The author has previously written for such unusally reliable sources as Time, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. There are 1,078 references in this book in 426 pages of text covering an introduction, a prologue, and 18 chapters. The references are from such sources as memoranda and reports from U.S. government agencies, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and the New Republic, to name only a few. The author, therefore, cannot be dismissed as some sort of right wing crackpot. What Timmerman does is document Jackson's unashamed schemes to line his own pockets and those of his friends and family in the name of racial diversity, economic opportunity, and other buzzwords popular with income redistribution leftists. But Jesse is the quintessential capitalist. He doesn't do anything he can't get paid for, to include NOT speaking up in favor of minority groups who have sought his assistance in the past but didn't have the money to pay his fee! SHAKEDOWN is an appropriate title for this work, as Jackson has managed to get governments and businesses to pony up for his schemes in order to keep from being branded as racist by Jackson. This book could have been subtitled "Show Me the Money!" He has definitely helped himself, and made himself rich in the process. Whether he has helped others is truly open to question, as the author has convincingly documented.

What an eye opener! This books seems to be very factual. The events and circumstances surrounding the Reverend Jackson, excuse me so called Reverend Jackson, are appalling. This book shows a sad fact in America today. That the corporations, the press and even the average white person are petrified by the thought of being accused of racism against an African-American. And Jesse Jackson has taken full advantage of that to enrich himself and his family. This book is a must read for anyone who would like to see some of the details of the stories we have been seeing on the news. Adding credibility, in my opinion, to the facts presented in this book is the fact that this book has been reviewed on many news programs and talk shows and Jesse has refused to make any appearances rebutting the facts. Those that have attempted to defend him on these shows have reverted to pointing out the good he has done (I'm sure there are good things). This book presents information on the bad things he has done, with indepth information that does not appear on the evening news. This will not be the last book I read on the subject but I feel that it is a very important book for anyone to read that is interested in the man, the history and the smoke screen that Jesse has created.

This is a magnificent expose of one of the most evil and destructive creatures of our time. It is truly a tragedy that a cretinous subhumanoid like Jackson has been given the power and influence that he has-and that the number of honest and ethical black leaders is so very small. Timmerman makes very clear the horrific crimes with which this phony so-called "Reverand" is affiliated (street gangs, African butchers and many others), his racist contempt for whites, his hatred for the United States, affiliations with Communists etc. This of course will not affect the loyalty of his horde of brain-dead followers-and their imbecilic chanting, slogans and "boycotts"-but it is vital information for the rest of us!

From his repeated travels to Iraq KRT tells how they tried to become a regional superpower by buying weapons and technology from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and America. The 1991 Gulf War destroyed many of the military weapons of Iraq, which were previously bought from the same Western powers. This eventually led to their conquest in 2003, and a return to their former colonial status. The book would be better with a chapter on Iraqi history from the 19th century, and a map showing the surrounding countries. Iraqi's oil resources are almost equal to Saudi Arabia (p.337).

Around 1976 the USSR put an embargo on arms delivery to Iraq (p.x). This created a market for France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Australia, and the United States to sell tanks, jet fighters, chemical weapons, ballistic missiles, and nuclear supplies. KRT interviewed dozens of weapon designers, technicians, military trainers, intelligence analysts, diplomats, and other government officials for their information.

There is a map of "Iraqi Weapons Plants" (p.xiv) that shows nine CBW facilities and nine nuclear sites. Were any found in 2003 after this book was printed?

Chapter 1 gives a short history of Iraq from the 1950s through 1974. Saddam was an important figure during these political conflicts. The triumph of the Baath Party led to improved living standards for the Iraqi people (p.15). Chapter 2 tells how Saddam reversed the danger from the Kurdish revolt. After territorial concessions to the Shah of Iran, the Iranians stopped supplying arms to the Kurds, who were soon defeated. This convinced Iraq to not just acquire weapons, but the means to repair and rebuild them. Both France and Iraq sought to escape control by the superpowers. Iraq began to manufacture toluene (for TNT) and ethylene (for rocket fuel or mustard gas). Other contracts were for a new airport, subway system, telecommunications grid, nuclear plants, railroad lines, naval yards, radio and television broadcasting systems, etc (p.39). Yugoslavia, Brazil, and Egypt were very competitive in advanced technology (p.42). France got a contract to maintain Soviet equipment (p.46). When America and Britain turned down a pesticide plant, Belgium agreed to build a fertilizer plant (p.51).

The rest of the book covers the events from 1979 (the overthrow of the Shah of Iran) to just before the Gulf War of 1991. The Epilogue asks "how to prevent another Iraq?". Or perhaps another third world country that wants to better itself and compete with first world countries? The 20th century has seen the decay and impoverishment of South American countries, and the rise of China and India. The solution seems to be keeping smaller countries disarmed and poor. If the Bankers can't do it, then the Military must. Invading a small country to collect debts for bankers is an old practice.

Iraq is faced with the enmity of a larger Iran to its east, and a powerful Turkey to its north. Both were former conquerors of Arabia. The other Arab states are disunited and give little support. The previous colonization of Iraq lasted from 1919 to 1958 under Britain; what's next?

This book is everything you would want to know about how a country arms itself during a large scale land war and how the developed countries in the world bend over backwards to go around laws and social standards to make the fast buck. We have an almost overwhelming account of the arms companies that sold all type of weapons to Iraq, many of which were embargoed technology. I guess there is not a large-scale surprise of these issues, it does seam that the majority of the world that is using weapons day in and day out against their enemies rarely are the actual countries that create the devises. In one sense this could be a business case book on how to make money off of arms sales.

The book is well written and engaging. It does a good job at laying out lots of detail but not making it dull. Overall an interesting book and should be read, now more then ever given that Iraq is probably doing some of these things right now.