books tagged “war on terror”

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  • 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of The Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
    by Kevin Flynn
    ISBN 0805080325 (0-8050-8032-5)
    Softcover, Henry Holt & Co

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    In 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, New York Times writers Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn vividly recreate the 102-minute span between the moment Flight 11 hit the first Twin Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001, and the moment the second tower collapsed, all from the perspective of those inside the buildings--the 12,000 who escaped, and the 2,749 who did not. It's becoming easier, years later, to forget the profound, visceral responses the Trade Center attacks evoked in the days and weeks following September 11. Using hundreds of interviews, countless transcripts of radio and phone communications, and exhaustive research, Dwyer and Flynn bring that flood of responses back--from heartbreak to bewilderment to fury. The randomness of death and survival is heartbreaking. One man, in the second tower, survived because he bolted from his desk the moment he heard the first plane hit; another, who stayed at his desk on the 97th floor, called his wife in his final moments to tell her to cancel a surprise trip he had planned. In many cases, the deaths of those who survived the initial attacks but were killed by the collapse of the towers were tragically avoidable. Building code exemptions, communication breakdowns between firefighters and police, and policies put in place by building management to keep everyone inside the towers in emergencies led, the authors argue, to the deaths of hundreds who might otherwise have survived. September 11 is by now both familiar and nearly mythological. Dwyer and Flynn's accomplishment is recounting that day's events in a style that is stirring, thorough, and refreshingly understated. --Erica C. Barnett [via]

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  • 9-11
    by Noam Chomsky
    ISBN 1583224890 (1-58322-489-0)
    Softcover, Seven Stories Pr

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    It is always instructive to read American's premier dissident thinker if only simply to get an alternative take on what constitutes our present day "common sense"--an urgent project he undertakes in 9-11. Chomsky, whose recent hugely prolific political output has made him something of an icon of the American left, began his career as a ground-breaking theoretical linguist. And it is his attention to detail and language which continue to make him such a useful guide through the murky world of power politics and particularly to US Foreign Policy in the Middle East. In grappling with 9-11, a date which has become a noun whose very definition has been consciously moulded by the media and the American establishment, Chomsky is taking on one of the biggest challenges of our time. But this is a very slight book in which to do this. A collection of interviews conducted in the month following the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center Chomsky is here keen to stress the urgency of a response to 9-11 that is not simply reactionary warfaring. It behoves us to discover why 9-11 really happened. In the words of the title of another very useful book: Why Do People Hate America?. In such a small, and sometimes rather repetitive, volume Chomsky can only really encourage us to ask better questions and to seek more carefully and widely for better answers. But if questions are beginning to form then readers could do worse than look to this useful and provocative book. --Mark Thwaite [via]

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  • The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
    by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States
    ISBN 0393326713 (0-393-32671-3)
    Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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    The result of months of intensive investigations and inquiries by a specially appointed bipartisan panel, The 9/11 Commission Report is one of the most important historical documents of the modern era. And while that fact alone makes it worth owning, it is also a chilling and valuable piece of nonfiction: a comprehensive and alarming look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history and the events that led up to it. The commission traces the roots of al-Qaeda's strategies along with the emergence of the 19 hijackers and how they entered the United States and boarded airplanes. It details the missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert disaster. Using transcripts of cockpit voice recordings, the report describes events on board the planes along with the chaotic reaction on the ground from nearly every level of government. Going forward, the commission calls for a comprehensive overhaul of what it sees as a deeply flawed and disjointed intelligence-gathering operation. The creation of a post for a single National Security Director is recommended, along with the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center. The report finds fault with the approaches of both the Clinton and Bush administrations but, because they were a bipartisan panel and the problems described are so systemic and far-reaching, they stop short of assigning blame to any particular person or group. Credit must be given to how readable the report is. At more than 500 pages, the writing is clear and forceful and the information is made more accessible since it is fre from election politics and rancor. While the commission notes that future attacks are probably inevitable, a coordinated preventive effort along with a clear plan to respond with efficiency can offer Americans some hope in a post-9/11 world. --John Moe [via]

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  • 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Official edition) Including the Executive Summary
    by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9-11 Commission)
    ISBN 1579809677 (1-57980-967-7)
    Softcover, Claitors Pub Div

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    The result of months of intensive investigations and inquiries by a specially appointed bipartisan panel, The 9/11 Commission Report is one of the most important historical documents of the modern era. And while that fact alone makes it worth owning, it is also a chilling and valuable piece of nonfiction: a comprehensive and alarming look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history and the events that led up to it. The commission traces the roots of al-Qaeda's strategies along with the emergence of the 19 hijackers and how they entered the United States and boarded airplanes. It details the missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert disaster. Using transcripts of cockpit voice recordings, the report describes events on board the planes along with the chaotic reaction on the ground from nearly every level of government. Going forward, the commission calls for a comprehensive overhaul of what it sees as a deeply flawed and disjointed intelligence-gathering operation. The creation of a post for a single National Security Director is recommended, along with the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center. The report finds fault with the approaches of both the Clinton and Bush administrations but, because they were a bipartisan panel and the problems described are so systemic and far-reaching, they stop short of assigning blame to any particular person or group. Credit must be given to how readable the report is. At more than 500 pages, the writing is clear and forceful and the information is made more accessible since it is fre from election politics and rancor. While the commission notes that future attacks are probably inevitable, a coordinated preventive effort along with a clear plan to respond with efficiency can offer Americans some hope in a post-9/11 world. --John Moe [via]

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  • The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report Of The National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States Official Government Edition
    by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9-11 Commission)
    ISBN 0160723043 (0-16-072304-3)
    Softcover, United States Government Printing

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    Book summary:

    The result of months of intensive investigations and inquiries by a specially appointed bipartisan panel, The 9/11 Commission Report is one of the most important historical documents of the modern era. And while that fact alone makes it worth owning, it is also a chilling and valuable piece of nonfiction: a comprehensive and alarming look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history and the events that led up to it. The commission traces the roots of al-Qaeda's strategies along with the emergence of the 19 hijackers and how they entered the United States and boarded airplanes. It details the missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert disaster. Using transcripts of cockpit voice recordings, the report describes events on board the planes along with the chaotic reaction on the ground from nearly every level of government. Going forward, the commission calls for a comprehensive overhaul of what it sees as a deeply flawed and disjointed intelligence-gathering operation. The creation of a post for a single National Security Director is recommended, along with the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center. The report finds fault with the approaches of both the Clinton and Bush administrations but, because they were a bipartisan panel and the problems described are so systemic and far-reaching, they stop short of assigning blame to any particular person or group. Credit must be given to how readable the report is. At more than 500 pages, the writing is clear and forceful and the information is made more accessible since it is fre from election politics and rancor. While the commission notes that future attacks are probably inevitable, a coordinated preventive effort along with a clear plan to respond with efficiency can offer Americans some hope in a post-9/11 world. --John Moe [via]

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  • The 9/11 Report
    by Thomas H. Kean, Lee Hamilton, Nat'L Commission on Terrorist Attacks, New York Times Staff
    ISBN 0312935544 (0-312-93554-4)
    Softcover, St Martins Pr

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    Book summary:

    With Reporting and Analysis by the New York Times

    What happened on 9/11 and how? Have we learned any lessons? Are we safer now?
     
    The questions every American wants answered.

