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André Le Gallo’s The Caliphate pours out a tale of exciting intrigue too frightening to believe—and too believable to ignore. But you had better believe it, because Le Gallo is the real thing. I went to spy school with him years ago. He’s a natural as well as a gifted story teller. As a long-time, top-ranked CIA operations officer, Le Gallo shares with us both what goes on in the convoluted and treacherous world of foreign intelligence and what might happen if we let our guard down.

Set in the volatile evolving areas of North Africa’s Maghreb, a dangerous trail of violence and malevolence takes protagonists Steve and Kella through the sophistication and romance of Paris to the treachery of the Mid-East, areas well known to Le Gallo through his days “in the trade.” At every turn, the increasingly deranged fanatic Tariq Al Khalil escalates the stakes at risk to restore the former glory and power of the ancient Islamic Caliphate—no matter the cost. Le Gallo’s portrayal of Al Khalil reflects convincingly the vicious fanaticism of the radical Islamic fundamentalists we have uncovered since 9/11—and portends eerily those future terrorists who will continue to rally to the bastardization of the Quran by delusional radical leaders with their own agenda.

Le Gallo makes the case why these misguided monsters of inhumanity must be stopped and gives us professional glimpses of just what it takes in the intelligence world to get the job done. Even though The Caliphate is fiction, it captures faithfully many of today’s real-world obstacles confronting the protagonists from all quarters. Intelligence officers in our services will relate to wind-shifting bureaucrats and politicians inside the Beltway, too timid to reward anything deemed risky; hesitant cooperation from supposedly friendly intelligence organizations, which often confounds success; shifting allegiances and devious betrayal by “trustworthy” agents; leaks to the media and sell-outs to enemies of important, sensitive information by confederates; desperate decision-making that must be done on the sketchiest of information; and terrible miscalculations by principal players that can cost innocent lives if not bring us to the brink of destruction.

These are not small matters. Le Gallo does not have to invent these aspects of intelligence work in today’s global struggle for a peaceful world future. He is able from firsthand experience to arm his attractive protagonists with natural resources, life experience, and acquired skill to meet the unexpected twists and turns in a path that takes them ever deeper into danger. Even so, they are not larger than life. They are credible human beings living out a relationship with each other and against a malevolent force that seeks to destroy them. The excitement is palpable; the outcome is uncertain.

It is a fortunate truth that André Le Gallo’s The Caliphate is fiction, but the quest for “the new Caliphate” by radical fundamentalists is not. Their vision of “Restoration” includes full control of much of the geography from the Pacific to the Atlantic, roughly in the Tropic of Cancer: the Philippines and Indonesia through Southern Asia, the “’stans” of Central Asia, the Levant of the eastern Mediterranean, the Horn of Africa, the Maghreb of Northern Africa, and the Sahel of sub-Saharan Africa. It is a vast area with millions of people, many barely surviving in substandard conditions.

While birth rates are generally declining for Western European nations, they are growing in the lands of the envisioned Caliphate. Radical Islamic fundamentalists advertise an intolerant, merciless view toward those not totally submitting to their “pure” interpretation of the Quran, the Hadith—the sayings of Muhammad—or all of the rules and regulations that have been passed down as Sharia law since approximately 650 AD.

Even though the radicals represent a minority of the world’s Muslims, they are a powerful voice and they have found a growing, receptive audience for their corrupted version of Allah’s will. There is no room for sanctity of life, equal rights, or civil liberty; women are as chattel—or less; Islam is Submission, with a capital “S,” and they decide who must submit to what. A loving, compassionate father god is not included. These people exist. They have struck the innocent countless times already, brutally and with increasingly sophisticated weapons and tactics. And they will strike again! Beware the Caliphate!

—Porter Goss lives in southwest Florida, now retired from many years of activity in America’s intelligence community. He was the last Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and the first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under the changes enacted by Congress in intelligence reform legislation after 9/11. Prior to that, he served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, including several years as chairman of the Intelligence Committee. His earlier days as a clandestine services officer in the CIA triggered a keen interest in our national security and an unshakable awareness of how critical good intelligence is for our national well-being.