-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message: Date: May 25, 2006 12:21:01 AM PDT Subject: Chum of All Fears -- Tom Clancy, "Pinhead" in Our Political "Hellraiser"
"Turning commercial airliners into kamikaze missiles is not a novel idea, but it is an idea from a novel. Read Debt of Honor and Executive Orders. BOTH of those bestsellers by TOM CLANCY, published in the late '90s, either begin with or end with exactly the same scenario -- foreign terrorists flying a Boeing 747 into a government building ..." ***** PRESIDENT GEORGE [H.W.] BUSH REMARKS AT THE 175th ANNIVERSARY OF THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER CEREMONY Fort McHenry Baltimore, Maryland September 7, 1989 <snip> THE PRESIDENT: ... I'm very pleased that you have TOM CLANCY, the esteemed author, MY FRIEND, involved in this project. What a marvelous contribution he's made to our literary world and, I also would like to think, to the national security interests of the United States by his writings. ***** Editorial Reviews: "Executive Orders" (1996)
Amazon.com
Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress, and Supreme Court are obliterated when a terrorist [flies] a 747 [into] the Capitol. Meanwhile the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast in the middle of this maelstrom. Because of a recent sex scandal, Ryan was appointed vice president, a slot he doesn't hold for long when he lands in the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians ... the only way he knows how -- with a fury that we've grown accustomed to in Clancy's intricate, detailed, and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue.
----- Jack Ryan and Tom Clancy may have reached their pinnacle of achievement with this book. However, this book is definitely not the place to start the series; as a minimum, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Debt of Honor should definitely be read before this book.
Jack, due to the events detailed in Debt of Honor, suddenly finds himself President of the U.S., a position which he never aspired to and in which he feels decidedly uncomfortable. But, good former Marine that he is, he quickly buckles down to the demands of the job - a job that rapidly spawns seemingly endless problems and complications. In detailing these, Clancy weaves an incredible number of sub-plots together: an assassination of the Iraqi President and the amalgamation of that country with Iran, an attempt to kidnap his youngest daughter, a biological attack on the U.S., a heat up of the continuing dispute between the two Chinas, an attempt by the former Vice President to remove Jack from office, and multiple attacks on his integrity by the news media. This is where Clancy shines, as each of these sub-plots is probably strong enough to be a novel in its own right. They all have strong dramatic elements and are not only plausible, but frightening in just how close they are to events in the real world occurring since this book was written -- so much so that the notion has been put forth that certain terrorist elements got the ideas for their deeds from this book and Debt of Honor.
Jack is well drawn. His reactions to situations and problems make sense for the type of man he is, and Clancy does a good job of making the reader empathize with him. Most of the other main characters are shown with enough depth to make them real, though it definitely helps if you have read the prior novels in this series, as some of the background for these characters was presented earlier, and is not re-hashed in this book. However, most of the characters are not excessively deep, and it is very clear who are the `good guys' and who are the `bad', which perhaps is a good thing in a thriller.
The battle scenes are typical Clancy, filled with a great number (quite accurate) technical details - perhaps too much so, as at times the picture of just what war is really like gets lost in all these details. Also somewhat of a detraction is the fact that the `good guys' have too easy a time of it; it seems like all their plans are precisely accomplished, with few of the screw-ups and surprises that always happen in real conflicts. Which leads to the other fault with this book - it really is too long, and a fair amount of it could have been cut without losing the impressive tapestry effect.
Some may object to the political viewpoints expressed in this novel, as they are decidedly on the right of the spectrum. But Clancy does a good job of detailing why these viewpoints should at least be given some careful thought by all Americans. Here we find good rationales behind limiting the power of the press under certain circumstances; the necessity for maintaining both a strong military and a strong intelligence network; cases where the President may need to exceed the powers granted him by the Constitution; when diplomacy is appropriate versus military action (and just how much diplomacy is dependent on having the military power to back up stated positions). It is just these viewpoints that elevate this book from a blockbuster adventure novel to one with substance. A quick perusal of any newspaper today will show exactly the points Clancy makes here, from the obvious `slanting' of the reporting to the need for a military that is second to none.
