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The Emergency Response & Research Institute, in association with Amazon.com, is proud to present our book/software order page.

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On this page, we will offer both book reviews by experienced EmergencyNet News consultants/reporters/editorial board members, as well as direct links to the books themselves...which you can order on-line and receive in just a few days.

We will review and offer only books that we believe to be of interest to the emergency/military/intelligence/National security Community, and that are, in our opinion, of the highest quality and value for you.

This page was last updated and new books added on: 11/24/00

Special Report on Osama BIN LADEN and al-Qaeda
Compendium of Reports by the EmergencyNet News Service,
With Analysis by the Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI)
February 1997 to February 1999 -- Softcover, 70 pages

Available March, 15, 1999

$39.95 & $4.50 shipping and handling

Only Limited number of copies available; Order on-line: 

Contents

• Future Warfare and Economic Challenges
• Computers/Information Warfare
• Conventional Warfare and Military Leaders
• Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare
• Intelligence Operatives and Agencies
• Fire/Police/EMS/Dispatch/Haz-Mats/Emergency Management Texts

List Price: $28.95
Our Price: $17.37
You Save: $11.58 (40%)

Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.

Hardcover - 1028 pages (August 21, 2000)
Putnam Pub Group; 
                         ISBN: 039914563X ; 
                         Dimensions (in inches): 2.12 x 9.39 x 6.39 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Power is delightful, and absolute power should be absolutely delightful--but not when you're the most powerful man on earth and the place is ticking like a time bomb. Jack Ryan, CIA warrior turned U.S. president, is the man in the hot seat, and in this vast thriller he's up to his nostrils in crazed Asian warlords, Russian thugs, nukes that won't stay put, and authentic, up-to-the-nanosecond technology as complex as the characters' motives are simple. Quick, do you know how to reprogram the software in an Aegis missile seekerhead? Well, if you're Jack Ryan, you'd better find someone who does, or an incoming ballistic may rain fallout on your parade...Bad for reelection prospects. "You know, I don't really like this job very much," Ryan complains to his aide Arnie van Damm, who replies, "Ain't supposed to be fun, Jack."

But you bet The Bear and the Dragon is fun--over 1,000 swift pages' worth. In the opening scene, a hand-launched RPG rocket nearly blows up Russia's intelligence chief in his armored Mercedes, and Ryan's clever spooks report that the guy who got the rocket in his face instead was the hoodlum "Rasputin" Avseyenko, who used to run the KGB's "Sparrow School" of female prostitute spies. Soon after, two apparent assassins are found handcuffed together afloat in St. Petersburg's Neva River, their bloated faces resembling Pokémon toys.

The plot is over the top, with devastating subplots erupting all over the globe and lurid characters scaring the wits out of each other every few pages, but Clancy finds time to insert hard-boiled little lessons on the vileness of Communism, the infuriating intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao, the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers ("garbage, cans loaded with steel wool that self-destructed after less than ten shots"), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife ("they flop around and make noise when you do that"), and similar topics. Naturally, the book bristles like a battlefield with intriguingly intricate military hardware..

ERRI Comment: "A wonderful read...everything we have come to expect of Clancy and Jack Ryan...Highly recommended..."

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War by Other Means; Economic Espionage in America

by John J. Fialka

Hardcover, 288 pages
List: $25.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $22.50 -- You Save: $2.50(10%)
Published by W W Norton & Co
Publication date: January 1,1997
Dimensions (in inches): 9.59 x 6.41 x 1
ISBN: 0393040143

Availability: This item usually shipped within 2-3 days.

Amazon.com Synopsis:
From the stunning ruse of Operation "Farewell"--Russia's brazen shopping tour for U.S. secrets--to technology "tunneling" by the Japanese to China's clever use of U.S. campuses, companies, and consumers to modernize its military, this illuminating book reveals the secret war that threatens the economic security of America and the livelihood of millions of its citizens.

Book Review of John Fialka's "War By Other Means" ...
By Colonel G.I.Wilson, USMC
(Member, ERRI Editorial Advisory Board)

"War By Other Means" is a wake up call for the America to get into the fight for our economic security. Many businessand government players claim they are aware of this threat, yet, very few, other than John Fialka, truly understand the insidious nature of economic espionage with all its ambiguity; where nothing is ever what it seems to be.

