Fred BurtonCritiques

If there's a good book in here, it's past the first chapter or so.

I put this down in disbelief at how silly the writing was, as if it were a pulp detective novel.

The Islamist militant attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 had become such a politicized issue, so the opportunity to read the Fred Burton and Samuel Katz book "Under Fire, The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi" seemed like a good opportunity to gain an understanding of the true story of the attack. After all the claims and counter claims by the warring political parties in Washington, and talking heads in the media, I was relieved to finally have a non-political, detailed account of the attack. Burton and Katz ignored the political arguments, and did an excellent job of describing the heroism of the individuals responsible for security and protection of the U.S. Ambassador in Libya, and of the horrific attack which occurred that night. They also detailed the lack of government control in the area, the number of militia groups vying for control in Benghazi at the time, and the total failure of the local militia contract to provide protection for the mission.
After initially hearing that the attack may have been prompted in protest to an anti-Muslim film titled "Muhammad's Trial", and then having that story dismissed, I did find it interesting to hear a little more about the basis of that initial possibility. In fact, on the day of the attack, there was a protest of thousands in Egypt in from the the U.S. Embassy to protest the film, and another several days later in the Sudan. At least six other diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe were subject to protests and violent attacks in response to this inflammatory video, so there clearly was a backlash in Muslim Countries resulting from the film. However, as it was later shown, the attack in Benghazi was a well planned, coordinated attack by Islamist militants intended to kill American "infidels". The debate continues to this day as to whether the militant group was an Al Qaeda linked group or not, but once the shooting started, I don't imagine the security detail felt that was the most important issue they had to face at that moment.

Snippets of activities covering Fred Burtons career as a counter terrorism agent. Many of the stories are familiar, some are not. None are covered extensively, so to me it was more of an overview of the areas his agency dealt with.

"The Soviets were to be feared, the Americans, experience had taught, could be manipulated."
This was the situation in Beirut, in the 1980s, when CIA Station Chief William Buckley was taken hostage, tortured and killed. It was a time of wholesale abduction of Westerners. Even the Soviets weren't immune. While the United States created task forces and commissions, the Soviets, meanwhile, got down to the level of the terrorists and got their hostages back in days, not years.
Eventually, the terrorists were dealt with, permanently. By whom...?

Under Fire is the account of the attack on the American Special Mission and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Relying on local militias as a backup force that for the most part didn't materialize left embassy and annex security forces fighting Islamist rebels on their own. The outcome: four Americans killed, including Ambassador Stevens. This might not have happened had the mission been established with the security features put in place after previous embassy attacks.

It is annoying when a book has a glossary for acronyms and then uses ones that are not listed. Perhaps petty, but still annoying. Otherwise I would have given a rating of four stars,½

I provided the following review on the Amazon.com Web site and gave the book a five-star rating:

The well-written book is an apolitical account of men and women who found themselves in one of the world's hot spots, Benghazi, Libya, at a time that would turn into tragedy in September 2012. Four gallant servants of the United States of America rendered their lives, while serving their country.

Upon finishing the reading of the book, persons unfamiliar, should take away a basic knowledge (and also hopefully an appreciation) of the Diplomatic Security Service – the who, what, where, when, and why.

The authors do an excellent job providing background and details of places, organizations, political tensions, and people, thereby furnishing readers with an educational source that is not readily available elsewhere.

The pace of the book is rapid, covering background, events just prior to the attack, stages of the attack itself, rescue, and the attack's aftermath, in a manner that reflects support and admiration for the heroes involved.

Several graphics of the attack site are included and are essential for the understanding of the tragic story. The book is well-documented. A helpful glossary is included to assist the reader in coping with numerous abbreviations and acronyms common to government organizations. Several color photos are included that enhance the book. An excellent index is also provided.

Readers should be aware that there is more of this story to be told at a later time, as investigations and fact-finding are still ongoing. Yet, I am glad to have read the book and am comfortable in recommending it to anyone who desires to learn more of those who serve the USA in dangerous places and in unique ways.

Chronicles the growth and activity of Department of State's counter terrorism capability. It's well written and the reader feels like it's right there. If the author wrote another book, I'd read it.