A vivid tale of great breadth, exciting and informational, well worth the time it takes to read.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat) =========== Clancy's "fiction" features the Carlyle Group, Yale/Skull&Bones, and George HW's "Octopus"! (He knows the Bush family WAY too well.) | Review Summary of "The Teeth of the Tiger" |
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Putnam, Aug 203, 27.95
ISBN: 039915079X
In Maryland, Hendley Associates successfully works the stock, bond, and international currency markets. However, in reality the trader business serves as a front, because the prime mission of the firm is to root out and eliminate terrorists. United States President John Patrick Ryan is not interested in the means, but only the results of the group.
Only a small elect circle of people who need to know understand that Hendley Associates, otherwise known as “The Campus," is really a black ops organization. The firm also understands hat there is a need for new blood if they want to avoid stagnation and complacency. However, it takes a special person to join this elite group. Right now they are looking closely at a trio of related men who happen to have close ties to the President since two are his nephews, FBI Agent Dominic Caruso and his brother Marine Captain Brian Caruso and the third is his son Jack Ryan, Jr. It remains to be seen if this threesome lives up to the gene pool of the previous generation. Jack, Sr. seem like kindergarten?
The torch moves on to the next generation of warriors with an ease that will not surprise readers who expect innovative ideas from this great author. The story line is typical Tom Clancy: exciting top rate action as the war against terrorism goes into hyperspeed. Doubts will linger about close relatives to a sitting president being involved in anti-terrorist activities. It is hard to picture the two sons of George Bush, Sr. running around as Feds or combat soldiers before joining an elite black ops cell or any child of a Congressman serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Still fans of action packed thrillers will know Mr. Clancy has created a fantastic tale.
Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
| | In this most recent book of Ryanverse novels we get introduced to a completely new set of characters. The main character now is Jack Ryan Jr. andt he Caruso brothers, a Marine and a FBI Agent were never mentioned before. These three young men are now part of The Campus, an organization that isn't officially part of the government -- a "nonexistent" counterterrorist group set up by Jack Ryan Sr. while he was president. Few people outside The Campus know what they do, not even the president. Their task is to find terrorists with the help from CIA's and NSA's data and then kill them. The twin brothers Caruso are especially trained to do the killings. Jack Ryan, who really is an analyst, gets involved in such a mission too.
This book, like all novels by Tom Clancy, was very exciting and interesting to read although I miss John Clark and Domingo Chavez.
Anne, Resident Scholar
| | | | In this, the latest of Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" or "Ryanverse" novels, a new generation of the Ryan clan is summoned into service. Jack Ryan Jr. and his two cousins, Dominic and Brian Caruso, go to work for Hendley Associates, an extremely clandestine, privately-funded organization dedicated to one goal: identifying and eliminating those who plot the death of American civilians. Jack Junior follows in his father's footsteps as an intelligence analyst, intuitive and quick. Dominic (an FBI field agent) and Brian (a Marine major) handle the muscle side of the business, killing those who fund or run terrorist operations in a very sneaky manner indeed. This book, half the size of most of Clancy's contributions, is all setup and little action, a sharp contrast to his earlier works, which generally featured a rich setting married with plot twists and heart-pounding action. This book pales in comparison, with the plot being wrapped up within about five pages, giving the reader an impression of having reached the end about a hundred pages too soon.
Dan, Resident Scholar
| | Clancy introduces three new characters tied to Jack Ryan; his son Jack Jr., and two nephews, the Caruso twins. These three young men form part of a new antiterrorist organization that is completely independent of all formal government agencies. This private organization was established by Jack Ryan when he was president and has the specific mission of taking action against terrorist organizations unavailable to the formal government organizations. They will assassinate any terrorists they uncover, based on the best possible intelligence gleaned from NSA, CIA and FBI resources.