Fialka is no alarmist. But after reading his book, it is painfully clear business and government are in denial. Unfortunately, recent reviews in Business Week and the NY Times are no more than short-sighted criticisms of Fialka and fail to come to grips with the hard facts of economic espionage.

The Japanese send many more researchers to the US in a year than we do to Japan. The effect is silent and deadly; draining US technology from corporations. Once these unsuspecting corporations discover they are the victims of economic espionage, they are often too embarrassed to admit it. The standard response is denial and failure to accept the limitations of own economic and intelligence infrastructure.

Fialka writes of economic spies and how they operate in our open society. Fialka suggests we are sadly ill-prepared for economic competition where spying and economic espionage are the dominant method of gaining an economic advantage by our global competitors. Fialka points out that it is not just our adversaries but our "friends" who subject America to economic espionage.

The US. and its military are prepared to a fair degree to contend with madmen that flex their military around the globe. In contrast, Fialk notes we are doing precious little to protect ourselves from economic espionage. He recounts in detail the Japanese efforts to siphon off over four decades worth of Bell Helicopter's research involving tilt-wing aircraft technology. This siphoning of technology is often ignored by business because of very own arrogance.

American business needs to pitch its smarmy, learn from military thinking and listen a little to Sun Tzu: "Be extremely subtle , even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious to the point of soundlessness. Thereby, you can be the director of the opponent's fate".

Applying military thinking is only part of the solution in dealing with economic espionage. Fialka goes on and proposes policies to stem the flow of information and hampered the harvesting of US commercial secrets. It is time to rethink the dozens of Cold War policies. Policies that once focused on us protecting our interests overseas rather than here at home where economic espionage is ambushing us.

However, Fialk does not leave us hanging and wondering what to do about the situation we find ourselves in. Fialka urges the US to consider how to change its culture to compete globally. To this end Fialka's final chapter borrows from concepts developed by a Air Force fighter pilot, Colonel John Boyd. Boyd developed a concept of winning referred to as the OODA Loop. Briefly, it means anyone who can Observe, Orient himself, Decide, and Act faster than an opponent will almost always win against a competitor. Fialka cover in detail how to set in motion an all out Boyd-style-offense against America's economic competitors.

As America's economic competitors pursue our commercial secrets, American business needs to heed Fialka's words, come to grips with the threat to our economic security, and develop means to combat economic espionage.

ERRI Comment:
This book has become the subject of controversy in military and intelligence circles, following a negative review of it in Business Week Magazine. Several ERRI readers have recommended this book to us and suggested that the BW review may have been "off-base." It is offered here so that you, our readers, can obtain a copy and make up your mind for yourselves.

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The Coming Conflict With China
by Richard Bernstein, Ross H. Munro

Hardcover, 245 pages
List: $23.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $13.80 -- You Save: $9.20(40%)
Published by Knopf
Publication date: February 21,1997
Dimensions (in inches): 8.72 x 5.97 x 1.08
ISBN: 0679454632

Availability: On Order; usually shipped within 1-2 weeks.

Amazon.com Books Review:
Richard Bernstein and Ross H. Munro have pooled their extensive experience observing China to produce a shocking account of what they believe will be the "the major global rivalry in the first decades of the twenty-first century, the rivalry that will force other countries to take sides." The authors describe an inevitable conflict between an aggressive and expansionist China that sees itself as the rightful arbiter of power in Asia and a naive and unprepared United States that has already entered three wars in the last half century to prevent any single country's domination of Asia. In previously unpublished reports of Chinese news sources, Bernstein and Munro thoroughly document how the Chinese press portrays the United States as the "Enemy" in no uncertain terms.

Like Alastair Iain Johnston's superb study of Chinese military culture Cultural Realism, Bernstein and Munro do not stoop to unfair characterization of the Chinese culture or the Chinese people. The grounds for their thesis--that the United States and China are on a collision course over strategic national goals--are well documented in their book. Their argument is particularly strong in its consideration of how China can use its economic influence to curb other nations such as Japan and South Korea. Certain to be the most controversial book published on the subject of Sino-American relations for some time, The Coming Conflict with China makes for a thrilling, troubling read.

