CANR
WORK TITLE: PHANTOM ORBIT
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://davidignatius.com/
CITY: Washington
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 343
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 26, 1950, in Cambridge, MA; son of Paul Robert and Nancy Ignatius; married Eve Thornberg (a computer scientist), October 18, 1980; children: Elisa Helen, Alexandra Sarah, Sarah Ahun.
EDUCATION:Attended St. Albans School, 1962-68; Harvard University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1973; King’s College, Cambridge, diploma in economics, 1978.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist and novelist. Washington Monthly, Washington, DC, editor, 1975-76; Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, staff reporter in Pittsburgh, PA, and Washington, DC, 1976-80, Middle East correspondent, 1980-83, diplomatic correspondent, 1983-85; Washington Post, Washington, DC, Outlook editor, 1986-90, foreign editor, 1990-92, assistant managing editor, business news, 1993-98, associate editor and columnist, 1999—; International Herald Tribune, Paris, France, executive editor, 2000-03; “Post-Global,” Washingtonpost.com, creator and comoderator; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, adjunct lecturer at John F. Kennedy School of Government, beginning 2012, senior fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Program, 2017-22; Aspen Institute strategy group member.
AVOCATIONS:Tennis and squash.
MEMBER:Council on Foreign Relations.
AWARDS:Frank Knox Fellowship, Harvard University; Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting from Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 1985; Gerald Loeb Award for commentary, 2000; Edward Weintal Prize, 2004; Urbino World Press Award, Italian Republic; Legion of Honor, French Republic; Lifetime Achievement Award, International Committee for Foreign Journalism; George Polk Award, 2018, for coverage of the Jamal Khashoggi murder.
RELIGION: Episcopal.WRITINGS
Also author of screenplay treatment, The Tandem Couple, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 1999. Contributor to The Reagan Legacy, by Sidney Blumenthal and Thomas Edsall, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1988. Contributor to periodicals, including Foreign Affairs, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, and Washington Monthly.
The movie rights to A Firing Offense were purchased by Paramount and actor Tom Cruise in 1996; the screenplay was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Body of Lies was adapted into film and released by Warner Bros., 2008. The movie rights to The Increment were acquired by Jerry Bruckheimer.
SIDELIGHTS
David Ignatius has drawn upon his experience as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and associate editor of the Washington Post to write a series of espionage novels that go behind the scenes of current events to uncover the forces and people that shape them. He has also offered detailed insights into the world of intelligence and, at times, the world of journalism. By exploring the craft of the spy from a journalist’s perspective, Ignatius often reveals in his novels the parallels between the two disciplines. As the author told Glenn Lewis in a Publishers Weekly profile, both professions involve “establishing relationships of trust with people. … It’s getting people to tell you things even when it is no longer in their interest. Then it’s doing something specific about it.”
Agents of Innocence
Ignatius’s first novel, Agents of Innocence, details the dealings of American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Tom Rogers in Beirut, assigned to penetrate the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) following its expulsion from Jordan in 1970. Earnest and decent, the idealistic Rogers eventually finds a liaison in Jamal Ramwali, a young Fatah Palestinian who is drawn by the guarded hope that the West can somehow ameliorate the plight of his people; yet, as the two become swept up in the escalating terrorism destroying Lebanon, they come to realize that theirs is a game without rules. “What he and Ramwali, the two agents of innocence, learn is that in the Middle East one pays dearly for innocence,” wrote David Lamb in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. “The agenda of the foreigners in this stricken little country—the Americans, the Europeans, the Israelis—has little to do with ending Lebanon’s violence. What counts is minimizing losses to maximize intelligence efforts in order to find out what everyone else is up to. Lebanon is the playground for these international adventurers and the Lebanese are the pawns.” “Ignatius … spent three years during the early 1980s as Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal,” recounted Time critic Paul Gray. “Among the many events he witnessed was the continuing demolition of civilized life in Lebanon by indigenous sects and fractious neighbors. Having reported parts of this complex and in many ways preposterous story, Ignatius has now set about lending these experiences the coherence of make-believe.”
Discussing Agents of Innocence in the Washington Post Book World, Robin W. Winks called the novel “a rare example of spy fiction that … tells the truth.” “[Ignatius] assures us in an author’s note that the book is a work of fiction and then provides a compelling account of how things fell apart in Lebanon between September of 1969 and April of 1983,” the reviewer elaborated. “Along the way Ignatius methodically, quietly, and very entertainingly shows the reader how intelligence professionals really work.” Lamb offered a similar view: “The book is a first-rate achievement in the best tradition of Graham Greene—historically accurate and fictionally engrossing. … Ignatius has done a skillful job of revealing in finest detail the inner workings of intelligence agencies in the Middle East.” Likewise remarking that “the novel sparkles with penetrating observations on the Middle East,” New York Times Book Review critic Jules Koslow particularly admired the author’s “richly drawn psychological portrait of an intelligence agent,” deciding: “It is the skillfully drawn characters as much as the plot and subplot machinations that the reader will remember long after.” Winks, too, commended the novel’s “very real figures, … all in some measure sympathetic, all in some measure culpable.” The reviewer continued: “Rendering a complex story deceptively simple, Ignatius draws in the reader who, utterly confused by the persistent destruction in Lebanon today, may have abandoned all hope of understanding the tragedy being played out in that beautiful land. This is a book for spy fans, certainly, for it tells a good story and tells it well, but it is equally a book for those who hate spy stories.” “Agents of Innocence contains all the detailed local color and technical arcana that the thriller genre demands,” reiterated Gray. “But this novel has something more on its mind than escapist entertainment.”
A Firing Offense
The author’s fourth novel, A Firing Offense, is the story of Eric Truell, the Paris bureau chief for the New York Mirror, who pens a career-making expose that challenges his profession’s tenets and threatens his job. In Paris, Truell managed to get inside a hostage situation to secure an interview with the terrorists. His actions earned him time in a Paris jail and the threat of deportation, but also netted him some excellent copy. Back in Washington, Truell is nagged by the idea that things don’t add up. He learns what is actually going on from a CIA contact. The United States and France are competing against each other for a multibillion-dollar contract with China to supply communications systems. Both sides seem willing to do almost anything to secure the deal, but Truell discovers that France may be willing to go too far, brokering a deal that would threaten American security interests. A French microbiologist has been forced to go to China to work on biological weapons. An American journalist and Truell’s colleague is working as a French spy. The CIA wants to enlist Truell to work on its behalf in China to thwart the French plan. The journalist faces a dilemma, putting his conscience in conflict with his profession.
In crafting A Firing Offense, Ignatius has spun business into the spy’s web of intrigue. According to John C. Hawley in America, “in a post-cold war era he has found a new threat (and topic for such novels) in international business espionage, where the interests of intelligence officers and C.E.O.s seem to merge.” Together these make for good spy fiction, in Hawley’s opinion. “As a page-turner, therefore, this book passes the test. Ignatius has concocted a plot that is comprehensible and yet full of complexity and implications, with characters that are nicely realized and, for the most part, familiar to readers of this genre.” Jeff Turrentine, writing in Forbes, had greater praise for Ignatius’s book. A “breathtakingly good new yarn, things begin to pick up immediately, about five pages into the first chapter—and don’t let up for another 300 pages, when it’s all over,” he commented. “If the mark of a great thriller is the seamlessness of action, character and explosion, then Ignatius has written a contemporary classic of the genre. Every detail is relevant; nothing is extraneous. People, places and events that seem to have only the most marginal of relationships to one another turn out to be connected in profound and shocking ways.”