The Caruso twins are recruited from the FBI and the USMC and have a background in battling crime and terrorists. Jack Jr. happens on the scene by chance, searching for his niche after graduation from college. The plot follows the training of the twins as field action operatives and of Jack Jr. as an intelligence analyst. They are thrown into action when an new Arab terrorist organization makes allies itself with the Columbian Drug Cartel. The Cartel smuggles 4 action teams into the U.S. and provides them with weapons. The teams initiate attacks against shopping malls across the U.S. specifically targeting women and children. The Caruso twins are in one of the malls under attack and take on the four attackers in a bloody gunbattle.
The newly trained assassination team is hurriedly thrown into action against targets in Europe developed by Jack Jr. and eventually Jack Jr. will be added to the team overseas as they search for members of the terrorist group.
DR HOUCK, Resident Scholar
------------------- from "Deborah Norville Tonight," MSNBC-TV, June 4, 2004 -- interviewing Tom Clancy and General Anthony Zinni NORVILLE: ... [Y]ou spent your literary career working with people in the CIA. I mean, you have impeccable resources and sources within the intelligence community and the military community. CLANCY: I‘ve been lucky to make a lot of good friends. | <snip> NORVILLE: Tom Clancy, Donald Rumsfeld? CLANCY: Never met the man, just shook hands with once. NORVILLE: What do you think? CLANCY: I think he should listen more. When you‘ve got guys like this working understood under you and you ask their opinion, you‘re supposed to listen to the opinion. When you‘re on the operating table, you don‘t sit up and say, OK, don‘t use that instrument, use this one, because a doc knows his job. These guys know their job. NORVILLE: And Paul Wolfowitz. CLANCY: Is he really on our side? NORVILLE: You genuinely ask that question? Is he on our side? CLANCY: I sat in on — I was in the Pentagon in ‘01 for a red team operation and he came in and briefed us. And after the brief, I just thought, is he really on our side? -------- Clancy recalled a prewar encounter in Washington during which he “almost came to blows” with Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser at the time and a longtime advocate of the invasion. “[Perle] was saying how (Secretary of State) Colin Powell was being a wuss because he was overly concerned with the lives of the troops,” Clancy said. “And I said, ‘Look ..., he’s supposed to think that way!’ And Perle didn’t agree with me on that. People like that worry me.” [Some of Clancy's "righteous indignation" might be due to the fact he's a close friend of Colin Powell (dating back, presumably, from the "Desert Storm" period when he was hanging out with his pal the president, George H.W. Bush) -- so close to Powell, in fact, that the press reported Clancy was planning on marrying Powell's niece.] -------- http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2002/05/31/sum_all_fears/index1.html from Salon's review of the Ben Affleck (!!) movie based on Clancy's "Sum of All Fears": The solution the movie proposes for the blinkered view of those in power is more and better intelligence, and this may give the movie even more cachet. The headlines of the past few weeks make the failure of our national intelligence-gathering operations impossible to deny. But if you saw Tom Clancy interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN on Sept. 11, the glibness of that solution may not sit so well. What was Clancy even doing there? Well, Woodruff explained, he'd written a novel envisioning this scenario. (So did every other espionage writer, from the first-rate ones to the hacks. Would CNN have welcomed the writers of DC comics to discuss whether Superman could have prevented the attacks?) Clancy spent his time assuring Woodruff that what we were seeing was due to the gutting of American intelligence because of the reporting of the liberal media. What was offensive wasn't his position that, whatever the cause, American intelligence wasn't doing its job. It was the smugness with which Clancy delivered the message. He was beyond such human emotions as shock or outrage or devastation. The dead weren't even cold and he was converting them to political capital, proof that he was right. What linked Clancy's response to later responses to Sept. 11 by his political opposites, like Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky, was the absolute conviction that they could have foreseen this all along, that nothing in it demanded a new way of responding or any rethinking of assumptions.
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