One of the most horrifying aspects of this tale, a horror story, is the apparent blitheness with which these ordinary people entered into an enterprise that ultimately yielded them hundreds of years in prison.

It goes like this: you meet an old navy buddy for drinks and he tells you he's got a business proposition for you. He admits it's a little illegal, but notes too the chances of getting caught are slim. So it makes good business sense-low risk/reward ratio, opportunity galore, and anyway you've sort of been at loose ends since retiring from the navy. Heck, you've got to be bold and take some risks to get anywhere in this world.

Or it might go like this: you're a young man and you admire and respect your dad. Nothing unusual in that-he's your dad! He was in the navy and he wants you to follow in his footsteps, so you do. And he says he'll pay you good money for classified documents-sure it's a little risky, but if you want to be a Man you have to take a risk now and then. Or, you could live your life as a wimp. It's your choice. So that leads to the most bone-chilling scene in the horror story: Dad smirking and wise-cracking while his son, his own and only son, is gets life in prison. Well, 25 years, but to a 22-year-old, that's life.

Howard Blum did a lot of research for this book: countless interviews, reams of technical documents on law and espionage and naval procedure, letters. But it doesn't read like some legal tract or academic research project. It reads like a B movie script, tawdry and melodramatic, with much attention given to the day-to-day problems of international spies and their families: the alcoholic wife, the wayward children, the ... struggle for respect. And when it's over there is the melancholy realization that the alcoholic wife and the wayward children were the lucky ones, if you can call it that. They avoided the lure of the psychotic monster at the center of the drama. The son was next luckiest. I read that he got out on parole after 15 years.

The 1980s have been judged as an age of backstabbing greed and free-spending avarice where they with the most pricey toys win. The June, 1985 arrest of retired Navy chief warrant officer John A. Walker, Jr., his older brother, only son and close Navy friend Jerry Whitworth on federal espionage charges meshed perfectly with the era's predominantly materialistic values, especially after it was learned that in an incredible 17 years as a Soviet spy, Walker had earned and frivolously spent $1 million, his chief, if not sole motivation. Howard Blum's I Pledge Allegiance is an exhaustively researched and powerfully written chronicle of not only the rarefied, shadowy world of traitors and spies, but a disturbing critique of American social values and how all too easily they are warped to serve selfish if not highly dangerous ends. Walker and associates over the years had handed over tons of highly-classified naval communications material, which, in the eyes of many defense experts, enabled the Kremlin to seriously damage if not completely neutralize our submarine and surface force defense posture if it had so wished. Walker's spying was also believed by some to have led to the unprecedented elevation of former KGB director Yuri Andropov to Soviet leader in 1982 and Moscow's downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 less than a year later. Blum's strength as an author rests in his extensive knowledge of defense, foreign policy and intelligence matters as well as naval history, regulations and communications. This and his considerable reporting skill, demonstrated in his interviews of Walker family and friends, whose various fears, resentments, psychic injuries and strongly corrosive personal and family problems are drawn out and carefully woven into a chronicle of, as the book's jacket had said, "an American dream gone mad," makes for exciting and informative reading, something even the best works of reportage have a hard time achieving. And, the most gripping thing of all is that every bit of it really happened.

You would have to consider this book to be a literal eye opener. The author gives several real life examples of Nazi war criminals living the good life in the United States. The author
takes several cases of Nazis who have set up residency in the
United States. The details of these individuals false residency
makes for informative reading as well.The network that protects
these individuals is given attention as well.This makes for scary reading that Nazi war criminals could actually live the good life of the United States as normal American citizens. This
is a book that will make you wonder. Read this book. It is definitely a page turner.

"Fair" is the suitable adjective I can use to describe this book: a fair average between thread and history deeds, between thoroughness and narrative speed. It is an interesting story in the environment of WWII, matching military issues and Holocaust items, which can be seen as the convergence of several witnesses, on the landscape of birth of the Israel nation. It is an advisable reading, even if not a milestone, written by a very flowing style. It is not an ideological issue, nor a propaganda pamphlet. It is a plain witness, as simple as taking part to a world war can be, and facing, and an unusual Jewish point of view of the Holocaust. However, I have been disappointed by discovering that the photo collection inside the paperback edition is as half as the hardcover one.

An Israeli "Band of Brothers"

All those who loved the recent HBO miniseries (and Stephen Ambrose book) "Band of Brothers" will also enjoy "The Brigade" by Howard Bloom.

