August 2008

Controversial Pentagon Official burnishes his image

War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism by Douglas Feith

After Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith resigned in 2004, a hailstorm of criticism followed. Government officials accused Mr. Feith of (among other things) manipulating intelligence to enable the Iraq invasion, disregarding diplomacy as an instrument of policy, rejecting alliances in favor of unilateralism, and ignoring the Geneva Convention. When Mr. Feith joined Georgetown University’s faculty, some professors accused him of war crimes... Though his memoir is engaging, it often relies on distortions to make its case. Nevertheless, this is a crucial book: a poignant, well-documented defense of neoconservative ideology from an architect of the Bush administration’s “War on Terrorism.” …..(HPR Online, 6 Aug 08)

Afghanistan's Missed Opportunity

DESCENT INTO CHAOS: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

CROSSED SWORDS: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within by Shuja Nawaz

…In Descent into Chaos, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid lays out the policies, prejudices and plots that sabotaged those hopes. His title may seem melodramatic, but it becomes less so with each new report of suicide bombings, drug trafficking and U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, as well as of militant attacks and creeping Talibanization in Pakistan. Much of the factual material here is not new, and at times Rashid falls into I-told-you-so mode. A keen observer of regional politics, he recognized sooner than most of us that the momentary promise of 2002 could be undermined by American shortsightedness, Pakistani perfidy and Afghan exhaustion…

… In Crossed Swords, Pakistani American scholar Shuja Nawaz fleshes out the history of the Pakistani army in a dense but carefully researched book that bolsters several of Rashid's key points. Both authors conclude that the military domination of Pakistani society has stunted the country's political growth, and that the army's obsession with Indian hegemony has perverted relations with neighbors and allies. On the other hand, Nawaz is generally supportive of the Pakistani military as an institution. He comes from a family of officers and dedicates the book in part to his brother, Gen. Asif Nawaz, who died of a heart attack in 1993 while serving as Pakistan's army chief. The author portrays Asif as liberal and incorruptible, and he argues that the gradual replacement of such old-school, British-educated officers with political intriguers and Islamists is what poisoned Pakistan's relationship with Afghanistan……(Washington Post, 3 Aug 08)

Black Sites

THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer

…In fairness, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax scare that followed, who could not have imagined the worst and contemplated extraordinary efforts to prevent it? But as Jane Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, makes clear in “The Dark Side,” a powerful, brilliantly researched and deeply unsettling book, what almost immediately came to be called the “war on terror” led quickly and inexorably to some of the most harrowing tactics ever contemplated by the United States government. The war in Iraq is the most obvious and familiar result of the heedless “toughness” of the new administration. But Mayer recounts a different, if at least equally chilling, story: the emergence of the widespread use of torture as a central tool in the battle against terrorism; and the fierce, stubborn defense of torture against powerful opposition from within the administration and beyond…..(New York Times, 3 Aug 08)

How Canada's first spy foiled the dastardly Fenians

DELUSION: The True Story of a Victorian Superspy by Peter Edwards

Henri Le Caron (a.k.a Thomas Beach) had all the makings of a spy. He had an alias, a curious accent, an adventurous past, a thirst for money and maybe even a cause. He had the look: intense gaze, compact body, the air of someone who, if you met him in a dark alley, you might sidle away from as a possible psychopath.  Le Caron's problem was that he spied in an age when spies enjoyed none of the trappings of popular-culture glamour, had none of the backstop of professional intelligence services, were commonly regarded as lowlifes and traitors, and faced vigilante justice if caught in the act. Le Caron's world was an extremely dangerous one. That he survived as a spy for 20-plus years is worthy of The Guinness Book of Records…..(Globe & Mail, 2 Aug 08)

A Day in the Life of a Real Spy -- New Book Reveals Author's Extensive Experiences as An Intelligence Agent During WWII

I Was Trained To Be A Spy by Helias Doundoulakis

The life of a spy is often hectic and dangerous. This was exactly what author Helias Doundoulakis experienced. He witnessed Germany's invasion of Greece during the early days of World War II, joined the Greek Resistance, then went on to become a spy in the OSS… At the age of eighteen, he joined a resistance group and supplied crucial information to the SOE, the arm of the English Intelligence Service. This group, however, is uncovered, resulting in their hasty evacuation by the SOE, to Cairo, Egypt. There, Doundoulakis and his brother were asked to join the English Intelligence Service, only to pursue the American OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which was the newly formed American intelligence counterpart. As such, they were enlisted into the U.S. Army and attached to the OSS's SI or Secret Intelligence sector, where the author was trained for intelligence as well as other combat skills…….(Market Watch, 1 Aug 08)

"Spycraft": a good look at the CIA — of the past

Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton with Henry Robert Schlesinger

…"Spycraft" is more about Communism than it is about al-Qaida, which gets scant mention. And the last chapter in the book, "Spies and the Age of Information," lays out today's challenges, which make spy technology from decades past seem downright quaint and very outdated, while giving readers too little information to apprise them of what's up in today's secret fight against the country's enemies. If there's any assurance to be drawn from the book, it comes in the examples of innovation and resourcefulness shown in the past by the Central Intelligence Agency's developers of miniature cameras, invisible writing, audio-surveillance gear and encrypting methods. If that ingenuity continues in the digital age, then the country has a chance in the war on terrorism. But we may have to wait another 40 years to find out how it went….(Seattle Times, 1 Aug 08)

Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture

The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture by Ishmael Jones

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ishmael Jones, a former member of the Central Intelligence Agency. He joined the agency in the 1980s, where he served as a deep cover officer focusing on human sources with access to intelligence on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. His assignments included more than fifteen years of continuous overseas service in numerous exotic countries and several rogue nations. He resigned from the CIA in good standing. Ishmael Jones is a pseudonym, in accordance with laws that make it a felony to reveal the true names of deep cover officers. He is the author of the new book, The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. It is the first book written by a deep cover CIA officer……(FrontPage, 1 Aug 08)

July 2008

Ayoon wa Azan (Islamophobia -6-)

Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by Professor John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed

The highly credible Gallup institution shocked the enemies of Arabs and Muslims when it published the findings of its comprehensive survey: Muslims around the world think differently than what claims those who try to frighten the West (and the East) of Islamic extremism and terrorism. The Gallup survey represented the basis of the book "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think" by Professor John Esposito from Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding and Dalia Mogahed, the executive director of the Gallup Centre for Muslim Studies. I read that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans seemed to have no idea whether or not Muslims supported terrorism. This troubled Jim Clifton, Gallup Chairman, who felt that "no one in Washington had any idea what 1.3 billion Muslims were thinking, and yet we were working on intricate strategies that were going to change the world for all time." Clifton ordered his company to undertake this job. It conducted a survey that lasted six years and encompassed 50 thousand interviews with Muslims in 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations…..(Al Hayat, 29 Jul 08)

Review of The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

ISLAM AND THE SECULAR STATE: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

For more than 20 years, Islamists in Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and other Muslim countries have campaigned for popular support by presenting sharia, or Islamic law, as the antidote to authoritarian rule, injustice and repression. Westerners often wonder how Muslims possibly can believe such claims. We recall the Taliban blowing up ancient statues and preventing girls from going to school in Afghanistan. We think of authorities in Saudi Arabia and Iran cutting off hands for theft and stoning women to death for adultery. Now two distinguished American legal scholars have published books that reflect these sharply contrasting views of Islamic law. One argues that sharia, properly understood and fairly administered, could be a constructive way for religion to find its place in a modern Muslim state. The other says the imposition of sharia by state authorities is inherently repressive and contrary to the Koran's insistence on voluntary acceptance of Islam…..(Washington Post, 27 Jul 08)

U-turn in the Sand

A PATH OUT OF THE DESERT: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East by Kenneth M. Pollack

Kenneth M. Pollack, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, has written an authoritative new book that spells out the full range of threats the United States faces in the region and offers prudent advice on how to defuse them. The problem is, it's hard to square this work with the influential book he wrote in 2002 called The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq. Pollack is persuasive in his new book, but it helps to have a touch of amnesia. Those with a working memory may recall that six years ago, Pollack said there was too much hand-wringing about the potential pitfalls of invading Iraq. "Those who argue that the United States would inevitably become the target of unhappy Iraqis generally also assume that the Iraqi population would be hostile to U.S. forces from the outset," he wrote. "However, the best evidence we have suggests that the Iraqi people would be pleased to be liberated."……(Washington Post, 27 Jul 08)

Following a deadly polonium trail from London back to Russia

THE TERMINAL SPY: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder by Alan S. Cowell

The gruesome murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006 transfixed the world. The photograph of a recently vigorous man rendered gaunt, haggard and hairless appeared in newspapers and on television everywhere. By the time he died, Litvinenko, 44, had been virtually eviscerated by a tiny dose of polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance that had never before been diagnosed as a poison.

It is a compelling story that has inspired four books (Alan S. Cowell's The Terminal Spy is hot on the heels of Steve LeVine's Putin's Labyrinth, Martin Sixsmith's The Litvinenko File and Alex Goldfarb's and Marina Litvinenko's Death of a Dissident), a documentary that aired at the Cannes Film Festival and a forthcoming feature film starring Johnny Depp……(Washington Post, 27 Jul 08)

Book claims Islamic history of violence

The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism: from Sacred Texts to Solemn History by Andrew Bostrom

A Rhode Island author claims in his book that Islamic violence against Jews and Christians has been part of the religion since its origins 1,200 years ago… Bostrom claimed the Koran itself is anti-Semitic, with references to the prophet Mohammed's poisoning death at the hands of a Jewish conspiracy. He wrote the post-World War II establishment of Israel in 1948 was "an unbearable affront to the Islamic order" and sparked calls from within the Muslim world for the destruction of the Jews…..(UPI, 25 Jul 08)

Losing the war against Islamic extremism

Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid

One month into the US and coalition attack on Afghanistan - launched in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 - President Bush gave the world an ultimatum: "Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."  One country that seemed to have got the message was Pakistan. Fearful for his country's safety, President Musharraf pledged his support straight after 9/11. In response, the US waived the sanctions imposed after Pakistan had tested a nuclear device in 1998; it also made available a $600 million loan - the first of a series of cash incentives that to date has amounted to more than $10 billion…..(Telegraph, 19 Jul 08)

New book points out early IDF intelligence flops

Early Warning Tested: The Rotem Affair and Israel's Security Policy, 1957-1960 by Yigal Sheffy

The Israel Defense Forces intelligence unit currently known as Unit 8200 succeeded in breaking the code safeguarding communications between Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his army commander Abdel Hakim Amer in Damascus during the late 1950s. Israel failed to take advantage of this, however, and Military Intelligence did not identify the Egyptian army maneuvers into Sinai in February 1960. The failure caused a crisis between IDF Chief of Staff Haim Laskov and MI head Colonel Chaim Herzog. Laskov voiced his loss of confidence to David Ben-Gurion, who was both prime minister and defense minister at the time, asking him to dismiss Herzog…..(Haaretz, 18 Jul 08)

