A Look Back At The Life Of Ian Fleming, The Author Of The James Bond Thrillers

With the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, doing so well at the box office, Scott S. Smith at Investor's Business Daily looks back at the fascinating life of Ian Fleming, the best-selling author of the James Bond thrillers.

While in British naval intelligence during World War II, Ian Fleming hated that he was kept from working with his men in the field.

So he did the next best thing.

He created James Bond.

The novels — starring the superspy who is a composite of commandos and agents he knew — went on to sell over 100 million copies.

... In "For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond," Ben Macintyre wrote: "Bond is, in part, Fleming. The exploits of 007 grew directly out of Fleming's knowledge of wartime intelligence and espionage; they both were more complex characters than they seemed at first acquaintance; they shared similar tastes and attitudes toward women; they even looked similar. Fleming would teasingly refer to the Bond books as 'autobiography."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/121712-637305-ian-fleming-james-bond-huge-in-movies.htm?p=full

You can also read my piece on Ian Fleming's wartime creation, the intelligence commando group 30 Assault unit, in my piece for Counterterrorism magazine via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos4.jpg

And you can read my online column about the life of Ian Fleming and his iconic character James Bond via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

Note: The above Pen & Sword Publishers' photo shows Royal Navy Commander Ian Fleming at the office of British Naval Intelligence in London during World War II.

James Bond Author Ian Fleming To Be Honored With Statue Near White Cliffs of Dover

The British web site www.thisiskent.co.uk reports that Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond thrillers, will be honored with a stature in Dover.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/James-bond-author-Ian-Fleming-Dover-seafront/story-17610037-detail/story.html   

After Newtown, And Before It

The editors of National Review offer their view on the awful Newtown massacre.

On Friday there was much argument about the appropriateness of immediately “politicizing” the abomination at Sandy Hook Elementary. Most of it missed the mark. The truth is that the horror of Newtown, Conn, is neither “political” nor “apolitical,” but pre-political. How else to conceptualize the instinctual wrenching of the gut, at such great remove, by so many Americans? What human imperative is more basic than the imperative to protect our families? What need is more prerequisite to the very advent of civilization than the need to vouchsafe the future for our children?
What happened in Newtown is not an occasion for a national political “conversation.” It is an occasion to reflect on why we have political conversations at all.

Four-hundred-plus years of political theory in the Western tradition relies on the premise that citizens are at some basic level rational beings — differently endowed in virtues, and all capable, to be sure, of great foolishness and mischief and even evil — but in fundamental ways predictably human, and by extension answerable to reason and morality. The murder of 27 innocents by a moral monster reminds us that the great challenges to the practicability of this theory are the young and the mad — those who cannot yet fully answer to reason and morality, and those who never will. By consensus, we agree that children and madmen lack certain liberties the rest of us enjoy, and that we have toward them correlate paternalistic duties that we don’t toward each other. As ever, the devil — the politics — lies in the details.  

... This is not so say such laws cannot or should not be written — in the field of mental health, in particular, we think there are commonsense reforms that might make tragedies such as Newtown less likely — but merely to caution humility and care in their crafting.

The need for humility is especially acute in the case of gun control. The irreducible challenge the Second Amendment poses to gun restrictionists is that it does not bestow upon the people a right they previously lacked. It proscribes the government from infringing upon a right the people already have. It is not that the people are allowed to arm. It is that the government is disallowed to disarm them.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/335753/after-newtown-and-it-editors

A Brit Review Of Joseph Wambaugh's Harbor Nocturne

Alison Flood at the British newspaper the Guardian offers a Brit review of Joseph Wambaugh's novel Harbor Nocturne.

It's very hard not to fall for a novel in which a fight between Iron Man and Spider-Man ends up with the former writhing in pain on the ground, Marilyn Monroe, "aka Regis the plumber in another life", screaming and Captain America calling 911. Joseph Wambaugh is back on familiar ground with his fifth novel about the cops of the Hollywood Station, Harbour Nocturne, and lucky us. 

A former LAPD detective sergeant – he quit when his fame began intruding on his work – Wambaugh reveals on his website that he ran out of his own material to mine for his fiction 30 years ago. He began collecting fresh stories from serving officers, and in the front of Harbour Nocturne, the author thanks 51 of them "for the terrific anecdotes and great cop talk". From the costumed street characters who hustle tourists in front of Grauman's Chinese theatre to the police officer who lets a Gypsy off a ticket to avoid a curse, and the child lying dead while his mother and grandmother watch television, Harbour Nocturne's stories of real-life policing are odd, tragic, hilarious – always compelling.   

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/16/harbour-nocturne-joseph-wambaugh-review

You can also read my earlier review of Harbor Nocturne, which appeared in the Washington Times  via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/04/joseph-wambaughs-new-cop-novel-harbor.html

James Bond Incorrectly Portrayed On The Screen As A "Cartoon Character," Says Author William Boyd

William Boyd, the author of Restless, Any Human Heart and an upcoming James Bond continuation novel, says that Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond has been portrayed on film as a "cartoon character."

William Boyd, the historical novelist, has been commissioned to write a new Bond novel by the estate of Ian Fleming, who charted the character’s career in 14 books.

But he has dismissed the work of others who have brought the character to life, deliberately not going to see Skyfall, the latest film starring Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench, and claiming the spy was “not the suave Roger Moore-type English toff at all”.

Screenwriters have underplayed his true alcohol consumption, he said, pointing out that in Dr No 007 drank two bottles of bourbon, a bottle of champagne, a Calvados and four dry martinis in one night.

“In the films Bond is a cartoon character but in the novels he is far more troubled, nuanced and interesting,” Boyd told Radio Times. 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link to the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/9737200/Cartoon-film-James-Bond-should-be-massive-boozer-claims-William-Boyd.html 

FBI Dismantles The Triangle Terror Group

The FBI released information on the take down of the Triangle Terror Group.

To his sons and others in their rural North Carolina community, Daniel Patrick Boyd was a charismatic figure. But the U.S. citizen used his persuasive powers to no good end—he promoted violent jihad against Americans at home and abroad.

After a four-year investigation by the Raleigh-Durham Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Boyd and two of his sons, along with five other conspirators - known as the Triangle Terror Group - were arrested and charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder persons overseas, including U.S. military personnel. Boyd pled guilty and was sentenced in August 2012 to 18 years in prison.  

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/december/dismantling-the-triangle-terror-group

Mob Soldier Charged In "Dumb" Gangland Hit

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia has been covering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for BigTrial.net.

Mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo has been charged with first-degree murder in a gangland shooting that one police investigator called the "dumbest" mob hit he has ever seen.

A former federal prosecutor agreed, calling the broad daylight slaying of Gino DiPietro Wednesday afternoon "amateurish" but indicative of what the Philadelphia crime family has become.
Nicodemo, 41, was taken in to custody less than 30 minutes after the shooting. Witnesses had spotted him fleeing the scene in an SUV and gave authorities the license tag number. The vehicle was registered in Nicodemo's name and listed at his address, a few blocks from where DiPietro was gunned down.

The married father of two young children was arrested at that home without incident. He was charged with murder, conspiracy and weapons charges Thursday afternoon after a ballistic test linked a gun found in his car with a bullet fragment from the murder scene. Police also found gloves and a ski mask in the vehicle, a black Honda Pilot, according to an investigative source.Using a car registered in your own name to carry out a mob hit is considered an underworld blunder of the highest order. Usually a stolen vehicle or an untraceable "junker" is used and then quickly abandoned.

Getting rid of the murder weapon -- in this case a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum -- is also paramount.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2012/12/mob-soldier-charged-in-gangland-dumb-hit.html