Enchanted City AGENTS OF INNOCENCE

By Paul Gray

Question: Name a new book by an editor of the Washington Post dealing with the subject of the Central Intelligence Agency. Hint: Bob Woodward's much ballyhooed Veil, an expose by the renowned Watergate reporter of the deeds and alleged confessions of the late director William J. Casey, does not count. Reward: those who come up with the correct answer can settle down to read an uncommonly informative and intriguing espionage thriller.

Agents of Innocence, a first novel by Washington Post Associate Editor David Ignatius, demonstrates an admirable flair for transcribing screaming headlines into plausible matters of fiction. Before he joined the Post in 1986, Ignatius, 37, spent three years during the early 1980s as Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Among the many events he witnessed was the continuing demolition of civilized life in Lebanon by indigenous sects and fractious neighbors. Having reported parts of this complex and in many ways preposterous story, Ignatius has now set about lending these experiences the coherence of make-believe.

The plot gets rolling in the fall of 1969 when an idealistic young CIA agent named Tom Rogers reports for duty in the "enchanted city" of Beirut. "It was a city of confluence, where two cultures -- East and West -- met to produce a steaming and sensuous vortex, like the collision of two ocean currents." The only shadow on this idyllic scene is the restive presence of the Palestinians, and keeping tabs on them and their leaders becomes Tom's job. Before long he establishes a tenuous contact with Jamal Ramlawi, a handsome, brooding young man reputed to be a rising star in the largest guerrilla organization. Jamal refuses to spy directly for Rogers and the CIA, but he does offer liaison, a system of sharing information between his organization and the U.S. Rogers' superiors back in Washington dislike this arrangement but eventually accept it in the absence of anything better.

Problems, of course, ensue. The CIA director notes the "mess" that will occur "if the Israelis find out that we're running an agent at the top of the P.L.O." Furthermore, Rogers and his colleagues in Lebanon slowly discover themselves embroiled in a game with no recognizable rules. After a possibly dangerous mission early in his tenure there, Rogers remarks, "Nobody in the Middle East would dare harm a representative of the United States." This is before the car bombs start blowing Beirut apart.

Agents of Innocence contains all the detailed local color and technical arcana that the thriller genre demands. Ignatius can convey the terror even an experienced spy feels when approaching isolated border crossings and potentially murderous guards. He can explain how to construct a remote-control detonator and how to gauge the damage of a terrorist blast by sight alone: "White smoke meant a very large explosion. A bomb that detonated so powerfully and quickly that it sucked the oxygen out of the air, leaving a white plume of smoke." The author also occasionally strains a little too hard to keep pulses racing. Hearts pound in chests "like a hammer against an anvil." Women have a habit of showing up not simply undressed but "completely naked."

But this novel has something more on its mind than escapist entertainment. The fates of Rogers, Jamal and a sizable cast of supporting players are meticulously connected to the larger forces that are tearing a society to shreds. Although the CIA and its people make mistakes, they are not the villains of the piece. Rogers' innocence rests in his belief that he and his country can apply reasonableness and common sense to a situation they do not understand. History does not bear out that assumption, and neither does this disturbing novel.