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This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batcher with David McCluskey, former CIA analyst

for the Middle East, now a novelist, a thriller novelist. It's a spy novel. It's a profile

of the Middle East as we live through it these last 10 years. And with no clarity, many

of the instances in David's book are extremely convincing. Anything can happen in Damascus.

Our hero is named Sam Joseph. David presents him as a man from Minnesota who has a talent

for gambling. Probably has a gambler's weaknesses. Doesn't know when to leave the table. He quickly

establishes himself as a man who makes a mistake as a CIA officer. He falls in love with

his asset. David, this is such a violation of what I know to be the CIA's recommendations

about how you handle assets. I was charmed right away. My goodness, Sam, you don't deserve

to be an officer very long. What do you want the readers to know about Sam's temptation

and about Miriam?

Yeah, well, you hit a lot of the high points there, John. He is not out of the Ivy League.

He is a pretty, quote, unquote, normal guy when he is recruited to join the agency. He's

in Midwesternaries, had a spell in Vegas. He is very good at reading people and understanding

their motivations. He's lived, I think, a life outside of the profiles of many

case officers that get recruited out of Morley universities where he's been out in the world

...