I really enjoyed this book. While the actual search that he described was interesting, I found the history to be of more interest. I didn't realize the reasons that the USAF was having such challenges during the Vietnam War. I also enjoyed the historical information about the development of the IDF. I recommend this book for anyone that is interested in the IDF or in a book about a conspiracy.

I loved this book and have a lot of praise for it, but first I have to debunk the subtitle. Chasing Shadows is advertised as the story of "a Special Agent's lifelong hunt to bring a Cold War assassin to justice," however, the author/investigator is actually retired from the Diplomatic Security Service when he undertakes his investigation and has to rely on records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with also-retired investigators. And as for "Cold War" - the main players all come from Israel, the United States and Palestinian territories, though there is a spectacular firefight in Berlin that isn't the least bit "Cold".

This book provides an exhilarating, inspiring history of Israel's tiny Air Force and the extraordinarily fierce and smart tactics they used to preserve their nation in the face of existential threats from their neighbors after World War II. One of the brightest stars in their air service was Joe Alon, a pilot who invented many of Israel's air war tactics and trained a generation of pilots on how to compensate for their inferior equipment and tiny numbers. Alon then came to the United States as an Air Force liaison (and possible spy) until he was gunned down in his driveway in Bethesda, Md.

Fred Burton was a teenager living a few blocks away when that shooting occurred and never forgot it. After he retired, he spent years trying to solve the long-forgotten cold case. He follows not only Alon but also all of his suspects through the decades of the Cold War - through the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Munich Olympics and many other events rarely told as vividly as they are here. And it's the only time I've ever read the CIA, Mossad and the Montgomery County Police department mentioned in the same paragraph.

For the Israeli military history alone, I recommend this book. But the true-crime espionage story at the heart of the book is exceptionally interesting and ultimately leaves you feeling like Fred Burton really may have cracked the case in the end.

Chas­ing Shad­ows: A Spe­cial Agent's Life­long Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assas­sin to Jus­tice by Fred Bur­ton is a non-fiction book which tells about the author’s life­long inves­ti­ga­tion into a polit­i­cal mur­der of one of his neigh­bors. The prod­uct of the inves­ti­ga­tion is a mes­mer­iz­ing book of an inves­ti­ga­tion of a lifetime.

July of 1973 in Bethesda, MD Joseph Alon was shot to death. Mr. Alon was a high rank­ing Israeli Air Force pilot, a fam­ily man and a diplo­matic attaché. Fred Bur­ton, the Alons 16 year old neigh­bor, was shocked by this hor­ren­dous crime in his sleepy neighborhood.

As he grew up, Fred Bur­ton, now a coun­tert­er­ror­ism spe­cial agent, reopened the case and found more than he bar­gained for try­ing to solve this almost for­got­ten murder.

Chas­ing Shad­ows by Fred Bur­ton is an amaz­ingly fast pace, excit­ing and inter­est­ing book. Mr. Bur­ton writes a com­pelling account of a four decade old unsolved mur­der which involves Israeli diplo­mats, Amer­i­can and Israeli intel­li­gence, Black Sep­tem­ber, the PLO, CIA, FBI, PFLP, the USAF and more.

At the time of the mur­der Mr. Bur­ton was 16, as he grew up, entered the gray world of intel­li­gence and law enforce­ment, the crime never left his mind. When he started to inves­ti­gate he found out some­thing strange: it seemed that none of these enti­ties want the mur­der to be solved!
That includes the Israeli gov­ern­ment who has prided itself on aveng­ing the mur­der of its cit­i­zens regard­less of bor­ders and local or inter­na­tional laws.

This very com­pelling account is not only about the mur­der, but a small les­son in his­tory to put every­thing in con­text. The strug­gle of the US Air force against the MiG fight­ers, the birth of the Israeli Air force, as well as the mutu­ally ben­e­fi­cial rela­tion­ship between the two coun­tries, as well as sec­tions devoted to how Mid­dle East­ern ter­ror­ism oper­ated in the 70s.

