Beirut Rules, Fred Burton
Beirut Rules, Fred Burton
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Beirut Rules
The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America

Author: Fred Burton, Samuel M. Katz

Narrator: Rich Miller

Unabridged: 10 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/23/2025


Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling coauthors of Under Fire comes the story of the kidnapping and murder of CIA Station Chief William Buckley and the bloody beginning of the CIA’s endless war against Islamic radicalism.

On April 18, 1983, a van rigged with two thousand pounds of heavy explosives broke through the security perimeter of the American embassy in Lebanon and exploded, killing sixty-three people and decimating intelligence operations in the Middle East.  

One man in the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. Assigned as the new Beirut Station Chief, Buckley found the CIA station in tatters and an intelligence playing field unlike any other in the world; the Cold War veteran would now be learning Beirut rules. A field operative at heart, he delved into Beirut’s darkest corners, developing new sources and handling assets.  

On October 23, a US Marine Corps barrack was destroyed by a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh. Even as President Reagan vowed revenge, Mughniyeh eyed a new target: Buckley. 

Beirut Rules is the account of Buckley’s abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen US government documents, as well as interviews with Buckley’s co-workers, friends, and family, Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz reveal how the search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East today. 

About Fred Burton

FRED BURTON is Vice President of Intelligence and Counterterrorism at Stratfor, the largest global private intelligence company, and is one of the world’s foremost experts on security, terrorists and terrorist organizations.Mr. Burton is a former State Department counter terrorism deputy chief and DSS Agent who orchestrated the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing. Mr. Burton also conducted the debriefings of the U.S. hostages held in Lebanon; investigated the plane crash that killed President Zia of Pakistan, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, and a U.S. Army general. Burton was instrumental in the development of the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program to target terrorists like Yousef and Osama Bin Laden; investigated the assassination of Israeli President Rabin; the killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane; the al-Qaeda New York City bombing plots; the Libyan-backed terrorist attacks on diplomats in Sana’a and Khartoum; and countless other terrorist attacks and threats around the globe.Burton is the author of a bestselling memoir, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, and Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent’s Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice (Palgrave, 2011). 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Leftbanker on July 30, 2023

Iran was among the first countries in the modern era to weaponize Islam (which begins with the total subjugation of women) and no country is better proof of the destructive nature of this policy than Lebanon. U.S. policy in Lebanon and most of the ME was catastrophic at worst, and ineffective at bes......more

Goodreads review by C.E. on June 02, 2019

I had the opportunity to listen to Fred Burton, a retired US State Department Special Agent with the Diplomatic Security Service and the current VP of Intelligence at Stratfor (an American geopolitical intelligence platform and publisher) talk about his latest book, co-authored w/ Sam Katz, “Beirut......more

Goodreads review by Don on January 04, 2020

In Beirut Rules, Fred Burton does a fantastic job weaving a primer on the conflicts engulfing the modern middle east around the heartbreaking story of the capture and eventual murder of the Beirut CIA Station Chief. Beirut Rules is a great read anytime, but is especially timely considering the curre......more

Goodreads review by R J on October 27, 2018

BEIRUT RULES is thoroughly fascinating, absorbing, and terrifying story, all mixed into a great book. Even though I lived through these years as a young adult, I was stunned at how little I knew about the events described here. The terror that these agents lived with and the staggering number of the......more

Goodreads review by Adrian on March 28, 2021

Never has a book shed so much light upon such a controversial subject : Lebanon and the rise of Hezbollah. This book is addicting , written in a thriller like manner , following the original timeline of the rise of Hezbollah. The reader is thrown directly into the Beirut 80's , a city with daily bombi......more