Author Archives: starediting

by | June 11, 2014 · 6:18 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS — 119

HEY GOP, LISTEN UP (AGAIN)

(In light of Eric Cantor losing his seat in the primaries this week, I thought it prudent to republish this former blog. It’s important.)

Conservatives are tired of Republicans who turn to big government and unlimited spending to solve the nation’s problems. The Republican politicians who are too frightened to stand up for their principles and instead play the “go along to get along” game got their share of criticism. The message I hear from the conservative people is simple: control spending, limit the size and scope of government to what is necessary, maintain the strength of our armed forces, regain the lost respect for American power on the international front, and most of all protect our Constitutional rights.

A clear message. But I doubt the Republican establishment hears the message and those who hear it don’t understand it. The people who make this country work and finance the government are fed up. They aren’t demanding much, just the chance to have and keep a job, raise their kids in a safe environment, send them to a school that gives them the opportunity to get a good education, be able to find and pay for good medical care, live in a nation that honors and takes care of its veterans, have leaders they respect to maintain American excellence and military power, and, where possible, encourage the growth of individual freedom everywhere. That’s what they want and expect to get. Save “change America and transformation” for the make-believe world where it comes from.

There is strong support for term limits for Congress that would encourage citizen politicians to serve their nation for four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. Our professional politicians get so wrapped up in the quest to get elected and stay elected, they lose sight of why they are there. They are not there to serve themselves, but to serve the people who sent them to Washington or their state capitals. There are a few who are trying to save the nation from an alien transformation but they are often criticized and ridiculed by their own party leaders who are truly professionals whose main task is to get elected for yet another term.

These same Republican leaders think that the transformation of America will fall of its own weight and are taking a terrible chance with our way of life. Instead of keeping their powder dry they need to get in the fray, protect their Constitutional right to make laws, and give the nation another vision of the shining city on a hilltop. Tell us your plans for health care, military force levels, foreign policy, tax reform,  protection of social security, employment growth, and the reduction of the size and scope of a government that has outgrown its required role.

We don’t need or want class warfare, redistribution of wealth or any of the other parts of progressivism/socialism. We just need a common sense government that takes care of those who are too young, or too old, or too sick to work. We can work together. Government isn’t hard. Just listen to the people. Their voices can be heard.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels, a retired CIA agent and former adviser to President Reagan. You are encouraged to share this blog and leave comments.

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by | January 15, 2014 · 7:00 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS — FOURTH NOVEL PUBLISHED

Barry Kelly's fourth novel

Barry Kelly’s fourth novel

My fourth novel, “Run to Freedom,” has been published and is now available for purchase as an ebook with the paperback edition to follow in a few days! This novel is a prequel of sorts, following the story of Jack Brandon’s father, Peter, and how he fights to escape from the control of the KGB.

It occurred to me while musing over my first three novels featuring Jack Brandon and his team that the story of Jack’s father, Peter, had been neglected. Here was a man who was a fast-track KGB officer who escaped from his masters and re-established the Brandon family in America. How did he manage to flee the KGB? How did he come to live in the U.S.? What was his life like in the Soviet Union? Who was Jack’s mother? What was she like? Where did the name Brandon come from?

Run to Freedom is the beginning of the Brandon family story.

It’s fast-paced, like my other three novels, and full of action with a bit of romance thrown in, in the form of an Irish gal that readers of “Justice Beyond Law” are sure to remember. You can purchase “Run to Freedom” from Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com. If you’d like to order a signed copy, click here. As always, I’d love to know what you think of all my books! Please feel free to leave me comments on this website, on my Facebook page, or on Amazon.

Has anyone ever written a fiction novel that was 100 percent fiction? I doubt it. Some truth always makes its way onto the pages the readers see. My characters are a combination of truth and imagination. None are actual people.

My novels contain a lot of detail. In the worlds of espionage, detail is king. Without it, any operations plan is useless. You may have to ignore pieces of the plan to deal with reality but scrambling from a plan is better than no plan at all. Detail also is necessary when devising and using aliases. Knowing when to change an alias is a learned skill. Bear with me as my hero changes identities multiple times over his journey.

For the intelligence operative, changing identities often requires a matching change in behavior. It is not easy to keep all this change straight. I’ve personally used many identities. Some lasted only a few hours, others months. The longer you use an alias, the more you slide into being someone else and the greater the impact on the real you.