In my opin­ion, the mys­tery took a back seat to the fas­ci­nat­ing his­tory les­son, but that’s not to say it is not mes­mer­iz­ing as well. Due to the subject’s diplo­matic stature, many of the sus­pects can­not be named and were dif­fi­cult to track lead­ing only to dead ends or false leads. How­ever, once in a while, through sheer deter­mi­na­tion and per­sis­tence, Mr. Bur­ton slowly made progress.

The nar­ra­tive weaves the pain of the Alon fam­ily who are being blocked by the Israeli gov­ern­ment and his own frus­tra­tion of run­ning into brick walls at every turn. Mr. Bur­ton is a won­der­ful sto­ry­teller who weaves inter­na­tional intrigue and com­pli­cated rela­tion­ships between peo­ple, orga­ni­za­tions and coun­tries in a very read­able format.

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A fast reading story on the 1973 murder of Joseph Alon, the air force attache at the Israeli embassy in Washington. Alon's own story, from his birth in what then was British-ruled Palestine to his command of Mirage and Phantom squadrons, is told along with how unsatisfactory U. S. Air Force air-to-air experiences in Vietnam combined with Israel's relative successes in this field combined with its obtaining an Iraqi MiG-21 in 1966 and success against Soviet pilots over Egypt in 1970 led to a closer Air Force relationship with Israel and his subsequent posting to the United States.
The author, Fred Burton, lived near Alon and was 16 at the time. He credits the murder as part of the reason he joined law enforcement and then the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. He well weaves the story of the original investigation which was closed with no resolution, the growth of terrorism (Black September in particular) and Israeli anti-terrorism with his own reopening of the case in 2007 and the eventual 2010 climax.

When Fred Burton was 16 a murder occurred in his quiet community that was never solved. Burton had a difficult time accepting the fact that something like this could occur in his neighborhood in 1973. Nothing like it had occurred before and he had a difficult time accepting that it could happen and never be solved. It was one of the factors that led Burton into the field of law enforcement and he never forgot that morning when he first heard of the murder. In each stop in his career as he advance through various levels of law enforcement he kept that murder in mind and was always open to any facts or stories that might come his way as a police officer. His final position, before retirement, was with the Diplomatic Security Service in the State Department. As deputy chief of the Counterterrorism Division of the DDS he made contacts and heard things that would enable his private investigation of the 1973 killing to go on once he retired.

After retiring he made contact with two daughters of the victim who were still looking for answers to their father’s death. Burton uses sources that he made contact with before his retirement, the first police officer on the scene that night, and others to attempt to track down the person of persons that committed the murder in 1973. Of course he started with the victim, the Military Attaché to the Israeli Embassy. This leads Burton to give us a brief history of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians that started at the Olympic Games of 1972. Was the Military Attaché killed as part of this “Shadow War” or was he victim of a robbery gone badly.

Chasing Shadows is an excellent book tracing the conflict that possibly led to the death on a quiet street in the USA. It is also the story of one man’s search for justice for an invasion in his quiet community that as a teenager he did not understand. He needed to bring closure in his own mind to an occurrence that he did not understand. An excellent book and an easy and enjoyable read. It is fast paced and keeps one’s attention. Highly recommended.

Chasing Shadows is a very good book. Burton is driven to find out who killed his neighbor, an Israeli diplomat, in 1973. For more than thirty years he tracks down clues, before finding the name of the assassin. What makes this story most interesting is the detail about some of the big names in 1970s terrorism, like Black September, PLO and the PFLP and Israel’s response to the growing threat to its security. This book created interest to read more about terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s. Chasing Shadows reads like a fast paced spy thriller and would be a good basis for a quality movie.

When the author was a teenager a murder happened in his neighborhood that he unknowingly trained his entire life to solve. This book tells the story of how he did that after over 30 years of following the case. While the book is about the murder investigation, about half of it is dedicated to explaining the Israel/Palestine conflicts and how they affected the world and ultimately relate to this murder mystery. A great story and great education on the Middle East.

