Damascus Protocol

About the Book

A thousand corpses lie on the ocean bed in a sunken ship and some precious cargo. This is a story of the emotional involvement of a few men to salvage the cargo and, if possible, the ship. The operations are conducted with care. The whole ceremony is utterly unreal, when one of its members is hauled back to Israel and the others try to resurrect the ship with its cargo intact. The Middle East war has a serious impact on one young family, and a quick mental calculation proves that this is no random search for a few lost images and artifacts. “Damascus Protocol” is thus inspired by the research into Palmyra and the destruction of antiquities in Arabia. Since the early 1970s, the region of Arabia has been one of the most promising new areas of research in antiquities and Arabic archaeology. Until now, there has never been an urgent need to synthesize the archaeological history of this region from the beginnings of Arabic settlements and the rise of Moslem faith. Volumes already exist of the Pleistocene era to the Achaean period; there is published evidence for prehistory and history of the Arabic region, especially Syria and surrounding regions. The destruction of various ancient sites due to the conflict in the region since, Iraq was an inspiration for this book. Research was conducted on literary evidence from Greek, Roman, Syriac, and Arab sources with an overview of the relevant Syrian archaeological evidence. This aspect of the global conflict is contained in the book “Damascus Protocol.”

About the Author

The author was born in Kashmir, India, and her father served as an officer with the Eighth Gurkha Rifles with the British and Indian Armies. The author’s uncles both served in the world wars. Her paternal uncle was a great influence in her life and served as a naval attaché under President Eisenhower. She married an air force officer and pilot with whom she traveled to many places in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Far East, and the Americas. She primarily trained as a scientist, a molecular geneticist, and conducted research in cell membrane genetics, signaling and transduction systems, collaborating with Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia, Sloan Kettering in New York, and NIH in Bethesda. After obtaining her doctorate, she taught and researched extensively in molecular genetics and biomedical sciences. She entered the legal profession, trained as a lawyer with a highly reputable international firm, and completed her master’s degree in intellectual property law, earning a first with distinction in her dissertation. She later completed a master’s course in international relations and politics, which serves as a foundation for many of her books. The author has two sons. One is an officer with the RAF and married to a British Airways pilot and first officer. The second son is training for a career in aviation as a trainee pilot, hoping to follow in the well-established family tradition, but engages an additional passion for Formula One racing. The author is currently an entrant with the Faculty of Advocates and College of Justice in Edinburgh, Scotland.