Although it shares all of the elements of classic spy fiction Ignatius’s linking of journalism and espionage raises this book to a new level for some reviewers. “What sets Ignatius’ book apart from others of its type is its ongoing meditations on the search for truth, the role of choice and its consequences in daily life and the occasional urge that moves us to take action when passive observation might seem far more rational,” observed Hawley. “Pondering the role of personal ethics in an amoral world, Ignatius offers us a rather unlikely hero: a journalist who toys with manipulating the news for national security.” Turrentine offered a similar estimation. He notes that Ignatius “brings to this setting a realism that could only come from an insider.” He added: “A Firing Offense is that rare thriller with actual themes: about the ethics of crossing lines between self and country, between personal gain and the public interest, between reporting news and making it.”
This critical eye that Ignatius casts on his own profession is the quality of A Firing Offense that intrigued several reviewers. People contributor J.D. Reed called the book a “mordant commentary on the sagging and compromised state of American journalism.” Journalists are no longer “reporters,” as a reviewer for Publishers Weekly explained; they are “newsmakers.” “Using a cleverly detailed plot,” suggested the reviewer, “Ignatius … makes it very clear that journalists are in truth newsmakers, whether they know it or not, and that their high-minded claims of objectivity blind them to their complicity in the events they report.” Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly commend Ignatius’s “understanding of the grimy, bureaucratic trudge of putting out a daily paper and the compromises that are made to get story.” The reviewer added: “He has a notable gift for elegant plotting and pacing and a finer ear for language than most thriller writers.”
The Increment
In The Increment, published in 2009, Ignatius’s “knowledge of spydom and exotic places” is once again used to “brilliantly illuminate” this novel that begins with an Iranian physicist, Dr. Ali, ready to turn on his country to help CIA agent Harry Pappas stop Iran’s nuclear program, stated Barbara Conaty in Library Journal. The veteran and disgruntled agent must go rogue and get help from a based-on-real-life British spy agency, known as the Increment, to determine if the information he is receiving from Dr. Ali is legitimate. Harry has lost in marine son in the second Iraq War and is now fearful that this information may start another war.
In a review of The Increment for Booklist, Thomas Gaughan concluded that “its ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter may well attract both talk shows and off-the-book-page features.” Jennifer Reese related mixed feelings about the novel in Entertainment Weekly. “When the Increment is operating undercover in Iran, the book flies,” she said, but “you long to start skimming” when Harry is featured. In a Publishers Weekly review, a contributor suggested that despite a “somewhat predictable ending, this remains a page-turner of the highest order.” Ignatius described his view of the novel in an interactive interview on Washington Post Online: “I hope that The Increment shows the richness and complexity of Iranian life—and in that sense will encourage the process of engagement between the two countries, something I have urged in many columns over the past two years. The novel also offers a frank discussion of the Iranian nuclear program and the dangers of weaponization. That’s an issue that has to be addressed as the US and Iran talk. The last thing I should say is … this is a novel. It’s written to tell an exciting story. It’s not in the realm of fact, but fiction.
Siro and Body of Lies
In 1991, Ignatius published Siro, a Cold War novel described as “a tricky tale of power politics and double cross” by a Publishers Weekly reviewer. The Bank of Fear, published in 1994, is a work that combines “the sly wit of a Swiss bank caper with the horrifying account of a megalomaniacal political regime,” in the words of Library Journal critic Conaty.
Ignatius returned to the espionage genre in 2007 for Body of Lies, “a timely and plausible cautionary tale of schemes within schemes and morality compromised,” observed Thomas Gaughan in Booklist. Stationed in Jordan, CIA agent Roger Ferris is charged with hunting down Suleiman, an al-Qaeda mastermind who has left a trail of terror in Europe. Employing tactics the British used to deceive the Nazis in World War II, Ferris plans to infiltrate Suleiman’s network and turn the terrorists against each other, a scheme that places his life in grave danger. According to a critic in Publishers Weekly, the author “has crafted one of the best post-9/11 spy thrillers yet.”
The Sun King
Ignatius looks at the world of journalism in The Sun King, a “suavely written, shrewd, and compelling take on Washington, the media, and, most arrestingly, the consequences of misplaced love,” observed Booklist critic Donna Seaman. Reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, The Sun King concerns billionaire publishing mogul Sandy Galvin, whose efforts to purchase a distinguished newspaper connect him to David Cantor, a jaded reporter, and Candace Ridgway, a scrupulous editor and Galvin’s former girlfriend.
“The emotional integrity at the heart of this novel is searingly honest,” Conaty stated, and a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the author’s “contemporary take on the tragic confluence of love, power and ambition is a sophisticated look at the media mystique and the movers and shakers in our nation’s capitol.”
Bloodmoney
By his eighth espionage novel, Bloodmoney, Ignatius was better known as a thriller writer than a journalist, no small feat. Bloodmoney places determined Sophie Marx, a CIA agent tired of her recent desk job at headquarters, in perilous modern day Pakistan. Marx is there to discover who keeps killing agents of a CIA branch so secret it only reports to the White House. As head of counterintelligence, Marx reports to Jeff Gertz at the offices of Hit Parade, the secret branch’s headquarters that masquerades as a recording company. In reality, the division spends much of its time bribing Pakastani tribes to side with the United States instead of terrorist organizations, a strategy which has had an increasing failure rate. Marx is horrified to learn that the arm funds itself by devious financial maneuvers made possible by international insider trading. Her main concern, however, is the increasing agent deaths, especially as she comes closer and closer to being a victim herself. To get to the bottom of things, Marx must align herself both with the devious Gertz and the shady head of Pakistani intelligence.
“In addition to being a solid page-turner, it offers intriguing characters, a complicated but skillfully explicated plot, and a nuanced view,” of Pakistan’s tribal relations, wrote Booklist reviewer Thomas Gaughan. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that “Ignatius … is especially good at capturing the work environment at the CIA.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews concluded: “Ignatius writes with authority and skill about a shadow world in which nothing is as it seems and money is power,” and described the novel as “terrific” and “believable.”
The Director
In The Director, Ignatius again uses his knowledge of the inner workings of the CIA to construct a narrative that relates to the hacking scandals that made the news in the years prior to the book’s release. In the novel, Graham Weber has recently been named director of the CIA. He becomes acquainted with the agency’s information operations director, James Morris, at a conference in Las Vegas. He finds Morris to be odd and mysterious. Nonetheless, when a hacker appears in Hamburg offering to divulge sensitive documents from the CIA, Weber sends Morris to stop him. However, as he begins to learn more about Morris, he realizes that Morris has made dangerous alliances that could lead to the downfall of the CIA. One of Morris’s friends is a malicious hacker with designs to take down a large bank. Also, Morris has been collaborating with other government agencies without Weber’s knowledge. Meanwhile, Weber deals with agency politics and clashes with another Washington insider, Cyril Hoffman.
