Black October

Black October is a work of fiction that begins just before the September Eleventh attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and continues through 2008. Except for the kings of Saudi Arabia, the late FBI counter-terrorism leader John O'Neill, and al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Abu Zubaydah, most of the minor characters are fictional. The three Saudi princes whose names are redacted, actually did act as conduits for Islamic money for bin Laden and al Qaeda. They did die under mysterious conditions. But the accounts of their deaths herein are completely fictionalized. Likewise a high-level leader of the Pakistani ISI, the country's intelligence service, whom the author has dubbed `Headfake' to hide his real identity, died, along with several other members of the ISI, under highly unusual circumstances. The account of their deaths is a figment of imagination.Lionel Hunt's experiences in Saudi Arabia and Iran (name changed) were narrated to the author and faithfully reproduced here (except that Part Two is entirely fiction). He did sell whiskey to almost 400 members of the Saudi royal family. He was convicted and served time in a Saudi prison. Other details of his life are elaborations on his exploits. Terri Hunt is not a real character.CIA contract agent Kurt Valdez, a former CIA non-official combatant or NOC, is a composite of three real persons: an adventurer, a CIA case officer who worked for the Directorate of Operations (the DO), and an analyst who worked for the Directorate of Intelligence (DI). Valdez's exploits, although many parallel actual operations, are fictionalized.Two minor characters, Mark Reber and Jim Davis, are real persons. Although some of the details of their background are faithfully represented and they did work in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, their accounts in this story are creations of the author, especially the romance."Peak Oil" is currently a hot topic among world political analysts. Black October is a fast-paced thriller whose premise is the quest by Muslim terrorist organizations to inflict a mortal wound to stretched fossil fuel supplies by attacking the prolific oil facilities of Saudi Arabia. The novel reveals how the dependency on oil has caused the western world to compromise its historical culture, democracy and tradition, by entering into close arrangements with archaically religious and autocratic monarchies. Hopefully this work will make sure the premise does not come true.