Circles in the Sand

A Path Out of the Desert by Kenneth M. Pollack

Kenneth Pollack is a hard man to pin down. A former CIA analyst and member of the Clinton administration's National Security Council now affiliated with the left-leaning Brookings Institution, he made a qualified case for invading Iraq in "The Threatening Storm," which appeared six months before the invasion itself. Two years later he produced "The Persian Puzzle," which urged the U.S. to pursue a negotiated settlement with Iran.  Now Mr. Pollack has given us "A Path Out of the Desert," billed in its subtitle as a "grand strategy for America in the Middle East." It's a misleading title, except perhaps metaphorically, since his path requires the U.S. to remain in the desert for decades in order to help sort out the region's myriad problems and set it on a path toward greater democracy, better governance, stronger economic growth, less cultural insularity and so on……(Wall Street Journal, 17 Jul 08)

Iran's Nuclear Option- essential reading for all with an interest in global security and the perilous Middle East

Iran’s Nuclear Option by Al J. Venter

Essential reading for anyone with an interest in global security and the perilous volatility of the Middle East. At a time when international terrorism is the focal point of our concerns, a far more pressing threat has arisen to the balance of power in the world and ultimately to the security of our country. Since the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted that it was secretly producing highly enriched uranium, leading nations have struggled to react in an appropriate manner. In this book, the U.S. public is able to learn, in full detail and for the first time, exactly what the Europeans and UN have been trying to forestall. In Iran we see a country, located at the center of the Middle East, which could very shortly have the ability to strike its immediate neighbors as well as nations farther away with nuclear weapons…….(Press Release, 15 Jul 08)

Terrorism: Yesterday, Today & Tommorow by B. Raman

There was a time in the 80s when people never missed checking under their seat whenever they went for a film in Delhi. Few people ever found anything remotely suspicious or dangerous. But they did check.  That was the end of innocence for Delhi. Life would never be the same again. A walk to the neighborhood market, a trip to the local cinema or even a DTC bus ride to the grandmother's would never be the same again. This was about the Khalistani terrorists, angels in comparison to al-Qaeda, the Lashkar e-Tayyaba and the Harkat Ul Jihad-al-Islami. The former belonging to the category of Old Terrorism and the latter to New Terrorism……(Hindustan, 15 Jul 08)

Jihad and retribalization in Pakistan

Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia by Ayesha Jalal

Ayesha Jalal studies the jihad of Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed (1786-1831) in India as the most immaculate articulation of the theory of jihad in Islam. Sayyid Ahmad may have conceived his holy war against East India Company while living in Rai Bareilly in the central region of northern India, but he moved his warriors to where Pakistan’s North Western Frontier (NWFP) province is today because he thought that the Pashtun living in the tribal areas under non-Muslim Sikh occupation were better Muslims than the settled Muslims of the plains.  Here was the first indication that Islamic utopia could be constructed more easily in a tribal society. He probably wanted to take on the British after creating a mini-state on the pattern of Madina in the NWFP and probably hoped to reform the contaminated Muslims of the plains as a means of enhancing his challenge to the British. Al Qaeda too discovered the Pashtun straddling the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan as the tribal matrix where an Islamic utopia would grow into a centre of the global caliphate devoted to reforming and uniting Muslims living unhappily as subjects of today’s nation-states……(Daily Times, 13 Jul 08)

The Last Night of a Damned Soul by Slimane Benaissa

Slimane Benaissa, an Algerian Berber living in France, is an author, playwright, and actor. He wrote The Last Night of a Damned Soul in reaction to the suicide bombings of 9/11. It is a noble and courageous response for a Muslim, as his intent is to tell the painful but illuminating truth about the Islamic jihad ideology of death.  The protagonist, Raouf, is a computer programmer living in Northern California. His father, now deceased, was from Egypt and his mother from Lebanon. His well-educated parents are professionals and barely a cultural Muslim as is he……(Political Islam, 13 Jul 08)

Collateral Damage - According to Jane Mayer

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer

…Jane Mayer, a staff writer for the New Yorker, documents some of the ugliest allegations of wrongdoing charged against the Bush administration. Her achievement lies less in bringing new revelations to light than in weaving into a comprehensive narrative a story revealed elsewhere in bits and pieces. Recast as a series of indictments, the story Mayer tells goes like this: Since embarking upon its global war on terror, the United States has blatantly disregarded the Geneva Conventions. It has imprisoned suspects, including U.S. citizens, without charge, holding them indefinitely and denying them due process. It has created an American gulag in which thousands of detainees, including many innocent of any wrongdoing, have been subjected to ritual abuse and humiliation. It has delivered suspected terrorists into the hands of foreign torturers… Above all, the story Mayer tells is one of fear and its exploitation. That fear should trump concern for due process and indeed justice qualifies as a recurring phenomenon in American history. In 1919, government-stoked paranoia about radicalism produced the Red Scare. After Pearl Harbor, hysteria mixed with racism led to the confinement of some 110,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. The onset of the Cold War triggered another panic, anxieties about a new communist threat giving rise to McCarthyism. In this sense, the response evoked by 9/11 looks a bit like déjà vu all over again: Frightened Americans, more worried about their own safety than someone else's civil liberties, allowed senior government officials to exploit a climate of fear……(Washington Post, 13 Jul 08)

Book Cites Secret Red Cross Report of C.I.A. Torture of Qaeda Captives

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer

Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

The book says that the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were “categorically” torture, which is illegal under both American and international law……(New York Times, 11 Jul 08)