Some reviewers offered critiques of certain elements of the book. Writing on the New York Times Book Review Online, Michiko Kakutani commented: “There is not a lot of dimensionality to these main characters. … Because of this, The Director will never be mistaken for a le Carré novel. Still, Mr. Ignatius makes up for many such shortcomings by giving an intimate sense of American intelligence operations.” Kakutani added: “The novel’s conclusion may feel hurried and forced, but The Director leaves the reader with a keenly observed portrait of the C.I.A. as a ‘Rubik’s Cube of interlocking’ intrigue in a world in which both the watchers and the watched are always under surveillance.” “Ignatius wades too far into the mechanics of malicious computer use,” wrote a critic in Kirkus Reviews. The same writer added: “He turns an exciting idea into a story that fails under the weight of dull and irrelevant detail.” Similarly, John Harrington, a contributor to the Oklahoman website, suggested: “It’s a frightening environment, but sometimes the technology overcomes the story.”
On the other hand, Gaughan, writing in Booklist, remarked of Ignatius: “He’s given readers another compelling and enlightening look at what might happen next month.” Gaughan described the book as “must-read twenty-first-century espionage fiction.” Conaty, a Library Journal critic, opined: “The author steers clear of geeky overload because his strong writing and plotting carry most of the weight.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly called the book a “frighteningly convincing spy thriller” and stated: “Ignatius builds palpable momentum and creates engaging, fully human characters.”
The Quantum Spy
The Quantum Spy: A Thriller tells the story of a CIA agent named Harris Chang, who is working on a case involving Quantum Engineering Dynamics (QED). The United States is racing to beat China at quantum computing developments, and Chang is hoping to get help by recruiting Ma Yubo, a Chinese computer scientist. Chang’s attempt is botched and ends in Yubo’s suicide and the revelation of a CIA mole. Chang must find out who is leaking American secrets.
Arthur Herman, a contributor to the National Review, noted: “The hallmarks of all of Ignatius’s novels are vividly drawn but true-to-life characters and fast action grounded in real-life politics and technology. In this case, the technology is quantum computers.” Herman also commented on the timeliness of the subject of quantum computing, stating: “If The Quantum Spy can raise awareness of the seriousness of the issue, and of the threat we face, Ignatius has done a public service, as well as written a smartly paced, thoughtful spy thriller.” Writing in the Washington Post, Richard Lipez suggested: “As a spy novelist, there are some things Ignatius isn’t. He doesn’t write the beautiful sentences of John le Carré, and his narrative lacks the perfectly poised architecture of Charles McCarry’s CIA novels. But for inside dope on the day-to-day work and personal lives among America’s espionage personnel, Ignatius is unbeatable.” A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked: “The story moves along well, weaving in the author’s extensive research without slowing the pace. While the science gets geeky … it’s still fun—and the complex intrigue will please thriller fans.”
The Paladin
(open new)With The Paladin, CIA tech specialist Michael Dunne served a year in prison for a crime he did not commit. The FBI arrested him while he was working undercover to get inside the Fallen Empire, a group that may have had Russian backing to disrupt American politics. The CIA disavows him, and his pregnant wife also leaves him. After Dunne is freed from jail, he is determined to get revenge. He sets up a private cyberconsulting business in Pittsburgh to find those responsible for his imprisonment. Time is limited, and he additionally finds that he must foil a financial hacking scheme that has global ramifications.
Booklist contributor Bill Ott declared: “Love it for its old-school suspense or for its ultramodern vision of technology run amok, but love it you will.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor admitted that “for the most part, the book does a nice job of sustaining its slow-boil suspense.” The same critic called The Paladin “a solid, low-key spy thriller by a veteran of the form.”
Phantom Orbit
With Phantom Orbit, Russian aerospace engineering student Ivan Volkov finds that seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler left an unfinished puzzle that has ramifications for modern-day space warfare. He leaves university in China and continues his research on the puzzle in secret from Moscow. Years later, Volkov is disgusted with the Russian government and decides to share his research with the CIA. His former professor, Cao Lin, believes the United States has become complacent in its dominance of space warfare capabilities. Killer satellites that can reprogram existing satellites in space become a major threat between the United States, Russia, and China, as each country seeks to control space for its use in warfare.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the novel as being “a space yarn filled with tension and excitement.” The same reviewer mentioned that “Ryan, Volkov, and Cao are all honorable characters with their own trajectories that reconnect in surprising fashion. Readers just might root for all three.”(close new)
Author Comments
Ignatius once told CA: “I try to write realistic novels about issues that matter to me. Because I’m a journalist by training, I always begin by reporting the underlying story.” In an interview with U.S. News & World Report contributor Alvin P. Sanoff, Ignatius stated: “If somebody were to ask me: ‘What’s the difference between a detective story and a spy novel?’ I would say that a detective story involves a neat solution—and it all makes sense. But a spy novel, like real life, ought to end with some measure of ambiguity.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
America, November 8, 1997, John C. Hawley, review of A Firing Offense, p. 34.
American Spectator, December 1, 1991, review of Siro, p. 15.
Booklist, July 1, 1999, Donna Seaman, review of The Sun King, p. 1894; March 1, 2007, Thomas Gaughan, review of Body of Lies, p. 38; March 15, 2009, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Increment, p. 4; Joyce Saricks, review of Bloodmoney, p. 42; May 1, 2011, Thomas Gaughan, review of Bloodmoney, p. 14; May 1, 2014, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Director, p. 22; May 1, 2020, Bill Ott, review of The Paladin, p. 45.
Christian Science Monitor, March 27, 1997, review of The Bank of Fear, p. 2.
Entertainment Weekly, May 23, 1997, Mark Harris, review of A Firing Offense, p. 60; May 22, 2009, Jennifer Reese, review of The Increment, p. 63.
Forbes, May 5, 1997, Jeff Turrentine, review of A Firing Offense, p. 137.
Foreign Affairs, March 1, 2009, Walter Russell Mead, review of America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy.
Historian, December 22, 2010, Walter E. Kretchik, review of America and the World, p. 916.
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2011, review of Bloodmoney; April 15, 2014, review of The Director; September 1, 2017, review of The Quantum Spy: A Thriller; March 1, 2020, review of The Paladin; March 1, 2024, review of Phantom Orbit.
Library Journal, April 15, 1991, Brian Alley, review of Siro, p. 126; June 1, 1994, Barbara Conaty, review of The Bank of Fear, p. 160; April 1, 1997, Linda Lee Landrigan, review of A Firing Offense, p. 126; August, 1999, Barbara Conaty, review of The Sun King, p. 139; April 15, 2009, Barbara Conaty, review of The Increment, p. 84; March 15, 2011, Barbara Conaty, review of Bloodmoney, p. 108; April 15, 2014, Barbara Conaty, review of The Director, p. 78.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 18, 1987, David Lamb, review of Agents of Innocence, p. 2.
