Security Books

I needed this book for a class I am taking, however, I would have read this book just for pleasure, I finished it before the class even started

This is a comprehensive analysis of the threat without being alarmist.

It is far too easy to find shocking explanations of the biological weapons potential that do not describe some of the difficulties in their procurement and delivery. This "sexy" approach captures our attention and makes for good entertainment, but the `Chicken Little' approach doesn't help us develop rational methods for dealing with the issue.

Read this book if you want a levelheaded examination. It also contains a good description and solid recommendations for a national strategy.

In a very good way, I got more than I bargained for by reading this book. While seeking a solid source to inform myself on the "nuts and bolts", policy implications, and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), I continued to come across this title. Expect some dense and intense reading; there is not a wasted word here. The book focuses exclusively on the covert delivery of a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon against an American target, exploring possible methods, limitations, locales, preventive measures, and consequences. This book will considerably broaden the knowledge of any first-timer looking into WMD and likely provides substantive material for discussion among policy makers and experts in the field.

I picked up this book as a research tool for a paper. Not only did I find the book to contain everything I needed, I became so enveloped in the reality of what I was reading that I couldn't put it down. A fan of Tom Clancy novels, this book describes the harsh reality that we live in, while detailing both the strengths and the weaknesses of the US response to bioterrorism. A must read for those with an interest in national security issues.

couldn't be happier with it - gorgeous pictures, great cause and it was delivered ahead of schedule.

I was looking for a 2007 calendar for my son's room, and saw the special on Amazon for the Amnesty International calendar. Not only does it offer great photography each month, but I was able to introduce the organization to my son. Great pictures, great cause.

I recieved the calendar carefully wrapped in a cardboard box. The item arrived only 3 business days after I purchased it.

An interesting selection of black & white and color photos from the Magnum photographic cooperative showing people from all over the world. The tone is optimistic and life-affirming, and the cause is certainly worthwhile!

I purchased this book to assist me with some finance and accounting courses. It was one of the best purchases I could have made. The book is clear, concise, and informative. It made understanding several of the concepts behind financial statement analysis much much simpler. It is certainly worth every bit of the cost.

I did not finish this book because it is written in a very academic and hard to grasp language. Authors, please make your sentences a little shorter and simpler, the book is very boring and verbose! However, I must give credit to the authors for including almost all of the tools one will need for analysis of financial statements.

I am not a CPA or Finance major. I am a physicist so the math is not intimidating. I have been investing as an amateur since retirement and this book gives solid and easily understood ways to get at the valuation of a company and its stock by investigating the financial statements. There is a good comprehensive case study at the end of the book, but I wish the authors would give more examples either within or at the end of each chapter.

I have bought every edition of this book, and it just keeps getting better and better. As a 25 year veteran of corporate finance, I continue to use this book myself on a regular basis and to recommend it to less experienced employees who are still developing their expertise. Every finance library should have this book.

Wyatt has gotten below the slick surface of the politicized 9/11 to the human reality below. Well done!

9/11 is one of those days that we all remember, I was in my office about 35 miles from the World Trade Center. Our controllers husband was on the 106th floor of one of the buildings -- they found him about 11 days later. There were a lot of stories that I remember. But I never thought to write them down and then to compile them into a book.

David Wyatt did. He noted his thoughts, his observations of other people and discussions. He has combined these into an awesome tale. It is not a tale of the heroic. It is not a politically motivated diatribe dripping with hatred like Fahrenheit 9/11. Somewhat autobiographical, this book is also a reasoned yet emotional and reflective essay on the way our world changed on 9/11.

I have the feeling that this book is too emotional, too thoughtful to be the all time best seller on the incident. I also have the feeling that when many of the other books have faded away this one will remain.

The greatest compliment I can give a book is that the writing is honest, because only with honesty can truth be gleaned. David Wyatt's memoir based on the events in his life after 9-11 does an excellent--and honest--job of capturing the contradictory emotions felt by many. But what I found most interesting about his book was his notion that small collisions or accidents between people and their lives often have far-reaching implications. I am glad that I took time to read David Wyatt's memoir--a truly transforming book.