Marching Toward Hell – America and Islam after Iraq

…As an ex-CIA agent (Michael Scheuer) specifically working on gathering information on Osama bin Laden and al Queda, Scheuer appears to have a solid background of information on the message and intentions of bin Laden. He also has a solid perspective of putting ‘America first’ that more often than not contradicts the neo-traditional view of American exceptionalism and unilateralism. There are moments when his obvious pro-American rhetoric becomes too edgy, but given the nature of his career and his place within the American establishment, those moments can be seen as a natural part of his personal paradigm – America first, quit the stupidity of a foreign policy that only attracts more people of the world to dislike, hate, and attack us. There are several main ideas that run through the course of the work, each receiving slightly different emphasis as time and place changes through events…….(Political Affairs, 11 Jul 08)

The Palestinian gambit

Palestinians Between Nationalism and Islam by Raphael Israeli
The Palestinians are at war. But their war is not only against Israel. The two most prominent Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, continue to battle on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. But the war does not end there. There is also a war for the soul of the Palestinian people…Unfortunately, the Islamists are winning. They are exhorted to violence by the bulk of the Muslim world, which is steeped in the muck of radical Islam and the ossified ideas of authoritarian rule. Only very slowly have moderates emerged from the shadows in Tunisia, Qatar, Iran and elsewhere to challenge this culture of violence….(Jerusalem Post, 11 Jul 08)

Author Nicholas Daniloff Talks About His Life As A Cold War Correspondent

Of Spies and Spokesmen: My Life as a Cold War Correspondent by Nicholas Daniloff

Journalist Nicholas Daniloff, a former Moscow correspondent for UPI (1961-65) and U.S. News and World Report (1981-86), has written his memoirs, Of Spies and Spokesmen: My Life as a Cold War Correspondent.  Mr. Daniloff became the focus of world attention after he was jailed by the KGB for 13 days and falsely charged with spying for the United States. He was later traded for an alleged Soviet spy picked up in New York. In his book, Mr. Daniloff discusses the 1982 Cuban missile crisis from a Russian perspective…..(VOA, 7 Jul 08)

Al Qaeda: Regrouping or Decomposing?

Leaderless Jihad, Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century by Mark Sageman

Debates and disputes among analysts in august intellectual journals primarily engage the cognoscenti. Rarely, though, does the debate ripple beyond the realms of theory or have a direct impact on fundamental policy decisions. The publication of the book Leaderless Jihad, Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) earlier this year, however, and the sparks it’s set off in counter-terrorist analyst circles may be a major exception to this rule… Eschewing standard scholarly niceties Leaderless Jihad author Mark Sageman, a forensic psychiatrist and former CIA case officer, is not coy about his intent to take on the dominant view of the counter-terror establishment which models global terrorism, however ostensibly decentralized its operations, as nonetheless a cohesive, coordinated top-down movement. …..(HS Today, 7 Jul 08)

How the British colonialists tried to run the Middle East.

KINGMAKERS: The Invention of the Modern Middle East by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac

The importance of Kingmakers for a wide American audience emerges slowly. At first, the book appears to be a quaint reminiscence of eccentric and often familiar British colonials of the early 20th century, strutting across Middle Eastern deserts in pith helmets, instructing the benighted native tribesmen about the fundamentals of governing. But as this beautifully written and researched book proceeds, it becomes abundantly clear that these skilled English soldier-diplomats are the progenitors of (and in some cases, role models for) the current crop of American diplomats and soldiers on the same turf. The issues that this country is now debating -- how to exit Iraq gracefully, how to protect American interests in the region after withdrawal, how to keep Arab insurgencies in check, how to continue the essential flow of oil, how to maintain American presence without the appearance of colonialism or occupation -- these issues have all been addressed before. The authors make the relevance of their study clear at the outset. "History never repeats, but attitudes and arguments, dilemmas and excuses, clichés and delusions recur with the inevitability of a sun setting on successive empires."…..(Washington Post, 6 Jul 08)

The U.S. Failed to Recognize the Significance of the Radical Islamists

A CHOICE OF ENEMIES: America Confronts the Middle East by Lawrence Freedman

The timing is right for a major new history of America's engagement with the contemporary Middle East. Admittedly, key archival documentation remains under lock and key and will be inaccessible for a long time to come, both in the United States and elsewhere. But enough material is available, in the form of declassified documents, memoirs, oral histories and journalistic treatments, to begin to piece together the story of how we came to our current predicament…The geographic reach is broad: Freedman includes within his purview the whole of what some observers call the Greater Middle East, a region that includes southwest Asia. The heart of the book is concerned with what Freedman identifies as the "second radical wave" in the Middle East, which was led by Islamists and which gained momentum with the Iranian revolution of the late 1970s. This followed a "first radical wave" spearheaded by secular Arab nationalists in the 1950s and '60s. Both waves were anticolonial and anti-Zionist, and both grew substantially out of political developments in Egypt……(Washington Post, 6 Jul 08)

Over-the-counter cloak and dagger
Spies For Hire by Tim Shorrock

Among the many issues that have become the subject of public debate in the years since the September 11, 2001, attacks are the functions of the United States intelligence community and outsourcing of role and activities to the private sector. The numerous reports that have been issued on intelligence activities in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the inquiries into what the US government knew or didn't know about Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs attest to the continuing interest in this issue. And many activities that used to be consider the sole prerogative of the public sector, such as military support functions, have become the subject of heated debate thanks to the activities of private military contractors, such as Blackwater, DynCorp, Triple Canopy, and a host of others operating in Iraq and elsewhere.  But nobody has ever bothered to examine the scope and impact of private contractors in the US intelligence community. That is, until now……(Asia times, 3 Jul 08)