National Review, February 5, 2018, Arthur Herman, “A Technological D-Day,” review of The Quantum Spy, p. 39.
Newsweek, June 3, 1991, Peter S. Prescott, review of Siro, p. 60; May 12, 1997, review of A Firing Offense, p. 81.
New Yorker, May 27, 1991, review of Siro, p. 100.
New York Review of Books, August 15, 1991, Thomas R. Edwards, review of Siro, p. 43.
New York Times, April 22, 1991, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Siro, p. B2.
New York Times Book Review, September 13, 1987, Jules Koslow, review of Agents of Innocence, p. 34; April 7, 1991, Robin W. Winks, review of Siro, p. 13; June 5, 1994, review of The Bank of Fear, p. 51.
People, June 23, 1997, J.D. Reed, review of A Firing Offense, p. 35.
Publishers Weekly, March 1, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of Siro, p. 56; May 16, 1994, review of The Bank of Fear, p. 50; March 17, 1997, review of A Firing Offense, p. 74; May 19, 1997, Glenn Lewis, “David Ignatius: The Reluctant Spy,” p. 54; August 9, 1999, review of The Sun King, p. 341; February 12, 2007, review of Body of Lies, p. 62; March 23, 2009, review of The Increment, p. 44; April 4, 2011, review of Bloodmoney, p. 30; March 31, 2014, review of The Director, p. 43.
School Library Journal, October, 1991, Dolores M. Steinhauer, review of Siro, p. 160.
Time, November 2, 1987, Paul Gray, review of Agents of Innocence, p. 91; May 19, 1997, review of A Firing Offense, p. 95.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), May 26, 1991, review of Siro, p. 7.
U.S. News & World Report, December 7, 1987, Alvin P. Sanoff, “The Spy as a Modern Everyman,” p. 69.
Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1991, Todd G. Buchholz, review of Siro, p. 11.
Washington Post, November 13, 2017, Richard Lipez, review of The Quantum Spy.
Washington Post Book World, September 13, 1987, Robin W. Winks, review of Agents of Innocence; April 1, 2007, review of Body of Lies, p. 8.
ONLINE
Aspen Institute website, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/ (April 17, 2024), author profile.
David Ignatius website, http://www.davidignatius.com (April 17, 2024).
Foreign Affairs, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/ (June 29, 2010), Walter Russell Mead, review of America and the World.
Georgetown University, Center for Democracy and Civil Society website, http://www.democracy and society.com/ (June 29, 2010), Paula Louise Olearnik, review of America and the World.
New York Times Book Review Online, http://www.nytimes.com/ (June 3, 2014), Michiko Kakutani, review of The Director.
Morning Edition, https://www.npr.org/ (May 4, 2020), Steve Inskeep, “In ‘The Paladin,’ Ignatius Navigates the Line between Truth, Fiction.”
New York Times Online, http://www.nytimes.com/ (September 22, 2008), Michiko Kakutani, review of America and the World.
Oklahoman Online, http://newsok.com/ (June 8, 2014), John Harrington, review of The Director.
Treasure Coast News, https://www.tcpalm.com/ (April 6, 2024), Blake Fontenay, “‘Body of Lies’ Author David Ignatius to Share Truths about World Events during Stuart Talk.”
Washington Post Online, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (June 29, 2010), author profile.
Washington Post Writers Group Online, http://www.postwritersgroup.com/ (September 25, 2007), “David Ignatius”; (May 27, 2009), review of The Increment.
David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for nearly four decades. He has written several New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Washington, D.C.
David Ignatius on Becoming a Novelist
Fact and fiction converged for me in a story that changed my life — and turned me into a novelist. That was a front-page story I wrote for the Wall Street in February 1983 revealing that the CIA had recruited Yasser Arafat’s chief of intelligence as an American asset, and had run him off and on until he was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in 1979.
I worked on the story for more than two years: I began my assignment as the Journal’s Middle East Correspondent in 1980 with one piece of information that someone had let slip in a conversation that summer in Washington, as I was preparing to leave: My informant said that the previous year the Israelis had assassinated a person, whom this man called “our man in the PLO.” After dropping this astonishing tidbit, he wouldn’t say more, but after a little research I realized that he must be referring to a key PLO operative who’d been killed in 1979, named Ali Hassan Salameh, alias Abu Hassan, who was Arafat’s chief of intelligence. To the Israelis he was the “Red Prince,” a member of “Black September” and one of the architects of the Munich hostage-taking that led to the slaughter of Israeli athletes. This was a story that seemed to have everything — but first I had to find out if it was true.
In Beirut, which was my most frequent address in those days, I sought out people I thought might be able to shed light on this extraordinary tip. The Lebanese civil war was still going on, and I spent as many afternoons as I could in the company of one Palestinian who I was certain must know the story. He pointed me toward a Lebanese man who knew all the details, and I eventually tracked him down. Finally had enough material to publish a front-page story. It opened with the scene in which President Carter is informed by his CIA chief, Stansfield Turner, about the assassination of this man. The story quoted several former U.S. officials, on the record, who confirmed Salameh’s assistance to United States and the lives that had been saved by this secret relationship with Arafat’s chief of intelligence. I knew at the time that the CIA officer who had run this operation was named Robert Ames. I did not identify him in the story because of the risk that he might be killed if his identity was disclosed.
Tragedy turned this story very dark: On April 18, 1983, a terrorist truck bomb destroyed the American Embassy in Beirut. On a freak chance, Robert Ames happened to be visiting the embassy that day on a trip from Washington, where he was now serving as National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East. Ames was killed in the bombing, along with every other member of the CIA station who was in Beirut that day.
I was inside the embassy on the day of the bombing. I am interviewing a military attache. I left at about 12:30. I go back to my hotel. Just after 1:00 pm the car bomb exploded. The bomb blast was the loudest I had ever heard in Beirut. I ran back down the hill from my hotel to the embassy site. It was already ringed with Marines. Late that day, one of my Lebanese sources who had been planning to have dinner that night with Ames said that he was missing. The next day, the State Department confirmed that he was dead.
In the aftermath of Ames’s death, the Arabs who had been working with him and his colleagues, who had deep bonds of attachment with them, needed to grieve. I was the only American left in town who really knew the story, because I’d been working on it for two years. They knew I knew it. And so they sought me out and began to tell me details about intelligence operations — the wiring diagram details that it would be impossible to publish.
That’s when I became a novelist. It was obvious that the only way I could share this world of fact was through fiction. Other, the story was impossible to write: It was too raw, and at that time genuinely dangerous. I wrote many drafts, and the novel was eventually published by W. W. Norton in 1987 as Agents of Innocence.
When I began serious work on the novel I put a picture on my desk of Robert Ames, this extraordinary case officer who died in the embassy. I had cut it out from the obituary that ran in The Washington Post. and put it in a frame. But after a few weeks, I put the picture in my desk. I realized that what makes a novel seem real, paradoxically, is its departure from actual life: The way it’s re-imagined in the mind of the writer gives it a reality and power that it wouldn’t have otherwise. Otherwise, you’d just be reading a 120,000-word newspaper story.