"The Brigade" is the story of the Jewish Brigade Group, a unit made up of Jews - mostly from the then-British mandate of Palestine. Also known as the Jewish Fighting Brigade, it was formed in 1994 and played a critical role in the defeat of the Nazi armies in Northern Italy in 1945 as integral part of the British 8th Army.

Like "Band of Brothers", "The Brigade" not only gives us a history of the unit as a whole, but also allows us to get a better understanding of some of the individual members. In place of Dick winters, Lewis Nixon,Carwood Lipton, etc. we have Sgt. Israel Carmi, Cap't Johanthan Peltz, and Lt. Arie Pinchuk.

And while "Band of Brothers" reaches it's anticlimax in May of 1945 (or even in earlier in '45, after the victory at Bastogne), the story of the Jewish Brigade only gets more interesting after the war "officially" ends.

Though nominally part of the British army, the loyalty of most members was to the Jewish people. Service in the British army was seen merely as a means to an end. It was in this spirit, that the Brigade (aided by elements of American intelligence) started to carry out a campaign to identify and eliminate Nazi war criminals that had evaded Allied arrest. Their efforts as infiltrating and destroying a secret Nazi cabal that was spiriting former SS officers into hiding in South America was as exciting and as filled with intrigue as anything that could come out of the imagination of John Le Carre.

The adventure, however, doesn't stop there. The Brigade soon turned to rescuing the remaining Jews of Europe and making sure that they returned to their historical homeland in Palestine. Despite the active opposition of the British and in defiance of British colonial immigration laws, the Brigade was able to help around 68,000 Jews reach the Middle East. Another 50,000 or so were
captured by the British en route but were able to enter Israel after it had achieved independence in 1948. (The Jewish population of Palestine was about 600,000 in 1945.)

The Brigade was the first organized Jewish Army since the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE/AD and Howard Bloom captures well their struggles, anguish and triumphs.

Blum focuses on three men -- Israel Carmi, Johanan Peltz, and Arie Pinchuk -- and one incredible woman -- Leah Pinchuk -- in weaving a story of political, military, personal, and cultural triumph.

Formed in 1944, the brigade plays a small yet perhaps pivotal role in Italy in the closing days of World War II. Some Allied officers and politicians feared the creation of a Jewish brigade; the Allies knew that there would be more than a late contribution to the Allied war effort from these highly motvated soldiers. And the year following victory in the European theater of war showed just how well-organized, focused, and effective a small number of well-trained and committed soldiers could be. They rooted out Nazi murderers, stole weapons from right under the noses of the Allies, and organized the exodus of Jewish war victims.

Blum uses a variety of military, historical and personal sources to construct his tale. By the time the reader reaches the end notes, Blum's choice of the three featured heroes makes good sense, among all of the heroics that made up this brigade. Of course, the memories of the people he interviewed were imperfect and incomplete, fifty years following the events. It should make a good movie. Perhaps that explains why the chapters have more of an outline format than the details some would like to see. And the first few chapters take some time to get the story up and running.

Leah Pinchuk has the most remarkable story of survival among the four. Her story epitomizes the terror of the war, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the ultimate triumph of human nature.

A strong historical and personal record worth reading.

Good Book

The book called, Gangland: How The FBI Broke The Mob by Howard Blum was a good book to read. I pick this book for the interest in the mob and how it works. The book is a big book and it holds a lot of details. Gangland is about the Gotti Family and the boss John Gotti. In the beginning of this book it really explains the FBI agents life and it also talks about how they were on to the mob. Howard Blum talks about what the mob is and what there about. Gangland tells you how they busted the mob one by one and who turned on his own boss to get them busted. If you really like mob stories and want to learn what happened to this family of gangster's, then read this book.

I have always been a fan of true crime books dealing with the American mafia so I could be a bit biased in this review. I really enjoyed this book. It is a very interesting view of what took place with John Gotti. It had a lot of detail about how the FBI worked with other law enforcement organizations, and the techniques they used to gather the evidence that turned John Gotti into a ward of the state. This book moves fast and never gets bogged down in legalese. Another positive with the book is the author is a reporter and not a FBI official, therefore the writing is better. It is an interesting study of an important event in the American Mafia

Gangland is the most thorough and professional telling of the fall of John Gotti. I was already familiar with the characters from other books, primarily "Boss of Bosses," so I was very pleased to wrap up the story as told by this highly skilled author and journalist.

