The Torch: In May 1945, France perpetrated a massacre of native Algerians. Was that colonial crime a trigger of today's terrorism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781546977612)

In this easy-to-read yet deeply affecting historical thriller, authors Dan and Patti Verin passionately open the general public's eyes on one of the causes of today's TERRORISM.

In 1941, before the start of WW2, fresh out of West Point, Lieutenant Henry Towers he sent for 'spy' missions in Algeria then under French control.

In early 1943, he receives a Purple Heart in the 1943 Tunisian Campaign.

But his top mission is HUMAN INTELLIGENCE - gathering INFO about the people of North Africa.

He is under direct orders from FDR who, as a visionary, was planning to end colonialism in order to prevent post-war conflicts, according to the Atlantic Charter.

Using the skills he gained during his intense undercover training in New York City, Henry is tasked to identify friends and foes ahead of the forthcoming Operation Torch invasion of 1942.

To document his Human Intelligence reports for the President, he navigates through the different communities of a racially segregated society - "Pieds-Noirs" European settlers as well as Muslim and Jewish natives.

He ends up entangled with the local mob and the German/Italian police.

Involved in the tortuous political negotiations between the Americans and the fascist French leadership, he finds out that FDR's offer for freedom to the natives is deviously scuttled by French plotters.

Unsustainable tensions develop when native Algerians respond to FDR's promises. Their peaceful attempts are ruthlessly crushed by France, intent to retain its colonial hegemony.

Terribly disappointed, Henry fears that as the war ends, something truly horrific will happen. Sadly his fears are confirmed when he is sent to investigate the appalling slaughter of native Algerians at the Setif massacre, committed but cleverly hidden by the French authorities. After 9/11, on his 82nd birthday, Henry ponders about our fickle ally France who wantonly committed the brutal genocidal crime he had witnessed, a harbinger of today's global TERRORISM.