I’d never written a novel before, and wasn’t sure how to do it technically — how to tell the story, move the characters around, divide up the slices of time. On the advice of a friend who was both a novelist and journalist, I opened each chapter with a dateline, as in a newspaper story, specifying when and where that scene took place. That helped with composition.
Although that book was sold as a novel, CIA officials and PLO leaders knew it was a real story. On the CIA’s web site for many years, the book was listed among the recommended books about operations, with a note that said, “Though a novel, senior officers say this book is not fiction.” I am told that at the agency’s training facility near Williamsburg, known as “The Farm,” the book is often recommended to young recruits. Often when traveling abroad in recent years, I have been approached by agency officers who said that when they wanted to explain to a parent or spouse what the CIA really does overseas, they gave them a copy of Agents of Innocence.
I wrote several more newspaper articles during the late 1980s about the secret CIA relationship with the leading terrorist organization of the day. And after the 9/11 attacks, when everyone began screaming for intelligence from inside Al Qaeda, I wrote a column (“Lessons from the Middle East on Penetrating Terror Networks“, Sept. 17, 2001) for the New York Times explaining how the CIA-PLO operation had worked.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Ignatius
Ignatius at the 2018 U.S. National Book Festival
Ignatius at the 2018 U.S. National Book Festival
Born David Reynolds Ignatius
May 26, 1950 (age 73)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation
Novelistjournalistanalyst
Education Harvard University
King's College, Cambridge
Genre Suspense, Espionage fiction, Thriller
Notable works Body of Lies, Agents of Innocence, The Increment
Spouse Eve Thornberg
Children 3
Parents Paul Ignatius (father)
Nancy Weiser Sharpless (mother)
Relatives Adi Ignatius (brother)
Website
davidignatius.com
David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He has written eleven novels, including Body of Lies, which director Ridley Scott adapted into a film. He is a former adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was a Senior Fellow to the Future of Diplomacy Program from 2017 to 2022.[1]
Early life and education
Ignatius was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] His parents are Nancy Sharpless (née Weiser) and Paul Robert Ignatius, a former Secretary of the Navy (1967–69), president of The Washington Post, and former president of the Air Transport Association.[3][4] He is of Armenian descent on his father's side, with ancestors from Harput, Elazığ, Turkey;[5][6] his mother, a descendant of Puritan minister Cotton Mather, is of German and English descent.[7]
Ignatius was raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended St. Albans School. He then attended Harvard College, where he studied political theory and graduated magna cum laude in 1973. Ignatius was awarded a Frank Knox Fellowship from Harvard University and studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he received a diploma in economics.[8]
Career
David Ignatius
Journalism
After completing his education, Ignatius was an editor at the Washington Monthly before moving to The Wall Street Journal, where he spent ten years as a reporter. At the Journal, Ignatius first covered the steel industry in Pittsburgh. He then moved to Washington, where he covered the Justice Department, the CIA, and the Senate. Ignatius was the Journal's Middle East correspondent from 1980 through 1983, during which time he covered the wars in Lebanon and Iraq. He returned to Washington in 1984, becoming chief diplomatic correspondent. In 1985 he received the Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting.[citation needed]
In 1986 Ignatius left the Journal for The Washington Post. From 1986 to 1990 he was the editor of the "Outlook" section. From 1990 to 1992 he was foreign editor. From 1993 to 1999 he served as assistant managing editor in charge of business news. In 1999 he began writing a twice-weekly column on global politics, economics and international affairs.[citation needed]
In 2000, he became the executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He returned to the Post in 2002 when the Post sold its interest in the Herald Tribune. Ignatius continued to write his column once a week during his tenure at the Herald Tribune, resuming twice-weekly columns after his return to the Post. His column is syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group. The column won the 2000 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary[9] and a 2004 Edward Weintal Prize.[citation needed] In writing his column, Ignatius has travelled to the Middle East and interviewed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese military organization Hezbollah.[citation needed]
Ignatius's writing has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Talk Magazine, and The Washington Monthly.[citation needed]
Ignatius's coverage of the CIA has been criticized as being defensive and overly positive. Melvin A. Goodman, a 42-year CIA veteran, Johns Hopkins professor, and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, has called Ignatius "the mainstream media's apologist for the Central Intelligence Agency," citing as examples Ignatius's criticism of the Obama administration for investigating the CIA's role in the use of torture in interrogations during the Iraq War and his charitable defense of the agency's motivations for outsourcing such activities to private contractors.[10][11][12] Columnist Glenn Greenwald has leveled similar criticism against Ignatius.[13]
On March 12, 2014, he wrote a two-page descriptive opinion on Putin's strengths and weaknesses that was published in the Journal and Courier soon after.[14][non-primary source needed]
In September 2023, Ignatius wrote a column which appeared in The Washington Post, arguing that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should not run for re-election, despite what Ignatius described as Biden's numerous successes in his time in the Oval Office. The op-ed received widespread recognition from several news publications across the political spectrum.[15][16][17][18]
Novels
In addition to being a journalist, Ignatius has written eleven novels in the suspense/espionage fiction genre that draw on his experience and interest in foreign affairs and his knowledge of intelligence operations. His first novel, Agents of Innocence, was at one point described by the CIA on its website as "a novel but not fiction."[19] His 1999 novel, The Sun King, a reworking of The Great Gatsby set in late-20th-century Washington, is his only departure from the espionage genre.[citation needed]
His 2007 novel, Body of Lies, was adapted into a film by director Ridley Scott. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have acquired the rights to Ignatius's seventh novel, The Increment.[20]
The Quantum Spy, published in 2017, is an espionage thriller about the race between the United States and China to build the world's first hyper-fast quantum computer. His book, The Paladin: A Spy Novel, was published in 2020.[citation needed]
Opera
In May 2015, MSNBC's Morning Joe announced that Ignatius would be teaming up with composer Mohammed Fairouz to create a political opera titled The New Prince, based on the teachings of Niccolò Machiavelli. The opera was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera.[21] Speaking with The Washington Post, Ignatius described the broad themes of the opera in terms of three chapters: "The first chapter is about revolution and disorder. Revolutions, like children, are lovable when young, and they become much less lovable as they age. The second lesson Machiavelli tells us is about sexual obsession, among leaders. And then the final chapter is basically the story of Dick Cheney [and] bin Laden, the way in which those two ideas of what we're obliged to do as leaders converged in such a destructive way."[22]
Other
In 2006, Ignatius wrote a foreword to the American edition of Moazzam Begg's Enemy Combatant, a book about the author's experiences as a detainee at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. In 2008, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, and Ignatius published America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy, a book that collected conversations, moderated by Ignatius, between Brzezinski and Scowcroft. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2008.[23]
Ignatius has been trustee of the German Marshall Fund since 2000. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1984. From 1984 to 1990 he was a member of the governing board of St. Albans School.[citation needed]