Very compelling account of a forty-year old murder mystery that involves Middle-eastern terrorists, Israeli intelligence, the CIA, U.S. foreign policy and the man who would not give up his quest to find a killer and bring him to justice. I found the back-story to actually be more interesting than the main mystery; the birth of the Israeli Air Force and how the U.S. Air Force's struggles against MiG fighters in Vietnam led to the sharing of information between the U.S. military and the Israeli Defense Forces and the strengthening of ties between the two nations. The account of the birth of Middle-eastern terrorism and how it operated in the 1970's was fascinating as well. Altogether a terrific story about the "Shadow War" that still resonates today.½

Good story, well written. I appreciated the background information. I'm also glad Burton got his man in the end. However, as I stand on the ramparts between my own country and one consumed by violence and human (is there any other kind?) depravity I take serious objection to the jingoistic clap-trap on page 223. Who will save us from the USA?

This fast-paced, non-fiction account of the long unsolved murder of a former war hero turned Israeli diplomat, Joe Alon, (aka Jospeh Placzek) is filled with intrigue, deception and conspiracy theories. I was reading several other books at the same time, as I am wont to do, but once I started this one, the others languished on the table as this story consumed me and I concentrated on it, to the exclusion of all else. It is a case of the truth being stranger than fiction. Can he have been a double agent? Was there a cover up of his murder or was it truly unsolvable at the time? There are many mysteries dealt with in this short book, as we are taken from Brno, Czechoslovakia to Israel and finally to the United States. All of the intervening wars, including the history of Israel and the Middle East conflict, are outlined and somewhat explored in the process. It is a clear and concise explanation that is easily understood and absorbed.
Beginning with the murder of Joseph Alon, in 1973, a tale of intrigue which spans decades is born. Tracing back through the history of this unique man and his family, we are taken from the tragedy of the Holocaust to Israel’s war for independence and right up to the present day. We learn what made him successful and what motivated him to do the things he did. His courage was often tested and his piloting skills in the Israeli Air Force were legend. He was a major force in Israel’s defense forces. He loomed large, once discovered, in the Palestinian terror network. Did politics, international relations and clandestine operations prevent the details of his murder from being explored and solved in a timely fashion? Why was his family kept in the dark about the circumstances surrounding his death?
This is a well written book whose pages turn themselves. You will not be bored as you trace the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, through the life of this unusual hero or was he??? There are so many variables that one wonders if the whole story behind his murder can ever truly be resolved? The conjecture surrounding the secrets and ploys of various governments and their enemies create plots that rival those of a modern day spy novel. The subterfuge surrounding the secret deals between different organizations is often unfathomable. In the end, you will turn the final page with more knowledge about the event than you had before but you will still wonder about what to believe regarding the mysterious death of Joseph Alon. It is a true life tale of espionage.

Terrorism, murder, revenge, an eye for an eye, so very little separates one from the other. Small nuances that define our lives. Thin lines crossed by individuals and governments. Who is to say what is right? A statement often attributed to Winston Churchill states, history is written by the victors. As a young man of sixteen, Fred Burton's life was changed forever by the news of a murder in a quiet suburb of Bethesda, Maryland in 1973. The mystery of the unsolved shooting would haunt him as his life followed a career in law enforcement and security analysis. The victim was Colonel Joe Alon, an Israeli Air Force pilot assigned to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. On an otherwise quiet July night, he was shot, execution style, in front of the home where he lived with his wife and two daughters. The murder would go unsolved by the local police and the FBI. Why was this man murdered in the U.S.? Was it a random shooting or was it tied to the history of this Israeli pilot who had fought in the Israeli-Palestinian wars while protecting his country. Reopening the cold case on the killing, Fred Burton traces Joe Alon's life through the formation and defense of the Israeli state, as Alon plays a leading role in the development of the Israeli Air Force. The trail leads across the years through the Middle East to Europe and the United States. The story of Joe Alon is a story of individuals and governments, mystery and intrigue, spies and terrorists, obfuscation and cover-up on many levels, ultimately leading the author to an inescapable conclusion and a moral conundrum. Book provided for review by the well read folks at Palgrave/Macmillan.

A very well written book taking you into the world of counterterrorism. The author does an amazing job of describing how the world is a constantly changing and dangerous place.