Ari Ben-Menashe - Profits of War Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network

Overview: Ari Ben-Menashe spent most of 1991 in self-imposed exile in Australia. Hounded by the intelligence services of many countries - and also by the press - during this time he set down on record a book which sets out to re-write the history of the 1980s. "Profits of War" is his story. Ari Ben-Menashe spent over ten years in the innermost circles of Israel's clandestine services, for much of this time as a special advisor to Prime Minister Shamir. This book exposes the machinations of Israel, the US, the Eastern bloc and the major Middle East powers in a maze of arms deals which built up a slush fund of hundreds of millions of dollars. The deals were brokered by the late - murdered, claims Ben Menashe - Robert Maxwell. The pay-off to Iran of $52,000,000 for the release of the US hostages was just one way in which the slush fund was used. Ari Ben-Menashe tells how he was present at the "October Surprise" meeting in Paris, where George Bush and the Republicans negotiated the hostage deal behind President Carter's back. He tells how the US facilitated the sale of chemicals to Iraq right up to the start of the Gulf War. He reveals how a number of Palestinian terror attacks which have made headlines around the world were in fact Israeli orchestrated. In 1989 Ari Ben-Menashe was cut off by his former allies, set up by the CIA and imprisoned for nearly a year awaiting trial on trumped-up charges. He was acquitted on the basis of his evidence that both Israel and the US had approved of all his activities.

Genre: Non-Fiction, General