I don’t read very many books. No real
reason, other than I just never seem to be able to find the
necessary time to do so. However, when I do read one, if it does
not capture my interest in the first few pages, I just lay it
down and never get started again.
The book reviewed here caught my interest
right off the bat, as it is very timely to the events happening
worldwide today concerning terrorism, and it also backtracks to
events beginning decades ago which brings us up to the current
situation in which we find ourselves today. Leroy
Thompson has spent his life dealing with the effort to keep
terrorism in check around the globe. I remember reading Leroy’s
works dealing with the topic of executive protection and
counterterrorism decades ago. Throughout the years, Leroy has
trained elite units on how to deal with such threats, trained
personal bodyguards on how best to protect their wealthy and
powerful clients, and has written numerous books and articles
dealing with such topics.
This book, “The Counterterrorist Manual”,
goes in depth into the history, training, and mission of
counterterrorist units around the world. The book contains
ninety-two illustrations and photographs depicting scenes of
terrorist activity and members of elite counterterrorist units
from around the world. The book deals with the initiation and
evolution of such units and their tactics used in dealing with
the resolution of crisis situations in both historical and
present tenses.
“The Counterterrorist Manual” is both
entertaining and informative. Today’s terrorist groups are
well-equipped, well-funded, well-trained, and ever evolving in
their methods and tactics. Thompson, with his personal hands-on
knowledge of many of the units and individual operatives who are
involved in the fight against terrorism, delivers this
information to the reader in a chronological method, dealing
with both the tactics and equipment used historically and in
today’s fight against terrorism.
This is a very informative and enlightening
book, and I highly recommend it.
You can buy it at better book stores, or
online at places like www.amazon.com.
The first edition is hardbound, 256 pages, is
published by Frontline Books, and the ISBN is 978-1-84832-514-2.