    Since September 11, 2001, Americans have wondered how the tragic events of that day could have occurred.  This is the complete report of the circumstances surrounding the attacts, including:

    *Al Qaeda and the organization of the 9/11 attack
    *Intelligence collection, analysis, and management
    *International counterterrorism policy
    *The inner workings of terrorist financing
    *The security of American borders 
    *Law enforcement inside the U.S.
    *Commercial aviation and transportation safety
    * Personal interviews with Presidents Clinton and Bush on their roles

    Supplemented with analysis and reporting by The New York Times, this edition of The 9/11 Report also makes recommendations as to how to prevent terrorist attacks in the future.
    [via]

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  • Acts of Aggression: Policing Rogue States
    by Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said
    ISBN 1583225463 (1-58322-546-3)
    Softcover, Seven Stories Pr

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    Book summary:

    What constitutes the behavior that gets a nation labeled a "rogue state"? If, Noam Chomsky suggests, we consider a state to be acting in an "outlaw" fashion when it refuses to heed the articles and resolutions of the United Nations, then the United States is as much a "rogue state" as Saddam Hussein's Iraq--if not more. Chomsky presents a brief outline of America's attempts--once the cold war was over--to reconstruct Iraq as an enemy after years of turning a blind eye to Saddam's activities and even supplying him with aid. He also considers how the broader "war" on terrorism fits into this post-cold-war strategy. Noted commentator on Middle Eastern affairs Edward Said supplements Chomsky's argument with a consideration of the severity of U.S. sanctions against Iraq and what he views as a growing disregard for the interests of other Arab nations in the region. And Ramsey Clark offers a brief coda on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Chomsky himself delivers a more elaborate consideration of this theme in another book in the Open Media series, The Umbrella of U.S. Power. --Ron Hogan [via]

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  • Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror
    by Richard A. Clarke
    ISBN 0743260457 (0-7432-6045-7)
    Softcover, Free Pr

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    Book summary:

    Few political memoirs have made such a dramatic entrance as that by Richard A. Clarke. During the week of the initial publication of Against All Enemies, Clarke was featured on 60 Minutes, testified before the 9/11 commission, and touched off a raging controversy over how the presidential administration handled the threat of terrorism and the post-9/11 geopolitical landscape. Clarke, a veteran Washington insider who had advised presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, dissects each man's approach to terrorism but levels the harshest criticism at the latter Bush and his advisors who, Clarke asserts, failed to take terrorism and Al-Qaeda seriously. Clarke details how, in light of mounting intelligence of the danger Al-Qaeda presented, his urgent requests to move terrorism up the list of priorities in the early days of the administration were met with apathy and procrastination and how, after the attacks took place, Bush and key figures such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney turned their attention almost immediately to Iraq, a nation not involved in the attacks. Against All Enemies takes the reader inside the Beltway beginning with the Reagan administration, who failed to retaliate against the 1982 Beirut bombings, fueling the perception around the world that the United States was vulnerable to such attacks. Terrorism becomes a growing but largely ignored threat under the first President Bush, whom Clarke cites for his failure to eliminate Saddam Hussein, thereby necessitating a continued American presence in Saudi Arabia that further inflamed anti-American sentiment. Clinton, according to Clarke, understood the gravity of the situation and became increasingly obsessed with stopping Al-Qaeda. He had developed workable plans but was hamstrung by political infighting and the sex scandal that led to his impeachment. But Bush and his advisers, Clarke says, didn't get it before 9/11 and they didn't get it after, taking a unilateral approach that seemed destined to lead to more attacks on Americans and American interests around the world. Clarke's inside accounts of what happens in the corridors of power are fascinating and the book, written in a compelling, highly readable style, at times almost seems like a fiction thriller. But the threat of terrorism and the consequences of Bush's approach to it feel very sobering and very real. --John Moe [via]

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  • America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It
    by Mark Steyn
    ISBN 0895260786 (0-89526-078-6)
    Hardcover, Perseus Distribution Services

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    Book summary:

    In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win. [via]

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  • The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq
    by George Packer
    ISBN 078628451X (0-7862-8451-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    As the death toll mounts in the Iraq War, Americans are agonizing over how the mess started and what to do now. George Packer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, joins the debate with his thoughtful book The Assassins' Gate. Packer describes himself as an ambivalent pro-war liberal "who supported a war [in Iraq] by about the same margin that the voting public had supported Al Gore." He never believed the argument that Iraq should be invaded because of weapons of mass destruction. Instead, he saw the war as a way to get rid of Saddam Hussein and build democracy in Iraq, in the vein of the U.S. interventions in Haiti and Bosnia.

    How did such lofty aims get so derailed? How did the U.S. get stuck in a quagmire in the Middle East? Packer traces the roots of the war back to a historic shift in U.S. policy that President Bush made immediately after 9/11. No longer would the U.S. be hamstrung by multilateralism or working through the UN. It would act unilaterally around the world--forging temporary coalitions with other nations where suitable--and defend its status as the sole superpower. But when it came to Iraq, even Bush administration officials were deeply divided. Packer takes readers inside the vicious bureaucratic warfare between the Pentagon and State Department that turned U.S. policy on Iraq into an incoherent mess. We see the consequences in the second half of The Assassins' Gate, which takes the reader to Iraq after the bombs have stopped dropping. Packer writes vividly about how the country deteriorated into chaos, with U.S. authorities in Iraq operating in crisis mode. The book fails to capture much of the debate about the war among Iraqis themselves--instead relying mostly on the views of one prominent Iraqi exile--but it is an insightful contribution to the debate about the decisions--and blunders--behind the war. --Alex Roslin [via]

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  • Hanson, Victor Davis: An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism
    An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism
    by Victor Davis Hanson
    ISBN 1400031133 (1-4000-3113-3)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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  • Between War and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan to Iraq
    by Victor Hanson
    ISBN 0812972732 (0-8129-7273-2)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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    Book summary:

    In his acclaimed collection An Autumn of War, the scholar and military historian Victor Davis Hanson expressed powerful and provocative views of September 11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. Now, in these challenging new essays, he examines the worlds ongoing war on terrorism, from America to Iraq, from Europe to Israel, and beyond.

    In direct language, Hanson portrays an America making progress against Islamic fundamentalism but hampered by the self-hatred of elite academics at home and the cynical self-interest of allies abroad. He sees a new and urgent struggle of evil against good, one that can fail only if we convince ourselves that our enemies fight because of something we, rather than they, did.

    Whether its a clear-cut defense of Israel as a secular democracy, a denunciation of how the U.N. undermines the U.S., a plea to drastically alter our alliance with Saudi Arabia, or a perception that postwar Iraq is reaching a dangerous tipping point, Hansons arguments have the shock of candor and the fire of conviction. [via]

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  • Bush at War
    by Bob Woodward
    ISBN 0743244613 (0-7432-4461-3)
    Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Bush at War focuses on the three months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during which the U.S. prepared for war in Afghanistan, took steps toward a preemptive strike against Iraq, intensified homeland defense, and began a well-funded CIA covert war against terrorism around the world. The narrative is classic Woodward: using his inside access to the major players, he offers a nearly day-by-day account of the decision-making processes and power battles behind the headlines. Woodward's information is based on tape-recorded interviews of over a hundred sources (some unnamed), including four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, along with notes from cabinet meetings and access to some classified reports.

    Woodward's analysis of President Bush's leadership style is especially fascinating. A self-described "gut player" who relies heavily on instinct, Bush comes across as a man of action continually pressing his cabinet for concrete results. The revelation that the president developed and publicly stated the so-called Bush Doctrine--the policy that the U.S. would not only go after terrorists everywhere but also those governments or groups which harbor them--without first consulting Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is particularly telling. Other principals are examined with equal scrutiny. Though National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice emerges as soft-spoken and even tentative during group meetings, it becomes clear that Bush is dependent on her for candid advice as well as for conveying his thoughts to his cabinet. The relationship between Powell and Rumsfeld (and to a lesser degree Powell and Cheney) is often strained, exposing their differences regarding how to deal with Iraq and whether coalition building or unilateralism is most appropriate. Woodward also describes how CIA director George Tenet prepared a paramilitary team to infiltrate Afghanistan to set the groundwork for invasion, and how this ushered in a new era of cooperation between the defense department and the CIA. A worthwhile and often enlightening read, this is a revealing and informative first draft of the Bush legacy. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

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  • Bush at War : Inside the Bush White House
    by Bob Woodward
    ISBN 0743204735 (0-7432-0473-5)
    Hardcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Award-winning author and journalist Bob Woodward turns his attention to the presidency of George W. Bush. Before the acts of terrorism on 11 September, George W. Bush's presidency had been beset by numerous problems. Not only was it in many peoples eyes invalid, very few people took him seriously as a world statesman. Then following one violent mindless act of terrorism, George W. Bush became a president that his country could rely on, one they felt they could trust to lead them through these difficult times. And the world saw a man who was decisive and resolute, a president who was seemingly determined to route out the people who had carried out the heinous acts. But one year after the attacks how has the 44th President of the United States fared? And what were the actual behind the scenes discussions that took place whilst the country was rocked by the crisis? Bob Woodward has been shadowing the President since those fateful events, he was allowed unprecedented access to closed-door meetings and briefings and this masterful book is a look at what really happened. [via]

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  • Chain Of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
    by Seymour M. Hersh
    ISBN 0060955376 (0-06-095537-6)
    Softcover, Harpercollins

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    Seymour Hersh has been a legendary investigative reporter since 1969 when he broke the My Lai story in Vietnam. His considerable skill and well-placed sources inside the government, intelligence community, military, and the diplomatic corps have allowed him access to a wide range of information unavailable to most reporters. Chain of Command is packed with specific details and thoughtful analysis of events since the attacks of September 11, 2001, including intelligence failures prior to 9/11; postwar planning regarding Afghanistan and Iraq; the corruption of the Saudi family; Pakistan's nuclear program, which spread nuclear technology via the black market (and admitted as such); influence peddling at the highest levels; and the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, among other topics. The book collects and elaborates on stories Hersh wrote for The New Yorker, and includes an introduction by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, on Hersh's background and his sources.

