''The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism'' () is a 1981 book by

Claire Sterling Claire Sterling ( née Neikind; October 21, 1919 – June 17, 1995) was an American author and journalist whose work focused on crime, political assassination, and terrorism. Her theories on Soviet bloc involvement in international terrorism and t ...

, published by Henry Holt & Company, which argued that the USSR was using terrorists as a proxy force. In part because of the book, CIA director

William J. Casey William Joseph Casey (March 13, 1913 – May 6, 1987) was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency ...

commissioned a

Special National Intelligence Estimate National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on intelligence related to a particular national security issue. NIEs are pr ...

on Soviet support for terrorism. After receiving the draft estimate, Casey objected that there was less in the draft on Soviet ties to terrorism than in Sterling's book. Although Casey was advised that the CIA had played a part in supplying Sterling with "concocted misinformation for public propaganda", he requested that the draft be revised. The resulting estimate had this to say about the book: Michael Ledeen promoted the book's claims when it was published. He was quoted in '' National Review'', a conservative magazine, claiming that "Almost everything Claire said was borne out" by

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

files that emerged after the end of the Cold War. According to

Melvin Goodman Melvin Allan "Mel" Goodman is a national security and intelligence expert. He has worked as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the State Department, taught at the National War College and Johns Hopkins University, and is a s ...

, the Head of Office of Soviet Affairs at the CIA from 1976 to 1987, the claims of a terror network were in fact black propaganda created by the CIA.

References

Books about terrorism Books about the Soviet Union 1981 non-fiction books Henry Holt and Company books Disinformation operations {{poli-book-stub