A Howard Watson Intrigue

Howard Watson here. Glad you could join me. Many of you have written and asked how I met my wife Carol. For those of you who have read The Gordian Knot this rendering might sound repetitive. My best friend and fellow FBI colleague John Mason and I were Army officers stationed in the same camp in Vietnam. Two years later by happenstance we found ourselves roommates in the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. After reporting to the Director of New Recruits, I was informed that all new trainees had been divided into teams. Before I could locate my partner's name on the list, a finger tapped me on the shoulder. It was John. Both of us had proven our ability to cope well with difficulties in Vietnam so there was nothing much to prove in the Academy. The last three weeks of our 16 weeks training was review, review, review. Although I was the younger man, I felt something that I just couldn't explain, it was like I had a brother in John and so I deemed myself his protector, tel...

I am Howard Watson.  Glad you can join me again. After my last post I received quite a few queries on how I met John Mason. For those of you who didn't read The Gordian Knot my best friend and colleague John Mason and I met in Vietnam. I remember it like it was yesterday. When I stepped off the transport plane in Vietnam a blast of hot air hit my face. The place felt like a furnace. The country was not at all like I thought it would be. Vietnam was beautiful, true, but it was not a paradise. The greenery was the greenest I'd ever seen - glistening, but somehow threatening. I remembered what really scared me was the strange smell in the air. I later found out that it was the stench of death. I had, six months prior, graduated from West Point Academy as a Second Lieutenant. After receiving my instructions and meeting other officers in the camp I arrived at the tent where I would be quartered for the next seven months. Inside were two other lieutenants unpacking their be...

I am Howard Watson. I am an FBI Special Supervisory Agent in Charge of a Washington, D.C. unit that focuses on weaponry, forensics and other illegalities that cross state lines. I have been an FBI Agent for over 20 years. I graduated from West Point Academy, fought in several wars and I am fluent in the Russian language. My wife Carol is an attorney and we have three sons, two of whom are twins. My oldest son is in law school and the twins are in 6 th grade. I have two younger sisters, both married, and happy to say, to some pretty level-headed men. Both sisters have two children. My parents are still alive and living in Brooklyn, New York. My family and I live in Virginia. I've tackled some pretty serious cases while an agent. Some of them have made me believe I wouldn't make it home alive. They included the Iranian rescue mission, capture of a major drug lord from Peru, the breakup of an illicit diamond ring in Philadelphia, the secretive but amazingly lucra...

Dear Friends and Supporters of Haymarket Center , Just a reminder of the Skinny Williams Jazz Concert fundraiser for Haymarket Center on Wednesday, August 15, 2012.  Click on the link below as it will offer you a sample of Skinny’s wonderful sound. He is a dynamic performer and we are fortunate to have such a great artist perform for our fundraiser on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 from 5:30-8:00pm . Listen to his sound and then go to our website and for only $40 you can be part of the excitement. We accept VISA and MasterCard and you can pay by check. This will be an exhilarating and exciting 2 ½ hours on a hot summer evening in August!  www.HCenter.org  – you will not be disappointed! skinny williams on wgn tv children of the ghetto

This isn’t just any beach in Chicago I’m trying to save. In my opinion it’s the greatest beach in Chicago I’m trying to save. Chicago is known throughout the country for its beautiful front yard – we call it Lake Michigan . With its miles and miles of flowing tresses bordering one entire side of Chicago , many beaches are described as home to thousands of people from Memorial Day to Labor Day every year. I need your help.   The City of Chicago is strapped, economically speaking, and unless we “adopt” 57 th Street Beach and clean it up no one will be able to enjoy the wonderfulness that this beach offers in a myriad of ways: clean sands, numerous trees and bushes, beautiful landscaping and stonework, bike/walking paths, water fountains and BBQ grills. Oh, and let's not forget the field house on Promontory Point where weddings and receptions have taken place forever.   But some of you take this beach (and other beaches) for granted. Who cleans up the beach when City bud...

            “Nothin from nothin leaves nothin. You gotta have somethin, if you wanna be with me.”                                                                                     Billy Preston (The Fifth Beatle)                                                      ...

“Others are on their way,” she said. “They will come armed with revenge. My little brother’s death will not go unnoticed...not by you or the venomous terrorizers who keep fighting over rocks they call precious. Precious to whom? Not my people. They will come, just like me. This is in no way over. The diamond owners and intermediaries must end their hold over our children and my country. Five deaths for my brother - that is still not enough. Do what you want with me...it does not matter.   My brother will not come back from the grave.” The above is an excerpt from my third book called The Lie . It is the third installment in the “Howard Watson Intrigue” series. It is also a quick and compelling view of the diamond wars from the victims’ perspective. Unless you have been living under a rock lately you have heard people mention the video that has gone viral on Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Party, a Ugandan guerilla group seemingly bent on ridding its country of its...