    Part of Hersh's skill lies in uncovering official reports that have been buried because government or military leaders find them too revealing or embarrassing. Chain of Command is filled with such stories, particularly regarding the manner in which sensitive intelligence was gathered and disseminated within the Bush administration. Hersh details how serious decisions were made in secret by a small handful of people, often based on selective information. Part of the problem was, and remains, a lack of human intelligence in critical parts of the Middle East, but it also has much to do with the considerable infighting within the administration by those trying to make intelligence fit preconceived conclusions. A prime example of this is the story about the files that surfaced allegedly detailing how Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger in order to build nuclear weapons. Though the files were soon proven to be forgeries, the Bush administration still used them as evidence against Saddam Hussein and therefore part of the reason for invading Iraq. In these pages, Hersh offers readers a clearer understanding of what has happened since September 11, and what we might expect in the future. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

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  • Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History
    by Lee Harris
    ISBN 0743257499 (0-7432-5749-9)
    Hardcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe....They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish....They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the enemy. "That, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn't done enough for yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part -- something that we could correct.... "Our first task is therefore to try to grasp what the concept of the enemy really means. The enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the enemy always hates us for a reason, it is his reason, and not ours." So begins Civilization and Its Enemies, an extraordinary tour de force by America's "reigning philosopher of 9/11," Lee Harris. What Francis Fukuyama did for the end of the Cold War, Lee Harris has now done for the next great conflict: the war between the civilized world and the international terrorists who wish to destroy it. Each major turning point in our history has produced one great thinker who has been able to step back from petty disagreements and see the bigger picture -- and Lee Harris has emerged as that man for our time. He is the one who has helped make sense of the terrorists' fantasies and who forces us most strongly to confront the fact that our enemy -- for the first time in centuries -- refuses to play by any of our rules, or to think in any of our categories. We are all naturally reluctant to face a true enemy. [via]

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  • Ali, Tariq: The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity
    The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity
    by Tariq Ali
    ISBN 185984457X (1-85984-457-X)
    Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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    After the events of September 11, 2001, the veteran writer, filmmaker and political activist Tariq Ali has been in great demand to provide his own radical perspective on the significance of the attacks, and the result is The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity. Ali's book explores the history that preceded these events, and deals directly with the political history of Islam, its founding myths, its origins, its culture, its riches, its divisions. However, this is no dry history book, but a powerful and wide-ranging polemic that interrogates the hypocrisy of Islamist politics and religion, while also denouncing the double standards of US and UK foreign policy towards Islamic states over the last century.

    The result is a remarkably broad if sometimes awkward and episodic book, that moves from Ali's idyllic childhood in Lahore, playing tennis and avoiding mullahs, via discussions of the origins of Islam, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the status of women in Islam, to detailed critiques of the recent history of western involvement in Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir. Ali is at his best in the later sections, attacking the Pakistani madrasas as indoctrination nurseries designed to produce fanatics, and condemning the Pakistani army as one of the Pentagon's spoilt brats in Asia. The Clash of Fundamentalisms argues that the rise of political and religious intolerance lies in the fact that all the other exit routes have been sealed off by the mother of all fundamentalisms: American imperialism. His call for "an Islamic Reformation that sweeps away the crazed conservatism and backwardness of the fundamentalists" and which "opens up the world of Islam to new ideas which are seen to be more advanced than what is currently on offer from the West" is a bold and provocative call; while some may disagree with Ali's politics or interpretation of history, there is little doubt that The Clash of Fundamentalisms is an angry but valuable response to the events that took place in the US on September 11, 2001. --Jerry Brotton [via]

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  • Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq
    by Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor
    ISBN 1400075394 (1-4000-7539-4)
    Softcover, Vintage Books

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    Informed by unparalleled access to still-secret documents, interviews with top field commanders, and a review of the military's own internal after-action reports, Cobra II is the definitive chronicle of America's invasion and occupation of Iraq-a conflict that could not be lost but one that the United States failed to win decisively. From the Pentagon to the White House to the American command centers in the field, the book reveals the inside story of how the war was actually planned and fought. Drawing on classified United States government intelligence, it also provides a unique account of how Saddam Hussein and his high command developed and prosecuted their war strategy.

    Written by Michael R. Gordon, the chief military correspondent for The New York Times, who spent the war with the Allied land command, and Bernard E. Trainor, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general and former director of the National Security Program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cobra II traces the interactions among the generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush. It dramatically reconstructs the principal battles from interviews with those who fought them, providing reliable accounts of the clashes waged by conventional and Special Operations forces. It documents with precision the failures of American intelligence and the mistakes in administering postwar Iraq.

    Unimpeachably sourced, Cobra II describes how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. The brutal aftermath in Iraq was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides; Cobra II provides the first authoritative account as to why. It is a book of enduring importance and incisive analysis-a comprehensive account of the most reported yet least understood war in American history. [via]

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  • Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror
    by Richard Miniter
    ISBN 0895260069 (0-89526-006-9)
    Hardcover, Perseus Distribution Services

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    Book summary:

    Bin Laden was trained and funded by the CIA. The Bush Administration killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq. The Jews who worked at the World Trade Center were warned not to work on Sept. 11. These are just some of the myths that have appeared in mainstream media outlets. Collectively, these myths undermine wartime U.S. morale and confuse the discussion of vital issues. Here Miniter debunks the myths of the left (and the right) with hard evidence, high-level interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen countries. [via]

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  • End of Faith: Religion, Terror, And the Future of Reason
    by Sam Harris
    ISBN 0393327655 (0-393-32765-5)
    Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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    Book summary:

    Sam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil's in the details, then you'll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message.

    Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave "something more" we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author' musings.)

    Harris' heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.--Ed Dobeas [via]

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  • An End to Evil : How to Win the War on Terror
    by David Frum, Richard Perle
    ISBN 1400061946 (1-4000-6194-6)
    Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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    Book summary:

    An End to Evil charts the agenda for what's next in the war on terrorism, as articulated by David Frum, former presidential speechwriter and bestselling author of The Right Man, and Richard Perle, former assistant secretary of defense and one of the most influential foreign-policy leaders in Washington.

    This world is an unsafe place for Americans-and the U.S. government remains unready to defend its people. In An End to Evil, David Frum and Richard Perle sound the alert about the dangers around us: the continuing threat from terrorism, the crisis with North Korea, the aggressive ambitions of China. Frum and Perle provide a detailed, candid account of America's vulnerabilities: a military whose leaders resist change, intelligence agencies mired in bureaucracy, diplomats who put friendly relations with their foreign colleagues ahead of the nation's interests. Perle and Frum lay out a bold program to defend America-and to win the war on terror.