In a time when memoirs are lining the bookstore shelves like never before, Wyatt's _And The War Came_ emerges as one of those books that you'll read more than once, and then never forget. This is a writer who pays attention, a writer who knows the necessity for words as we navigate through the upheavals-and delights-of our lives. And so with the events of September 11th, Wyatt took to the page, chronicling "the days" that followed:

"The sound of this war feels as if it were reeling straight out of my mind and heart. ... To accept this, to come to savor it, is to agree that Hamlet was right when he said that the readiness is all. But there is no getting ready for what has happened and for what will go on happening to us, no way to manage the soul-bruising overload of feeling and fact or the sheer incommensurability of taking it all in while we continue to live our little lives."

But this "accidental memoir" should not for a second be regarded as merely a book about war; in fact, its understatedness refuses to smack its reader over the head with sentimentality or political agenda, as is so often the case. Wyatt, an accomplished university professor and restaurant owner, bravely gives us, by way of his diary, a candid entry into his "quotidian life," though he resists, quite remarkably, the tendency to be overly reflexive, often letting the words of those around him do the work. Written in the present tense, Wyatt's crisp and incisive prose imparts an energy that endures, just as the past, which he so effortlessly dips in and out of, endures. In reading, I was compelled by how this book, like any good book, is very much alive. In a sense, this memoir speaks to how we are all living in this "Great Good Time"-how we find our bearings, and sometimes our discomfort, in our relationships with others; how we age; how change changes us. But it speaks also to pleasure (food here, for example, carries a lip-licking sensuality) and love-not only romantic love or the love for family and friends, but love for a country, or for something as simple yet grand as "a particular turn in a road, where an entire mountain range swims into view."

This is truly a wondrous book, one that I would whole-heartedly recommend to anyone.

When your in parts of the world were their are drug lords and Wealthy people Like California it was Like magic before, like I was living in a Drug Lord Movie. No problems worries with people telling because that is no problem unless one gets involved with differnt people who don't share the same chemistry and that does not happen with people of that chemistry because everyone does not always think the same things.

Clawson and Lee managed to compile a vast amount of data from varied sources to produce a balanced on-the-mark analysis of the cocaine industry and its impact on the region. A very impressive book.

As a person who has lived in and conducted business in Colombia, and as someone who is interested in the subjects of Colombian history, economics, and the country's struggle to maintain its own internal sovereignty, I found The Anean Cocaine Industry to be extremely informative. Bravo to Clawson and Lee -- a job well done. If you are interested in cocaine, its production and its socio-political and economic impacts, this book is an educational must read. Bottom line: a wonderfully comprehensive text on this subject.

"The Andean Cocaine Industry" is an expert account of drug trafficking. The authors leave no stone unturned in studying this important subject. They must be commended...this is a remarkable book.

David Nibert does a wonderful job of using social theory to explain animal oppression and show the ties of animal oppression to the institution of capitalism. He enhances his topic by showing how the oppression of animals is deeply entangled with the oppression of humans based on ethnicity, gender, and social class. Using a slightly modified version of Donald Noel's theory of ethnic stratification, Nibert clearly maps out his ideas concerning the oppression of non-human animals. He covers all aspects of oppression, ranging from the truths behind flesh consumption to the use of animals in vivosects. His topics then expand to show how the autrocities committed against animals then lead to, and help support, the oppression of humans.
This book is a must for anyone concerned with animal rights AND human rights. Equality will not come from seperate movements fighting for one cause. Coming together, and realizing that the cause being fought for is universal and spans the bridge between humans and animals, is the only way to make progess. David Nibert makes this issue painfully clear.

Whereas a large portion of the scholarship regarding humans' ethical responsibilities towards animals has focused on the roles and morality of the individual - this book takes a sociological perspective in order to express a direct correlation between the systematic exploitation of humans and other animals. It is the same sort of attitudes and social norms which cause humans to promote and sustain oppresive systems towards all subjects of a life, and Nibert's book does an excellent job of chronicling this reality.

