Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286053 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-23
• Released on: 2007-01-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Best known for bringing details of Iran's nuclear program to international attention, Jafarzadeh offers a harrowing portrait of his native country with this sobering blend of history and contemporary politics. Starting with the 1979 revolution that marked the ascendance of the Ayatollah Khomeini, he argues that Islamist extremism has played a central role in the last 25 years of Iranian politics, including the Iraq-Iran War and the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which Jafarzadeh believes was orchestrated by the Khamenei regime. All the while, he contends, Iran has maintained a covert nuclear weapons program, threatening to radically destabilize the Middle East and strengthen the reach and scope of the oppressive Iranian regime. Jafarzadeh, a foreign affairs analyst for Fox News who was the U.S. spokesman for the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) until 2003, when it was placed on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, has a strong emotional investment in his subject. He dismisses military and diplomatic solutions to the imminent nuclear crisis he foresees, but suggests that international support of Iranian resistance movements could succeed in upsetting the current regime. Highly detailed and compelling, his account is accessible to a general reader but will appeal mainly to students of Middle East politics. (Feb.)
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Review
"Finally, we have a book from the man responsible for alerting the West about Iran's secret nuclear program. The Iran Threat documents how Tehran's support for terrorism and its commitment to a nuclear program are consistent with its ideology. Jafarzadeh provides new information on the political and religious background of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which should wake up Western policy-makers."--Bruce McColm, President , Institute for Democratic Strategies, former executive director of Freedom House, and former President of the International Republican Institute "While the whole of the West--including its powerful diplomacies and intelligence services--was fast asleep, shamelessly engaging with the fanatic regime in the persecution of the Iranian resistance, the resistance exposed the Iranian regime’s nuclear plans. If you seek the most authoritative view of the leading threat to our civilization's values, you must read Alireza Jafarzadeh’s book."--Paulo Casaca, Chairman, NATO delegation at the European Parliament "As Iran relentlessly drives toward nuclear-armed status, world leaders shift gears and quicken their search for diplomatic exit ramps in a race against time to avoid war. As diplomacy fails, problematic military strike scenarios against Iranian nuclear sites abound. In his excellent book, The Iran Threat, Alireza Jafarzadeh creatively offers another option: empower the Iranian people to seize control over their own country from the illegitimate clerical leadership. By removing the main Iranian opposition groups from terrorist lists of western countries, these organizations can pressure the regime in Tehran to choose between remaining in power and pursuing nuclear weapons. The Iran Threat will be on the 'must read' list of policymakers from Washington to Moscow, as well as from Baghdad to Beijing."--Raymond Tanter, Georgetown University, and President, Iran Policy Committee "Alireza Jafarzadeh knows Iran and the terrorist nature of Islamic fascism. He charts the Iranian regime's political development and efforts to become a nuclear power. He analyzes U.S. policy and failures to date to contain the Iranian threat. Anyone concerned about world peace and security should read this book."--Donna M. Hughes, Professor and Carlson Endowed Chair, University of Rhode Island "No one outside Iran has a better idea of what the regime in Tehran is up to than Alireza Jafarzadeh, whose Iran Threat offers an important assessment of today's circumstances. He also presents vital ideas for dealing with a rogue government as it attempts to acquire nuclear weaponry."--Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum "As the support for terrorism and nuclear ambitions of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fan the flames of conflict in the Middle East, The Iran
Threat is the first and best guide to Ahmadinejad's sordid past, his dangerous
present, and our precarious future. Alireza Jafarzadeh offers the most viable
policy option for the United States to contain the Iranian threat as an
alternative to war or appeasement." --Congressman Bob Filner (D-California), Co-Chair, Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives "This is essential reading for those who are concerned about the Iranian nuclear program and are willing to keep an open mind about the Iranian opposition. Written by the Iranian-American who first revealed to the world--and to international inspectors--the existence of Iran's secret uranium-enrichment and plutonium-production plants, this book provides a credible, compelling account of how the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guards artfully engaged in deceit, deception and concealment to hijack a civilian program and turn it into a military one. This book also places us at the cutting edge of new allegations about an underground network of nuclear installations beyond the reach of both the International Atomic Energy Agency and national intelligence agencies. It poses the disturbing, bottom-line question of how anything the Iranian regime might yet promise to do in its ongoing negotiations with the West could ever be verified."
--Paul Leventhal, Founding President, Nuclear Control Institute, Washington, D.C. "Alireza Jafarzadeh's book is a must-read. Jafarzadeh is one of the foremost authorities on modern Iran, and his book is a unique collection of information you can't find anywhere else. From the inner-workings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime to the Iranian nuclear threat, he gives a unique and insightful perspective to the current situation in Iran."--Rita Cosby, Host of MSNBC Investigates “Iran is the world’s number one threat. Alireza Jafarzadeh brilliantly describes why and what we can do to help the Iranian people take their country back. A must-read if you want to understand how to win the Global War on Terror.”--Lt. General Thomas G. McInerney USAF (Ret.), former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force "This book could not be more timely. As the United States looks for solutions to the crisis in the Middle East, and Iran in particular, we need authentic voices to shape the debate. Mr. Jafarzadeh’s participation in exposing the Iranian nuclear program confirms his role and this book’s in informing American policy making."--United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana "A remarkably well-written and well-researched account of attempts by the Iranian mullahs to join the ranks of the world's nuclear powers. Mr. Jafarzadeh's sources inside Iran have proven time and again to be remarkably well-connected and well-informed. This book should be read by all who are concerned with the spread of nuclear technology beyond the ranks of supposedly responsible "great powers"."--Ambassador James Akins, Former United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia "Best known for bringing details of Iran's nuclear program to international attention, Jafarzadeh offers a harrowing portrait of his native country with this sobering blend of history and contemporary politics. Starting with the 1979 revolution that marked the ascendance of the Ayatollah Khomeini, he argues that Islamist extremism has played a central role in the last 25 years of Iranian politics, including the Iraq-Iran War and the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which Jafarzadeh believes was orchestrated by the Khamenei regime. All the while, he contends, Iran has maintained a covert nuclear weapons program, threatening to radically destabilize the Middle East and strengthen the reach and scope of the oppressive Iranian regime. Jafarzadeh, a foreign affairs analyst for Fox News who was the U.S. spokesman for the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) until 2003, when it was placed on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, has a strong emotional investment in his subject. He dismisses military and diplomatic solutions to the imminent nuclear crisis he foresees, but suggests that international support of Iranian resistance movements could succeed in upsetting the current regime. Highly detailed and compelling, his account is accessible to a general reader but will appeal mainly to students of Middle East politics."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author
ALIREZA JAFARZADEH is a terrorism expert, Middle East analyst, and Fox News Channel Foreign Affairs Analyst. He is president of Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc. in Washington D.C. and has frequently appeared on major television and radio broadcasts including CNN, MSNBC, CBS Evening News, NBC, NPR, and BBC to discuss Iran. Jafarzadeh is also former media director for the Washington, DC office of the parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Customer Reviews