    Among the topics this book addresses:

    why the United States risks its security if it submits to the authority of the United Nations
    why France and Saudi Arabia have to be treated as adversaries, not allies, in the war on terror
    why the United States must take decisive action against Iran-now
    what to do in North Korea if negotiations fail
    why everything you read in the newspapers about the Israeli-Arab dispute is wrong
    how our government must be changed if we are to fight the war on terror to victory-not just stalemate
    where the next great terror threat is coming from-and what we can do to protect ourselves

    An End to Evil will define the conservative point of view on foreign policy for a new generation-and shape the agenda for the 2004 presidential-election year and beyond. [via]

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  • Parfrey, Adam: Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism
    Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism
    by Adam Parfrey, Mir Tamim Ansary
    ISBN 0922915784 (0-922915-78-4)
    Softcover, Feral House

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  • Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy
    by Benjamin R. Barber
    ISBN 0393325784 (0-393-32578-4)
    Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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    Book summary:

    The attacks of September 11, 2001 struck fear into the hearts of Americans. Despite being the world's lone superpower and despite being possessed of an unprecedented share of the world's wealth, Americans learned they were vulnerable to terrorists who operated with neither country nor army. In response, the Bush administration began a "war on terrorism," invading countries which it suspected of harboring terrorists or having the desire to harm American interests in the future. But America asserting itself by preemptively waging war is both wrongheaded and dangerous, according to Benjamin R. Barber. In Fear's Empire, he suggests that unilateral military action perpetuates an image of America as an aggressive force that operates outside the accepted precepts of international law and policy. This could lead to less support from other countries in fighting a shadowy enemy and, because it perpetuates the image of America as self-righteous aggressor, could lead to generations of increased terrorism while contributing to a bunker mentality of fear back at home. But Barber does more than say what's wrong; he offers a detailed plan for a more conscientious foreign policy alternative. He draws a distinction between Pax Americana the strategy of preventive war which the United States used in Afghanistan and Iraq and Lex Humana or "preventive democracy," a strategy in which democracy is developed as a means of establishing a lasting peace around the world by encouraging a practical self-determination. Barber draws important distinctions: simply demanding that other countries adopt America's laws and processes will not work and exporting America's consumer driven economic lifestyle would be nothing short of disastrous. But by extending the notion of the social contract to the world, helping countries establish their own democratic societies, and using democracy as a model for nations to work together, Barber argues, peace could be established and fear's empire finally defeated. Barber's writing is intellectual without being pedantic and passionate without being unnecessarily shrill or partisan. Such an approach is welcome in a political climate where the loudest shouters tend to get the most notice. --John Moe [via]

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  • Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in the Age of Independence
    by Benjamin R. Barber
    ISBN 0393058360 (0-393-05836-0)
    Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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    Book summary:

    The attacks of September 11, 2001 struck fear into the hearts of Americans. Despite being the world's lone superpower and despite being possessed of an unprecedented share of the world's wealth, Americans learned they were vulnerable to terrorists who operated with neither country nor army. In response, the Bush administration began a "war on terrorism," invading countries which it suspected of harboring terrorists or having the desire to harm American interests in the future. But America asserting itself by preemptively waging war is both wrongheaded and dangerous, according to Benjamin R. Barber. In Fear's Empire, he suggests that unilateral military action perpetuates an image of America as an aggressive force that operates outside the accepted precepts of international law and policy. This could lead to less support from other countries in fighting a shadowy enemy and, because it perpetuates the image of America as self-righteous aggressor, could lead to generations of increased terrorism while contributing to a bunker mentality of fear back at home. But Barber does more than say what's wrong; he offers a detailed plan for a more conscientious foreign policy alternative. He draws a distinction between Pax Americana the strategy of preventive war which the United States used in Afghanistan and Iraq and Lex Humana or "preventive democracy," a strategy in which democracy is developed as a means of establishing a lasting peace around the world by encouraging a practical self-determination. Barber draws important distinctions: simply demanding that other countries adopt America's laws and processes will not work and exporting America's consumer driven economic lifestyle would be nothing short of disastrous. But by extending the notion of the social contract to the world, helping countries establish their own democratic societies, and using democracy as a model for nations to work together, Barber argues, peace could be established and fear's empire finally defeated. Barber's writing is intellectual without being pedantic and passionate without being unnecessarily shrill or partisan. Such an approach is welcome in a political climate where the loudest shouters tend to get the most notice. --John Moe [via]

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  • SCHROEN, GARY: First in: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
    First in: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
    by GARY SCHROEN
    ISBN 089141875X (0-89141-875-X)
    Softcover, Ballantine Books

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  • Fallaci, Oriana: The Force Of Reason
    The Force Of Reason
    by Oriana Fallaci
    ISBN 0847827534 (0-8478-2753-4)
    Hardcover, Rizzoli Intl Pubns

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  • Ghost Wars : The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
    by Steve Coll
    ISBN 1594200076 (1-59420-007-6)
    Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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    Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 offers revealing details of the CIA's involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks. From the beginning, Coll shows how the CIA's on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet war left officials at Langley with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban. He also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions. At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency. Coll balances accounts of CIA failures with the success stories, like the capture of Mir Amal Kasi. Coll, managing editor for the Washington Post, covered Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992. He demonstrates unprecedented access to records of White House meetings and to formerly classified material, and his command of Saudi, Pakistani, and Afghani politics is impressive. He also provides a seeming insider's perspective on personalities like George Tenet, William Casey, and anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke ("who seemed to wield enormous power precisely because hardly anyone knew who he was or what exactly he did for a living"). Coll manages to weave his research into a narrative that sometimes has the feel of a Tom Clancy novel yet never crosses into excess. While comprehensive, Coll's book may be hard going for those looking for a direct account of the events leading to the 9-11 attacks. The CIA's 1998 engagement with bin Laden as a target for capture begins a full two-thirds of the way into Ghost Wars, only after a lengthy march through developments during the Carter, Reagan, and early Clinton Presidencies. But this is not a critique of Coll's efforts; just a warning that some stamina is required to keep up. Ghost Wars is a complex study of intelligence operations and an invaluable resource for those seeking a nuanced understanding of how a small band of extremists rose to inflict incalculable damage on American soil. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]

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  • Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam
    by Mark Bowden
    ISBN 0802143032 (0-8021-4303-2)
    Softcover, Grove Pr

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    From the best-selling author of Black Hawk Down comes a riveting, definitive chronicle of the Iran hostage crisis, Americas first battle with militant Islam. On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by the revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage, and kept nearly all of them hostage for 444 days. In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers in a new special forces unit sent to free them, their radical, naïve captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Bowden takes us inside the hostages cells and inside the Oval Office for meetings with President Carter and his exhausted team. We travel to international capitals where shadowy figures held clandestine negotiations, and to the deserts of Iran, where a courageous, desperate attempt to rescue the hostages exploded into tragic failure. Bowden dedicated five years to this research, including numerous trips to Iran and countless interviews with those involved on both sides. Guests of the Ayatollah is a detailed, brilliantly re-created, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world.
    [via]

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  • Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism
    by Dore Gold
    ISBN 0895260611 (0-89526-061-1)
    Softcover, Regnery Pub

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    In the global search for culprits and causes in the rise of terrorism, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold shines a spotlight on a nation many think of as a close ally of the United States: Saudi Arabia. As he explains in Hatreds Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism, Gold believes that the Saudi government is greatly influenced by the Islamist sect known as Wahhabism and, he explains, that influence has lead to Saudi support of terrorism in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and around the world. The historical portion of Golds argument, where he traces the emergence of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the changing face of Saudi leadership, is admirably extensive and detailed. His modern research is a little more uneven, relying on statements by various Muslim clergy members, letters to the editors of newspapers, opinion pieces, and other evidence that is rarely damnable. Curiously, mentions of Israel and the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict are much more infrequent than one would expect from an Israeli diplomat and scholar. But regardless of ones opinion of Golds research or his alarming conclusions, the book offers something not often found in modern political nonfiction: a coherent structure, exhaustive research, and a clear and consistent perspective on the ongoing threat of terrorism. --John Moe [via]

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  • Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
    by Noam Chomsky
    ISBN 0805076883 (0-8050-7688-3)
    Softcover, Owl Books

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    Book summary:

