Agents of Innocence: A Novel Paperback – September 17, 1997

As background to the present Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this spy novel is particularly fascinating and enlightening. It’s an excellent spy story but one that appears to be closely linked to actual events. As foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, Ignatius has deep ties to sources in the intelligence community giving his book more of an air of truth than the romanticized thrillers of the James Bond sort. In fact, this spy novel is not a thriller, but is none the less quite intriguing. You feel that many of the characters and events are truthful with just enough name changing and event altering so that the author didn’t have to get permissions. A few things, such as sex scenes, seem to be added to fulfill spy fiction readers expectations, though the encounters have no connection to the plot. These are kind of standard hetero male fantasies of shapely buxom women. On the contrary one main character, a womanizing handsome Palestinian terrorist, is a central character. All in all, I couldn’t put this one down.

"Agents of Innocence" by David Ignatius is quite a good story. I suppose it's even better if you're old enough to remember most of the events that happen in the story (from 1969 to 1983), in the Mid-East, and especially in the country of Lebanon, in which this story occurs. It spans the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, Carter and early Reagan.Much of the time, the tale reads like a non-fiction, almost documentary, account of Ignatius's fictional characterization of that explosive era, which ended with the United States more-or-less withdrawing its few troops and much of its citizenry from Lebanon in 1984 -- with its tail between its legs. If readers think that Benghazi in September 2012 was horrific, they have short memories about embassy bombings indeed. Benghazi was nothing compared to what happened in Lebanon.This book is not a page-turning thriller, nor does it chronicle a series of killings and revenge. Nope, rather, it's kind of a slow-moving tale of the workings of the CIA, the Palestinians, and American intelligence operations in the area during these years. The main character, CIA agent Tom Rogers, is well-drawn: he's handsome, tall, slender, sly, almost charming, and quite clever. He speaks fluent Arabic. He makes few mistakes even when bucking the smothering, incomprehensible system for which he works. The only mistake (failure) Ignatius as a writer makes is trying to give Rogers a personal life, including a high school-like affair with a Lebanese woman. We could have done without that. His family life is also mostly a distraction to the story. His wife, whose character is developed to a considerable degree early in the book, essentially drops altogether out of the story by mid-book. Pity that. I liked her. She added a different perspective on the life of intelligence officers abroad.Why these writers, including Mr. Ignatius, want to make most Americans in their books look like complete boobs with little to no regard for the culture and customs of the places they work is beyond me. I doubt in real life it is as bad as the Ugly American stereotype, employed here by Ignatius and elsewhere by most other authors of books like this.What's most interesting about this story is its central, though soft, anti-Israel message. Yes, the Black September murders in Munich occur in this book and are some of the focus of the story. But in contrast to say, author Daniel Silva's uber-tiresome flaunting of all Israeli causes, Ignatius boldly paints another picture of Israel, one that is far more balanced than Silva is ever able to establish in his long series starring Israeli super-assassin Gabriel Allon's endless pursuits and murders of all Isarel's enemies (especially his early books about the pursuit of and the killing of all the murderers of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972). Thus, there is some overlap between early Silva stories and this one.All-in-all "Agents of Innocence" is a very good story, and you the reader must constantly remind yourself that you are reading fiction. Thus, it's a nice historical novel, demonstrating the long and ancient roots of all the problems facing the Middle East today. Even in 2013, little has changed from 1969. The tangle of social, political, cultural, and religious tensions are revealed to be as important to us and as impossible to solve in that era as they are today. I give it a 4 on Amazon's rating scale, though by no means is this book a thriller in the usual style of books in this genre. Rather it is a leisurely fictional read about espionage and intelligence activities in Lebanon on the 1970s. In this book, there's no one to love, few to hate, even fewer to admire, a few to be embarrassed about, and lots to mull over, while cringing at the enormity of the problem the world faces in this region. The ending is sobering.

This is a 444-page work of fiction about international espionage and terror in the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s. I picked up this book after reading the biography of Bob Ames (“The Good Spy”). Ames was a former basketball player for La Salle College’s NCAA championship basketball team in 1954, and later an officer in the CIA. Author David Ignatius did not know Bob Ames, but he researched Ames’ career, and patterned this novel on Ames’ experiences.The book follows Tom Rogers in his job as an officer in the CIA, particularly in Beirut, Lebanon. Rogers establishes a close personal relationship with Jamal, a rising young star in the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is a mutually advantageous arrangement; Jamal provides the CIA with valuable information, and the CIA often reciprocates. The arrangement is complicated by the competing activities of intelligence entities operated by Israel, Britain, Lebanon and others. As time passes, terrorist operations become increasingly common, highlighted by the killing of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, an event planned by Jamal and his shadowy group “Black September.” The determination of the Israeli intelligence agency to assassinate Jamal puts Tom Rogers in a difficult position between the Israelis and the CIA. The story winds down pretty quickly after that conflict is ended. The death of Tom Rogers four years later is barely mentioned.It is an interesting story that has the ring of truth.Read in conjunction with The Good Spy, the book is especially interesting. The novelist is not bound by the restrictions placed on the biographer. The biographer must be sure that there is sound evidence for every fact stated in the book. The novelist is free to follow his own creative instincts as to what might have occurred. The Agents of Innocence describes Rogers, Jamal and the other characters in the book in a much more human fashion. Similarly, the scenes of the novel are more clearly described than is the case with the biography. It gives the reader a better feel for the reality of the Middle East conflicts.This is an interesting book.

Definitely not set in ‘Mr Rogers’ Neighbourhood.Ignatius is excellent at bringing human frailty to the page. Israeli-Palestinian conflict set partly in Beirut with an historical and factual timeline, plus CIA and Mossad.. Pick a side, and see if you can see who’s going to have clean hands by the end of the the book.

Excellent spy novel up there with le Carré and the like. The author, as a top US journalist and specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, clearly knows his subject well. Plausible characters and an interesting plot make for a great read. Thoroughly recommended.

I should have just stopped reading it. It just is too much about really nothing at all. And the ending was kind of stupid.

I’m disappointed there are too may lengthy meetings often to continue, I turned reading away on the way at 44percent

In my opinion the story ran at the same level throughout. As far as excitement went it was a 1 out of 5. It read more like an autobiography of a CIA agent stationed at a middle eastern embassy who didn't get down and dirty. I like my fictional books to provide some escapism when I read - not in this instance. When you expected the action to take off it just petered out and the story just continued on the same level as before. I kept hoping something exciting might occur but alas. Not up for another one of this author's books.