First published nearly twenty years ago, distinguished journalist John Dinges's "scrupulous, well-documented, and indignant" (Washington Post) The Condor Years blew the lid off a secret intelligence-sharing, torture, and assassination program named Operation Condor, which helped Latin American dictatorships stay in power for a decade-all with the blessing of the United States. In the ensuing years, Dinges has closely tracked a series of groundbreaking...
The first thing we have to make clear in these types of books is who the author is and the author of this book is John Dinges. Dinges is a serious journalist who worked as the editorial director for National Public Radio for over ten years (1985 to 1996). He has worked as a foreign correspondent for Time, ABC, and most notably the Washington Post. And he is currently a Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of...
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This is a true story of terrorism and international terrorism patronized by the US government, then led by such honest and law-abiding statesmen as Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger (I guess Gerald Ford was also there, but permanently asleep). In this case the terrorists were not marxist revolutionaries or religious lunatics, but seven or eight South American rogue states - all of them military dictatorships and impeccable...
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After all the 'moral values' chatter that erupted after the recent American election, a dose of reality can remind one of just how hypocritical the game is, and this excellent account of the Pinochet years, and the actions of the American government to that sordid history, can serve up the facts of the case, to wit, what Americans are capable of, on the record. Since it takes decades to get the facts, we should be wondering...
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The Condor Years it's a superb piece of work. It often happens to me that the more I know about an issue, the more I am unsatisfied with what I read about it, because I am able to detect mistakes and inaccuracies. With John Dinges' book, right the opposite happened. Precisely because I am familiar with quite a few of the documents that he is using, I could appreciate how sound and well grounded are each and every statement...
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What's so remarkable about this book is the incredible fairness of its author. The reader will find that as he or she discovers one outrage after another, one violation of human rights after another, it will be almost impossible to remain calm. But Dinges calm tone, incredible evidence, and judicious manner makes the indictment of his book all the more powerful. Anyone worried about the conduct of the United States on the...
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