I try to take few deviations from the truth when dealing with geography, distance, travel time, and various hardware items. Weapons used by the Brandon team and their capabilities are real. Distance shooting scenes are probable. Hand-to-hand combat is from my own training in Hapkido and the choreography of those scenes is correct. The firefights are plausible. Serving with CIA in I Corps Vietnam in 1968 and ‘69 gave me some experience with small-scale firefights.

The operational planning is real as is the casing of targets. The execution is based upon first-hand knowledge with a varying amount of fiction. Knowledge of the KGB is from study and two years in Moscow as the CIA Station Chief. The KGB is a worthy opponent and I added to my lore of tradecraft by that experience. Whatever skills I have in planning operations, I owe to excellent training by the CIA.

I want my readers to follow along with Peter Brandon as he tries to escape the KGB and feel they too are in the action. There are no superhuman actions. Many of you with the proper training could turn the clock back and face the same challenges.

My knowledge of the Irish Republic Army is slight. I hope I haven’t used too much imagination and too little fact in writing about it as it existed in the 1970s.

I hope my readers will enjoy the story of the early Brandons as much as they like reading about Jack and Kathy. Buckle your seat belt and enjoy the action!

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by | November 7, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 86

RUN TO FREEDOM

I hope to have my fourth novel, “Run to Freedom,” published before the end of this year. It is a prequel to my first three novels, “Justice Beyond Law,” “Justice without Mercy,” and “Shades of Justice,” which are all about Jack Brandon. “Run to Freedom” delves into Jack’s family’s past and takes readers to a place they’ve never been before in the three previous books — Russia. Here’s the prologue. Thoughts and comments welcome!

PROLOGUE

November 1919

When he was a kid in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, Johnny Brandon loved riding trains. He loved everything about trains. They opened a window peering beyond the structured world of school, church, family, and neighborhood. Looking out the window of a moving train and listening to the clickety-clack of the wheels speeding over the rails that narrowed to nothingness in front and back of the train promised a new adventure could start at any time. You couldn’t tell.  It was as near to traveling in time as you could find in 1910 in the Midwest. Now he would be glad to travel back to the certainty of a life he could count on.

Lieutenant John Brandon stared through the clear circle in the frosted window he had rubbed. Outside, the bleak, frozen, forested land of Siberia swept past as the train from Vladivostok laden with supplies for the White Russian Army of General Kolchak sped along. In another hour they would be in Irkutsk. Lieutenant Brandon knew the area around Irkutsk was especially dangerous and started on his rounds to make sure his platoon of the 332 U.S. Infantry Regiment was ready for action. His platoon had drawn train-guarding duty for the last three months. Once back in Vladivostok they were scheduled for a change in duty assignments.

 Lieutenant Brandon had volunteered for train-guarding duty. Big mistake. It came with endless coldness, bad food, and long periods of boredom with sudden deadly fire fights when bands of Red Army Communist soldiers managed to tear up sections of the track and stop the train. His platoon and other units of the Polar Bears managed to fight off all the attacks and the trains eventually got through but not without costs to the Polar Bears, a self-appointed nickname for the Regiment. Most of the men were from Wisconsin, Michigan, and had a small percentage from Minnesota. Many of them could speak some Russian, German, or Polish. Most had been too young to have served in France but when President Wilson decided to support the democratic Kerensky revolutionaries in their struggle against the Bolshevik party of Lenin, John Brandon and thousands of others found themselves on troop ships going to fight an unknown war in a frigid environment they had not prepared to fight in.

Most of the men in Brandon’s platoon felt they were being treated unfairly. The war they were ready to fight was over. Not even the field grade officers could explain why they were riding trains across Siberia’s frozen landscape. It was clear their hearts and minds were not in this backwash of questionable American interests.

Lieutenant Brandon was halfway through checking his platoon of train guards when the engineers sounded the alarm and applied the emergency brakes. Brandon knew it would take a half-mile to bring this train to a full stop. By that time they would hit whatever caused the engineers to try and bring the speeding train to a stop. He yelled for his men to hang on and get ready for action. Nothing could be seen outside. The blowing snow and the late afternoon darkness made it impossible to see.

Lieutenant Brandon felt the train derail. He estimated they were moving at least 40 miles an hour. At that speed, several cars behind the two locomotives would leave the track and overturn. The car carrying his platoon was two cars behind the coal tender. Even before the car overturned he heard an explosion, followed by raking small-arms fire.

