In May 2010, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg posited that the individual who packed a Nissan Pathfinder full of explosives and parked it in Times Square was likely a homegrown American “with a political agenda who doesn’t like the health care bill or something.”

Fortunately, the car bomb did not detonate.

The terrorist turned out to be Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen. And, not surprisingly, Shahzad wasn’t upset about the health care bill. After pleading guilty in court he said, “I consider myself a Mujahid, a Muslim-soldier.” He was upset, as he put it, over “American occupation of Muslim Lands.”

Shortly after the attack, Bloomberg prematurely asserted that there was no evidence suggesting the bomber was part of any recognized terror network. Shahzad later told the court he trained with the Pakistani Taliban to learn bomb-making and other related skills.

Could it be that Bloomberg has underestimated the threat of Islamist terror, or is there another agenda?

The issue has again become relevant in recent days. The New York Times ran a series of articles and editorials blaming the NYPD for using the film The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America as part of their counter-terrorism training. (more…)

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Daily News:

Tony-winning actress Ellen Barkin rang in the new year in her typical brash style — uncorking a profanity-laced Twitter tirade against the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg after watching the predawn arrests of suspected Occupy Wall Street scofflaws near her West Village townhouse.

Does the video back up Barkin’s description of the incident on her Twitter feed?

HuffPo:

“I was trying 2 make my way 2 young girl they had thrown in2 the van.She was not a protester.Was not drunk.She was walking home,” she wrote.

(more…)

This is the second excerpt from my new “Devlin” thriller, Shock Warning. In this chapter, Maryam — Devlin’s fellow agent and lover — has smuggled herself back into her native Iran, investigating the miraculous apparitions occurring over the holy city of Qom. Unfortunately for her, she’s just been confronted by two members of the religious police.

Meanwhile, inside a secret nuclear facility, the evil German billionaire, Emanuel Skorzeny is about to make the deal of a lifetime with the Iranians

CHAPTER 44

Qom

“Why are you alone, sister?”

These were not words Maryam wished to hear, especially from a member of the morality police.  The Iranian vice cops – “vice” in this case applying to the very existence of women – were not as notorious as the mutaween of Saudi Arabia, or the Taliban of Afghanistan, but they were plenty dangerous.

She tensed as she answered.  “But I am modestly dressed, worshipping at the sacred mosque.”

They moved closer to her, boxing her in, forcing her into an alley.  Maryam glanced around and saw there was nobody else in sight.  Whatever was going to happen was going to have to happen fast.

“Where is your husband sister?”

“I have… he is away, on state business.  But he will be here soon, that I can assure you.”

“Then where is your father?”

“My father, may Allah bless him, is dead.”

“Your brother?”

“Alas, I have no brothers.”

(more…)

“Devlin,” the anonymous, alienated agent of the Central Security Service who takes on all America’s enemies, both foreign and domestic, is back in my new thriller, Shock Warning, out this week. (The Kindle edition will be released on Oct. 4)

It’s the third in the series that began with Hostile Intent in 2009 and continued with last year’s Early Warning. This volume concludes what I call the Skorzeny Trilogy, after the chief bad, Emanuel Skorzeny, the shadowy German billionaire who’s waging a private war against both Devlin, the American president, Jeb Tyler, and the West as a presidential election looms.

In this excerpt, the publishing mogul Jake Sinclair, who’s also made it his mission to destroy Tyler, has just learned of a terrible accident in California, and gets his best reporter — the sexy Principessa Stanley (who figured prominently in Early Warning) — on the case:

CHAPTER ELEVEN

New York City

The news was breaking as Jake Tyler entered the offices on Sixth Avenue.  Normally he didn’t come to New York much, certainly not since they’d moved the corporate base of operations to Los Angeles in some choice Century City property he just happened to own.

He’d flown in on his private jet, and if there was one rule he had on his private jet it was that he was not to be disturbed for any reason whatsoever, short of Selenites landing at Bowling Green or, worse, Carbon Beach.  Or Elvis, reappearing in Branson.

(more…)

USA Today:

It’s dinner time for the Reagan clan, and the extended family of CBS’ Blue Bloods is crammed around the table, sharing the news that their parish priest has been sent off to Bolivia after allegations of sexual advances, in an episode airing tonight (10 ET/PT). 

It’s the only time the show’s entire main cast, led by Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, Will Estes and Bridget Moynahan, comes together in its Brooklyn studio. 

