The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Suskind
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
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Sales Rank: 231
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0061430625
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780061430626
ASIN: 0061430625
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
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From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation's struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today's shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of "The Armageddon Test" —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world's nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor's son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she's been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
Product Description
From Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world.
In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of The Armageddon Test a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency.
While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate and often daring brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions human solutions to so much that has gone wrong.
For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope along with the moral clarity and earned optimism at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
Book Description
From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation’s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today’s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of “The Armageddon Test” —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world’s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor’s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she’s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Extraordinary! September 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Way of the World" is an absolute must read for anyone wanting to know the truth about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Mr. Suskind confirms the "foolish arrogance" of Bush and Cheney as they use false intelligence and good people to fool the American people into supporting this illegal war. His strongest message, however, is the evolution of our world toward a greater understanding of each other as we discover our similarities instead of our differences. My only hope is that both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama read this book and act accordingly.
MAGNIFICENT... and Frightening September 3, 2008
I have just put down The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism and I cannot yet decide which is the more compelling force, the powerful story that has been put down upon its pages or the amazing talent of this writer, who managed to captured it and cleverly pull it together. From interrogations inside the White House gates to the holding cells at Guantanamo, Ron Suskind has masterfully laid out the realities of today in unflinching terms.
Using snapshot-like descriptions of events from the past few years, Suskind not only connects us with the knows - Bush, Blair, Tenet, Musharraf, Bhutto - but also with an array of unknowns with names like Stephen, Ibrahim, Rolf, Usman, Candace, Abdul, Rob, Ann and Stephen that turn out to be core players in our close-knit world. How faith, tradition and hope integrated and shaped their lives and futures, along with those of their families and their societies, reveals for us how 'the way of the world' that we live in has actually come to pass. And in a particularly skillful six-page portrait of the 10th century foundations of faith and reason and the events that launched our beliefs, Suskind carries us forward through a thousand years of evolution to our current levels of confusion with today's priorities and the conundrums that we face.
In his remarkable vignettes, Suskind binds our characters into a single idea, a shared purpose, and makes his case for reestablishing America's moral leadership in order that we might generate precious intelligence and global action that could enable us to detect imminent threats in a world where technology and terrorism have intersected. Using the same skills that were on display in The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, he takes us inside the mind of each member of the cast and lets us walk in their shoes. In the last third of this book, the players not only address these realities of nuclear terrorism but also the need for cooperation on a global scale to address it. They appropriately raise the question of 'why' terrorism and nuclear weapons are handled in secret rather than continuing with the traditional 'how' to better watch over them; asking not 'how' 9/11 happened but 'why'.
Of the many allegations contained in this journalistic masterpiece, one in particular indicates that The White House was the source of a fake letter from an Iraqi intelligence agent to Saddam Hussein that linked Mohamed Atta's 9/11 mission directly to Saddam and to Iraq. Unfortunately, the frenzy that resulted has overshadowed some equally important issues that Suskind's book has also addressed, which have the potential to impact the future in no small way. The appropriate questions of the day are first, what are other nations doing with their loose uranium [or WMDs]? and second, how do we assess the gap between what they are saying publicly and doing privately? and finally, are we doing enough to control or eliminate these dangerous commodities? I found it notable that in 2003, there was a deliberate American diplomatic snub of the Iranians in Geneva, which shut down the ongoing talks with Tehran, took place after Iran had voluntarily suspended the part of their nuclear program to weaponize enriched uranium. Was this step in the wrong direction for political reasons?
As the Senate committees make moves to look into issues and allegations raised by this book, perhaps they should address such issues as 'uranium leaks from Russia to Georgia in 2003 and 2006' or 'actions that we should pursue now to compensate for our past failures in policy and security', things that Suskind's prose has made perfectly clear. And as we plan for a better future, let us also question why is it that an Iraq-like campaign to bomb Iran still persists in media reports about the current Administration. Is the intent of this to 'stop terrorism' once again? I don't think so...
Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition... - a fact-based novel about Iran, Iraq and the Middle East.
grateful reader September 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a profound book. A description of the betrayal by the powerful and the courage and integrity of the people who move this country, this civilization forward simply doing what they know is right, is ethical.
I began reading this book to find the section describing Bush choosing to go to war knowing that the case he was making to us was false. The gravity of this is staggering...
What I gained in reading the book in its entirety is confirmation that the essential American spirit enobled by the values most of us hold and live by are still relevant and that those values are not exclusive to America but are universal among brave citizens of many countries.
This country was highjacked by a president and vice president who came to office with an agenda to have a war with Iraq and took whatever path to lie to and manipulate the citizens of this country to support them.
And yet, there are many inspiring people who meet this corruption on the road where it travels and fight it on the only battlefield that matters. These incremental achievements are a sharp contrast to the glaring abuses of this White House.
Thank You Mr. Suskind.
Where is the outrage ? September 1, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Where is the outrage to the terrible truths this important book has revealed ?!
I am stunned there is not more of an outcry regarding the hidden truths coming to light and how we were deceived and shown no respect by our elected leaders ?!
 NEWSWORTHY September 1, 2008
Suskind sees signs of a looming terrorist attack and tries to connect the dots. He levels explosive charges at Bush:
--For months, British agents infiltrate a terrorist cell. Worried about mid-term elections, Bush asks Blair to "snap the trap shut" on the plotters. Blair refuses. Behind Blair's back, Bush and Cheney send CIA agent Jose Rodriguez to instruct the Pakistanis to arrest the UK-based terror cell's Paki contact. The arrest blows the British investigation wide open. When they find out that their investigation has been ruined, the Brits "curse, throw ashtrays, and scream bloody murder," and are prematurely forced to arrest the plotters. Bush and Cheney then use news of the plot to scare voters against electing Democrats to Congress.
--As early as 2001, Russian experts in the government warned Bush against Vladimir Putin. The "CIA had an old listening device implanted in the wall of the presidential suite at the Hotel Imperial," where Putin would be staying on a visit to Vienna. "All they needed to do was replace the battery." Bush refused, saying "you don't wiretap a friend." The real danger of terrorists acquiring WMD came/comes not from Iraq but from Russia and its former satellites. In 2003, uranium was smuggled by a crime syndicate from Russia through Georgia. Later, Putin assured Bush he shut down the syndicate. But in 2006, the same syndicate was again caught smuggling uranium.
--CIA had a reliable asset named Naji Sabri high up in the Iraqi government. Sabri informed the CIA that "Saddam neither possessed WMD nor was trying very hard to procure or develop them." When informed, "Bush dismissed the intelligence." Then, when CIA filed a report, Sabri's words were distorted "under pressure from Washington." The false report was passed on to foreign intelligence agencies.
--Suskind interviews "a longtime U.S. intelligence official" who "knows there was a secret mission before the war that found out...there were no WMD. And we knew it in plenty of time." Tahir Habbush, the head of Saddam's intelligence agency, was a spy for the Brits. During secret meetings in Jordan, Habbush informed them there were no WMD in Iraq. Richard Dearlove, head--at the time--of MI6, thought he was presenting Bush with a marvelous intelligence coup that would prevent war with Iraq, but Bush did not care for anything contradicting the case for war, no matter how good the source. Habbush was the Jack of Diamonds--sixteenth--in Bush's deck of playing cards of most-wanted Iraqis. Actually, though, Habbush was given $5 million in hush money by the Bush administration, which also helped him relocate. Another Suskind source is Rob Richer, former head of CIA's Near East division. When WMD did not turn up, Richer says the "White House concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," claiming that Saddam had trained Mohammed Atta. It also mentioned WMD activity. The letter was taken to Baghdad, where it was "found" and given to The Daily Telegraph of London. From there, it was picked up by American media. (This revelation casts suspicion on several al Qaeda letters found by the Pentagon.)