Fair play for the CIA

THE MIGHTY WURLITZER: How the CIA played America by Hugh Wilford

The Cold War was fought on many fronts, but most of us think of it taking place on the battleground of covert action and espionage. There, the Soviet Union had home-field advantage: war was in the air in 1948, and many felt it might be lost almost before it began. George Kennan was one of them, seen in the opening chapter of Hugh Wilford’s The Mighty Wurlitzer as the “determined interventionist” who developed a Cold War strategy and a mechanism to fight it – the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), later folded into the CIA. Frank Wisner, OPC’s first chief, brought in men like himself – OSS veterans bored with civilian life, all determined not to make the same mistakes in dealing with the Soviet Union which they felt their elders had in failing to contain Hitler. …..(Times Online, 2 Jul 08)

FAILURES PROMPT NEW IDEAS FOR TERROR FROM THE SHADOWS

Governance in the Wilderness by Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji

…Middle East analysts think that the book may indicate a major change of strategy by the disparate groups that use al Qaeda as a brand name. The Saudi police seized copies of the book last week as they arrested 700 alleged terrorists in overnight raids. Naji's book, written in pseudo-literary Arabic, is meant as a manifesto for jihad. He divides the jihadi movement into five circles - ranging from Sunni Salafi (traditionalist) Muslims (who, though not personally violent, are prepared to give moral and material support to militants) to Islamist groups with national rather than pan-Islamist agendas (such as the Palestinian Hamas and the Filipino Moro Liberation Front)……(New York Post, 1 Jul 08)

A Review of The Veil Anthology

The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics, contributed to and edited by Jennifer Heath

…The book is separated into three sections, which aren’t officially themed. The first section concentrates on the religious use and history of the veil in different contexts. Mohja Kahf writes an interesting essay about forced unveilings in the Middle East (something that doesn’t ever make it to the evening news). Pamela K. Taylor writes an excellent essay about the politics imbued with the scarf she wears, and how she navigates through the positive and negative aspects of these associations. Section two deals with the veil’s relationship to the physical realm. In this section, Shireen Malik details a history of Salome and her veils…..(Feministe, 1 Jul 08)

June 2008

Al Qaeda Goes Viral

"Architect of Global Jihad" by Brynjar Lia

"The Global Islamic Resistance Call" by Abu Mus'ab al-Suri (nom de guerre)

… Brynjar Lia, of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, both traces al-Suri's history and -- for the first time -- translates many of the key sections of "The Global Islamic Resistance Call" into English. In the process, Lia presents Americans with perhaps the closest thing to a blueprint for the next wave of the jihadist movement -- one in which terrorists acting in the name of Al Qaeda never have any contact with the organization begun by bin Laden.   al-Suri is as famous to terrorists as he is unknown to the general American public. Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker penned the only substantive American profile of him in 2006, but apparently only had access to portions of "The Call." al-Suri "is highly intelligent, well read, focused, intense, no sense of humor, [and] speaks Arabic and Spanish and French, very little English" said Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at The New America Foundation and author of two influential books about Al Qaeda……(Washington Independent, 30 Jun 08)

Lessons Learned - How China has avoided the fate of the Soviet bloc

CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY: Atrophy and Adaptation by David Shambaugh

June 4, 1989, is etched into the Chinese Communist Party's memory. On that date it crushed what it viewed as the most serious challenge to its rule. But far away from the students in Tiananmen Square, another threat was gathering. That same day, Polish voters handed a landslide victory to the Solidarity Party. Within months, the People's Republic of Poland was no more; a string of communist regimes, including the Soviet Union, soon fell. How Beijing chose to respond is the subject of China's Communist Party, by David Shambaugh, a professor of political science at George Washington University. Contrary to the Western image of a top-heavy, ossified Leninist machine, the party that Shambaugh presents is one of nimble intelligence and restless introspection. Its response to the collapse of European communism was not to turn inward or look away, but to try to determine the errors of former communist regimes……(Washington Post, 29 Jun 08)

Real W.M.D.’s

ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

Any new entry in the crowded field of books on the 1962 Cuban missile crisis must pass an immediate test: Is it just another recapitulation, or does it increase our net understanding of this seminal cold war event? By focusing on the activities of the American, Soviet and Cuban militaries during those tense October days, Michael Dobbs’s “One Minute to Midnight” passes this test with flying colors. The result is a book with sobering new information about the world’s only superpower nuclear confrontation — as well as contemporary relevance……(New York Times, 22 Jun 08)

Muslim Mindset: 'The hatred is in Muhammad himself'

Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography of Allah's Prophet by Ali Sina

To Westerners and moderate Muslims shocked by the radical form of Islam now topping nightly newscasts, the efforts of liberal-minded Muslims like Tawfik Hamid, Italian Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi and a handful of others may seem like the perfect solution. Not so for Ali Sina, who has a different suggestion: destroy Islam… Sina grew up a non-practicing Muslim. Raised in Iran, educated in Pakistan and Italy and now living in Canada, he began jousting with believers in the 1990s. What bothered him, he tells The Jerusalem Post, was not the penchant for jihad and intolerance that certain fanatical Muslims displayed, but the foundation for such ills in the Koran and core Islamic texts……(Jerusalem Post, 22 Jun 08)

After One Wall Fell, Before New Ones Rose

AMERICA BETWEEN THE WARS: From 11/9 to 9/11: The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Start of the War on Terror by Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier

…It was during this decade, they say, that the consequences of the end of the cold war first unfurled, including “the economic, political, and security challenges created by globalization; the rise of nonstate actors; the threat of weapons of mass destruction; the dangers that emanate from weak or failing states; the possibilities and limits of international institutions; and questions about whether and how to use America’s preponderant power to meet global responsibilities.” In addition, they contend, “the debates that raged both between and within” the Republican and Democratic Parties during the 1990s “shaped their respective responses to 9/11 — and still influence their foreign policy choices” today……(New York Times, 17 Jun 08)

Taking On Al-Qaeda

LEADERLESS JIHAD: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century by Marc Sageman

THE CONFRONTATION: Winning the War Against Future Jihad by Walid Phares

… Based on biographical profiles he has compiled of 500 jihadists who used violence against the United States and its allies, "Leaderless Jihad" sets out to explain how people become terrorists: What drives some individuals to ideological violence? What is the tipping point? How do terrorist networks radicalize, mobilize and militarize their recruits? In Sageman's view, terrorists are not born, they are made, and terrorism has less to do with culture or religion than with politics… In "The Confrontation," Phares asserts that the survival of the free world is at stake because the "global Jihadi forces" are on the march. "The terror networks," he writes, "have at their disposal oil power, financial empires, regular armies, militias, underground connections, radical clerics, influential media, madrassas, regimes, circles within governments, biochemical arms, a totalitarian ideology, wide webs of collaborators and sympathizers within the Free World, and, potentially, nuclear weapons."…..(Washington Post, 17 Jun 08)

Student's Film Peering Into Spy Agency Vies for Prize

Davis Barcalow, 12, a rising seventh-grader at Graham Park Middle School, is really into being a Boy Scout, shooting archery and playing video games (Halo 3, he says, is awesome), and he thinks being a CIA spy one day… But for now, Davis has to settle for the title of award-winning amateur journalist. Or, more specifically: documentarian of the Office of Strategic Services, a U.S. spy agency that preceded the CIA and trained several agents at Prince William Forest Park. Davis's 10-minute documentary on the OSS, spliced with interviews from the Internet, the song "Secret Agent Man"……(Washington Post, 15 Jun 08)

The Business of Intelligence Gathering

Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing by Tim Shorrock

…His writing here is closer in style to a corporate annual report than to a magazine feature, and he makes extensive use of secondary sources like other books. But his book is worth plowing through because of its disturbing overview of the intelligence community, also known as “the I.C.”  Mr. Shorrock says our government is outsourcing 70 percent of its intelligence budget, or more than $42 billion a year, to a “secret army” of corporate vendors. Because of accelerated privatization efforts after 9/11, these companies are participating in covert operations and intelligence-gathering activities that were considered “inherently governmental” functions reserved for agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency…..(New York Times, 15 Jun 08)

War in Iraq has turned spying into big business

…About $50 billion a year is lavished on private intelligence contracts by our government. To put that number in perspective, it is the cost of 10 years of veterans' educational benefits - benefits the president says, "We can't afford."

The splendor of the spy spoils is that the contracts are not bid, not audited, absolutely secret and immune from congressional oversight. Tim Shorrock's book, "Spies for Hire," convincingly deciphers some of the layers of secrecy, obfuscation and denial that enshroud the frenzied competition for this astounding pot of gold.

In a fervent display of patriotism, the managers of more than 200 intelligence contractors convened at a lavish conference In Washington D. C. on Feb. 28, 2006 to promote, "business opportunities presented by the war."……(Marin Independent Journal, 15 Jun 08)

City author spies missteps by CIA

Why Spy?: Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty by Frederick P. Hitz

When Frederick P. Hitz reported for his new job as inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1990, he knew exactly where to go. The Washington-born lawyer had worked for the nation’s premiere spy service from the late 1960s until 1982, when he left to practice law. When he returned eight years later and walked across the glistening waxed floor of the headquarters’ building in Langley, his first impression was that it could have been the Department of Agriculture… Cleared for publication by the CIA, the book is filled with fascinating information. For example, it lists the seven classic motivations for committing espionage — ideology, money, revenge, blackmail, friendship, ethnic or religious solidarity and love of espionage for its own sake. As Hitz points out, espionage is the world’s second-oldest profession. In his book he attempts to illustrate how the age-old game needs to adjust to new challenges presented by global terrorism……(Daily Progress, 10 Jun 08)

Musharraf allowed CIA base in Pakistan: book

Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid

…"On Jan 9, 2008, Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, and Gen. Michael Hayden, director of CIA, visited Islamabad where they discussed a plan to make operational a secret CIA base that could mount attacks on militants by drones armed with missiles," Rashid says in his book "Descent into Chaos".
The base was located in the restive Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a region considered a safe haven for Taliban and Al Quaeda cadres, The News Tuesday reported, quoting from the book. Musharraf, the book says, accepted help from the US Special Forces to train and mentor Pakistani counterterrorism…..(Economic Times, 10 Jun 08)

The Shia Avenger

MUQTADA: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq by Patrick Cockburn

The last word that Saddam Hussein heard as the executioner's noose was being tightened around his neck was "Muqtada." As in Muqtada al-Sadr, the young Shia cleric who had survived his persecutor to lay claim to Iraq. Americans may be tempted to dismiss Muqtada as mainly a nuisance -- too young, inexperienced and unstable to thrive in Iraqi politics. But it was Muqtada's men who executed Saddam, and the movement associated with him has grown enough to threaten U.S. plans for Iraq, most recently by plunging the southern metropolis of Basra into battle and by roiling Baghdad's Sadr City, the massive Shia district that bears his family name…….(Washington Post, 8 Jun 08)