    Noam Chomsky is considered the father of modern linguistics. In this richly detailed criticism of American foreign policy, he seeks to redefine many of the terms commonly used in the ongoing American war on terrorism. Surveying U.S. actions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Far East and elsewhere over the past half a century along with the modern American war in Iraq, Chomsky indicates that America is just as much a terrorist state as any other government or rogue organization. George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq drew worldwide criticism, in part because it seemed to present a new philosophy of pre-emptive war and an appearance of global empire building. But according to Chomsky, such has been the operating philosophy of American foreign policy for decades. Opponents of the Bush administration's tactics consistently point out how the American government supported Saddam Hussein for many years prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait (pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand are easy to come by) as a means of pointing out how the United States is happy to fund despots when it's in American interests. But Chomsky, armed with extensive historical notation, takes this notion further, arguing how the repression of other nations' citizenry is, in fact, the very reason Americans support certain foreign leaders. The charges made throughout the book are severe, as are the dire consequences he posits if current trends are not reversed, and Chomsky is no more likely to make friends or gain supporters from the mainstream now than he's ever been. But Hegemony or Survival is relatively dispassionate. Instead of relying on camp or shock value or personal attacks as some of his contemporaries have done, Chomsky drives his well-supported points steadily forward in an earnest and highly readable style. --John Moe [via]

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  • Bergen, Peter L.: Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden
    Holy War, Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden
    by Peter L. Bergen
    ISBN 0743234952 (0-7432-3495-2)
    Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Book summary:

    On September 11, 2001, the world in which we live was changed forever. The twin towers of the World Trade Center came crashing down, one side of the Pentagon burst into flame, and more than six thousand men, women, and children lost their lives in the most deadly terrorist attack on American soil. As shocking as it was, it had been long in the making: The assault was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group -- an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of only a handful of Western journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Peter Bergen has produced the definitive book on the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy. In the course of four years of investigative reporting, he has interviewed scores of insiders -- from bin Laden associates and family members to Taliban leaders to CIA officials -- and traveled to Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom to learn the truth about bin Laden's al Queda organization and his mission. Immense in scope and unnerving in its findings, "Holy War, Inc." reveals: How bin Laden lives, travels, and communicates with his "cells." How his role in the crushing defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan made him a hero to Muslims all over the world -- and equipped him to endure a long and bloody siege. How the CIA ended up funding -- to the tune of three billion dollars -- radical, anti-American Afghan groups allied to bin Laden. How the attacks that foreshadowed the destruction of the World Trade Center -- among them the bombings of the American embassies in Africaand the warship USS "Cole" in Yemen -- were planned and executed. The dimensions of bin Laden's personal fortune, and why freezing his assets is both futile and nearly impossible. [via]

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  • Zabor, Rafi: I, Wabenzi: A Souvenir, Aporia
    I, Wabenzi: A Souvenir, Aporia
    by Rafi Zabor
    ISBN 9780374299 (978-037-429-9)
    Hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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  • Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror
    by Anonymous, Michael Scheuer
    ISBN 1574888625 (1-57488-862-5)
    Softcover, Potomac Books Inc

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    Book summary:

    Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger.

    According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believeat the urging of U.S. leadersthat Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetoric informs the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western worlds democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities.

    Instead, a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications. Capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. animosity, Osama bin Ladens genius lies not simply in calling for jihad, but in articulating a consistent and convincing case that Islam is under attack by America. Al Qaedas public statements condemn Americas protection of corrupt Muslim regimes, unqualified support for Israel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a further litany of real-world grievances. Bin Ladens supporters thus identify their problem and believe their solution lies in war. Anonymous contends they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Unless U.S. leaders recognize this fact and adjust their policies abroad accordingly, even moderate Muslims will join the bin Laden camp.

    Download the Complete Bibliography for this book.

    [via]

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  • Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
    by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
    ISBN 1400044871 (1-4000-4487-1)
    Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc

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    Book summary:

    An unprecedented account of life in Baghdads Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

    The Washington Posts former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little Americaa half-dozen bars stocked with cold beer, a disco where women showed up in hot pants, a movie theater that screened shoot-em-up films, an all-you-could-eat buffet piled high with pork, a shopping mall that sold pornographic movies, a parking lot filled with shiny new SUVs, and a snappy dry-cleaning servicemuch of it run by Halliburton. Most Iraqis were barred from entering the Emerald City for fear they would blow it up.

    Drawing on hundreds of interviews and internal documents, Chandrasekaran tells the story of the people and ideas that inhabited the Green Zone during the occupation, from the imperial viceroy L. Paul Bremer III to the fleet of twentysomethings hired to implement the idea that Americans could build a Jeffersonian democracy in an embattled Middle Eastern country.

    In the vacuum of postwar planning, Bremer ignores what Iraqis tell him they want or need and instead pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutionsa flat tax, a sell-off of Iraqi government assets, and an end to food rationing. His underlings spend their days drawing up pie-in-the-sky policies, among them a new traffic code and a law protecting microchip designs, instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity production. His almost comic initiatives anger the locals and help fuel the insurgency.

    Chandrasekaran details Bernard Keriks ludicrous attempt to train the Iraqi police and brings to light lesser known but typical travesties: the case of the twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance put in charge of reestablishing Baghdads stock exchange; a contractor with no previous experience paid millions to guard a closed airport; a State Department employee forced to bribe Americans to enlist their help in preventing Iraqi weapons scientists from defecting to Iran; Americans willing to serve in Iraq screened by White House officials for their views on Roe v. Wade; people with prior expertise in the Middle East excluded in favor of lesser-qualified Republican Party loyalists. Finally, he describes Bremers ignominious departure in 2004, fleeing secretly in a helicopter two days ahead of schedule.

    This is a startling portrait of an Oz-like place where a vital aspect of our governments folly in Iraq played out. It is a book certain to be talked about for years to come. [via]

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  • Malkin, Michelle: In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror
    In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror
    by Michelle Malkin
    ISBN 0895260514 (0-89526-051-4)
    Hardcover, Perseus Distribution Services

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  • Spencer, Robert: Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest-Growing Faith
    Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest-Growing Faith
    by Robert Spencer, David Pryce-Jones
    ISBN 1893554775 (1-893554-77-5)
    Softcover, Encounter Books

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  • Rashid, Ahmed: Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
    Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
    by Ahmed Rashid
    ISBN 0142002607 (0-14-200260-7)
    Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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  • The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
    by Lawrence Wright
    ISBN 1400030846 (1-4000-3084-6)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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    Book summary:

    A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wrights remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.

    The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBIs counterterrorism chief, John ONeill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

    As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole . . . ONeills heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers . . . Prince Turkis transformation from bin Ladens ally to his enemy . . . the failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

    The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; ONeills high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal lifehe was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others existenceand the nitty-gritty of turf battles among U.S. intelligence agencies.

    Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming Tower draws all elements of the story into a galvanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat. [via]

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  • Masters Of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces
    by Linda Robinson
    ISBN 1586483528 (1-58648-352-8)
    Softcover, Public Affairs

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    Book summary:

    The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have given the U.S. Army's Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, a central role in American military action like never before. Several hundred U.S. Special Forces operators helped a motley band of Afghan rebels orchestrate a stunning rout when they overthrew the Taliban after 9/11. In Iraq, as journalist Linda Robinson explains in Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces, Special Forces units were the main U.S. elements on the ground in the northern and western regions of the country, where they defeated government forces that outnumbered them many times over. Robinson tells the story of the Special Forces through the eyes of a few of its more colorful personalities, men with call signs like Rawhide and Killer. She follows them around the world from Panama and El Salvador to Somalia, Kosovo, and, finally, Afghanistan and Iraq. Surprisingly, however, she devotes only a few pages to the Green Beret-led victory in Afghanistan, even though it was arguably their greatest achievement since they were created after World War II.

