Williams, Paul L. 1944–

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Williams, Paul L. 1944–

PERSONAL:

Born September 30, 1944. Education: Wilkes University, B.A.; Drew University, M.Div., Ph.D., 1976.

CAREER:

Academic, journalist, and consultant. University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, adjunct professor; Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA, adjunct professor; Metro, Scranton, PA, editor, publisher, and owner; Federal Bureau of Investigation, senior consultant on organized crime and international terrorism, worked for five years. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, teaching fellow.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Book Award for The Moral Philosophy of Peter Abelard; Keystone Press Awards.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Jerry R. Moore) Criterion-Referenced Testing for the Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, DC), 1980.

(Editor) Historicism and Faith: Proceedings of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Northeast Books (Scranton, PA), 1980.

The Moral Philosophy of Peter Abelard, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1980.

(Editor) Christian Faith in a Neo-pagan Society: Proceedings of the Third Convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Northeast Books (Scranton, PA), 1981.

(Editor) Christian Faith and Freedom: Proceedings of the Fourth Convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Northeast Books (Scranton, PA), 1982.

(Editor) Catholic Social Thought and the Teaching of John Paul II: Proceedings of the Fifth Convention (1982) of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Chicago, Illinois, March 26-28, 1982, Northeast Books (Scranton, PA), 1983.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Catholic Church but Were Afraid to Ask for Fear of Excommunication, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1989.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Lives of the Saints, Alpha (Indianapolis, IN), 2001.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Crusades, Alpha (Indianapolis, IN), 2002.

The Life and Work of Mother Teresa, Alpha Books (Indianapolis, IN), 2002.

Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror, Alpha (Parsippany, NJ), 2002.

The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2003.

Osama's Revenge—the Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2004.

The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, and the Coming Apocalypse, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2005.

The Dunces of Doomsday: 10 Blunders That Gave Rise to Radical Islam, Terrorist Regimes, and the Threat of an American Hiroshima, WND Books (Nashville, TN), 2006.

The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2007.

Contributor to World Net Daily and National Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul L. Williams is an academic, journalist, and consultant. Born September 30, 1944, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Wilkes University. Williams went on to earn both a master of divinity degree and a Ph.D. from Drew University. He worked for five years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a senior consultant on organized crime and international terrorism. In academia, he served as a teaching fellow at Lehigh University and as an adjunct professor at the University of Scranton and his alma mater, Wilkes University. As a journalist, he contributes to the World Net Daily and National Review and was the editor, publisher, and owner of Northeast Pennsylvania's Metro periodical. His 1980 book The Moral Philosophy of Peter Abelard, won a National Book Award.

In 2002 Williams published Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror. The account proposes Williams's rationale for Islamic discontent with Israel and the West and, through anonymous interviews with those who have had encounters with them, opens a window into the workings of al Qaeda.

Writing on the Culture Vulture Web site, Les Wright remarked that the book "behooves anyone with a conscience to morally condemn the murder of innocent people" during the September 11 terrorist attacks. Wright continued, however, noting that "branding the acts ‘senseless’ and the agents of destruction ‘[inscrutable] terrorists’ is to preclude the possibility of any meaningful understanding of this new enemy." Wright suggested that "anyone interested in insightful and nuanced understanding of the current global condition, of Arab and Islamic positions, or of the how and why which have brought us to this point would do well to read almost anything else." Jonathan Schanzer, reviewing the book in the Middle East Quarterly, observed that those interested in expanding their knowledge of al Qaeda "would be advised to read only appendices B and C of Williams's book. They provide a bibliography of websites and books on the subject written by persons more qualified."

Williams published The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia in 2003. The book gives a financial history of the Vatican and its political dealings in order to stay afloat financially, including with Mussolini, Hitler, and the Sicilian Mafia.

A contributor to Publishers Weekly found that "this is a surprisingly solid short look at the dubious financial dealings of the Vatican from the 1920s to the present." Booklist contributor Brendan Driscoll commented that the book's "straightforward manner and thoroughly documented evidence make it a compelling challenge for reform," calling it "a jaw-dropping book." Frank J. Coppa, reviewing the account in the Historian, found that "written in a vivid, some might say lurid, style, it is replete with errors of both fact and interpretation," adding that Williams's depiction of several "popes is less than objective." Coppa concluded that "despite the author's assertion that ‘the accounts in these pages are not exaggerations,’ but are ‘matters of recorded history,’ this is a polemical rather than a historical work."

Williams published Osama's Revenge—the Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You in 2004. Williams argues that it is highly probable that through Chechen rebels who might have gained access to nuclear weapons during the breakup of the Soviet Union and sold them to al Qaeda, the terrorist group is poised to make another attack against the United States from within its borders.

Rob Mitchell, writing in ForeWord Magazine, commented that the author "lays out a sobering case for the likelihood of a terrorist nuclear attack on U.S. soil. Citing sources he considers reliable, Williams is convincing, though his case is largely speculative and unsupported by hard evidence." Nevertheless, Mitchell concluded that it acts as a "coherent wake-up call to the complacent."

Williams published The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World in 2007. Here Williams explains how a network of terrorist groups, anti-American nations, and disgruntled individuals in key positions may join forces and take down Western society.

A contributor to the Midwest Book Review "recommended" the book as "an eye-opening, frightening survey." A contributor to the Reference & Research Book News warned that many of Williams's "claims are extraordinary, to say the least, and therefore require solid evidence; but much of the material is poorly or dubiously sourced." A contributor to the Forensic Examiner observed that "Williams does more than imply that U.S. intelligence is not paying attention, and while it is worth observing that the collective mess we are in may be attributed to past inattention/hubris, it does not follow that not all collective intelligence agents are bumbling Clouseaus. If Williams is making a case that Americans are not paying attention, this is a case the pop/pulp press will help him make." John Jaeger, reviewing the account in Library Journal, called it "interesting," but noted that "it does not provide a dispassionate or objective approach to the subject matter."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2003, Brendan Driscoll, review of The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia, p. 1128.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September 1, 2003, review of Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror, p. 86; December 1, 2003, N. Greene, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 762.

Christian Century, November 22, 1989, review of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Catholic Church but Were Afraid to Ask for Fear of Excommunication, p. 1099.

Commonweal, October 20, 1989, Lawrence S. Cunningham, review of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Catholic Church but Were Afraid to Ask for Fear of Excommunication, p. 574.

Forensic Examiner, fall, 2007, review of The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, p. 79.

ForeWord Magazine, September-October, 2004, Rob Mitchell, review of Osama's Revenge—the Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You, p. 84.

Historian, March 22, 2005, Frank J. Coppa, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 174.

Library Journal, June 1, 2007, John Jaeger, review of The Day of Islam, p. 135.

Middle East Journal, fall, 2004, review of Osama's Revenge—the Next 9/11, p. 708.

Middle East Quarterly, summer, 2003, Jonathan Schanzer, review of Al Qaeda, p. 84.

Midwest Book Review, July 1, 2007, review of The Day of Islam.

Publishers Weekly, February 24, 2003, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 64; March 3, 2003, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 60.

Reference & Research Book News, August 1, 2003, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 26; November 1, 2004, review of Osama's Revenge—the Next 9/11, p. 145; November 1, 2006, review of The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, and the Coming Apocalypse; August 1, 2007, review of The Day of Islam.

Times Literary Supplement, March 26, 2004, John Plender, review of The Vatican Exposed, p. 33.