Sunday, February 25, 2007
Reflections of Minarets
In researching information for his 1989 book on the OSS during World War II, Istanbul Intrigues, Barry Rubin had to dig through numerous archives and interview dozens of participants on three continents, many of whom--perhaps out of habits acquired working in intelligence--had left no trail. One of them, Lanning Macfarland, wartime head of OSS in Turkey, had already passed away, but his son--inspired by Rubin's letter--decided to finally open a locked suitcase left by his father in which he found a 180-page memoir detailing his father's operations in Istanbul.
And thus began a journey of intrigue for the author who unravelled the mysteries of espionage along the Bosporus and those particular moments when history was at a crossroads and all the onlookers knew it. A rare look at the war from the perspectives of spies, refugees, and exiles in a neutral country trapped between three hostile empires.
And thus began a journey of intrigue for the author who unravelled the mysteries of espionage along the Bosporus and those particular moments when history was at a crossroads and all the onlookers knew it. A rare look at the war from the perspectives of spies, refugees, and exiles in a neutral country trapped between three hostile empires.
