This thriller novel is based on real-life refugee horror stories

Did you know that the refugee crisis on the Mediterranean Coast is being manipulated by both the mafia and ISIS? Author Brad Thor joined “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” this week to talk about his latest book, “Use of Force,” and share some of the real-life stories that inspired it.

“Use of Force” has a Navy SEAL protagonist named Scot Harvath who becomes a counterterrorism operative. Thor cited Daily Beast reporter Barbie Latza Nadeau as an important inspiration for the book; Nadeau is the Daily Beast’s Rome bureau chief covering the refugee crisis and its connections to the mafia and ISIS. People flee Libya and risk their lives trying to get to Italy, but sometimes they hand over life savings only to die trapped on boats or be separated from their loved ones.

“They are torturing and raping people,” Thor described. “They are splitting families up.”

Smugglers will pack people into ships and sometimes force men who have never piloted a boat to risk their lives, giving them just enough fuel to get outside Libyan waters and a phone programmed with one number for the Italian coast guard. Boats are sinking while filled with people who were trying to escape to a better life.

“It is a humanitarian crisis,” Thor said. “It is beyond barbaric, beyond horrific, what is going on.”

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