Why Osama bin Laden Still Matters

Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-first Century by Marc Sageman

Marc Sageman claims that al Qaeda's leadership is finished and today's terrorist threat comes primarily from below. But the terrorist elites are alive and well, and ignoring the threat they pose will have disastrous consequences… Since Rudy Giuliani's early exit from the Republican presidential primary, the issue of terrorism has barely been mentioned by any of the candidates in either party. Given its absence from this year's U.S. presidential campaign, it is easy to forget how prominent a role terrorism played in 2004. Many observers believe that Osama bin Laden's dramatically choreographed videotaped appearance on October 29, 2004, may have tipped the vote in President George W. Bush's favor by reminding Americans of the horrors of 9/11 and instilling a fear of future attacks. And although terrorism has largely been ignored as a campaign issue thus far, bin Laden and al Qaeda may deliberately raise its visibility once again. …..(Foreign Affairs, May/Jun 08)

Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad by Andrew C. McCarthy

…Andrew McCarthy was the federal prosecutor who, against all odds, secured a long prison term for Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh" who plotted the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. McCarthy's new book, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, recounts just how difficult that task was. More importantly, McCarthy illustrates how it's almost impossible to foil terrorist attacks under the law enforcement model. For the first time, McCarthy intimately reveals the real story behind the FBI's inability to stop the first World Trade Center bombing even though the bureau had an undercover informant in the operation -- the jihadists' supposed bombmaker…..(FrontPage, 3 Jun 08)

Texts of terror

Abraham's Curse: The Roots of Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Bruce Chilton

The Violence of God and the War on Terror by Jeremy Young

Either the world is growing more violent or, because of more intense media coverage, we are increasingly aware of the violence that is all around us. Either way, violence—global and local, irrational and that committed as "rational" policy—presses upon us. Violence is also deeply rooted in biblical tradition, a fact that has been largely covered over by the niceties of high-minded theology and well-intentioned morality and piety. In our present circumstances, however, attention must be paid. Among the noteworthy books on biblically rooted violence, these two statements are relatively accessible and will evoke the critical conversation that is required…..(Christian Century, 3 Jun 08)

May 2008

Rent-A-Spy

SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing by Tim Shorrock

… Unlike in decades past, when firms such as Boeing and Lockheed provided spy planes and satellites and other hardware that the CIA could not possibly build itself, the new breed of contractor offers the CIA guys in trench coats and black ops gear, ready to do the work the agency traditionally has done…Shorrock persuasively shows that the business has changed dramatically in recent years, beginning even before the Sept. 11 attacks set off a homeland security gold rush.

Today, intelligence contracting is a $45 billion-a-year industry, he says, chewing up three quarters of the estimated $60 billion intelligence budget. It is no longer limited mainly to providing hardware; its reach now extends from top to bottom, from data-mining contractors who sift the Internet for terrorist activity to spy handlers, regional intelligence analysts and ex-special operations troops who run paramilitary operations…..(Washington Post, 30 May 08)

The Trial in American Life

The Trial in American Life by Robert A. Ferguson

… Part 1 of the book examines the various literal and symbolic roles that trial participants play. The American trial is a ritual designed to foster respect for the legal process and participation by antagonistic parties… Part 2 of the book reviews a constellation of controversial trials that helped shape American history. The first such occurrence was the trial of former Vice-President Aaron Burr on charges of treason… American mass hysteria regarding the specter of domestic enemies was revisited in the courts during the Red Scare of the 1950s. The book portrays the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of espionage…..(Psych Service, 30 May 08)

Espionage in an uncertain age

Why Spy? by Frederick Hitz

…"Why Spy?" is virtually a primer on all aspects of espionage, including seven fascinating chapters about what motivates a person to become a spy.

The author says that spying "is no parlor game but a down and dirty effort, electronic or human, to get at the intentions of the enemy, to strip his cupboard bare ... to spy is to betray a trust." Hitz explains that covert action that was so successful during WWII and the Cold War can no longer be utilized because of the politicizing of intelligence gathering (Congressional leaks and micro-management) and heightened scrutiny by the overzealous and occasionally irresponsible media. Yet he still considers human intelligence more valuable than electronic…..(Roanoke, 27 May 08)

Jihadi Suicide Bombers: The New Wave

After September 11, 2001, readers around the world quickly learned about the basic tenets of jihad and its distortion by al-Qaeda. Now the shelves of Western bookshops are again filled with books on the subject, which gives no sign of going away. Jihad, which means struggle, is "recommended" rather than obligatory for all Muslims, but its interpretation is literally an open book—the lesser jihad to purify one's soul and perform good deeds for the community, the greater jihad to defend Islam when it is under attack. Each major collection of Hadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that were compiled by several Muslim scholars well after the Prophet's death, contains its own descriptions of jihad, with the result that the discussion of jihad has always been a matter of differing interpretations rather than literal observance……(New York Books, Vol. 55, #10, June 08)

CIA Spy Gadgets Revealed: Q Ain't Got Nothin' On Langley

Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton (with Henry R. Schlesinger) Web Link