An Ex-Patriot Sounds off
This is a spirited, urgent and sage call for sanity in approaching the emerging Iran problem from a Fox News Middle East analyst, and ex-patriot. While not always the most balanced of renditions, the author's background makes him well positioned to have a firm grasp on the meaning of the history of the region, a sordid history that he clearly believes has led to the present international crisis over Iran's emerging nuclear capability. And while he speaks from the platform offered up to him by the hard right end of the U.S. political spectrum, he is by no means just a "parrot" of the Fox News party line.

His main points are all well-developed and worth serious reflection. They are that: (1) the larger threat, the unanticipated rise of an undemocratic Islamic revolution with Iran emerging as the regional hegemon, is in the main a U.S creation; (2) far from restoring stability to the region, invading Iraq, has actually tipped the balance of power in the direction of the radical and reactionary Mullahs; (3) sitting on its enormous oil reserves (and away from the limelight of the American media) Iran, unlike the U.S. and Israel, has been busy building enduring international economic alliances with the emerging powers of Asia; in particular real politics with with Russia, China, and India are likely to bear fruit; (4) U.S. short-sighted policies in the region, have come back to haunt us, long-term -- now boxing us and our erstwhile ally, Israel, as well as the moderate forces within Iran, into a narrow set of unpalatable and ultimately self-defeating options; and (5) that while pre-emptively taking out Iran's embryonic nuclear program seems to be the only robust (but not entirely sensible) option remaining for the U.S. or for Israel, it is far from cost free, but is one likely to end in an international debacle of the likes of the fiasco in Iraq; (6) however, allowing Iran to develop its nuclear weapons, is even a far worse option; and (7) that whatever happens, time and the forces of history seem to be on Iran's side.

