King's Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East
Title: King's Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East
Author: Jack O'Connell
HISTORY MIDEAST O’CO
The former CIA station chief in Amman, Jordan and most trusted American advisor to the late King Hussein describes how their friendship trust developed after he tipped off the ruler about Israel’s planned invasion of Egypt in 1967.
A CIA station chief, later Jordan’s lawyer in Washington, reveals the secret history of a lost peace.Jack O’Connell possessed an uncanny ability to be at the center of things. On his arrival in Jordan in 1958, he unraveled a coup aimed at the young King Hussein, who would become America’s most reliable Middle East ally. Over time, their bond of trust and friendship deepened.
His narrative contains secrets that will revise our understanding of the Middle East. In 1967, O’Connell tipped off Hussein that Israel would invade Egypt the next morning. Later, as Hussein’s Washington counselor, O’Connell learned of Henry Kissinger’s surprising role in the Yom Kippur War.
The book’s leitmotif is betrayal. Hussein, the Middle East’s only bona fide peacemaker, wanted simply the return of the West Bank, seized in the Six-Day War. Despite American promises, the clear directive of UN Resolution 242, and the years of secret negotiations with Israel, that never happened. Hussein’s dying wish was that O’Connell tell the unknown story in this book.