Synopsis:
A timely, provocative book on the growing friction between America and China--and China's position as America's likely chief global rival in the decades to come--this informed and illuminating book presents a fascinating examination of cultures headed for collision.

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The Sovereign Individual : How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State

by James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg

Hardcover, 398 pages
List: $25.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $17.50 -- You Save: $7.50(30%)
Published by Simon & Schuster
Publication date: February 1,1997
Dimensions (in inches): 9.51 x 6.42 x 1.19
ISBN: 0684810077

Availability: This item usually shipped within 2-3 days.

Synopsis:
In Blood in the Streets and The Great Reckoning, Davidson and Rees-Mogg foresaw many of the cataclysmic effects of the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. In their new book, they prepare readers for the chaotic upheaval that lies ahead and outline the far-reaching, practical consequences of adapting for the new global economy and the information age.

Customer Comments

Review: The Free Marketeer (freemarketeer@usa.net), 05/25/97, rating=9:
It's About Time
It's about time that the knowledge of those relative few with a high level of thinking skills infected the more "conservative-mainstream" type of individuals, such as these two authors and their intended readers. If, after reading this most excellent book, you're aching for more "radicalness" but "practicality" beyond the standard dogma, be sure to visit http://www.buildfreedom.com

Following their equally visionary approach in Blood in the Streets (New York: Simon & Schuster. 1987) and The Great Reckoning (New York: Simon & Schuster. 1993), this sweeping analysis of the critical impact of the information age on every aspect of life, especially the financial implications, will surely stir debate as well as alarm. This is a serious work that explains how these major changes will fundamentally change our lives, from the creation of virtual corporations, a breakdown in governments, cybercash-based economies, to tax-haven countries for the very rich.
Their advice for offshore investments in the future makes sense under this analysis, and will attract attention on Wall Street. According to this nonpareil work, future generations will look back to 1989-1991, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the former Soviet Union, as marking the end of what we now refer to as the "Modern age" and the birth of the new democracy of choice in the cybereconomy. The key result of this information revolution will be the birth of the sovereign individual, and the death of mass democracy and the welfare state. This is a major work not to be missed.

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Red Mercury; Book Review

By C. L. Staten - ERRI Senior Analyst

(ENN) Another in a series of several excellent counter-terrorist novels recently caught this author's eye and was quickly devoured by this inquiring mind. The book, "RED MERCURY", tells an increasingly more believable tale of fissile material stolen from the super-secret Soviet city of Chelyabinsk-65. It then follows the international trail of the atomic agent as it moves towards Atlanta and a nuclear attack on the Olympic Games.

Along the way, we learn about the Nuclear Emergency Response Team (NEST) and our fictional former SpecOps leader, Mack McFall. Add a female karate back-belt as head of a special FBI CT "Javelin" HRU team and mix with some deranged and vindictive paramilitary bombers. Finally, factor in a frantic search for the possibility of a material called "Red Mercury," a pure fusion nuclear material, that could destroy Atlanta and a large part of the Eastern Seaboard.

The book is filled with many authentic details (and some purposely fictionalized) about Atlanta, the Olympics and its security arrangements, and the nation's leading counterterrorist forces. It focuses on the fearsome possibility of the use of a improvised nuclear weapon of mass destruction (WMD), which contains the here before illusive "pure fusion" combination of radioactive materials that give it, its name, "RED MERCURY."

The book, written by "Max Barclay", a believed pseudonym of an S. California investigative journalist, provides an extensive number of references and the names of resource persons who contributed to the effort. All in all, we would have to give it an A- and recommend it to members of the emergency, military, and intelligence community. Because of its fast pace, it admittedly is one of those books that you could pick up and find hard to put down until the dramatic ending.

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Strategic Information Warfare : A New Face of War
by Roger C. Molander, Peter A. Wilson, A. S. Riddile (Contributor)

List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $12.00 --You Save: $3.00 (20%)

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Paperback - 90 pages (April 1996)

Rand Corporation; ISBN: 0833023527 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.30 x 11.00 x 8.49

Reviews
Review from Technology and Society
"Strategic Information Warfare illuminates a challenging and often obscure method for examining policy options. Any student of government or industrial decision making would be well advised to buy this book." 