At least half of the platoon was struggling to its feet and moving toward both ends of the car to get out and set up firing positions to protect the platoon first and then the train. Lieutenant Brandon and his platoon sergeant, Sam Reilly, managed to get firing points set up. Nearly all the platoon was in action. Only a few were too severely injured in the crash to make their way out. The railroad embankment provided good cover for the riflemen and the machine gunner. Brandon thought, The overturning of the car might save all our lives. Most of the firing was coming from the rear of train, where the valuable equipment was carried.

The attackers were mounted and racing up and down the right-of-way. The Polar Bear riflemen armed with the bolt-action 1903 rifles. The boys from the Midwest could shoot. The Springfields were the best rifles they had ever been issued. Several horses were down. In the light of the flares fired from the train Lieutenant Brandon saw a mass of infantry emerging from the forest. The cavalry was only a probing attack. He called to Sergeant Reilly to bring up his half of he platoon. He wasn’t going to lose his entire platoon in a fight to the death over an overturned rail car. When the platoon was together, he moved them back into the forest.

The accurate fire from the platoon’s rifles turned back two waves of mass attacks. Lieutenant Brandon gave the order to fire one more magazine on the next attack and fall back into the forest and evade west down the tracks to Irkutsk. The next attack came after a new barrage from some horse-drawn field artillery. The wedge of attacking infantry broke through the thin line of Polar Bears. Few members of the platoon were able to fall back and escape to the west.

A sudden, heavy snowfall masked the battle area. Lieutenant Brandon saw Sergeant Reilly go down with a fatal wound. He turned to move deeper into the cover of the forest, when he was knocked down by a blow to his right thigh. Scrambling on all fours he managed to find a dead fall of two down trees and crawled under cover. The fight for the train was over. Surviving was the next mission.

 It was now snowing so hard he couldn’t see anything. The wind strengthened to a gale force. The whole battle area was obscured by a swirling, white cover. Lieutenant Brandon lying between two fallen trees could hear the shouts of Red Army soldiers and an occasional gunshot and explosion. They will kill all the prisoners, wounded or not, he thought. I’ve got to lie still. I don’t think my leg is broken or any major arteries were severed. If the bleeding stops and I don’t freeze to death, I can live through this. I’m already covered with snow. My tracks and blood trail must also be under snow cover. The Red Army officers will call off the attack and use the soldiers to load up the supplies they want. There must be a trail or road close by for tractors and horses to pull wagon-loads of supplies away from the ambush site. I won’t freeze. It’s 20 degrees Fahrenheit. My winter gear and this snow cover will keep the worst of the cold out.

Brandon was dozing when he was awakened by something moving in the snow by his hiding place. He lay still. Listening he heard a snuffling sound and Russian voices. Then he felt the snow being brushed away. He reached for his .45 Colt but couldn’t manage to get it out. As he struggled, he heard a Russian voice saying, “Over here. This one is alive.”

This blog is written by the author of the Jack Brandon novels. The author (pictured far right) has 27 years of government service, including two

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

years serving President Ronald Reagan (middle left) in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this blog and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome.

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by | September 9, 2013 · 10:54 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS – ADVISOR 74

greendoorWHAT THE RUSSIANS WANT

The Advisor had done some research in the history of Russia’s struggle to compete with British seapower and later the United States. The czars as well as Mr. Putin, who believes he is a czar, understand the need for the Russian fleet to have a warm water port. Without an all-weather port the Russians cannot extend their power much beyond their own borders. The Advisor thought, it is precisely this kind of knowledge the President does not have. Nothing in his background prepared him to understand the real world which is that nations act in their own interest. If you don’t understand this central reality, your foreign policy is composed of reactions to events you really don’t understand. Like it or not, his mission required him to educate as well as advise President Obama.

The Advisor knew the President seldom took his advice but he was enough of a scholar to listen thoughtfully and enough of an ideologue to follow his collectivist doctrine. The President would be down here within the next hour. I’ll ask him if he will allow me to present my research. Right on schedule, the ancient steel clad door opened and the President strode in. “Good evening Mr. President. The coffee is ready. Take what ever seat you want. I did some research this week and, if you will permit, I will give you the bottom lines.”

“Well, I thought your advice was just the result of your eight decades of life. I’m intrigued that you include research. So go ahead.”