    Critics and supporters of the recent American interventions alike should find the technical proficiency of the Special Forces interesting and impressive. Each 12-soldier team may marshal more than a century of combined experience in weapons, foreign languages, intelligence, communications, air control, and trauma medicine. For a book about such an action-packed subject, though, Robinson's effort is somewhat dry, and she devotes more time to mundane background biographies than to the dramatic battle scenes in which the Special Forces invariably find themselves. In addition, Robinson's "secret history" is an authorized and sympathetic one, and readers may be left wondering what she may have left out of her accounts in order to maintain her access. --Alex Roslin [via]

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  • No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah
    by Bing West
    ISBN 0553383191 (0-553-38319-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    "This is the face of war as only those who have fought it can describe it."Senator John McCain

    Fallujah: Iraqs most dangerous city unexpectedly emerged as the major battleground of the Iraqi insurgency. For twenty months, one American battalion after another tried to quell the violence, culminating in a bloody, full-scale assault. Victory came at a terrible price: 151 Americans and thousands of Iraqis were left dead.

    The epic battle for Fallujah revealed the startling connections between policy and combat that are a part of the new reality of war.

    The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah as soft as fog. But after four American contractors were brutally murdered, President Bush ordered an attack on the cityagainst the advice of the Marines. The assault sparked a political firestorm, and the Marines were forced to withdraw amid controversy and confusiononly to be ordered a second time to take a city that had become an inferno of hate and the lair of the archterrorist al-Zarqawi.

    Based on months spent with the battalions in Fallujah and hundreds of interviews at every levelsenior policymakers, negotiators, generals, and soldiers and Marines on the front linesNo True Glory is a testament to the bravery of the American soldier and a cautionary tale about the complexand often costlyinterconnected roles of policy, politics, and battle in the twenty-first century.


    From the Hardcover edition. [via]

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  • No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah
    by Francis J. West, Bing West
    ISBN 0553804022 (0-553-80402-2)
    Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    "This is the face of war as only those who have fought it can describe it."Senator John McCain

    Fallujah: Iraqs most dangerous city unexpectedly emerged as the major battleground of the Iraqi insurgency. For twenty months, one American battalion after another tried to quell the violence, culminating in a bloody, full-scale assault. Victory came at a terrible price: 151 Americans and thousands of Iraqis were left dead.

    The epic battle for Fallujah revealed the startling connections between policy and combat that are a part of the new reality of war.

    The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah as soft as fog. But after four American contractors were brutally murdered, President Bush ordered an attack on the cityagainst the advice of the Marines. The assault sparked a political firestorm, and the Marines were forced to withdraw amid controversy and confusiononly to be ordered a second time to take a city that had become an inferno of hate and the lair of the archterrorist al-Zarqawi.

    Based on months spent with the battalions in Fallujah and hundreds of interviews at every levelsenior policymakers, negotiators, generals, and soldiers and Marines on the front linesNo True Glory is a testament to the bravery of the American soldier and a cautionary tale about the complexand often costlyinterconnected roles of policy, politics, and battle in the twenty-first century. [via]

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  • Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda
    by Sean Naylor
    ISBN 0425207870 (0-425-20787-0)
    Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    Command refused to commit the forces required to achieve total victory in Afghanistan. Instead, they delegated responsibility for fighting the war's biggest battle-one that could have broken Al Qaeda and captured Osama bin Laden-to a hodge-podge of units thrown together at the last moment.

    At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the 21st century began. Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into Afghanistan's Shahikot valley-and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, higher-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight.

    Now, award-winning journalist Sean Naylor, an eyewitness to the battle, details the failures of military intelligence and planning, and vividly portrays the astonishing heroism of these young, untested U.S. soldiers. Denied the extra infantry, artillery, and attack helicopters with which they trained to go to war, these troops nevertheless proved their worth in brutal combat and-along with the exceptional daring of a small team of U.S. commandos-prevented an American military disaster. [via]

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  • The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
    by Ron Suskind
    ISBN 0743271106 (0-7432-7110-6)
    Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Book summary:

    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind takes you deep inside America's real battles with violent, unrelenting terrorists -- a game of kill-or-be-killed, from the Oval Office to the streets of Karachi.

    You may think you know what the "war on terror" is.

    But to know it "truly," you must read this book.

    Suskind has written a riveting work of narrative nonfiction, filled with exclusive, historically significant disclosures that will echo across America and the world.

    What is the guiding principle of the world's most powerful nation as it searches for enemies at home and abroad? The One Percent Doctrine is the deeply secretive core of America's real playbook: a default strategy, designed by Dick Cheney, that separates America from its moorings, and has driven everything -- from war in Afghanistan to war in Iraq to the global search for jihadists.

    The story begins on September 12, 2001, the day America began to gather itself for a response to the unimaginable. Ultimately, that reply would shape the nation's very character.

    Suskind tells us what actually occurred over the next three years, from the inside out, by tracing the steps of the key actors -- the notables, from the President and Vice President to George Tenet and Condoleezza Rice, who oversee the "war on terror" and report progress to an anxious nation; and the invisibles, the men and women just below the line of sight, left to improvise plans to defeat a new kind of enemy in an hour-by-hour race against disaster. The internal battles between these two teams -- one, under the hot lights; the other, actually fighting the fight -- reveal everything about what America faces, and whatit has done, in this age of terror.

    Who is actually running U.S. foreign policy? Is there an operational cell, armed with WMDs, inside the United States? Have some of the world's most dangerous terrorists -- including leaders of al Qaeda -- been caught and accidentally released? Can America prevail in this struggle against enemies who are patient, ingenious, certain, and have clear tactical advantage?

    With his unparalleled access to senior officials, past and present, Ron Suskind -- author of" The Price of Loyalty, "the most revealing book yet written on the Bush administration -- finally answers the questions that keep Americans awake at night.

    And in this startling book, he reframes the debates that roil the globe.

    [via]

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  • Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West
    by Robert Spencer
    ISBN 0895261006 (0-89526-100-6)
    Hardcover, Regnery Pub

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    Book summary:

    Islam claims to be a religion of peace and tolerance, yet the fact remains that jihad, or Islamic holy war, is growing faster than ever. In his new book, Onward Muslim Soldiers, Robert Spencer reveals exactly why this is the case. He shows how jihad warriors have penetrated and established themselves in the American homeland and how they are quickly gaining a hold in Europe, spreading values of hatred, violence, and intolerance as they go. Spencer, a student of Islam for over twenty years, gives a unique perspective on the fundamental bases and truths of Islam, focusing on facts that the media often disregards or denies, including:

    1.Why Iraqi democracy will have a tough time no matter how long American troops stay in the country
    2.The American Left: its unholy alliance with radical Islam
    3.The concept of jihad: how it poisons chances for peace in Israel and in other conflicts
    4.The myth of Islamic "tolerance" in history and today
    5.Why the threat of violent jihad is growing daily, despite claims that Islam is a "religion of peace"
    6.How Muslims are undermining Western Europe's commitment to freedom
    7.Why moderate Muslims have been unable to stop the spread of violent Islam

    With a special focus on how the jihad propagates terrorism, Spencer provides a timely, reasoned look at the threats of radical Islam and a list of steps that must be taken to combat jihad terrorism before it's too late. [via]

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  • Plan of Attack
    by Bob Woodward
    ISBN 0743255488 (0-7432-5548-8)
    Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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    Book summary:

    The 2003 American invasion of Iraq was contentious, not just in the arena of global public opinion, but within the tight-lipped world of the George W. Bush White House. As Bob Woodward reveals in Plan of Attack, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were part of a group leading the charge to war while Secretary of State Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and others actively questioned the plan to invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks while war in Afghanistan was still being waged. Woodward gained extensive access to dozens of key figures and enjoyed hours of direct contact with the President himself (more time, seemingly, than former Bush administration officials Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill claim to have had). As a result, he's able to cite the kind of gossip you won't find in a White House press release: Franks calls Pentagon official Douglas Feith "the f*cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth," Powell shares his alarm over how the cautious Cheney of the first Bush administration had transformed into a zealot, and Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar seems to enjoy significantly more entrée and influence than most anyone would have thought. Bush is shown as a man intent on toppling Saddam Hussein in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and never really wavering in his decision despite offering hints that non-military solutions could be achieved. Light is also shed on CIA director George Tenet, who insists that the evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk" only to later admit that his intelligence was flawed when months of post-war searches turned up nothing. But the book's most interesting character is Powell. A former soldier himself, who finds himself increasingly at odds with the agenda of the administration, Powell rejects evidence on WMDs that he sees as spurious but ultimately endorses the invasion effort, apparently out of duty. Upon its publication, the Bush administration roundly denied many of the accounts in the book that demonstrated conflict within their circles, poor judgment, or lousy planning, but the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign nonetheless listed Plan of Attack as recommended reading. And it is. It shows alarming problems in the way the war was conceived and planned, but it also demonstrates the tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry it out. --John Moe [via]