The publisher, RAND Corporation , March 28, 1998
Reviews of STRATEGIC INFORMATION WARFARE

"Information warfare remains a nebulous subject, but his monograph offers one of the most interesting and revealing ways of thinking about it, at least in an unclassified venue. A short but comprehensive discussion of the central issues in information warfare, particularly defense against attacks on the myriad information systems that keep American society running, is followed by an ingenious 'day after' exercise that illustrates and amplifies these problems. In three parts--'the day of' an information attack, 'the day after,' and finally 'the day before'--participants can work their way through the decisionmaking problems of information warfare. The exercise, which has been tested with many government and private groups, is a brilliant device for exploring a problem bound to become more salient." (Foreign Affairs)

"An excellent overview of the subject. . . . Highly recommended for a variety of subject areas, particularly political science and computer science." (Academic Library Book Review) "The great value of such exercises lies in raising the consciousness of decision-makers about problems likely to emerge, but which have not yet received their devoted attention." (Comparative Strategy)

"This book terrified me . . . because the authors are right. Strategic information warfare is possible and probable. I applaud that this research was done. I am thrilled that this is an unclassified, easily obtained book rather than something that remains within the closed networks of the military-industrial vaults." (Computing Reviews)

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Back\Slash

by William H. Lovejoy

Hardcover
List: $21.95 -- Amazon.com Price: $19.76 -- You Save: $2.19(10%)
Published by Kensington Pub Corp (Trd)
Publication date: September 1,1996
Dimensions (in inches): 9.06 x 6.18 x 1.21
ISBN: 1575660814

Availability: This item usually shipped within 2-3 days.

Amazon.com synopsis:
For the millions of fans of the movie, The Net, comes an electrifying cyber thriller of the '90s--that's as real and as
electrifying as tomorrow's headlines. A cyber terrorist has done the unthinkable by seizing control of the Worldwide
Information Network. Only one man can stop this unseen enemy before it's too late--K.C. Conrad, a super hacker-turned fugitive from justice.

Review; Apocalypse For World's Infrastructure -All Done With a Computer?
By C.L. Staten, ERRI Senior Analyst

(ENN) It starts with unexplained "glitches" in a banking computer in New Mexico, spreads to the world-wide funds transfer system, telephone and fax communications are then shut down at will, air traffic control systems blink on and off as if possessed, and eventually...ultimate control of many nation's weapons is transferred to an unknown power. A fictional account, or a very real possibility?

Well, actually, this is a novel by William Lovejoy, published by Kensington Publishing Corporation, called "Back \ Slash." The book, which details a frantic search for the ultimate computer cracker, take the reader through the halls of power in Washington and on to the capitals of the other major countries of the world. It offers a fairly realistic glimpse into the new FBI Computer Crime Squad and the computer and intelligence capabilities of a number of renowned agencies. It also clearly points out the very real threat of a "computer apocalypse" and one way it might be perpetrated. All in all, it paints a dim picture of America's preparedness to combat computer terrorism.

In fairness, some parts of "Back \ Slash" are not technically competent, nor are all of the segments of the scenario feasible in the real world, but such is fiction. The author does do a good job of building suspense, explaining technical aspects, and even provides us with a couple of underlying sex plots to keep the manuscript interesting. In final analysis, this is one that we would recommend to our computer-literate friends in the emergency, military, or intelligence community....make sure to drop a hint and then look for it under your Christmas tree next Wednesday.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction & Terrorism
by CDR. James K. Campbell, Interpact Press

Our Price: $29.95

Availability: This title usually ships within 2-3 days.

Paperback - 192 pages (December 1997)

ISBN: 096287003X

Reviews
The publisher, Interpact Press - http://www.infowar.com , November 13, 1997
WMD is very real. Find out why and how they are used!

This book seeks to present a heuristic argument suggesting that non-state groups (terrorists)
motivated by religious ideologies affiliated with apocalyptic millenialism, radicalized redemption, or
racist/ethnic hate are the most likely candidates to threaten use of weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) in a terrorist action.

