Jeffrey T Richelson

Richelson makes a good effort here, but part of the problem with both the book and the narrative of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) at large is the lack of real use they've had in the four decades since their founding. Aside from the MORNING LIGHT deployment to Canada, NEST has seen no real action other than exercises and hoaxes.

Thus, unfortunately, leads to the need to essentially pad the book with short summaries of nuclear terrorism, 9/11, Al Qaeda in the 1990s, Aum Shirinkiyo, and other semi-relevant incidents and threats. But much of this is a bare chronological retelling. When it comes to NEST itself, all too many paragraphs are straight recounting of one exercise in 1984. Then in 1985, another exercise. 1986 saw yet one more exercise. And so on.

What little can be said about NEST is said well here. And the book proves the notion that much of the information classified by the US government is really just stuff we already know, but with a little more detail.

The scholarship in this book is more or less as good as is possible, but the inclusion of footnotes referencing Wikipedia articles is definitely a questionable sign. And seeing as Defusing Armageddon doesn't reveal much more than can be found in the subject's Wikipedia page, that might be a quicker-reading version of this book.… (mere)