In 2011 Ignatius held a contest for The Washington Post readers to write a spy novel. Ignatius wrote the first chapter and challenged fans to continue the story. Over eight weeks, readers sent in their versions of what befalls CIA agents Alex Kassem and Sarah Mancini and voted for their favorite entries. Ignatius chose the winning entry for each round, resulting in a six-chapter Web serial. Winners of the subsequent chapters included Chapter 2, "Sweets for the Sweet," by Colin Flaherty; Chapter 3, "Abu Talib," by Jill Borak; Chapter 4, "Go Hard or Go Home," by Vineet Daga; Chapter 5, "Inside Out," by Colin Flaherty; and Chapter 6, "Onward!," by Gina 'Miel' Ard.[24]
In early 2012 Ignatius served as an adjunct lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, teaching an international affairs course titled Understanding the Arab Spring from the Ground Up: Events in the Middle East, their Roots and Consequences for the United States.[25] He served as a senior fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Program at Harvard University from 2017 to 2022.[1]
In 2018, he won a George Polk Award for his coverage of the Jamal Khashoggi murder.[26][27]
According to the 2018 membership list, Ignatius is a member of the Trilateral Commission.[citation needed]
Political views
Ignatius supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[28] He later expressed regret, saying "I wish I had some of those columns back".[29] On a number of occasions, Ignatius criticized the CIA and the U.S. government's approach on intelligence.[30] He was also critical of the Bush administration's use, during the war on terror, of what the administration called "enhanced interrogation techniques", practices regarded by some as amounting to illegal torture of suspects.[31]
On March 26, 2014, Ignatius wrote a piece in The Washington Post on the then-crisis in Ukraine and how the world would deal with Putin's actions. Ignatius's theory of history is that it is a chaos, and that "good" things are not preordained, "decisive turns in history can result from ruthless political leaders, from weak or confused adversaries, or sometimes just from historical accident. Might doesn't make right, but it does create 'facts on the ground' that are hard to reverse." His piece mentioned four-star USAF general Philip M. Breedlove, the current NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Deshchytsya. Putin, says Ignatius, "leads what by most political and economic indicators is a weak nation—a declining power, not a rising one." He placed great hope in Angela Merkel.[32][non-primary source needed]
Controversy
2009 Davos incident
At the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ignatius moderated a discussion including Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israeli president Shimon Peres, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, and Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa. As the December 2008–January 2009 conflict in Gaza was still fresh in memory, the tone of the discussion was lively.[33] Ignatius gave Erdoğan 12 minutes to speak and gave the Israeli president 25 minutes to respond.[33] Erdoğan objected to Peres's tone and raised his voice during the Israeli president's impassioned defense of his nation's actions. Ignatius gave Erdoğan a minute to respond (Erdoğan repeatedly insisted "One minute,"[34] in English), and when Erdoğan went over his allocated minute, Ignatius repeatedly cut the Turkish prime minister off, telling him and the audience that they were out of time and that they had to adjourn to a dinner.[35] Erdoğan seemed visibly frustrated as he said confrontationally to the Israeli president, "When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill."[33] Ignatius put his arm on Erdoğan's shoulder and continued to tell him that his time was up. Erdoğan subdued Ignatius and criticised Israel's actions. Erdoğan then gathered his papers and walked out, saying, "I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak."[35] It was rumored at the time that Ignatius' double-standard partially stems from the fact that he is of Armenian origin.
Writing about the incident later, Ignatius said that he found himself "in the middle of a fight where there was no longer a middle. [...] Because the Israel–Palestinian conflict provokes such heated emotions on both sides of the debate," Ignatius concluded, "it was impossible for anyone to be seen as an impartial mediator." Ignatius wrote that his experience elucidated a larger truth about failure of the United States' attempt to serve as an impartial mediator in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. "American leaders must give up the notion that they can transform the Middle East and its culture through military force," he wrote, and instead "get out of the elusive middle, step across the threshold of anger, and sit down and talk" with the Middle Eastern leaders.[36]
Personal life
Ignatius married Dr. Eve Thornberg in 1980.[37] The couple has three daughters.[8] Ignatius and his wife live in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. His brother, Adi Ignatius, is editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review.[38]
Works
Novels
Agents of Innocence. W. W. Norton & Company. 1987. ISBN 0-393-02486-5.
Siro. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1991. ISBN 0-374-26506-2.
The Bank of Fear. Avon Books. 1995. ISBN 0-380-72280-1.
A Firing Offense. Random House. 1997. ISBN 0-517-36839-0.
The Sun King. Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-9243-1.
Body of Lies. W. W. Norton & Company. 2007. ISBN 978-0-393-33158-5.
The Increment. W. W. Norton & Company. 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-33831-7.
Bloodmoney. W. W. Norton & Company. 2011. ISBN 978-0-393-34179-9.
The Director. W. W. Norton & Company. 2014. ISBN 978-0-393-07814-5.
The Quantum Spy. W. W. Norton & Company. 2017. ISBN 978-0-393-25415-0.
The Paladin. W. W. Norton & Company. 2020. ISBN 978-0-393-25417-4.
Non-fiction
America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition. 2009. ISBN 978-0-465-01801-7.
'Body of Lies' author David Ignatius to share truths about world events during Stuart talk
Blake Fontenay
Treasure Coast Newspapers
With so much going on in the world today, it's hard to stay current with current events.
There seem to be new developments in the conflict between Israelis and Hamas in Gaza daily, if not hourly. Ukrainians are still fighting to protect their homeland against a Russian invasion that, if successful, could have serious implications for other parts of Europe and the United States. The ISIS terrorist group seems to be mounting a bit of a comeback. North Korea is testing a new type of long-range ballistic missiles.
And these are just a few of the global issues that have gained widespread media attention. Personally, I worry most about the international hazards that we don't know about yet.
That's why I'm looking forward to what Washington Post columnist David Ignatius will have to say during his talk at Temple Beit HaYam in Stuart Wednesday. Ignatius writes about foreign affairs, so he has firsthand knowledge about many of the people and events that happen in far-flung corners of the world.
A world tour without leaving Stuart
A rally of Mennonites on March 27, 2024, outside the Mishawaka office of Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., calls on the congressman to work for a cease-fire in Gaza.
He sums up his goal for his appearance in Stuart this way: "What I would like to do is offer the audience a tour of the world."
In a recent interview, Ignatius said he plans to provide his insights on important happenings in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere. He'll share his thoughts about the Oct. 7 attack in Israel that set the events in Gaza in motion, as well as what he believes will happen there after the war ends.
In years past, it seemed like Israel usually had fairly solid public support from most of the non-Arab world in its conflicts with Palestinians. This conflict has been different, though.
There seem to be a lot more questions being asked about the way Israel is fighting the war and whether its tactics are causing unnecessary suffering among innocent civilians.
Ignatius may share some of his thoughts about how and why public perception has shifted.
"I think the images coming out of the Gaza war are a big determinant," he said. "Those are tough to watch."
In addition, Ignatius believes there may be some resurgence in antisemitism that wasn't present during past conflicts in the Middle East.
He will also talk about different world figures he has met and interviewed during his career, like U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He'll offer thoughts about what America would be like under a second Donald Trump administration. And he'll explain why he's optimistic about the future, at a time when many people are not.
