The Owl and the Hawk: An End to Terrorism

John Errett
Free Enterprise Press (2008)
ISBN 9780980192001
Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (7/08)


Alan Davis is President of Davis Industries, a large energy company started by his great-grandfather. When one of the company’s oil refineries in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is damaged by a terrorist bombing, Alan sends his second-in-command and close family friend Dan Millar to assess the damage. Alan is distraught when he learns that Dan’s AirFrance flight has been brought down by a terrorist bombing meant to take out one of the other passengers on the flight. Frustrated with what he sees as a lack of real effort to bring an end to terrorism by the American government and the governments of other free nations, Alan is determined to take matters into his own hands. In an effort to put an end to the rampant terrorism plaguing the United States, Europe and the Middle East he devises a plan with the help of high-powered friends and associates, including former members of the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI-6 Herb Benz and Brian Hall. The group, given the name “ADALA” (Arabic for “justice”) sets up a training facility in a remote section of Texas for American Muslims to be educated in weaponry, espionage, camouflage and methodology, all in an effort to assassinate terrorists planning Jihad on “infidels” around the world.

American Muslims are, in Alan’s mind, the perfect candidates for the jobs “ADALA” wants completed. His reasoning is that American Muslims are frequently discriminated against because other American’s cannot separate the Muslim they see on their flight, in their grocery store, on their train, or anywhere else with the Muslim terror sects that use their own interpretation of the Qur’an and the teaches of Allah as the basis for the carnage they inflict on innocent lives.

The plan is for two trainees, known as “Owls,” to be dispatched together to hot spots around the globe with a specific target assigned for them to research, follow, and ultimately assassinate. “ADALA” is relying on assistance from government intelligence agencies in finding these targets and getting their “OWL’s” set up safely in the right places. Once the target has been studied and the best method of assassination has been determined, one of the “OWL’s” will become the “HAWK” responsible for taking the terrorist out.

Alan is eventually able to take “ADALA” and its mission public in an effort to garner support around the world for the cause he so whole-heartedly supports. Author John Errett uses “The Owl and the Hawk,” a work of fiction that reads almost as a manifesto, to get his mission statement and plan, called the “Privilege of Passage Plan” (or “POP”), out to the world. I don’t know if ADALA and the POP plan would be supported by Americans or citizens of foreign lands also affected by acts of terrorism. I am sure there are some that would support Errett’s cause unconditionally, and others that may find the premise of the novel and his POP plan disturbing and too radical. Either way, Errett will get you thinking about more than just the well-written, action-packed fictional tale he has weaved. What do you believe in? Would you support the actions outlined in “The Owl and the Hawk?” Would you admit that you agree with Errett’s ideas, or admit that you don’t? Each reader will have to answer these questions for him or herself and that is the best part of this book. It challenges people to really think about an issue that some would rather sweep under the rug.

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