Pretty impressive how they nailed this phony right away. I'm interested to look back and see how the whores treated him. Much more credulous than Salon, I'd bet...
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2003/03/26/braude/index1.htmlsnip:
A phone call to Braude's publisher reveals that the author never set foot in Iraq while researching this book, and the Globe profile says he has never lived there. (He does appear to have visited the country as a child.) His publisher explains that as an Iraqi-American Jew, Braude couldn't get a visa to enter the country, despite many efforts. Braude can't be blamed for the Iraqi government's policies, but he is responsible for how he represents himself and he should have been upfront about this. Instead, as in his dedication of the book to "Daniel Pearl, of beloved memory" -- a man who, it turns out, Braude never knew -- he fosters false impressions by artful omission.
The U.S. has made the decision to invade Iraq and eject its current government. (By the way, in another example of evasion posing as imaginative daring, Braude refuses to take a position on the action, dismissing those who do as paying "lip service" to an excessively "polarizing" discussion.) We're now obligated, by our own moral posturing and self-interest, to help that country pull itself out of the hole. Perhaps we do, as President Bush seems to believe, have many fine things to bring to the effort. But if a glib and opportunistic slickster like Braude is any indication of who's about to descend on Iraq, we'll just be adding insult to injury.