemeral, and "I'm not a person who likes big teams."
Thomas has explored some extremely dark subjects, from slavery to Hiroshima
in his books and screenplays.
His father-in-law was a professional intelligence officer who worked for MI5
and ran a network in East Germany. He introduced his son-in-law to many
intelligence agents including William Buckley, the CIA station chief
murdered in Beirut. Thomas saw the video made of Buckley.
"The CIA told me 'Look at his eyes. He's been tortured. A doctor did that'.
I thought that was one hell of a story."
During the course of his research Thomas discovered "the CIA had been the
greatest pioneer of torture I'd ever come across in the West. They had
enlisted a hospital attached to McGill University in Montreal and a
Scots-born psychiatrist, Professor Ewan Cameron, experimented to see if it
was possible to cook minds."
The book became a global bestseller, Journey Into Madness.
"After it was pubished I was getting 300 letters a year from people claiming
they had been victims of various programmes run by the American government.
Not only did information arrive from survivors, but my contacts in
Intelligence would send me little snippets. In the course of my career, I've
met a lot of people in Intelligence. Some are very spooky indeed. You
wouldn't cross the room to avoid them, you just wouldn't go into the room in
the first place. Those in Mossad I found particularly interesting … so
devious."
In the run-up to the Gulf War, Gordon Thomas had a rare interview with
Saddam Hussein.
"In our deserts the makers of deadly perfume have worked hard to provide us
with the weapons to defend ourselves and destroy the Zionists should they
ever attack us, or their allies should they, too, dare to attack us." Saddam
told him.
It was the first hint that Iraq possesed biological weapons. The interview
was published around the world.
Gordon Thomas has reported all the major Middle East wars since 1956,
including witnessing the effect of biological and chemical weapons in the
notorious massacre of Kurds during the Iran/Iraq War. His intelligence
contacts, particularly in Israel, are second to none. They helped to pave
the way for him to write Gideon's Spies.
****************************
SEEDS OF FIRE - China and the story behind the attack on America
Essential reading for all those who want to understand the mind-set of the
Bush Administration as it goes to war.
Takes you inside the secret briefings that finally led to Bush launching the
first war of the 21st century.
Reveals the crucial background concerning President Bush and his father in
relation to China.
Explains why China refuses to back the West in its declared war on
terrorism.
Reveals the story behind the downing of the US spy plane incident earlier
this year.
Exposes the secret dealings between Russia and China – which explain their
own roles in their lip-service support for countering terrorism.
Reveals the reasons for the ever-closer relationship developing between
Israel’s Mossad and China’s Secret Intelligence Service, CSIS.
Reveals the background to the recent downing of the US spy-plane in the
South China Sea – and challenges the official version by using a high-level
named US intelligence source to provide a very different version.
SEEDS OF FIRE IS A BOOK FOR THOSE WHO NEED TO KNOW…
How does President Bush respond to a crisis behind the scenes?
Why does Condoleezza Rice sit in on a debriefing of a Chinese defector?
How does CIA Director, George Tenet handle the Bush Administration? How
much does he tell them?
How did the CIA learn of North Korea supplying Libya with state-of-the-art
rockets?
How did Saddam Hussein bankroll terrorism – with the help of a top British
financier?
****************
Gideon's Spies - The Secret History of the Mossad - Already a bestseller in
hardback - the new edition will have you fully briefed on the secret world
of Israel's spies...
"Tells it like it was - and like it is."
Meir Amit
Former Director General of Mossad.
" A must for any student of modern Middle Eastern history." Ari Ben-Menashe
Former Adviser on Intelligence to the Israeli Government
Over 90 pages of updated material.
Complete breakdown of all relevant intelligence services.
Mohommad al-Fayed and Mossad
The "intelligence presence" in the deaths of Diana and Dodi.
How Diana came under surveillance by America's top spy agency. How its
Echelon system tracked her.
Did she die because she was a threat to the world arms dealers ?
Mossad's own secret investigation into the death of a princess.
The fate of the mysterious white UNO in her fatal crash.
New moves by Israel to free their top spy imprisoned in the U.S.
Why Mossad's taping of President Clinton's phone sex calls rattled the White
House
How the wife of Israel's former Prime Minister came to acquire a microchip
so that Mossad could track her.
Mossad's involvement in the kidnapping of Kurdish leader Abdulla Ocalan- and
the cost of a secret Mossad network inside Iraq.
Mossad and the mysterious crash of an Israeli jet near Amsterdam.
The lethal cargo the plane was carrying to the secret place from where
Mossad gets its poisons.
Mossad's dealings with the Russian Mafiya for nuclear materials.
***************** |
