The Fantasy of Beirut Station
BOOK REVIEW: BEIRUT STATION: Two Lives of a Spy: A Novel
by Paul Vidich/ Pegasus Crime
Reviewed by Cipher Brief Expert Glenn Corn
The Reviewer —Glenn Corn is a former Senior Executive in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who worked for 34 years in the U.S. Intelligence, Defense, and Foreign Affairs communities. He spent over 17 years serving overseas and served as the U.S. President’s Senior Representative on Intelligence and Security issues. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of World Politics.
REVIEW — Beirut Station is the fictional story about the professional and personal challenges facing a Lebanese-American CIA Operations Officer, Annalise Assad, who is operating in Lebanon on “Non Official Cover” (NOC). The author introduces the reader to many of the challenges and moral dilemmas that CIA operations officers may encounter while operating in difficult environments like Lebanon.
Assad, who is often faced with conflicting emotions and under considerable stress, is assigned to work in Beirut, planning and executing a lethal targeting operation against a senior member of Lebanese Hizballah, “Qassem”, who, according to the novel, was responsible for the kidnapping and 1985 murder of CIA Chief of Station (COS) William Buckley. Assad is working together with her local boss, CIA Chief of Station “Aldrich”, and the two agency operators, who are very different in both background and personality, are bound by a mentor-mentee relationship. Both are also operating in close cooperation with Israeli Mossad on the streets of Beirut. But as the story develops, that relationship grows more complicated.
The author clearly did a great deal of research when writing Beirut Station and many scenes described throughout the story give the reader a good feel for some of Beirut’s most well-known places and a general ‘taste’ for the city. The author also employs many phrases and a lexicon related to the CIA’s operational work and regularly references methodologies and technologies that are used by modern intelligence services.
Unfortunately, it is not clear whether the author had the benefit of speaking with any former (or current) CIA personnel, including those with experience operating in Lebanon, when writing his novel. As a result, the novel is filled with inaccuracies and exaggerations that make the book read more like a Levantine version of the popular TV Series “The Illegals”, than a realistic story about CIA operations in Beirut. The author’s description of the main character’s tradecraft and cover is unrealistic and his description of the various personalities in the novel sometimes appear simplistic and stereotypical and while he tries hard to cram a great deal of information into the storyline, it often feels that content is added simply to demonstrate research done or familiarity with history related to espionage in Lebanon.
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While Beirut Station is a work of fiction, as a retired CIA officer I was bothered by the suggestion in the book that Analiese’s ultimate decision to betray her oath of secrecy to the Agency is acceptable, and even heroic. In developing this story line, the author seems to advance the commonly held but bogus perception of Mossad’s “incredible power” in Washington. This line of thinking promotes the false premise that the U.S. itself is not responsible for its failed policies in the Middle East but is simply the victim of an evil “plot” directed by the Israelis. Anyone who has ever worked on bilateral U.S. – Israeli issues is aware that, while Washington and Tel Aviv have a special relationship, neither side “calls the shots” for the other and both sides need to take responsibility for their poor policy decisions.
The author’s decision to use names like “Aldrich” to describe the CIA COS, and his constant, and often nostalgic references to British spy Kim Philby, are also rather unsettling to me. Vidich must know that in the minds of U.S. Intelligence and Security professionals, the name “Aldrich” is inevitably associated with Soviet spy and villain Aldrich Ames, who betrayed a large number of CIA assets while committing espionage for the Soviets/Russians and was finally sent to prison with the blood of many people on his hands. In selecting a name for the CIA COS, the author might have considered using the name of another “Ames” who worked for the CIA, Robert Ames, who not only served multiple tours in Lebanon, but gave his life for his country when he returned to Beirut in the 1980’s on a mission.
Even more disconcerting than his allusions to Aldrich Ames, is the author’s constant effort to weave in the name and memory of Philby into the story. Yes, Kim Philby did spend the last few years of his life outside of the “Iron Curtain” working as a journalist in Beirut before finally defecting to Moscow in 1963, but there is nothing romantic or honorable about what this UK version of Aldrich Ames did to the dozens of individuals he betrayed during his time working as a Soviet mole in British Intelligence. While hard to believe, Philby was an even more detestable person than Aldrich Ames and had the blood of many more people on his hands when he defected to Moscow. He caused irreparable damage to the lives of many people while serving a corrupt political system and his own selfish ego. It is impossible to imagine, as seen in the book, any CIA officer ever agreeing to use an apartment once used by Philby as a safe house to support agent operations. Not only would such a move be highly unprofessional and dangerous for the CIA’s assets, but it would also be hard to stomach for any CIA officer who knows the story of Philby and his betrayal.
The author of Beirut Station clearly tried hard to capture the feel of a CIA operations officer serving on the streets of Beirut. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to accept some of the premises in the book and would not recommend Beirut Station to anyone interested in gaining a realistic understanding of the challenges faced by CIA officers operating on the streets of Lebanon or elsewhere.
Beirut Station earns a disappointing two and a half out of four trench coats
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