shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 13, 2009

Norberto Fuentes: IMG Powell's Q&A: Norberto Fuentes



Describe your latest project. Norton has just published The Autobiography of Fidel Castro, a novel that took seven years of my life to complete as I... Continue »
  1. $19.56 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
Not guaranteed to arrive by December 25.

$9.95
List price: $24.95
Used Hardcover
Usually ships in 5 to 7 business days
Add to Wishlist
available for shipping or prepaid pickup only
Qty Store Section
1 Remote Warehouse Biography- General

Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin

by Roland W. Haas

Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin Cover

ISBN13: 9781597970860
ISBN10: 1597970867
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $9.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

While at Purdue University on an NROTC scholarship in 1971, Roland Haas was recruited to become a CIA deep clandestine operative. He underwent intensive training to prepare for insertion into hostile areas, including High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachuting and weapons instruction. In the course of his first mission (to East and West Germany, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Romania, and Austria), he assassinated several international drug dealers. On his return, he was thrown into an Iranian prison, where he was physically and psychologically tortured. Over the next thirty years, he served the agency on an as-needed basis, engaging in such activities as hunting down and eliminating members of the Red Army Faction and extracting Soviet Spetsnaz officers from East Germany. His cover jobs included being a part owner of an Oakland health club, which brought him into close contact with steroid abuse in professional athletics, drug abuse in general, and the Hell's Angels, whom he believes tried to have him killed. He also served in Germany as site commander for the Conventional Forces in Europe weapons treaty. His most recent cover was as the deputy director of intelligence in the U.S. Army Reserve Command, which involved him with the Guantanamo detention facility.

A true story that pulls no punches, Enter the Past Tense also chronicles Haas's descent into, and recovery from, alcoholism that resulted from the stress of this extraordinary life. It is an eye-opening look at the dark, but many would argue necessary, side of intelligence work — and one that readers won't soon forget.

Book News Annotation:

Certain that the US government will disavow his account, the author nevertheless claims to have been a contract assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency. In this memoir, he describes his work for the Agency, from his recruitment out of Purdue University's NROTC program in 1971, through his targeting and killing of members of West Germany's Baader-Meinhoff Group (also know as the Red Army Faction), his involvement with the Hell's Angels while operating a health club in California, and his involvement in interrogating "War on Terror" detainees at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo (where, he claims, prisoners were treated humanely). He also chronicles his descent into alcoholism and his abuse of steroids. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Review:

"Haas's tale is definitely entertaining...[his] insights into the cultures he encounters are often engrossing, and he goes into fascinating detail about aspects of his 'profession.'" Sam Jemielity, Playboy.com

Review:

"An incredible story of derring-do well told, including international intrigue, assassination, and deception, with a dash of Hells Angels and personal redemption mixed in. Not only does Haas reaffirm the old adage that 'truth is stranger than fiction,' but his is an account likely to cause considerable heartburn at the CIA, for which he worked as a contract employee for nearly three decades." Don Bohning, author of The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959“1965

Review:

"The story of our government's role in using highly trained professionals to do certain unsavory but very necessary types of undercover/clandestine missions is not often pretty but has been in need of telling for some time. I can't think of a more knowledgeable and experienced person to tell that very important story than Roland Haas." From the Foreword by Col. Ben S. Malcom, USA (Ret.)

Synopsis:

Naval officer, family man, scholar, professional hit man

About the Author

Roland W. Haas is an assistant deputy chief of staff and the command senior intelligence officer of the U.S. Army Reserve Command. He lives in Peachtree City, Georgia.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
actca58, September 2, 2008 (view all comments by actca58)
And, Durnesque, what if I DID know him, and still said he is a complete and "pathological" liar? When you read this book try to take out the personal value, and just listen. It all sounds like complete lies to me. It might make a good fiction novel, but just the fact that he proves to be VERY stuck in his own little world, it kind of ruined my attraction to this story,
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Geoffrey E., March 4, 2008 (view all comments by Geoffrey E.)
Responding to Durnesque’s comments:

1. Though I can’t prove that Mr. Haas fabricated the main assertion of his book: that, while working as a “CIA hit man”, he killed people under their orders, I know that he fabricated the section of his book about the Gulhane Hotel in Istanbul and that he lifted this section from an article I wrote and had posted on the internet for about four years.

2. In his account of his time in Istanbul, Haas writes about the Gulhane Hotel and the (notorious) “Tent”, which was a structure placed on the roof of the Hotel and used by hippies and travelers as a crash pad.

But the Tent no longer existed when Haas claimed he was in Istanbul- in late 1971 or early 1972. Am not exactly sure when the tent was taken down, but it was no longer there when I passed through Istanbul on my way back from India in April 1970.

3. His description of the Tent was based on my article-it sounded so familiar when I first read it! Haas claims, as I in fact also wrote in my article, but erroneously, that the tent was constructed out of canvas and corrugated iron. It was not. It was actually made out of plastic sheet and wood frame. Some people with better memories than mine pointed this out to me but I didn’t correct the article while it was still on the internet.


It’s one thing to tell friends, co-workers, family members tall stories about one’s life but to put these into book form and claim it’s all true is taking one’s fibbing to a whole different level. That’s what I meant by “pathological” in my first comment above about this book.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Durnesque, February 9, 2008 (view all comments by Durnesque)
In response to the previous comment, Mr. Haas is no liar. I have known his son and wife for years, and though only recently did I become better aquainted with him, my parents and sister have known him for longer. It's easy to doubt someone who you've never met and even easier to condemn them, but offensive to hear accusations about someone you know and know to be truthful. Until you've actually met him, reserve your judgement- take a leaf from his book and be quiet.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(0 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 4 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9781597970860
Subtitle:
My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin
Author:
Haas, Roland W.
Publisher:
Potomac Books
Subject:
Military
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Intelligence officers
Subject:
United states
Subject:
Political Freedom & Security - Intelligence
Subject:
Espionage
Subject:
United States Officials and employees.
Subject:
Intelligence officers -- United States.
Publication Date:
July 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
265
Dimensions:
8.96x6.48x1.04 in. 1.26 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $15.95 New Trade Paper add to wish list
  2. $6.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  3. $5.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  4. $3.75 Used Mass Market add to wish list
  5. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  6. $6.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.