• The Iranian Revolution of 1979 and how Ayatollah Khomeini converted Iran into a brutally fanatical theocracy.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's shadowy rise to power, his regular meetings with Ayatollah Khomeini as a student and his connection with the student organization that helped orchestrate the 1979 hostage crisis.
• The oppressive, anti-Western reforms of the Ahmadinejad regime.
• The stated radical and globally ambitious ideology of the Iranian mullahs.
  Iran's role in the Iraqi insurgency.
• The history and present capability of Iran's Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Nuclear Weapons Capability.
• The extensive measures Iran has made to defend their underground enrichment facilities (e.g., spreading them out, placing them deep underground, strategically positioning anti-aircraft technology).

Jafarzadeh also offers his opinion on what policy actions should be taken against Iran. Despite making a few decent observations. Jafarzadeh does identify that the current theocratic regime must go and that it is "beyond negotiation". He promotes "regime change", specifically meaning handing over the keys of Iran to the NCRI. According to their platform on their website, the NCRI stands for the separation of Church and State, capitalism, human and minority rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and democratic elections. This sounds like a considerable improvement over the current Iranian regime. However, the NCRI's leadership is intertwined with that of the militant group MEK, which has several cultish/irrational aspects. Thus, Jafarzadeh's proposed solution is unfortunately more pragmatic than principled.

Another significant concern of mine is that, although this work is dense with citations, the author often attributes vital information to "his sources", which makes it difficult to accept this information as truth. However, we also must recognize the reality of the author's situation, as he is probably not able to safely reveal all of his sources at the time of his writing. These vague attributions are not too frequent, and when they are made, the allegations are consistent with the overall character of the Iranian regime. As a whole, I think the factual content of this book is pretty sound.

In summary, I highly recommend this book for its factual content, especially to those with strong interests in foreign policy who are seeking a deeper understanding of Iran.

You can read the version of my review of The Iran Threat, which is intended for a general audience, on Amazon.com here.

If you enjoyed the above review, please rate it as helpful on Amazon.com. The more helpful ratings I receive, the higher my visibility is on Amazon.com. You can access all of my reviews on Amazon.com here.