Pierce O'Donnell

Timely book. The first third was historical, discussing the eight German sabeteurs landed in NY and in Florida at the beginning of WW II. In the next third, O'Donnell discusses the parallels with the President Roosevelt decision to try them under a Military tribunal, and the precident that decision set for President Bush to follow in using Military tribunals to try prisoners at Guantanamo. He also reviews the Supreme Court review of the legality of using a Military tribunal for the trial and execution of those prisoners. O'Donnell considers that Supreme Court decision a discredited one, in which the judiciary basically deferred to the executive branch in time of war. He comments on how that decision affects the current climate, led to an idea of unlimited executive power by President Bush in this time of war, and how many people and nations feel that decision has made a mockery of our nations striving to champion human rights. The last third of the book slowed down somewhat for me, going into a little more detail about the legal issues of those decisions. All in all, an enlightening book both from a historical perspective as well as how the current administration arrived at the policies they're following.… (mais)

This was an interesting account of the 8 Nazi saboteurs tried in 1942. Pierce O'Donnell gave an excellent description of the background of each player in the trial (the saboteurs, lawyers, Roosevelt, and J. Edgar Hoover). He also gave an excellent, but easily understandable explanation of the military commission and the Supreme Court legal workings that were involved in the case. You could tell that O'Donnell felt that Kenneth Royall was the abused hero in the whole case. He described all the actions used to set Royall back and keep him from defending the saboteurs in the Supreme Court and try to get them tried in civil court. If O'Donnell would have ended the story with the verdict, this would have been a 4 or 5 star book for me. However, he decided to try to connect the case with more modern Prisoner of War trials (Afghanistan and Iraq POWs). The story ended up taking a preachy/whiny turn and I quickly lost interest. If he had stuck to the facts, it would have been a much better ending."… (mais)

Decent book - title misleading. Should have been something like "a terrorist plan". The attack never even got close to happening but the title led me to believe that there was at least an attempt. This book is really about the (unfortunate) trial of some Germans that sailed to the US in WWII with the thought of *sometime, somewhere* doing some sort of attack on the US. The trial was interesting, however, and for that reason I do recommend this book, just *not* as an adventure book about a terrorist attack.… (mais)