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  • Power and Terror: Post 9-11 Talks and Interviews
    by Noam Chomsky, John Junkerman, Takei Masakazu
    ISBN 1583225900 (1-58322-590-0)
    Softcover, Seven Stories Pr

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    Book summary:

    Power and Terror, Noam Chomsky's highly anticipated follow-up to 9-11, is drawn from a series of public talks that Chomsky gave during the spring of 2002, as well as a lengthy unpublished interview. It presents Chomsky's latest thinking on terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, and alternatives to militarism and violence as solutions to the world's problems. Chomsky challenges the United States to apply to its own actions the moral standards it demands of others, and arrives at a surprisingly optimistic conclusion rooted in his faith in the power of an informed public. [via]

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  • Mead, Walter Russell: Power, Terror, Peace, And War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk
    Power, Terror, Peace, And War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk
    by Walter Russell Mead
    ISBN 1400077036 (1-4000-7703-6)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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  • Fallaci, Oriana: The Rage and the Pride
    The Rage and the Pride
    by Oriana Fallaci
    ISBN 0847825043 (0-8478-2504-3)
    Hardcover, Rizzoli Intl Pubns

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  • The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism?
    by Ahmed Rashid
    ISBN 1856491323 (1-85649-132-3)
    Softcover, Zed Books

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    Book summary:

    Kazakhstan, Kirgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have all become independent states in central Asia, following the break-up of the USSR. All have Muslim majorities and ancient histories, but are otherwise very different. This book provides an introduction to the region. Rashid gives a history of each country, including its incorporation into Tsarist Russia to the present day. He provides basic socio-economic information and explains the diverse political situations. He focuses primarily on the underlying issues confronting these societies: the legacy of Soviet rule; ethnic tensions; the position of women; the future of Islam; the question of nuclear proliferation; and the fundamental choices over economic strategy, political system and external orientation which lie ahead. [via]

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  • The Right Man: An Inside Account of the Bush White House
    by David Frum
    ISBN 0812974905 (0-8129-7490-5)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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    Book summary:

    The Right Man is the first inside account of a historic year in the Bush White House, by the presidential speechwriter credited with the phrase axis of evil. David Frum helped make international headlines when President George W. Bushs 2002 State of the Union address linked international terrorists to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. But that was only one moment during a crucial time in American history, when a president, an administration, and a country were transformed.

    Frum worked with President Bush in the Oval Office, traveled with him aboard Air Force One, and studied him closely at meetings and events. He describes how Bush thinkswhat this conservative president believes about religion, race, the environment, Jews, Muslims, and Americas future. Frum takes us behind the scenes of one of the most secretive administrations in recent history, with revealing portraits of Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Condoleezza Rice, and many others. Most significant, he tells the story of the transformation of George W. Bush: how a president whose administration began in uncertainty became one of the most decisive, successful, and popular leaders of our time.

    Before becoming a White House speechwriter, David Frum was a highly regarded author of books and political commentary and an influential voice on the pages of The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard. His commentary has been described by William F. Buckley as the most refreshing ideological experience in a generation. Now, in The Right Man, we see Frum as a front-row observer and participant. Not since Peggy Noonans account of her time in the Reagan White House has an insider portrayed a sitting president with such precision, verve, honest admiration, and insight.

    The Right Man will command international attention for its thoughtful account of George W. Bush in the midst of his greatest challenge. It will be an essential reference for anyone seeking to understand who our president really is and how he is likely to lead us in the future.


    From the Hardcover edition. [via]

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  • Scarborough, Rowan: Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story Of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander
    Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story Of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander
    by Rowan Scarborough
    ISBN 0895260697 (0-89526-069-7)
    Hardcover, Perseus Distribution Services

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  • Baer, Robert: See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the Cia's War on Terrorism
    See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
    by Robert Baer
    ISBN 140004684X (1-4000-4684-X)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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    Book summary:

    Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East. --Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

    Robert Baer [was] one of the most talented Middle East case officers of the past twenty years. Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Atlantic Monthly

    In See No Evil, one of the CIAs top field officers of the past quarter century recounts his career running agents in the back alleys of the Middle East. In the process, Robert Baer paints a chilling picture of how terrorism works on the inside and provides compelling evidence about how Washington politics sabotaged the CIAs efforts to root out the worlds deadliest terrorists.


    On the morning of September 11, 2001, the world witnessed the terrible result of that intelligence failure with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of those attacks, Americans were left wondering how such an obviously long-term, globally coordinated plot could have escaped detection by the CIA and taken the nation by surprise. Robert Baer was not surprised. A twenty-one-year veteran of the CIAs Directorate of Operations who had left the agency in 1997, Baer observed firsthand how an increasingly bureaucratic CIA lost its way in the postcold war world and refused to adequately acknowledge and neutralize the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalist terror in the Middle East and elsewhere.

    A throwback to the days when CIA operatives got results by getting their hands dirty and running covert operations, Baer spent his career chasing down leads on suspected terrorists in the worlds most volatile hot spots. As he and his agents risked their lives gathering intelligence, he watched as the CIA reduced drastically its operations overseas, failed to put in place people who knew local languages and customs, and rewarded workers who knew how to play the political games of the agencys suburban Washington headquarters but not how to recruit agents on the ground.

    See No Evil is not only a candid memoir of the education and disillusionment of an intelligence operative but also an unprecedented look at the roots of modern terrorism. Baer reveals some of the disturbing details he uncovered in his work, including:

    * In 1996, Osama bin Laden established a strategic alliance with Iran to coordinate terrorist attacks against the United States.

    * In 1995, the National Security Council intentionally aborted a military coup detat against Saddam Hussein, forgoing the last opportunity to get rid of him.

    * In 1991, the CIA intentionally shut down its operations in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and ignored fundamentalists operating there.

    When Baer left the agency in 1997 he received the Career Intelligence Medal, with a citation that says, He repeatedly put himself in personal danger, working the hardest targets, in service to his country. See No Evil is Baers frank assessment of an agency that forgot that service to country must transcend politics and is a forceful plea for the CIA to return to its original missionthe preservation of our national sovereignty and the American way of life.


    From The Preface
    This book is a memoir of one foot soldiers career in the other cold war, the one against terrorist networks. Its a story about places most Americans will never travel to, about people many Americans would prefer to think we dont need to do business with.

    This memoir, I hope, will show the reader how spying is supposed to work, where the CIA lost its way, and how we can bring it back again. But I hope this book will accomplish one more purpose as well: I hope it will show why I am angry about what happened to the CIA. And I want to show why every American and everyone who cares about the preservation of this country should be angry and alarmed, too.

    The CIA was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more. At a time when terrorist threats were compounding globally, the agency that should have been monitoring them was being scrubbed clean instead. Americans were making too much money to bother. Life was good. The White House and the National Security Council became cathedrals of commerce where the interests of big business outweighed the interests of protecting American citizens at home and abroad. Defanged and dispirited, the CIA went along for the ride. And then on September 11, 2001, the reckoning for such vast carelessness was presented for all the world to see. [via]

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  • Miniter, Richard: Shadow War: The Untold Story of How America is Winning the War on Terror
    Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror
    by Richard Miniter
    ISBN 0895260107 (0-89526-010-7)
    Softcover, Perseus Distribution Services

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  • Baer, Robert: Sleeping with the Devil
    Sleeping with the Devil
    by Robert Baer
    ISBN 1400050219 (1-4000-5021-9)
    Hardcover, Crown Publishing Group

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  • Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
    by Robert Baer
    ISBN 1400052688 (1-4000-5268-8)
    Softcover, Random House Inc

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    Book summary:

    According to Robert Baer, the center of the global economy is a "kingdom built on thievery, one that nurtures terrorism, destroys any possibility of a middle class based on property rights, and promotes slavery and prostitution." This kingdom also sits on one quarter of the world's oil reserves, thus ensuring that it receives the full support and protection of the U.S. government. Sleeping With the Devil details the hypocritical and corrupt relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the potentially calamitous economic consequences of maintaining this Faustian bargain.