“Thank you. Why are the Russians so hard to work with in the disaster we call Syria? Russia has no common border with Syria.  Syria has no supply of oil or minerals. They have no exports Russia wants or needs. Yet Russia is sending game-changing weapons to Syria and, if their past behavior is any guide, they have or will also send technicians and weapons specialists to Syria. Putin knows there is no one to stop him. Certainly not any Arab or Persian State. Israel can’t without our help. The Euro powers are too focused on themselves to risk capital and blood for anyone else. I have no special insight to U.S. Russian policy but I do remember you whispering to President Medvedev before Putin took the presidency again, asking him to tell Putin you would have more flexibility after the election. Putin is a Czar. He only understands strength. Your secret message to Medvedev told Putin you were in a weak position. In Syria he believes you will not oppose Russia’s historical push to have a warm water port.

“Without a warm water port their fleet is frozen in, bottled up in the Black Sea or cruising far beyond their supply base for many months of each year. Again there is no proof I know of but the Soviet push into Afghanistan in the 1980s was another step in their bumbling efforts dating back to the Czars to gain a corridor to warm water. Syria has dangled a warm water port in the Mediterranean called Tartous.  The Russians have already done significant development projects in this port. They really don’t much care who rules Syria as long as Tartous is firmly in Russian control. The Russians will do whatever is necessary to ensure they do not lose control of this port. They have never been so close in recent history to the  control of a warm water port. A Syrian regime friendly to the United States that would exercise real control over Tartous is not acceptable. Putin, today, has no respect for America. He only understands strength and has no use for words that are mere rhetoric.

“There is more at stake in Syria than the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad from Syria. I don’t think your Administration understands the historical power that motivates Putin to capture an all-weather port. That single feat will mark him  as the greatest of all Russia’s Czars. A warm water port at no cost in blood or treasure. A remarkable achievement.”

“You’re telling me Russia’s end game in Syria is for a seaport?”

“Yes. Of course, they don’t mind throwing all Western powers out of the Middle East.”

“No one on my team will believe your analysis.”

“Try some military scholars. They will tell you the same thing,” The Advisor said, as the President was getting up to leave. “Mr. President, maybe you need some different people on your team.”

The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this on Facebook and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful. Find and connect with the author on Goodreads.

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by | July 11, 2013 · 7:01 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS – 63

ALL STORIES HAVE A MESSAGE

Putting my three Jack Brandon novels together in one volume gives me another chance to call the reader’s attention to the thought process that created these stories with the embedded social and political messages many of you have noticed.  First of all, I wanted to tell good stories.

While most of my experience has been in the operational side of espionage, I’ve gained significant experience in counter-intelligence, police operations, intelligence analysis and counter-terrorism. All of these security fields are subject to the effects of poor management from over centralization and the rise of political correctness from a population conditioned to fear police violence more than crimes of violence.

In the first book of the Trilogy, Justice Beyond Law, I used the backdrop of an illegal KGB network of sleeper agents. Throughout the Cold War this was a constant problem for our security services. As the Cold War eased and the ‘Wall’ came down, these KGB sleeper agents went through a confusing few years, while the Russians sorted out the organization of  their agents living double lives in several American neighborhoods. Justice Beyond Law illustrates the problem traditional ‘law and order’ methodology has in dealing with uncovering and apprehending sleeper agents with terrorism missions.

Book two, Justice Without Mercy, poses two very hard areas for law enforcement officials using the traditional law and order case methodology, soft target terrorism and a serial killer. First, they must uncover a crime, identify the culprits, collect enough evidence for an indictment, follow all the rules of collection so the evidence can be used in a court, give the foreign criminals the same rights or nearly the same rights granted to U.S. citizens, including counsel.  There are no shortcuts. This system protects the criminals more than the victims.

My third book, Shades of Justice, deals with human trafficking. Where fast action is necessary to save victims. Action that is not permitted by the pace of the law and order method of crime fighting. Our well-trained and dedicated law enforcement personnel would eventually solve these cases but not in time to save many of the victims.

The answer is not vigilantism in any form. I have crafted the Jack Brandon team to be far more moral and ethical than any vigilante group ever has been or will be. The answer is to remove some of the restrictions binding law enforcement in solving specific types of crimes. I’m confident many restrictions can be removed, suspended for a specified time or modified in favor of the victims. For specifics ask any friends who hold law and order positions, other than trial lawyers, to tell you about their problems in identifying criminals, apprehending them, building solid cases with evidence that will hold up in court and protecting the victims from repeat offenders.

The author of the Jack Brandon novels, is a Korean War veteran and served in the Vietnam War as a CIA agent who has 27 years of government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor.

http://www.factsandfictions.com

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