"I think my views are not universally shared, but I will explain why I feel that way," Ignatius said.
Rappaport Center Speaker Series returns
KHARKIV, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 26: Workers from Myrne Nebo (Peaceful Sky) a Ukranian humanitarian organization chop frozen chicken that will be cooked and later delivered to liberated villages on September 26 2022 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The organization collaborates with World Central Kitchen from Washington DC providing the needy with food. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed villages east and south of Kharkiv, as Russian forces have withdrawn from areas they've occupied since early in the war. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Ignatius is the second speaker to appear at Temple Beit HaYam since the Rappaport Center relaunched its speaker series this year.
In January, syndicated columnist and author Mitch Albom discussed his new book, "The Little Liar," and talked about the values of truth and compassion in our society in front of a large crowd at the temple.
More than two decades ago, Jerome "Jerry" Rappaport, a Boston area philanthropist who also owned a home in Sewall's Point, established the Rappaport Center as a forum for discussions about important world issues.
From its founding in 2002 until 2020, the center recruited prestigious speakers from diverse fields to promote knowledge and understanding among Treasure Coast residents.
The center's list of almost 20 speakers through the years included Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, super lawyer Alan Dershowitz, political analyst David Gergen and oceanographer Edie Widder.
However, following Widder's appearance, the speaker series went dormant. First, COVID hit. Then Rappaport died two years ago at age 94, after a battle with cancer.
Ignatius also has a successful novel-writing career
David Ignatius
The series, which TCPalm sponsors, relaunched this year, with plans to continue its original mission of providing fresh perspectives and insights to people who live along the Treasure Coast.
Ignatius is scheduled to appear from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the temple, 951 SE Monterey Commons Blvd. in Stuart. He's expected to make prepared remarks, then will participate in a question-and-answer session with yours truly, which I hope will feature participation from audience members.
Tickets for the event are $35 each and can be purchased online at TBHFL.org.
In addition to his long career as a journalist, Ignatius is the author of numerous spy novels, including "The Paladin," "The Quantum Spy" and "The Director."
One of his books was made into the movie, "Body of Lies," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Maybe Ignatius will share some secrets
BLAKE FONTENAY
Since I'm a frustrated novelist myself, I plan to ask him where he gets the inspiration for his works of fiction. Since he's a descendant of Puritan minister Cotton Mather, I also want to see if he will share some of his thoughts about modern-day evangelical Christianity and its role in politics today.
I expect to learn a lot ― and I hope those who show up Wednesday will, too. I hope to see you there.
In 'The Paladin,' Ignatius Navigates The Line Between Truth, Fiction
MAY 4, 20205:02 AM ET
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NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to David Ignatius, a columnist for The Washington Post, about his new spy novel: The Paladin.
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STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: The writer David Ignatius personifies an old idea about novelists that you sometimes must resort to fiction to tell the truth. Ignatius is a columnist for The Washington Post. He writes true stories about global affairs. He also writes novels about the CIA, one of the very agencies he covers in real life. His first novel years ago grew directly out of reporting he'd done.
DAVID IGNATIUS: It described a real operation in great detail. The CIA initially flipped out when it was published. How on Earth did all this get out? But then they decided this tells the story of what we really do. And so I'm told that they have handed out that book to classes of young trainees.
INSKEEP: Actions of the real agency became material for a fictional story now used by the real agency. David Ignatius' latest novel takes place on the line between truth and fiction. It is called "The Paladin."
IGNATIUS: "The Paladin" is about a CIA officer who's asked to do something that he suspects from the beginning may be illegal, which is to infiltrate an American journalism operation overseas. He does it, and he gets hung out to dry. His life is completely shattered. He's indicted, convicted; he goes to prison. His marriage blows up. He loses his family. So the book in part is his quest to figure out who set him up in this operation and why. And then also what mistakes did he make?
INSKEEP: I want to figure out what parts of this are real-life dilemmas the CIA might face. First, they're not supposed to spy on Americans, right? And they're also not supposed to spy on journalists. Is that true?
IGNATIUS: So they're not supposed to spy on either Americans or journalists. There's a specific prohibition against spying on or using American journalists. That's one of the things that our hero Michael Dunne is accused of and convicted for having done. That's a line that he crosses. There are lots of rules that are supposed to prevent the CIA from infiltrating and influencing the American journalistic debate. But, of course, they're active overseas working with foreign journalists, and there's always an issue of whether there's going to be blowback of manipulated information.
INSKEEP: There's also a question about who counts as a journalist, isn't there? Is someone who is trafficking in hacked emails a journalist? Is someone who is making up information, including very sophisticated deepfakes, are they a journalist?
IGNATIUS: Well, so these days, anybody with a computer is a publisher and can do writing, reporting. You can report with your cellphone camera. Are you a journalist? Well, in a sense, you are. That's a world that our intelligence agencies move through all the time. I can remember a CIA official at a conference saying to me once, you know, the selfie is the best thing that ever happened to us because all over the world people are taking pictures of each other, you know, in unusual places. And the CIA is able to collect that information and know a lot. Just imagine...
INSKEEP: They used to have to pay somebody with a long telephoto lens to get those pictures.
IGNATIUS: Exactly. Well, now people will take their little iPhone cameras and they'll go out and do the snooping themselves without realizing it. So the CIA is moving in this world of pervasive information. We're moving now from a world not just of manipulated journalism but manipulated events - the ability to create events that never happened. So in my book - I've read about oil tanker leaks that drive the oil market upside down that never happened but are totally convincing. Representations are created with video and sound. That's the world that we're heading into in intelligence. It's increasingly going to be difficult for our intelligence agencies to know whether events that are up on the news media or photographs or even videos are distributed whether they really happened. And that's the world that the hero of my novel stumbles into.
INSKEEP: When you create these fake bits of information that could possibly move markets, you only have to have a fraud that persists for a few seconds or a few minutes in order to make billions of dollars if you're well-positioned in the stock market because things move so quickly.
IGNATIUS: So that's the world that we're entering that I'm trying to imagine in this novel. It's a world where creating the trading opportunities for minutes or seconds allows you to arbitrage enormous amounts of money. Or think about it in the world of politics and foreign affairs. Creating video imagery, let's say, of Israeli troops assaulting Palestinians and it's fake - it could be created today in a laboratory. But let's say it's set up and circulated, it becomes viral. Suddenly, you have an explosive crisis because of something that was created deliberately in a laboratory. So that's the world that my hero is trying to find his way through where he just - you don't know what you can trust in the world of fact. And it's interesting. At the end of this book, the only source of accountability that he and his friends can find is traditional journalism, the way that journalists curate, vet, test and then validated information.
INSKEEP: Expose the truth.
IGNATIUS: Exactly. That's what we always tell ourselves we're doing. But I think it becomes more valuable every month as we head into this new future where you can create sound and image that are almost impossible to verify.
INSKEEP: If manufactured news becomes some kind of factor in the 2020 election, is the CIA well-positioned to defend against that?
