This book addresses a critical question embedded within a heated debate about American intelligence after 9/11: have Western experts failed in some fundamental way to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies culminating in Sadat’s dramatic assassination and explores how the most knowledgeable and powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in this region.

"Dina Rezk’s book is an interesting and important study that presents the manner in which Egyptian presidents Nasser and Sadat were read in the West, based upon archival material recently declassified and opened for the scholars’ eyes." - Bustan: The Middle East Book Review

"Well researched, thoughtfully and cogently presented, recommended." - Journal of Advanced Military Studies