Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America

From the New York Times bestselling coauthors of Under Fire comes the story of the kidnapping and murder of CIA Station Chief William Buckley and the bloody beginning of the CIA's endless war against Islamic radicalism.

On April 18, 1983, a van rigged with two thousand pounds of heavy explosives broke through the security perimeter of the American embassy in Lebanon and exploded, killing sixty-three people and decimating intelligence operations throughout the Middle East.

Only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. Assigned as the new Beirut Station Chief, Buckley arrived in the war-torn city to find a CIA station in tatters and an intelligence playing-field unlike any other in the world; the veteran of the Cold War would now be learning Beirut rules. A field operative at heart, he delved into Beirut's darkest corners, developing new sources and handling assets.

Then, on October 23, a US Marine Corps barrack was destroyed in a plot masterminded by a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh. But even as President Reagan vowed revenge, Mughniyeh eyed a new target: Buckley.

Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley's abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen US government documents, as well as interviews with Buckley's co-workers, friends, and family, Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.

Author: Fred Burton,Samuel M. Katz
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 8.97h x 6.14w x 1.09d
ISBN: 9798895150443

About the Author
Fred Burton is one of the world's foremost experts on protective intelligence, global security and terrorism. He is a former State Department counterterrorism deputy chief and DSS special agent, who investigated the kidnapping of the hostages held captive by Hezbollah and many other acts of terror. He is the author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent and Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice, and coauthor with Samuel M. Katz of the New York Times bestseller Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi.

Samuel M. Katz is a New York Times bestselling author who has written over twenty books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, military and law enforcement special operations, espionage, and international counterterrorism. He has written hundreds of articles for magazines and publications globally. He is a frequent guest on television and radio networks. Katz lectures police agencies and military commands worldwide on the history of terrorism and counterterrorist operations.