The author makes no bones about identifying the ultimate sources of the current crisis as the long term damaging effects of the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran, that of Mossadeq, and the fact that the international community "winked" at the development of Israel's own nuclear weapons, resulting in a dramatic increase in insecurity in the region and a failure to develop a nuclear weapons free zone that may have been able to stem the tide of nuclear weapons' development in the Middle East.

He carefully points out that it was the overthrow of that Mossadeq government that led to our support of the hero of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Allatollah Khominei, the same hero that we had to later denounce, and who later also denounced us as "the Great Satan," and who is now responsible for the current very unpopular regime that is on the verge of testing its first nuclear weapon.

Although ambivalent about what will and will not work -- all options have serious "down sides" -- the author still, if only instinctively opts for a non-confrontational approach. As part of the conclusions, State Department Arms control Czar, Robert G. Joseph's seven reasons why Iran should not be allowed to develop the bomb are quoted, but Joseph too offers only anemic suggestions on what to do.

There is a great deal here to chew on, much insider history on the ebbing-and-flowing on internal Iranian politics and the book is well documented enough to serve as not only food for thought for the casual reader, but also as good reference material for experts doing research on nuclear weapons issues in the region.

Four stars

A Fact-Based Case Against Iran (but read with caution)
This book is a comprehensive, yet brief and accessible, fact-driven summary on the recent history of Iran and why it will be a global catastrophe to permit them to have any sort of nuclear weapons capability. To the best of my knowledge, this book is not written by a right-wing uninformed blow-hard. Instead, this book is written by the very terrorism expert who blew the whistle on Iran's underground uranium enrichment program back in 2002. The author is a Middle East analyst with extensive knowledge on Islamic Fundamentalism and a Fox News Foreign Affairs Analyst. He is also the president of Strategic Policy Consulting Inc. in Washington D.C. and is also the former media director for the Washington D.C. office of the parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI). This guy is probably one of the foremost pro-western experts on what is happening in Iran.

This book details the frightening developments in Iran over the recent years and especially focuses on the takeover by the Iranian military of the nuclear program that is claimed for "peaceful purposes", the transfer of nuclear facilities to underground tunnel complexes under military control and the acceleration of the nuclear weapons program since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ascended to the presidency.

The author goes into great detail on many pertinent facets of the Iran crisis including:
* The Iranian Revolution of 1979 and how Ayatollah Khomeini converted Iran into a brutally fanatical theocracy.
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's shadowy rise to power, his regular meetings with Ayatollah Khomeini as a student and his significant connection with the student organization that helped orchestate the 1979 hostage crisis.
* The oppressive reforms of the Ahmadinejad regime.
* The stated radical and globally ambitious ideology of the Iranian mullahs.
* Iran's role in the Iraqi insurgency.
* The history and present capability of Iran's Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Nuclear Weapons Capability.
* The extensive measures Iran has made to defend their underground enrichment facilities (spreading them out, placing them deep underground, strategically positioning anti-aircraft technology).

The author also offers his opinion on what policy actions should be taken against Iran, which he describes as beyond negotiation.

Anyway, for those of who particularly interested in combating Islamic Terrorism and wish to receive a more thorough understanding of what has been happening in Iran since the Iranian Revolution, this is a must read.

My main caveat with this book is that I am unclear of the extent that this work should be taken as a 100% reliable source. The NCRI is obviously incredible controversial (although most groups that take firm stances on important issues often are) and they seem to have at one point been supporters of Marxist ideals, although it is unclear to me if they still stand for these ideals today. Furthermore, although this work is dense with citations, the author often attributes vital information to "his sources", which makes it difficult to accept this information as truth. However, we also must recognize the reality of the author's situation, as he is probably not in a great position to safely reveal all of his sources at the time of his writing.

In summary, please enjoy this highly recommend book, but certainly read it with due caution, as this topic is too critical to reach a conclusion on misinformation.

clearly shows inside the mullas
The book clearly shows how the mullas in Iran try to dominate all the region specially Islamic countries like Iraq, Libnon and Palestion. It explains if this regime won't replaced with a democratic regime, the world will have a dark future.