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Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent | 
| Author: Fred Burton
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $17.16
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
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Rating:  45 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400065690
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.28
EAN: 9781400065691
ASIN: 1400065690
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
For decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spycraft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few.
In the mid-eighties, the idea of defending Americans against terrorism was still new. But a trio of suicide bombings in Beirut–including one that killed 241 marines and forced our exit from Lebanon–had changed the mindset and mission of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe. Burton, a member of DSS’s tiny but elite Counterterrorism Division, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums. From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to having facing down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against Terror.
In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan–classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”
Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time.
Praise for GHOST
“With spy thriller suspense and the clarity of a police report, former special agent Burton’s State Department saga reads like a brewing-storm prequel to the current war on terror ... Of obvious interest to anyone with an eye on world affairs.... Most striking is the material’s relevance twenty years later; Burton’s clashes with Hezbollah in Beirut and prickly diplomacy with Iran could almost be pulled from present-day newspapers”—Publisher's Weekly
“In many ways, this book reads like a le Carre spy novel: it’s not flashy, not filled with pyrotechnics, not full of chase scenes and derring-do. Rather, it’s the story of a working man whose job involved trying to prevent people from attacking his country. Shorn of ideological rights and wrongs, it’s a fascinating look at what counterterrorism really means on a day-to-day level.” —Booklist
“The world of counterterrorism is like that old jigsaw puzzle in the back of the closet: its many missing pieces and extra parts jumbled in from other puzzles make it almost impossible to assemble. But in Ghost, Fred Burton manages to join together enough pieces to give us a discerning look at that world. This is a story, told in human terms, that will help make sense of the great puzzle of our times.” —Eric L. Haney, author of Inside Delta Force and executive producer of The Unit
“Burton’s memoir of fighting the defensive fight against the burgeoning terrorist threat in the 1980s and beyond is a revealing personal journal of the stress and boredom involved in putting the pieces of the puzzle together to obtain justice. Fred Burton was there, and you will be as well.” —Bobby R. Inman, admiral, United States Navy (retired), former director of National Security Agency and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency
"This memoir is all at once hard-hitting, well-researched, and an easy read. Organized into thirty-six chapters, with thoughtfully-placed transitions between each, Ghost becomes ones of those books that is easy to put down and return to in a few days." —SmallWars Journal.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Lots of details, background, and stories - the ugly truth about terrorism November 26, 2008
Alan Thompson (San Diego, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very moved by the book, and the stories of how counter-terror work began with just 3 guys in a basement, and all of the difficulties encountered in trying to prepare a sleeping America for a new an ugly enemy.
 Fred Burton: Straight laced American November 25, 2008
Eric Gillespie
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fred Burton: Straight laced American
First off fantastic book with great insight into the job for the state department. Pretty much just history and nothing post 9/11 but keeping that in your mind while you read it allows you to understand just how much we missed and why.
Fred Burton the author and star of this work is a straight laced American. He is nothing like the rouge 007's of the world and that makes him great in my book. He was not a field agent so that makes it difficult to compare but if you line him up next to Robert Baer, former CIA- Counter Terrorism, you will see they are very different. Burton is a give it all, work is life, patriot and the United States needs more men like him. All and all great book and if you are looking for a true to life James Bond thriller you have come to the wrong place.
NOTE**
Robert Baer is a great American and a Patriot he has served his country well and with distinction. His novel(s) and works of non-fiction are fantastic and somewhat on the lines of a James Bond novel, so if that is what you are looking for, there you go, Enjoy I know I did.
True American Heroes September 18, 2008
Rabiddog9 (Vermont)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Very much enjoyed reading this book, no it is not like a Robert Ludlum or John LeCarre novel. It is a true testament to the real American Heroes who tread into dark and dangerous places and situations that most of us would fear to go. What stands out here is the dedication and patriotism of these men and woman, who, though obviously highly skilled and intelligent choose a life of sacrifice and service over money and fame. They seek to protect the rest of us from horrors that we can barely appreciate, while often suffering the criticism from the ill informed. The big payoff if they are killed in the line of duty is an anonymous gold star on a wall at Langley. I would hope more people read this book if only to understand that it is a dangerous world in which we live, and perhaps, if only for a moment, take a break from American Idol and Monday Night Football to appreciate these American public servants.
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