In this ambitious undertaking, Nibert attempts to demonstrate the entwined fates of humans and animals throughout the history of the western world. In a style that will be well received by fans of Howard Zinn, Nibert uses this historical review to put contemporary oppression in a broader context. Framing this overview in sociological theory, Nibert suggests that the capitalist system and neoliberalist, global development policies and practices bear considerable responsibility for much of the suffering of humans and animals throughout the world today. A very good read for students and progressive activists for all causes.

While I was familiar with historical episodes of oppression and violence, I never really connected the dots to see how many of these events were related and largely motivated by greed and avarice. I was opposed to cruel treatment of animals, but I did not realize the connections between their treatment and human oppression until reading this book. This book opened my eyes to the structural causes of oppression (and motivated me to become a vegetarian). I highly recommend it.

2004's "Anticipating Surprise" is a distillation of a much larger, and classified, study on the challenge for the U.S. Intelligence Community of providing strategic warning. Author Cynthia Grabo's working experience covered the Cold War from Korea to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This condensed version, put together by the Joint Military Intelligence College, alludes to some later examples of warning problems.

Those looking for quick and easy solutions to the conduct of analysis for strategic warning may be disappointed. As Grabo notes in a summary chapter, "Nothing is going to remove the uncertainties of the warning problem." Anticipating surprise is hard work; Grabo explores the topic in clear simple language, pointing out some reliable methods and some obvious pitfalls. After explaining the basics of the warning problem, Grabo devotes several chapters to the use of indicators of pending enemy action, whether military or political. She notes both the difficulty and the criticality of providing the decision-maker with a coherent, positive judgement on a warning problem.

Grabo includes a remarkably lucid discussion on the problem of deception, the discouraging conclusion of which is how often deception is successful. A follow-on discussion on assigning probabilities to various outcomes is unusually accessible for what is often an arcane topic. A final chapter sums up the discussion and offers some take-away points for the professional practioner.

"Anticipating Surprise" is very highly recommended professional reading for the intelligence officer. Persons in the academic community or the decision-making business may find this short book to be invaluable preparation for understanding more focused studies such as the report of the 9/11 Commission. This reviewer recommends reading it in conjunction with Roberta Wohlstetter's outstanding "Warning and Decision" dissection of the Pearl Harbor disaster.

Just a note to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the book arrived. It was as-described in the posting. Many many stars to the dealer.

JCG
Washington, DC

This book is great on several counts: first, it was extremely readable without the jargon that usually comes with these types of books; secondly, this is a textbook that teaches you how to do intelligence analysis for forecasting; thirdly, it is realistic and the author's 30 years of experience comes through in the telling of examples and instruction; and finally, although the book was previously classified and sat on the shelf in the intelligence community for many, many years, it seems like it could have been the predecessor for the 9-11 Report. Overall, a real gem of a book for anyone interested in doing intelligence analysis or knowing how it is suppose to be done.

If there was an intelligence failure associated with the 9/11 disaster it was a failure of intelligence warning. Yet in all the calls for intelligence reform that have been made since that disaster none have seriously addressed the issue of the analytic techniques for identifying and warning of potential threats to U.S. security. Cynthia Grabo took the concept of intelligence warning as deadly serious and, in the early 1970's, wrote down her observations on the best analytic practices for developing warning intelligence. She was, until her retirement in 1980, considered the final authority on warning intelligence. This book is an abridged and declassified summary of her work and her thinking on warning intelligence and is as valuable today as it was thirty years ago.

Although the Cold War is long over the analytic techniques required to identify threats and build warning information are just as relevant today as they were in the 1970's. Unlike so many of the books and other documents on intelligence `reform', this book addresses the basics of analysis and actually deals with realistic processes of intelligence production. More importantly, it recognizes that analysis of warning intelligence is a unique set of skills and crafts that represent a specialized and relevant career field. If the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) were actually a functioning organization this book should be read by DNI executives and its lesson applied to create a dedicated `intelligence warning' center as the principal center reporting to the DNI. Warning intelligence is no less relevant today than it was when Cynthia Grabo attempted to codify the methodologies of producing it.

