Lightning Out of Lebanon, Tom Diaz
Lightning Out of Lebanon, Tom Diaz
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Lightning Out of Lebanon
Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil

Author: Tom Diaz, Barbara Newman

Narrator: Tony Call

Abridged: 2 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/01/2005

Synopsis

Before September 11, 2001, one terrorist group had killed more Americans than any other: Hezbollah, the “Party of God.” Today it remains potentially more dangerous than even al Qaeda. Yet little has been known about its inner workings, past successes, and future plans–until now.

Written by an accomplished journalist and a law-enforcement expert, Lightning Out of Lebanon is a chilling and essential addition to our understanding of the external and internal threats to America. In disturbing detail, it portrays the degree to which Hezbollah has infiltrated this country and the extent to which it intends to do us harm.

Formed in Lebanon by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah is fueled by hatred of Israel and the United States. Its 1983 truck-bomb attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 soldiers–the largest peacetime loss ever for the U.S. military–and caused President Reagan to withdraw all troops from Lebanon. Since then, among other atrocities, Hezbollah has murdered Americans at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon and the Khobar Towers U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia; tortured and killed the CIA station chief in Beirut; held organizational meetings with top members of al Qaeda–including Osama bin Laden–and established sleeper cells in the United States and Canada.

Lightning Out of Lebanon reveals how, starting in 1982, a cunning and deadly Hezbollah terrorist named Mohammed Youssef Hammoud operated a cell in Charlotte, North Carolina, under the radar of American intelligence. The story of how FBI special agent Rick Schwein captured him in 2002 is a brilliantly researched and written account.

Yet the past is only prologue in the unsettling odyssey of Hezbollah. Using their exclusive sources in the Middle East and inside the U.S. counterterrorism establishment, the authors of Lightning Out of Lebanon imagine the deadly future of Hezbollah and posit how best to combat the group which top American counterintelligence officials and Senator Bob Graham, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have called “the A Team of terrorism.”

About The Author

Barbara Newman, author of The Covenant: Love and Death in Beirut, is a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and is the founder of Barbara Newman Productions, Inc., which has produced numerous documentary films for Discovery Channel, A&E Network, the History Channel, and Showtime, among others. She was senior producer/creator of the Now It Can Be Told series, a nationally syndicated newsmagazine, and, before that, an investigative producer for ABC News’s 20/20. She was also a correspondent for National Public Radio and hosted All Things Considered.Tom Diaz is the author of Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America. From 1993 to 1997 he was the lead Democratic counsel on counterterrorism issues, helping to write key antiterrorism legislation. He has recently served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice on the use of high technology by terrorists and as law-enforcement investigative tools. As a reporter he has covered conflicts and tensions in Central America, India, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union, and the closing days of the 1991 Gulf War.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen on September 09, 2017

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization located in the Middle East. Right? Wrong. Hezbollah is an international terrorist organization with groups or cells and sleeper cells located in many countries including the United States. This is the story of how these terrorists are raised, enter the U.S. and ra......more

Goodreads review by David on December 15, 2020

Scary. The truth is more dangerous than fiction. Good details of the terrorist threat among us right now.......more

Goodreads review by Gregory on January 24, 2008

Read about the terrorist group that makes al Qaeda look like a bunch of boy scouts. They are here in America, running many kinds of legitimate and illegitimate businesses. You'll probably be frightened by the information in the book, but may also be uplifted to read about the dedicated professionals......more

Goodreads review by Tom on December 31, 2016

this shirt read strings together hezballah financing based on the Michigan cigarette trade and an established presence in South America to paint a picture of islamist sleeper cells in the western hemisphere.......more

Quotes

Praise for Lightning Out of Lebanon

“Lightning Out of Lebanon is a combination true-crime story, adventure tale, and wake-up call for America. Investigative journalists Barbara Newman and Tom Diaz have detailed the activities of the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization in the United States and if you thought al Qaeda was the only terrorist group you had to worry about, think again. . . . A revealing account of the terrorists among us that should be required reading for all Americans.”
–Neil C. Livingstone, author of Inside the PLO

“An eye-opener . . . reads like a novel, but documents in detail how operatives of what many call the ‘A-Team of Terrorism’ have taken advantage of our freedoms, legal loopholes, and defense weaknesses to set up support cells in communities all over America. But it also tells of a success story–how dedicated federal and local law enforcement officials broke up and successfully prosecuted a secret terrorist cell, leading to other investigations that continue today.”
–Senator Joe Lieberman

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