    As Baer makes clear, the U.S. has been aware of problems within the bitterly divided Al Sa'ud family for years, but has ignored the facts in order to keep lucrative business deals afloat. (The amount of money the royal family spends to influence powerful American politicians and lobbyists is staggering.) Particularly damning are his details regarding Saudi Arabia's support of militant Islamic groups, including al Qaeda. The ruling family funnels millions of dollars to such groups in order to dissuade them from overthrowing the monarchy--a protection scheme that is shaky at best, given the hatred most citizens feel for the ruling family. To prevent economic disaster that could come from either a local uprising or an interruption in the flow of oil due to terrorism, Baer raises the possibility of the U.S. seizing the Saudi oil fields and forcing a regime change on its own terms: "An invasion and a revolution might be the only things that can save the industrial West from a prolonged, wrenching depression," he warns.

    Baer spent 21 years with the CIA, much of it in the Middle East, so he is an informed guide to this complex subject. His alarming book deserves to be read for raising many important and troubling questions. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

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  • Trifkovic, Serge: The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World
    The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World
    by Serge Trifkovic
    ISBN 1928653111 (1-928653-11-1)
    Softcover, Regina Orthodox Pr

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  • Berman, Paul: Terror and Liberalism
    Terror and Liberalism
    by Paul Berman
    ISBN 0393325555 (0-393-32555-5)
    Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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  • True Lies
    by Stephen Marshall, Guerrilla News Network, Anthony Lappe, Ian Inaba, Greg Palast
    ISBN 0452285313 (0-452-28531-3)
    Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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    Book summary:

    Our media sucks. But you already knew that.

    In True Lies, the Guerrilla News Network's Stephen Marshall and Anthony Lappé don't offer up another cranky complaint about media and politics. They hit the road, investigating some of the biggest stories the corporate media is ignoring. True Lies traces these digital Don Quixotes' travels around the globe, from the frontlines in Iraq to small town America. Along the way, you'll meet heroes and geniuses, the paranoid and the plain perplexed about what's happening in the real America behind the headlines.

    From the poisoning of our own soldiers, to the turning over of the most fundamental act of democracy to corrupt corporations, to the unanswered questions of 9/11, the authors from the popular web site GNN.tv examine what has become a cultural phenomenon of mass denial. As an Oxford historian explains to them, "Life is lubricated by lies." This may be the tagline for our times. [via]

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  • Bawer, Bruce: While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within
    While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within
    by Bruce Bawer
    ISBN 0767920058 (0-7679-2005-8)
    Softcover, Broadway Books

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  • Why Do People Hate America?
    by Ziauddin Sardar, Merryl Wyn Davies
    ISBN 184046383X (1-84046-383-X)
    Softcover, Icon

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    Book summary:

    The controversial bestseller that caused huge waves in the UK! The Independent calls it "required reading." Noam Chomsky says it "contains valuable information that we should know, over here, for our own good, and the world's." We call it our biggest book so far and will be backing it from day one with guaranteed co-op spending, a national publicity and review blitz, talk radio bookings, various retail sales aids including postcards, and of course the usual full court press on the Web and via email.

    This is NOT just another 9/11 book: it is the book for those of us trying to understand why America--and Americans--are targets for hate. Many people do hate America, in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as in the Middle East. Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies explore the global impact of America's foreign policy and its corporate and cultural power, placing this unprecedented dominance in the context of America's own perception of itself. In doing so, they consider TV and the Hollywood machine as a mirror which reflects both the American Dream and the American Nightmare. Their analysis provides an important contribution to a debate which needs to be addressed by people of all nations, cultures, religions and political persuasions--and especially by Americans.

    Described by The Times Higher Education Supplement as "packed with tightly argued points," the book is carefully researched and built to withstand the inevitable criticism that will be aimed at it. A book that some reviewers will love to hate and others will praise for its insights, it's guaranteed to cause a stir.

    [via]

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Spanish

Italian

  • La Forza Della Ragione
    by Oriana Fallaci
    ISBN 8817002968 (88-17-00296-8)
    Hardcover, Rizzoli International

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    Book summary:

    Stavolta non mi appello alla rabbia, allorgoglio, alla passione. Mi appello alla Ragione. La pubblicazione de La Rabbia e lOrgoglio, dopo il crollo delle due Torri lUndici Settembre 2001 a New York, genera un dibattito senza precedenti nel mondo intero. In risposta agli attacchi e alle minacce ricevuti per aver espresso il proprio punto di vista in assoluta libertà e senza condizionamenti, Oriana Fallaci decide di lavorare a un post-scriptum intitolato Due anni dopo. Pagine ricche di fatti, notizie, riferimenti, da cui nasce questo nuovo saggio, La Forza della Ragione, unanalisi rigorosa e serrata della storia dellEuropain chiave filosofica, morale e politica, un approfondimento del rapporto tra Occidente e Islam. Scriverlo era mio dovere. Identificandosi in un tal Mastro Cecco che nel 1328 viene bruciato vivodallInquisizione a causa di un libro, la Fallaci si presenta come una Mastra Cecca eretica, irriducibile e recidiva che sette secoli dopo fa la stessa fine. Ma non senza battersi per difendere i valori in cui crede e in cui è cresciuta. Se unortica minvade, se unedera mi soffoca, se un insetto mi avvelena, se un leone mi morde, se un essere umano mi attacca, io combatto. Accetto la guerra, faccio la guerra. La faccio con larma che mappartiene, che porto sempre con me, che uso senza riserve e senza timidezze, è vero. Ossia larma incruenta dei pensieri espressi attraverso la parola scritta, attraverso le idee e i principii che ci distinguono dagli animali e dai vegetali. NellAppendice di questa nuova edizione BUR de La Forza della Ragione sono riprodotti documenti autografi inediti relativi alla versione americana del testo. [via]

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  • La Rabbia E L'orgoglio
    by Oriana Fallaci
    ISBN 881786983X (88-17-86983-X)
    Hardcover, Rizzoli

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    Book summary:

    Con La Rabbia e lOrgoglio (2001), Oriana Fallaci rompe un silenzio durato dieci anni, dalla pubblicazione di Insciallah, epico romanzo sulla missione occidentale di pace nella Beirut dilaniata dallo scontro tra cristiani e musulmani e dalle faide con Israele. Dieci anni in cui la Fallaci sceglie di vivere ritirata nella sua casa newyorchese, come in esilio, a combattere il cancro. Ma non smette mai di lavorare al testo narrativo dedicato alla sua famiglia, quello che lei chiama il-miobambino, pubblicato postumo nel 2008, Un cappello pieno di ciliege.LUndici Settembre le impone di tornare con furia alla macchina da scrivere per dar voce a quelle idee che ha sempre coltivato nelle interviste, nei reportage, nei romanzi, ma che ha poi imprigionato dentro il cuore e dentro il cervello dicendosi tanto-la-gente-non-vuole-ascoltare. Il risultato è un articolo sul Corriere della Sera del 29 settembre 2001, un sermone lo definisce lei stessa, accolto con enorme clamore in Italia e allestero. Esce in forma di libro nella versione originaria e integrale, preceduto da una prefazione in cui la Fallaci affronta alle radici la questione del terrorismo islamico e parla di sé, del suo isolamento, delle sue scelte rigorose e spietate. La risposta è esplosiva, le polemiche feroci. Mentre i critici si dividono, ladesione dei lettori, in tutto il mondo, è unanime di fronte alla passione che anima queste pagine. La Rabbia e lOrgoglio, imprescindibile per capire i nostri tempi e quelli a venire, è pubblicato nella collana BUR delle Opere di Oriana Fallaci con la prefazione di Ferruccio de Bortoli che, direttore del Corriere nel 2001, chiese a Oriana larticolo sullabbattimento delle due Torri a Manhattan. In Appendice, due testi scritti dalla Fallaci a commento delle edizioni francese e americana. [via]

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