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Postmodern War : The New Politics of Conflict
(Critical Perspectives (New York, N.Y.)
by Chris Hables Gray

Our Price: $34.95

Availability: This title usually ships within 24 hours.

Hardcover - 320 pages (May 1997)

Guilford Pr; ISBN: 1572301600 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.81 x 9.23 x 6.23

Review; From Great Falls, MT - Tribune

Contains fascinating insights...for anyone with an interest in contemporary affairs, Hables Gray's
book provides compelling food for thought

From Operation Desert Storm to the conflict in Bosnia, computerization and other scientific
advances have brought about a revolution in warfare. This book shows how our high-tech age has
spawned both increasingly powerful weapons and a rhetoric that disguises their apocalyptic potential
in catch phrases like "smart weapons," "cyberwar," and "bloodless combat." A skillful combination
of trenchant cultural study, provocative illustrations, and engrossing military, technical, and historical
analysis, Postmodern War sheds new light on the ways we conceptualize and conduct war today.
Analyzing the dynamics of conflicts from Afghanistan to Vietnam, Gray reveals the human forces of
nationalism, greed, fear, and images of masculinity beneath the surface of trendy military doctrines
such as "pure war" and "infowar." If we can identify and challenge the discourses of war, he
persuasively argues, we can propose new discourses to replace them.

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American Extremists : Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists
& Others
by Laird M. Wilcox, John George

Paperback, 443 pages
List: $26.95 -- Amazon.com Price: $24.26 -- You Save: $2.69(10%)
Published by Prometheus Books
Publication date: May 1,1996
Dimensions (in inches): 9.02 x 6.08 x .93
ISBN: 1573920584

Availability: This item usually shipped within 2-3 days.

Book News, Inc., 12/01/96 Review:
Suggesting newness with a cover photo of the Oklahoma City bombing this is, in fact, a reprint of Nazis, Klansmen, andothers on the Fringe, 1992. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Midwest Book Review:
This consideration of militias, supremacists, Klansmen and others examines the foundations of hate crimes and movements which are on the fringe of social acceptance and American politics. From social and psychological analysis of individualswho join such movements to summaries of the history of various movements since the 1960s, this provides an excellent account.

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Click here to go directly to Amazon.com and purchase this book

Secret Agencies : U.S. Intelligence in a Hostile World

by Loch K. Johnson

Hardcover, 262 pages
List: $30.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $24.00 -- You Save: $6.00(20%)
Published by Yale Univ Pr
Publication date: December 1,1996
Dimensions (in inches): 6.44 x 9.53 x 1
ISBN: 0300066112

Availability: This item usually shipped within 2-3 days.

Amazon.com Books Review:
Johnson, a former assistant to Defense Secretary Les Aspin, now a university professor, defends the U.S. intelligence networks from the charges of ineptitude that have followed embarrassments like the Aldrich Ames case and the rout of the CIA backed Kurds in Iraq. He argues that the successes of the CIA and the intelligence community far outweigh such setbacks, and that even the failures are often laid at the wrong door: good intelligence has often been simply ignored in the upper (political) levels of the bureaucracy. He cites the analysis of Gorbachev's perestroika as an example, and writes of the fight by the agency's Soviet experts to get the Director to accept that a significant change was under way.

Expert Editor's Recommended Book:
This broad overview of America's undercover operations since 1945 is at turns terribly critical and extremely flattering. Johnson shows how the CIA and related agencies have occasionally concerned themselves more with justifying their annual budget increases than with making sure they deliver reliable information. But he also credits U.S. intelligence operations with preventing the onset of World War III. If that's the tradeoff, then clearly the good outweighs the bad. Johnson goes on to provide an even-handed assessment of the spy trade's strengths and weaknesses in the post-Cold War period.

The New York Times Book Review, Jeff Stein:
[explains] what the dozen American intelligence agencies actually do with $30 billion a year.

Amazon.com synopsis:
University of Georgia Regents Professor of Political Science Loch K. Johnson draws on historical data, more than 500
interviews, and his own experience working for Congressional committees on intelligence to define the functions of
intelligence, espionage, counterintelligence, and covert action, and to provide an overview of America's secret operations abroad. 16 illustrations.

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