“Luckily we don’t have to eat anything crazy like cheesecake or Chinese food,” says Moynahan (who plays daughter Erin, an assistant DA) of Bloods‘ signature scene, which caps every episode and gives writers a chance to show the family debating the issues raised by the cases.

“I think the audience responds to these things more than any part of the show, really. It’s a place where you get everybody’s point of view.” 

It could be the tight-knit family, or Selleck’s star appeal, or the unusual blending of a family drama with a sturdy police procedural, but Bloods is this season’s most-watched new series. It chugs away on Friday nights, with an average of 12.4 million viewers, and is considered a lock for a second season. …

(more…)

This is the first chapter of my first novel, Exchange Alley, originally published by Warner Books in 1997 and now available on Kindle for the introductory price of just 99 cents. It introduces the main character, Frankie Byrne, and presents him with a very nasty little murder case — one that quickly turns extremely personal.

CHAPTER ONE 

Ramapo, New York 

Thursday, October 18, 1990; noon 

“Bob and them found it just over there.” The woman smacked her lips in recollection. She was only about forty, but she looked sixty. One of her front teeth was missing, and the others were crooked and yellow. Her hair hung in greasy strands around her forehead, and there was a large mole on her left cheek. Her hands were wrinkled and gnarled. Arthritis, thought Byrne, and bad nutrition. Life was tough in the country. Almost as tough as it was in town. “We live out here pretty much by our lonesomes,” she said. “Like it that way.”

Lieutenant Francis X. Byrne of the New York City Police Department asked the woman for her name. Jean, Jean Brandmelder. He wrote it down as she spelled it out. Byrne followed the woman through the clearing in the woods. Even though it was mid-October, the weather was still warm; hot, even. “Bob and them was out hunting this morning, early,” Jean explained. “But really it was the dogs. They all of a sudden set to barkin’ and Jimmy – that’s my son Jimmy right there – went over to see what’s all the fuss about.” Another smack of the lips. Byrne took notes as he walked, and hoped he would be able to read them later. The nuns always said his handwriting sucked, and the nuns were always right.

“Bob and them” were standing near the body. Bob was Mr. Brandmelder. He was a big, heavy-set, older man with a weak handshake and the outsized girth that comes from a rigorous diet of McDonald’s, Coke and Cheez Doodles, one of the rural widebodies; Byrne thought he looked and sounded just like Andy Devine. Or maybe, with enough eye shadow, just Divine. Over his shoulder, Bob was carrying a shotgun, broken to show it was unloaded. On his face, he wore a gap-toothed grin. “Howdy,” said Bob as Byrne approached. He was pointing. “Over there.” He had a slight accent of indeterminate origin.

(more…)

My first novel, Exchange Alley, is now up on Kindle and can be yours for the special introductory price of just 99 cents. Such a deal — especially when used paperback copies are being offered on Amazon for up to $688.88.

The original hardback cover

A Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection upon its publication in 1997, and the recipient of a starred review in Publishers Weekly, Exchange Alley (for reasons that will become clear as you read) has become something of a cult novel. In it, I introduced the character of Lt. Francis X. Byrne, the hot-tempered detective who catches a grisly murder case that, literally, changes his entire world. Frankie became so popular with readers that I brought him back last year (and promoted him to Captain) in Early Warning, where he battles against a spectacular terrorist attack on Times Square, and I suspect he’ll turn up again in another novel very soon.

I first got the idea of writing Exchange Alley during my various trips to the Soviet Union, beginning in 1986 (I was in country when Chernobyl blew up) and continuing right up to its dissolution in 1991. At the same time, I was deeply fascinated by the Kennedy Assassination, which I recalled vividly from my boyhood. So, as writers do, I thought: what if? (more…)

So The FBI and NYPD busted a homegrown terror cell Wednesday - a group of four men who wanted to replace two Bronx synagogues with a crater.

(Thank God religion had nothing to do with it.)

It turns out that all the explosives they purchased were fake – supplied by agents pretending to be Al-Qaeda militants. Chuck Schumer called the group “relatively unsophisticated,” which I guess should make us happy.

But it pisses me off. Frankly, I don`t give a flying imam how incompetent a terrorist is. I don`t care if they couldn`t tell the difference between a Stinger and a stapler, the fact is – it`s dangerous and stupid to make light of their ultimate goals, simply because they didn’t reach them. (more…)