IGNATIUS: So as we head toward election time, I think we need to be really concerned about how the security of our elections will be protected and whether the information about attempts to manipulate the election from overseas will be expressed publicly. One of the things that worried me the most this year, Steve, is that the intelligence community asked that its annual threat assessment briefing it gives every year to Congress in which they lay out how the world looks to them, they asked to give that this year in private. They were afraid to give it in public because a year ago when Dan Coats was then the director of national intelligence gave a briefing, it contradicted some of President Trump's positions. And the president got furious, and they felt burned, and they got nervous.
And so this year, they asked to do it in private. That's a bad sign when people are so worried that they might get second-guessed that they want to keep it out of the public view. And, you know, I understand people don't want to get on Trump's bad side. You can get fired. But that shouldn't be. We need to have a public accounting by our intelligence agencies of how the world looks, what are the threats, irrespective of whatever political spin may come out of the White House.
INSKEEP: The latest novel by David Ignatius is called "The Paladin." David, thanks so much.
IGNATIUS: Thank you, Steve.
David Ignatius
ASPEN STRATEGY GROUP MEMBER, COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST
David Ignatius is, since 2003, the author of twice-weekly, globally distributed columns on global politics, economics, and international affairs. He is also an NBC news consultant. From 2000-2003, he was executive editor of the International Herald Tribune and from 1993-1999 assistant managing editor for business news at The Washington Post. From 1990-1992, he was foreign editor and from 1986-1990 editor of the Outlook section. From 1976-1985, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal serving as Middle East correspondent from 1980-1983 and chief diplomatic correspondent from 1984-1985. Mr. Ignatius has numerous publications in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and others. His coverage of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi won the 2018 George Polk Special Award and he was member of the finalist team for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He is the author of eleven novels, including Body of Lies which was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Ridley Scott. His ninth novel, The Director, was about hacking and espionage. A tenth novel, The Quantum Spy, about the race between America and China to build a quantum computer, was published in November 2017. His eleventh, The Paladin, about disinformation and “deepfakes,” was published in May 2020. Mr. Ignatius is a fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and has taught as an adjunct lecturer at HKS. He is married and the father of three daughters. He received his B.A. magna cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard College and an Economics diploma from King’s College, Cambridge University.
Ignatius, David THE PALADIN Norton (Fiction Fiction) $27.95 5, 5 ISBN: 978-0-393-25417-4
CIA tech specialist Michael Dunne returns to the scene of a crime he didn't commit, seeking revenge after wrongly serving a year in prison.
In 2016, Dunne was given the ultrasecret assignment of penetrating Fallen Empire, a leftist WikiLeaks-like operation that may be linked to the Russians. When the FBI arrests him for running a spy operation against American journalists—really Fallen Empire operatives working under that guise—the CIA abandons him, letting him take the fall. He's also abandoned by his beautiful and pregnant wife, who doesn't take kindly to compromising photos of her husband with a young Swiss beauty, even if it was a setup. After his release from prison, Dunne returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he puts together a private cyberconsulting outfit. Against everyone's advice, he jumps back into the fray to track down those who betrayed him. Ultimately, he must race against time to prevent a hacking plot from wreaking havoc on world financial systems. Dunne is not the most consistent hero. Known by his colleagues as "the iceman" for his cool under pressure, he is anything but cucumberlike after his arrest. "I did nothing wrong!" he whines, over and over. And Ignatius (The Quantum Spy, 2017, etc.), who, for an esteemed journalist, is quick to dump on reporters, substitutes a quick fade-out (perhaps with a sequel in mind) for a satisfying climax. But for the most part, the book does a nice job of sustaining its slow-boil suspense. Lifted by nifty surveillance schemes, the plot hums.
A solid, low-key spy thriller by a veteran of the form.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Ignatius, David: THE PALADIN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616094238/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=91c3d7bb. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
The Paladin. By David Ignatius. May 2020. 320p. Norton, $27.95 (9780393254174).
Washington Post columnist Ignatius has written several top-notch spy thrillers, but his latest may be his most gripping yet. It combines a familiar genre trope--the agent as fall guy--used by le Carre and Olen Steinhauer, among others, with a plot that employs cutting-edge computer technology to display just how easy it has become to completely blur the line between illusion and reality. CIA officer Michael Dunne has been assigned to penetrate an Italian news organization run by a maverick American journalist and determine if it's just another misguidedly idealistic effort by "smart kids who want to raise hell using computers," or if it's a front for an enemy intelligence operation. Turns out it's neither, though die idealistic "smart kids" were involved at the start, using something called "generative adversarial networks" to create images that are undetectable as fakes. They were planning to use these "deepfakes" to take down the world's bad guys, but now the technology is in the hands of greedheads planning to make billions by disrupting world financial markets "a decimal point at a time." Dunne is on the trail of the conspiracy when his cover is blown, and he lands in prison. He's out now and looking for the man who set him up. Love it for it's old-school suspense or for its ultramodern vision of technology run amok, but love it you will.--Bill Ott
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Ott, Bill. "The Paladin." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 17, 1 May 2020, p. 45. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A623790706/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=12dd7872. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
Ignatius, David PHANTOM ORBIT Norton (Fiction None) $29.99 5, 7 ISBN: 9781324050919
Great powers jockey for dominance in space.
Three unusually smart people play key roles in this cerebral, well-researched thriller. It's relatively low-key, with none of the blood spatter and 12-letter profanities so common in the genre. In the 1990s, Russian Ivan Volkov studies aerospace engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he learns from renowned professor Cao Lin and meets American grad student Edith Ryan. Volkov and Ryan (Psst! She's CIA) become friends but not lovers, and they go their separate ways. Back home in Russia, Volkov, the most interesting of the main characters, is asked if he trusts his "new Chinese friends." "I am a Russian," he replies. "I don't trust anyone." His money-loving wife leaves him and their young son while he struggles to find a job that pays enough. "Don't take Dimitry," he begs her. "I don't want Dimitry," she tells him. "He reminds me of you." Ouch. But he loves his son and raises him well. He also loves Russia, but he doesn't love its corruption. Three decades later, the specter of war looms in space, with hints of vulnerabilities in the GPS system. The U.S. has dominated space for so long that Cao Lin believes it's become complacent and can't see its vulnerabilities. While much of our daily lives depends on GPS's precision in commercial air and highway travel, it's critical to Ukraine for pinpointing Russian targets on the battlefield. Thousands of miles up in space, one satellite might be able to reposition itself close to another country's satellite and reprogram or disable it. This oversimplifies the threat described in detail in the novel, but that's the drift. China, Russia, and the U.S. fear and mistrust each other, and they can cause huge problems on earth by dominating space with "killer satellites." Volkov is asked if he can fix Russia's satellite system, which is too "sloppy" and "imprecise." "You need better clocks," he replies, and the author does a good job explaining why. Ryan, Volkov, and Cao are all honorable characters with their own trajectories that reconnect in surprising fashion. Readers just might root for all three.
A space yarn filled with tension and excitement.
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"Ignatius, David: PHANTOM ORBIT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A784238540/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d52cae4b. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.