The Taliban in Texas

by John J. Maresca

Overview

Joey Torino is a man who has tired of the busy, and dangerous, life he has led, and has simply decided to opt out. He is done with all that—the pressures of doing something that someone else wants him to do, the risks of doing things he questions, resents, or even disagrees with. And he has managed to escape that life, quietly, without fanfare or animosity, and with just enough income to be able to live, in the northern forests of Maine, in the secluded, modest style he prefers. And he is happy in his simple life here.

But then a message from his past arrives. Pen Highsmith has another difficult mission for him, and although those dangerous episodes in Russia are long past now, Joey’s "special skills" are needed again.

Joey faces a difficult situation, involving the Russians, a complicated low-key civil conflict, ancient suspicions and animosities, and a ruthless, relentless enemy, hidden in the mountains—in Afghanistan. And the monumental investments of the Wilde Oil company might be put at risk, under certain circumstances and in some situations.

There are clear risks, and potential dangers, which have to be dealt with and surmounted, in a country, in a region, which is complicated and potentially dangerous. So Highsmith reaches out to Joey Torino.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783838217628
Publisher:	ibidem Press
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Series:	Edition Noema , #1
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John J. Maresca is a retired US Ambassador, whose career has spanned decades of diplomatic service and conflict mediation. Born in Italy, he arrived in the US as an infant with his American mother, on the last ship leaving Europe as World War II was beginning. After serving as a US Naval officer, he embarked on a successful career as a diplomat, serving as the Chief of Staff for two Secretaries General of NATO.

From that position, he began negotiating with the USSR in Helsinki in 1972.  He was the central American official and Ambassador in the long set of negotiations aimed at closing the Cold War between East and West in Europe, through the final summit-level all-European signature session in Paris in 1990. He was then named as the Special US Ambassadorial Envoy to ceremonially open direct US diplomatic relations with each of the “newly independent States from the former USSR,” following the break-up of the USSR.  He traveled to each of those new states on that mission, starting with the newly-independent Ukraine. He then became a roving American conflict mediator, seeking to resolve local conflicts in Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, and regions of former Yugoslavia, before retiring from the US diplomatic service. He subsequently became Vice President of the Unocal Corporation (now a part of Chevron), focusing on regions of conflict including Afghanistan and the Caucasus.  He has published several books and numerous articles, and has spoken on conflict issues in more than sixty countries, on every continent except Australia.