"Some kind of monster was being born."

The Goodwill Store is a great place to find books that you missed, but would like to read. With all the news about Iran, I could not pass up Den of Lions, former AP Middle East Chief Terry Anderson's memoirs of seven years in prison, written in 1993.

Terry's fiance, Madeleine, was six months pregnant when he was captured by Shiite gunmen. Were they wasted years? "Not quite," writes Anderson. "No years are empty in a life; and wasted - that depends on what is made of them, and after."

He was released at night in December, 1991. The first thing that hit him was the beauty of the stars, which he had not seen in seven years. Then, in the ambassador's residence in Damascus, Syria, he was brought in to embrace his fiance, whom he had not seen in 2,454 days.

It was March 16, 1985 in Beirut, Lebanon when the thugs kidnapped Mr. Anderson. Anderson was helpless, "a toy these young men were using to play out their fantasies." Anderson writes about his experiences. Madeleine does, too. She gives us this background:

"The fundamentalists in Iran were sending money and mullahs to preach revolution and hatred of the West to the Shiites. Shiites were the largest sect in Lebanon, making up more than half of the population of 3 to 4 million people. They were mostly poor and originally laborers, who had become angry and radicalized."

The civil war in Lebanon began in 1975 and continued for sixteen years. Madeleine was brought up in Beirut, a Marionite Catholic. "Some kind of monster was being born," she writes of the Shiites grabbing power through something that was being called "Islamic Jihad," which we are by now all too familiar with. Exascerbating things were the Palestinians kicked out of Jordan, who were waging war with Israel from Lebanese soil.

In the days ahead, as time permits, I will write more about this book, which I found utterly engrossing.