--The British government secretly complains that "the U.S. is too anxious and trigger happy, taken to picking up some bit of overheard conversation and then sweeping up suspects." Many innocents are imprisoned at Guantanamo, including "a group who went to Afghanistan to escape Chinese persecution and were handed over to U.S. authorities by bounty hunters." Suskind documents foul play. Guantanamo officials take evidence exonerating prisoners, stamp it "classified," then use it against the same prisoners as if it were incriminating evidence. After prisoners die, officials at Guantanamo merge the dead person's identity with that of living prisoners. For example, after prisoner Abdul Salam died, they added his name to the name of the innocent man in the cell next to him, Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, to form the name Abdul Hamid Abdul Salam al-Ghizzawi, who could now be accused of whatever the dead person did. Stephen Abraham, a former tribunal judge at Guantanamo, witnessed the constant presentation of false evidence against prisoners. He says, "information was never more than grossly inadequate." The book recounts the story of Kurnaz, who was arrested for associating with Selcook Bilgen, supposedly a terrorist who had blown himself up. The problem? Bilgen is neither a terrorist, nor has he blown himself up, but is alive and well in Dresden.
--Powell's presentation at the UN was based on intel from Rafid Ahmed, codenamed Curveball, an Iraqi defector in Germany. Bush officials now maintain that "had they been given access" to Curveball, "they might have discovered that he was a fabricator." However, the truth is that Joe Wippl, the CIA's chief of station for Germany, "recommended to the Germans that they never provide the U.S. with access to Curveball" so that the U.S. could have an excuse about why it was misled by Curveball.
--Soon after 9/11, the Brits got Iran "to start working al Qaeda's exiles [in Iran] and maybe even use them to get to bin Laden. The Brits were delighted, as were senior intelligence officials throughout the U.S. government." However, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the CIA man who briefed Bush on the breakthrough with Iran, recalls how Bush "just looked at me with this funny blank stare." Although intelligence officials considered Iran's offer genuine, Bush refused their help.
--The NIE made it seem like CIA approved the nuclear claim against Saddam; however, the claim came from a unit under the sway of neocons at the Pentagon. Alan Foley, head of WMD analysis for CIA, recounts how he objected to Bush's claim that "Saddam was `vigorously trying to procure' nuclear material." Ignoring the CIA, Bush based his claim on British intelligence, which relied on forged Italian documents which the U.S. knew were bogus. After giving nuanced conclusions about Iraq's WMD, analysts such as Foley were pressured to change their assessments: "I got phone calls--I'm sure Bob did--not just from the administration, from Congress...We were under a lot of pressure to dispense with the qualifiers" and dress up "thin speculation as evidence." Although Bush blames CIA for getting it wrong, the CIA's WMD division, headed by Foley, was hardly ever consulted in the run-up to war, ignored even by Tenet.
--The "1992 Schumer Amendment, which dealt with trade in HEU [highly enriched uranium] for nonmilitary purposes such as cancer treatment and imaging equipment," mandated that "any company using HEU get on the path to converting it to low-enriched uranium, which works just as well and can't be made into a bomb." But Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, slipped exemptions into the 2003 Energy Act, which allows corporations to revert to HEU, making it easier for terrorists to acquire it.
--Not only is Osama bin Laden alive, he's "openly recruiting physicists and chemists, even some biologists." Many Muslim youths turn to terrorism after having close relatives die in refugee camps. Bush's policies increased the refugee population by five million.
--Suskind describes the last days of Benazir Bhutto, betrayed by Bush, who paid lipservice to democracy but privately supported dictatorship. The U.S. tapped Bhutto's phones. Suskind quotes some of her private conversations. Suskind takes his title from something Bhutto said in her last days: Muslim women lead men "by making them feel they are in charge, then guiding them to do what you want. You see, they think they're saving you, and you think you're saving them. That's where the trouble starts. Someone says, 'I saved you, now here's what I want.' And it's the same with big countries and little ones, religious leaders and their followers, even husbands and wives. When things really work, though, it's because people realize that...we save one another. It's the way of the world. Things work out for the best when everyone makes it together, when we manage to save each other."
--The book has a gazillion typos, unacceptable from a big publisher like HarperCollins.
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