On a personnel note, this reviewer never had an opportunity to meet Ms. Grabo, but can testify to the fact that she and her writings were considered the definitive word on warning intelligence by many of us both during and after the Cold War.

This books is well-written, interesting and fairly well-researched for anyone who likes this sort of thing. With the pace that technology advances at, particularly with regards to computers, this 15 year old book has become entirely historical. Absolutely none of the events or technologies are relevant to the present day except in the context of history.

Nevertheless, if you're looking for background info on hacking, phreaking, viruses and other computer security related matters, it's well worth a read. Most of the information could be found in other books written about the same time as this one, however it's still very readable and does provide a comprehensive, though not particularly detailed, gathering of most of the relevant events over the past 30 years. In that regard it's also a good reference if you want to know how hacking and phreaking started, right from the very beginning.

Also, it's a good introduction for the lay person interested in finding out what what hacking and phreaking is, and describes things like basic virus writing, boot sector viruses, executable file-based viruses, basic hacker exploits, the original tone-based phreaking methods, etc... However anyone really interested in this stuff would need to continue on learning through to updated information.

It's an old book now; the terminology is quaint both because it's targeted at the lay person and it almost predates the Internet. But does form an important part of the limited literature available which covers that time period. Also, although it suggests that the doom and gloom scenario touted at the time with regards to technology destroying us all is over-hyped (as we can see in hindsight) the book still indulges in jumping on the hype bandwagon itself to some degree.

The book is amazingly interesting. I believe for a beginner who wants to know some history and have some basic idea of what hacking and virus is, this is the book! The writer also has done a good job on collecting all kinds of examples.

This is a fantastic book for anybody interested in the begginings of the hacker and phreaker world. This book accounts many of the first large and small feats by these amazing pioneers of the computer and electronics world.

This book is a bit scattered, and if you're looking for a novel on computer crime this is not it. However, these real life accounts of hacking are fascinating. The authors did a great job researching these accounts and the result is an intreging book that keeps your interest throughout. It's a nine.

Dr. Pascual has managed to cut right to the nerve of some very complex current issues: the roots of Islamic terrorism, the anger focused against the U.S., the troubles with our long-term allies, and U.S. policy in the Middle East, explaining it in such a way that anyone can gain an understanding of the events that are shaping our future. If you are looking for a well-written, interesting overview of the situation, this is the book for you. Pascual quotes policy experts extensively, but you don't have to be a political scientist to understand what is there; in fact, the research is presented in such a way as to make the book a fascinating, but easy, read. Buy this book to see what only an "outsider" who has come to love our country can teach us about ourselves.

arma against faith is a well thought out way of looking at our great american society in the light of middle earstern cultures
it can be a great way of introducing those who are just begining to understandthayt the middle eastren world looks at us americans from a very diffrerent point of veiw

this comes froma man who can stand outside our culture and look in. an excellent read

Its a compelling book with everything thats happening now.Thrilling and informative "arms Against faith" is a must read.

A must read for all radical anarchists! In "Arms Against Faith" Dr. Eladio Pasqual presents a bi-cultural perspective on how America's complacency led to it's own demise on the fateful day of September 11th. Dr. Pasquals' religious and spiritual background assist him in analyzing the Islamic faith and offshoot radical fundamentalists and how their interfacing with the United States ends in near implosion. With great passion he speaks of the America that he loves having become so grandious that it enters a war alone and with no end in sight.
A brilliant read! I encourage you all to go on this journey with Dr. Pasqual as he examines pertinent issues of this war from his American and Spanish roots; countries each that he cherishes but only one that he grieves.

