The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction
Michael A. Ledeen, . . St. Martin's, $24.95 (278pp) ISBN 978-0-312-37655-0
Ledeen, a well-known conservative pundit on Iran, argues passionately for a bolder, better-reasoned American policy toward the Islamic republic. He presents compelling evidence that the Shiite regime has collaborated with al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist organizations, and that Iran's Supreme Leader has considered the goal of killing Westerners and Jews throughout the Middle East. In presenting his litany of Iranian perfidies, however, Ledeen can seem to overreach: he divines Persian influence in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in 1979 and implies there's consensus that Tehran is harboring Ayman al-Zawahiri. Of 9/11 Ledeen writes, “[W]e have still not unraveled all the threads of the September 11 conspiracy. If we ever do, I suspect we will be amazed at the number of terrorist groups—and their national sponsors—that were involved in the conspiracy.” The last third of this short book is dedicated to improving American policy toward Iran. One of the cooler heads at AEI and the
Reviewed on: 07/30/2007
Genre: Nonfiction
Other - 288 pages - 978-1-4299-8726-4