A few years back, I had the unique honor to meet and work with Fred Burton on his memoirs. Ghost: Confessions of a Counter-Terrorism Agent recounted Fred's career in the Diplomatic Security Service during the 1980's and 90's. His remarkable tenure with the DSS's Counter-Terrorism branch culminated with an operation to capture a key terrorist who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Ghost also detailed the personal cost protecting our country from such insidious attacks can have on agents and their families. This was particularly interesting to me, as I could not imagine the pressure these men and women lived with every day. If they were not 100% right 24/7, chances were good that a plot would succeed and people would die. Day after day, the impossible demands of the job took its toll on Fred and his fellow agents, and while they sacrificed so much of their own lives and happiness for their jobs, they succeeded in saving countless Americans with every terrorist they brought to justice.
In many ways, Ghost was my favorite book to work on. Fred is an amazing man, a true gentleman, a devoted patriot whose old-school class and modesty is a welcome breath of fresh air in an era so dominated by the me-me-me attitude. So, when Fred began work on his next book, I jumped at the chance to work with him again.
The result is Chasing Shadows which Palgrave published this spring. When Fred was a high school student, a neighbor of his was murdered in his sleepy D.C.-area suburb. The crime affected Fred profoundly, and when he went into law enforcement, he began to investigate it on his own. He discovered that the perps got away and the murder was never solved.
After he joined the DSS, he began to unravel the tangled international connections to that tragic night in D.C. The murder victim was no ordinary man, but a revered Israeli fighter pilot who was one of the founding members of Israel's Air Force. His murder was no random street crime, but a cunning and brilliantly executed assassination carried out by the most ruthless terrorist organization of the era.
It took Fred 35 years, but his dogged determination to break through official lies, hyper-obsessive security and personal danger paid off. How Fred solved the murder after three decades where the FBI, CIA and Mossad failed is one of the great underdog stories I have ever run across. What happened after he uncovered the truth was even more astonishing.
I finished Chasing Shadows with Fred while I was at Fort Hood, Texas last summer while embedded with Bravo, 1-168. It was among the most gratifying projects I've had the chance to work on, espeically since story is so complex. How often does a writer get to move from the Munich Massacre to the USAF's campaign over North Vietnam, to the heart of U.S.-Israeli relations and the birth of the military alliance between the two nations. Chasing Shadows changed many my own preconceptions and revealed to me much of the roots of the current Global War on Terror and how we Americans became targets of radical Islam. Fred's devotion to the truth and determination to bring the perps to justice so the victim's family might attain closure underscored how fortunate I have been to have the opportunity to work with such a tremendous human being. Someday, when I look back on my own career, writing with Fred will rank as one of the great accomplishments of my own life.
To check out Ghost: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Confessions-Counterterrorism-Fred-Burton/dp/0345494253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309755353&sr=8-1
To take a look at Chasing Shadows: http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Shadows-Special-Lifelong-Assassin/dp/0230620558/ref=pd_sim_b_1
To see Fred on the Daily Show, check out http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-28-2008/fred-burton
More on Fred at Jim Hornfischer's agency page: http://www.hornfischerlit.com/Hornfischer_Literary_Management_LP/Burton.html
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