Krepinevich has a cult following among professors and students at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. After reading his work I understand why. It is rare that ones comes across a book that radically changes the way one looks at military history. Thousands of books have been written on Vietnam and the movies "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" brought the war to millions of Americans. Until I read this book, I thought I understood the causes and conduct of the war. Krepinevich brilliantly analyzes how the U.S. Army planned for and conducted the war. How it tried to fight the war it wanted to fight, vice the war as it actually existed. Army leadership brought their conventional mindset to the jungles of Vietnam. The inability to adapt to change proved a greater threat to the U.S. Army than the North Vietnamese Army. The book rises above the personal narrative style that dominates most Vietnam books. Instead, the book is based on solid military analysis. Even more telling was how the U.S. Army failed to grasp the lessons of counter-insurgency following Vietnam and quickly returned to the conventional mindset it preferred. The writing is crisp and powerful. The lessons of this book remain vital today as the U.S. continues to struggle on how to best defeat America's latest enemies.

This book deserves to be far more widely read than it is--and I have no idea why it isn't. Krepinivich's thesis is a brilliant one--the US army was "conceptually" unprepared to fight the Vietnam war: it brought a cold war mentality to the jungles of Vietnam and spent the first seven or eight years of the war trying to "find" this war. The US army imagined that the Viet Cong was a variant of the Soviet army--they "must" have been controlled by a central organization and "must" have had "hidden armies" lurking in the jungle. Decively defeating them would, the Army believed, end the war.

In fact, Krepinivich convincingly argues, the VC was not in the jungle at all--but in the cities along the coast. "We should have done less 'flit'in' and more 'sit'in'", he says.

The war was actually fought more effectively after US troop reduction prevented the "jungle search" strategy from being implemented. This was something akin to what the Marines performed in I Corps: rather than participate in large scale jungle sweeps, troops were divided up and put in small villages with radios. The strategy was more hazardous as troops, because of their small numbers might be overrun. However, it was more effective because it allowed allied forces to prevent the VC from retaking a village after they had withdrawn from their major operation.

This book should eventually allow for US military operations in the first part of the war to be put in the context of greater US cold war culture. The "willing blindness" of the US military during much of the sixties came from what amounts to a cultural fixation on a way power was imagined to function. Even in '71, Nixon believed that the Vietnamese communists was controled by a "COSVN", which functioned like a sort of "tumor": nip the tumor and the body will fall. This, Krepinivich proves, was all part of the American imaginary. Our blindness went far beyond the generals: it was part of our culture.

This is an excellant book that should be read by every military professional and anybody interested in civil-miltary relationships and what happened in Vietnem. The authors premise is that the Army was unprepared for a war in Vietnam. Krepinevich states that Army training, doctrine and organization was geared toward a conventional conflict like what had happened in WWII and Korea. The Army was not prepared to fight a counterinsurgency against a foe that was only going to fight when they had to and when the circumstances and odds were in their favor. The senior leadership of the Army thought the war would be won be killing VC and NVA. According to Krepinevich this is all wrong. To defeat an insurgency you must protect and convince the people of the country you are trying to save that their fortunes lay in siding with you. If the people aren't going to back you then you will lose. It doesn't matter how many VC you kill. The Army's senior leadership did not want to deal with the pacification programs that would have won the war. Many in the military like to lay the blame for the loss in the war at the feet of the politicians in Washington. And there is justification for that. But Krepinevich makes a strong arguement that the war would have still been lost due to the poor/lack of strategy by our military leaders. Reading this book really angered me. Prior to this I had just finished reading "Street Without Joy" by Bernard Fall and I could not help but note the similarities between the failed French efforts and our own. It was like reading the same book over again except the units and the names of the leaders were different. There were almost no lessons learned by our senior leadership from the French debacle.

Although coming to this work as a result of a contemporary (2006) news story about the author I was shocked at the relevance of the book to the issues facing the US Army (and others) in Iraq.

The Army and Vietnam is a fascinating study of how not to organise and fight a counter-insurgency campaign amongst a resentful populace using the most aggressive and technologically advanced "shock and awe" methods.

It appears, not least from the paucity of reviews, that this is a book that was seen to lack relevance or lessons for America's warriors. How wrong they were.

I would strongly commend this book both to students of the history of the Vietnam War and those looking for a fresh, professional, perspective on the problems the US faces in Iraq.