Thomas, Gordon. Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad.
New York: St.Martin's Press (Thomas Dunne Books), 2000. 382 pages.
Gordon Thomas, based in Dublin, is the author of 37 books. All but
seven are nonfiction. Judging from the titles and the other book of his
in NameBase (Journey Into Madness, 1990), Thomas is a popularizer with a
flair for the dramatic, but not a scholar. This results in a book that is
difficult to judge because of one additional fact -- Thomas is able to get
interviews with people like William Casey or the heads of Mossad, as well
as other insiders who know where the bodies are buried. As soon as we are
tempted to dismiss Thomas on the grounds that those he interviewed are
using him for spin control, he turns around and reveals something new and
unflattering about that person, which throws us back to square one.
There are some statements that betray the author's preference for
drama and conspiracy. Two are in the area of computers, where we have some
expertise. He describes former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson as someone who
published MI6 names on his "specially created and very expensive website ...
using a sophisticated Microsoft program he had installed on his state of
the art computer." And when Thomas interviews Ari Ben-Menashe, he wallows
in that old Promis pit all over again, with a section on the famous 1981
software that can "track a terrorist's every step" by hacking into every
other computer on earth. Please, give it a rest.
ISBN 0-312-25284-6
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