A Time to Betray
The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran
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4.6 • 273 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
An exhilarating true story that reads like a spy thriller about a former CIA operative recruited out of Iran, while he served as a member of the secretive and highly feared Revolutionary Guards of Iran.
A TIME TO BETRAY
This exhilarating, award-winning memoir of a secret double life reveals the heart-wrenching story of a man who spied for the American government in the ranks of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, risking everything by betraying his homeland in order to save it.
Reza Kahlili grew up in Tehran surrounded by his close-knit family and friends. But the enlightened Iran of his youth vanished forever, as Reza discovered upon returning home from studying computer science in the United States, when the revolution of 1979 ushered in Ayatollah Khomeini’s dark age of religious fundamentalism. Clinging to the hope of a Persian Renaissance, Reza joined the Ayatollah’s elite Revolutionary Guards. As Khomeini’s tyrannies unfolded, as fellow countrymen turned on each other, and after the deeply personal horrors he witnessed firsthand inside Evin Prison, a shattered and disillusioned Reza returned to America to dangerously become “Wally,” a spy for the CIA.
In A Time to Betray, Reza not only relates his razor’s-edge, undercover existence from moment to heart-pounding moment as he supplies vital information from the Iran-Iraq War, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Iran-Contra affair, and more; he also documents a chain of incredible events that culminates in a nation’s fight for freedom that continues to this very day, making this a timely and vital perspective on the future of Iran and the fate of the world.
Customer Reviews
See AllHeart Connecting
Just finished this book and I felt a heartache for the people of Iran and an understanding of the rule of the Mullahs that was previously misunderstood.
My prayers will continue to be for freedom in that important region. These are dangerous and strategic times- I hope leaders in the world will wake up.
This is an amazing book and one I will always remember.
I couldn't put it down!
Just incredible! It reads like the best spy novel ever written and several times I had to remind myself this was REAL! I pray that the elected leaders in Washington DC will read this and realize what idealistic thuggery they are dealing with in Iran cannot be reasoned with and stand with the people there instead of placating criminals doing unspeakable acts in the name of God!!
Eye opening
I learned more about the struggles of the middle east reading this first person account of the horrific lives of the Iranian people than in 40 years of watching the news. Really takes the problems there off the TV and gives them personal voice. The author's stated goal was to share the plight of his people and I thank him for doing so. It has ignited my interest and concern for a people and a place that, shamefully, I barely gave a second thought to before reading A Time to Betray. To top it off, it is extremely well written and compelling. A real page burner. I had to remind myself it wasn't Clancy or Ludlum... It was real.