Kai Bird paints a rosy picture and tells a nice story about Bob Ames, his work in the CIA and the Palestinian conflict. There isn’t much depth to his story. I selected this book because of his book on Oppenheimer and I was curious about the American involvement in the Middle East and the Palestinian perspective. That was not a good decision. I don’t think Bird can present a thorough examination of any of those areas, considering the sensitivity surrounding CIA involvement and his lack of accessibility to original records. Basically, he should’ve written this book. He paints Salameh in a sympathetic manner, and this man was a terrorist. He cites the book Striking Back, stating that the Israelis didn’t kill any of those involved in the Munich massacre but he fails to mention that the Israelis’ rationale to target supporters of Black September and also fails to examine that the PLO being linked to Black September would come within the area of Mossad’s interest to target participants, regardless of being a soft or hard target. The Israelis also believed in removing terrorists, as their idea of deterrence, while searching for those directly involved in the Munich Massacre. The Israelis shouldn’t be vindicated for their actions, and PLO members, especially Salameh, mustn’t be painted in a sympathetic light. More importantly, the experiences of the Palestiniens and Israelis should be presented in an objective way. Only then can readers begin to examine how these groups mutually acted and responded as they did. In the middle of this is the American interest in the Middle East, for which he cannot fully examine.