Middle East - Travel Essays & Descriptions - General & Miscellaneous, Iranian Politics, Iran - History, Middle East - Travel - General & Miscellaneous

Know Thine Enemy

Name: Know Thine Enemy
Author: Edward Shirley
ISBN: 9780374182199

by Edward Shirley

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Overview

As one of the CIA: finest "Iranian-target" officers in the 1980s, Edward Shirley was a front-line spy in Europe and the Middle East, ferreting out the secrets of the country the Ayatollah Khomeini had made the most vociferous enemy of the United States. The job fulfilled Shirley's lifelong dream: ever since he was a boy growing up in the Midwest, Shirley had been obsessed with Persian culture and the distant adventures it evoked in his imagination. Yet when Shirley left the clandestine service in disillusionment after nine years, he still had never been to Iran - for the CIA sent only painstakingly recruited native-born Iranian agents into a land it considered too dangerous for American-born operatives. Shirley, however, vowed to get to Iran on his own. He engaged a short-haul trucker to smuggle him in a cramped secret compartment across Iran's tightly guarded border with Turkey and into the heart of Tehran. In narrating Know Thine Enemy, a gripping and wry account of his trip, Shirley blends a spy's cunning and nose for adventure with shrewd insights into the Iranian character. He depicts glamorous Westernized Iranians, disillusioned Muslim fundamentalists, and a crippled veteran of the Iran-Iraq war; and he gives a valuable account of America's bete noire in the Middle East. Ordinary Iranians, he reports, are weary of Islamic dogma and the clerical regime and have resorted to cynicism, conspiracy, and black humor as everyday survival tactics, because the radical Islam promulgated by Khomeini and his successors has solved few of Iran's problems. Shirley also takes a long look at the decline of the CIA.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Something of a doppelgänger for John Le Carré's Smiley, Shirley was a nine-year case officer for the CIA, recruiting and managing Iranian agents. The only Persian-speaking officer and one with a strong background in Persian history and politics, he became disaffected with what he considered the ignorance, arrogance and ineffectiveness of the agency and resigned. But his longtime intrigue with Iran persisted, and he determined to visit it for the first time. Discarding thoughts of traveling as a tourist and aware that as a journalist he would be automatically suspect as a CIA agent, he decided, with what seems fictional spy dramatics, to be smuggled into the country by Hosein, a trustworthy Iranian trucker. Though separated from the service, Shirley assesses the people and events in this adventure with a paranoid air. He crossed the Turkish border to Teheran hidden in a box in the truck and fearing discovery at every stop. But Hosein was canny and protective, and, through him, Shirley met more truckers, Hosein's radical sister and many other citizens with whom he conducted guarded but extended conversations. His revelations about Persian character and post-Khomeini Iran and his analysis of U.S. policy failures are a revelation.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Something of a doppelgnger for John Le Carr's Smiley, Shirley was a nine-year case officer for the CIA, recruiting and managing Iranian agents. The only Persian-speaking officer and one with a strong background in Persian history and politics, he became disaffected with what he considered the ignorance, arrogance and ineffectiveness of the agency and resigned. But his longtime intrigue with Iran persisted, and he determined to visit it for the first time. Discarding thoughts of traveling as a tourist and aware that as a journalist he would be automatically suspect as a CIA agent, he decided, with what seems fictional spy dramatics, to be smuggled into the country by Hosein, a trustworthy Iranian trucker. Though separated from the service, Shirley assesses the people and events in this adventure with a paranoid air. He crossed the Turkish border to Teheran hidden in a box in the truck and fearing discovery at every stop. But Hosein was canny and protective, and, through him, Shirley met more truckers, Hosein's radical sister and many other citizens with whom he conducted guarded but extended conversations. His revelations about Persian character and post-Khomeini Iran and his analysis of U.S. policy failures are a revelation. (June)

Library Journal

Developments in U.S.-Iranian relations since the overthrow of the pro-Western monarchy in 1979 have made it increasingly difficult for the two erstwhile allies to maintain a working relationship. Consequently, official American views of Iran are heavily influenced by misperceptions about the political and social forces operating in Iran today. This fascinating and entertaining book by a former member of the CIA's clandestine service is part travelog, part analysis of the dynamics of contemporary Iranian society. Shirley (a pseudonym) was smuggled into Iran by a native, and he here chronicles his clandestine journey, including his encounters and candid discussions with ordinary Iranians. The reader gets a different picture of Iranians than the distorted portrayals routinely found in the mass media and official pronouncements. Recommended for both general and informed lay readers.Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, Ala.