The biggest difference between this and other mafia books is that almost all other books are written as first person accounts by the participants (i.e. FBI agents, mobsters, etc.). As an unbiased observer, Blum can tell the entire story in all of its fascinating detail - from FBI squad rooms to the inner circle of Gotti's most private mob retreats. This professional detachment does not in any way hamper the personal details of the story. Blum can still make you feel like an insider. Probably the best example of this is when he recounts Gotti and Sammy "the Bull" Gravano's murder of Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano. When you read the story again later in the book - as part of Gravano's confession - it brings chills down your back yet again. You can sense the excitement of the government agents and prosecutors who are hearing the story for the first time. It is a true pinnacle in American organized crime history.

Gangland is a required companion to other fine mafia books like "Donnie Brasco," "Boss of Bosses," and to a lesser extent "Underboss." The only thing to remember is that its journalistic approach is markedly different from the "I was there" approach of other books. Just stick with it as everything unravels perfectly in the end.

The opening of the book concerns NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I worked there for years and have had the opportunity to look into every nook and cranny. The Author's facts about the Mountain concerning elevators and Box 9 etc, are absolutely wrong. If he really did have a source for these facts, he was steered off the factual road and didn't follow up. It brings the entire book into question.

A truly objective book written by Howard Blum, with no contamination from debunkers, fanatics of psuedoscience, or religious fanatizism. Written in a story with a who or what is going on, in our world, just out of reach of the average citizen. Makes one wonder, look up and go hmmmmmmm.

I really like how he maintains the plot while the book pinpoints major details in it although I haven't read the book:"Out There: The Governments Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials"!!!!!!

Action-packed and fast-paced, Howard Blum not only keeps you on the edge of your seat, but he makes this book a hard one to put down. I read it in two sittings, and I do not regret the hours of sleep I sacrificed on its behalf.

However, this story is rather sensationalistic, and the scope of its narrative is perhaps a bit too grandiose for the central theme of the book - which is that Mt. Sinai exists, has been found, and measures up to the Biblical description. Too, considering that everyone from the CIA to the Mossad to the Chinese was darkly and mysteriously involved, some of the conclusions and resolutions are just a bit too pat.

In essence, the Gold of Exodus traces the daring, and sometimes foolhardy, adventures of a colorful millionaire and his friend, burly ex-SWAT Bob Cornuke, as they embark on a secret quest to discover the gold that tradition holds the Children of Israel left at Mt. Sinai in penance for their sins. They eventually make it to the site as their unabashed treasure hunt for gold gradually becomes a spiritual quest for God.

As far as geographic/Biblical lore is concerned, this is indeed a fascinating read. The sense of adventure also makes the time spent reading it worthwhile. However, although not impossible, the narrative is rather flimsy (due to the author's compression of certain facts to heighten readability), and an objective reading in search of hard, cold facts will leave you rather disappointed by its end. In my case, it made for a good one-time read, but it's not one I'll be picking up to re-read in the near future.

- Benamin Gene Gardner

Part quest, part international intrique, part biblical archeology, this fast paced, well written true story reads like an adventure novel. Complete with biblical revelation and spy vs. spy most readers will find it hard to believe that the adventures of Larry Williams and Bob Cornuke are real. It was a fascinating book to read and was very enjoyable but if I was a Saudi I would be a little worried about the security of my county when two Americans can enter and wonder around. Howard Blum, the author, did a fine job in pulling together a wide range of information to bring about a tale that is both informative and entertaining. If the ending is somewhat disappointing....well that's life isn't it? It is amazing that the evidence discovered by Williams and Cornuke has laid around for centuries and no one has put it together to discover the true Mount Sinai. A really enjoyable read!

I bought the book right after it was published. I couldn't put the book down....I read it all in just a few readings. I then recommended the book to others who were also fascinated after reading it It convinced me and others that the true Mt. Sinai is in Saudi Arabia.

Others who are giving it low ratings are probably looking for data to disprove the Bible. Now we have further archeological evidence supporting the reality of the Bible, the Exodus, the plagues of Egypt, etc., and of course the Ten Commandments and the supernatural parting of the Red Sea. Charleton Heston acted as Moses in the well known 10 Commandments movie based heavily on a historically true account, with help from this book.

I recently saw two documentary movies: One related to this book with videos and photos and interviews adding more evidence supporting the reality of both books, The Gold of Exodus and the Bible. The second was about the discovery of the likely location for the Ark of the Covenant which contains the 10 Commandments. Bob Cornuke, who was one of the treasure seekers in Gold of Exodus, traveled to Ethiopia to find its location, as well as author Graham Hancock, writer of the Sign & the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. What exciting times. Noah's ark next?

I recommend reading the Gold of Exodus and the Sign and the Seal for awesome and true archeological adventure stories.