title: Assassination in Khartoum: An Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Book
author:  David A. Korn 
description: In 1973, Palestinian Black September gunmen stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum where two U.S. diplomats and a Belgian colleague were attending a reception and threatened to kill them unless their demands were met. Among their demands were the releases of Sirhan Sirhan, convicted killer of Robert Kennedy, and of Palestinians imprisoned in Jordan and Israel. President Richard Nixon--establishing a policy which remains in effect--refused to negotiate. This dire decision, as Korn reveals, doomed the three captives, set off an internal furor within the State Department and caused the White House to issue preemptive statements defending Nixon against accusations that the policy was a shocking display of indifference to Americans abroad in distress. The Belgian government attempted to ransom with money the release of its diplomat, Guy Eid. Korn, a former Foreign Service officer, presents a tense, compelling, carefully researched account of the abduction, the 59-hour siege of the Saudi embassy, the assassination of the diplomats, the surrender of the gunmen and their unexpected release by the Sudanese government. Korn explores the intriguing theory that Eid was used by Black September to trap Ambassador Cleo Noel and George Moore, deputy chief of mission, and was betrayed by the Palestinians. Korn is the author of Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: Preliminary rating: 4.7Q
  
  Synopsis:
  
  In the Sudan decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in
  Cairo precipitate a fierce and bloody rebellion and Holy War headed by a
  charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or Expected One'. The British are
  forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to
  rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the country.
  
  Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney
  is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum. It is here that he meets Captain
  Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, as well as the British Consul, David
  Benbrook, and his three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody
  backdrop of the siege of Khartoum, in which British General Charles George
  Gordon is killed and the British retreat, these three powerful men fight to
  survive.
  
  Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of
  storytelling, The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smi