While we don't typically review books, this one happens to be the best we've ever seen on the subject of old-school spyware, a book the CIA itself held up for many many months before just barely deeming it safe for public consumption, a book that pretty much proves that all the freaky spy gadgetry you've seen in movies—and some that you haven't—is ALL TOTALLY REAL… The extensively researched book chronicles the gear and the people behind the gear, operatives still shrouded in pseudonym (or even anonym) who went around Moscow on cold winter days planting listening devices in hotel rooms or dead-dropping microfiche in the middle of public parks. It's about the nerds in the labs who were asked to make debris-free drills and didn't balk, guys who were asked to mount blow-up sex dolls as pop-up in-car decoys and didn't laugh. (OK, some probably laughed.) In short, it's an incredible page turner, mostly because none of it was dreamed up by Sir Ian Fleming or any of his thousand copycats…..(Gizmodo, 22 May 08)

More Info:

CIA Airlines: Inflatable Getaway Plane Delivered Upon Request

Resistance Isn't Futile: Explosive Edible Flour, Cigarette Guns and Other WWII OSS Tricks

Islam's history of anti-Semitism

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Andrew Bostom

Is there such a thing as Islamic anti-Semitism? That is the implicit question that Andrew Bostom's new book, "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism," tackles. The regrettable answer that presents itself is not based on conjecture, political correctness, anachronisms or wishful thinking — increasingly the domains and paradigms of modern academia — but rather primary texts that speak for themselves. Dr. Bostom, whom I have met and who evinces a passion for the subject of his book, still manages to approach it objectively. A medical doctor by profession, he applies the scientific method and bases his conclusions on the data — as all scholars used to.  And his data is significant: This consists of approximately 700, double-column pages of mostly primary text material, loosely divided into two genres: 1) Islamic law's stance toward the Jew, as delineated by Muslims (lest the charge of "bias" be made) and 2) historical texts documenting Jewish life under Islamic rule…..(Washington Times, 20 May 08)

If You Had One Book to Read about Iran…

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr by Sol Gittleman

…Nasr tells the critical story within Islam: the historical 1,400-year split within the Muslim world, where today approximately 85% adhere to the dominant Sunni theological creed and 15% belong to the Shia tradition, a numerical (and power) imbalance which is in the process of a tectonic shift because of the American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Iraqi Freedom eliminated the two greatest obstacles to a Shia revival: the Sunni chauvinist Saddam Hussein, who kept his minority in power while tyrannizing the Shia majority in Iraq; and the Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan. The American invasions awakened a dormant Shia sense of entitlement that created a concentrated arc of power that now sweeps from Iraq to Afghanistan. After nearly 14 centuries of humiliation and subservience, Shiism finds itself empowered in a critical part of the Muslim world, and the West seems politically and militarily unable to cope……(Palestine-Israel Journal, 20 May 08)

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Andrew Bostom

…Dr. Bostom does not use brilliant essays as a logic to persuade the reader. He lets Mohammed and Islam tell the story by using the actual source documents.  So in the first half of the book we get to see how the Koran, the Sira (the life of Mohammed) and the Hadith (the Traditions of Mohammed) lay out a complete doctrine of Jew hatred. Mohammed used the Jews as a proof of his prophet-hood. At first, Mohammed is portrayed as the last in the line of Jewish prophets. Noah, Moses, Abraham and even Jesus are used to establish that all of their work pointed to the arrival of the true prophet. Mohammed is portrayed as the “real” Jew and the Koran is the real Torah (Jewish scripture). Of course, Yahweh is the same as Allah, the real Yahweh. In summary, while in Mecca, Mohammed stole Yahweh and the Torah…..(FrontPage, 16 May 08)

Army Lt. Col. Joseph Myers Says U.S. Needs Better Focus in the War on Terror

The Quranic Concept of War by Pakistani Brig. Gen. S.K. Malik

To better understand the Quranic basis of jihad as practiced by extremists without sifting through a library of interpretations, you should read one book above all others, says Lt. Col. Joseph Myers…Malik attempts to teach his readers about the doctrinal aspects of “Quranic warfare,” said Myers, who wrote a paper on the subject published in Parameters, the Army War College quarterly, and delivered a presentation at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa annual conference in April.This is the religious definition of war as outlined by Malik with explanations from the Quran, and it is “infinitely supreme and effective,” the general wrote. Because the West does not associate war with the divine, however, Western interpretations of the motivations for jihad are unaccustomed to the general’s Quranic view; the ideas, for example, that “tumult and oppression [of Muslims] are worse than slaughter,” and that because of this, “war must be waged ‘only to fight the forces of tyranny and oppression.’ ” …..(CQ Politics, 15 May 08)

Espionage and Intelligence (Current Controversies), Edited by Debra A. Miller

Espionage and Intelligence is a good primer for a novice student of U.S. espionage and intelligence. Although published less than a year ago, the American intelligence panorama is rapidly changing and has made the book slightly dated already. But it’s still an excellent base upon which to build. The book gives a helpful pro and con layout, giving facts and arguments both for and against the most prevalent of the arguments ongoing as you read this. The questions addressed include 1) Has U.S. espionage and intelligence-gathering been successful? 2) Will post 9/11 reforms of the United States intelligence system be effective? 3) Do intelligence-gathering activities threaten civil or human rights? and 4) What can be done to improve our intelligence-gathering abilities?.....(Blog Critics, 12 May 08)

What do Muslims around the world believe?

Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
John L. Esposito, professor of Islamic studies and international affairs at Georgetown University, is at the forefront of scholars representing Muslims to Americans as benign believers in the one God, people much like their cousins in Judaism and Christianity in their aspirations for peace, prosperity, and democracy…The polling data contain much that is informative and thought-provoking. The analysis by Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, is sometimes dead-on. Sometimes, though, it wanders off into irrelevancy and apologetics. No one who reads this book could come away puzzled about why moderate Muslims fear and distrust the United States. In Iran, the United States brought down the first democratically elected moderate Muslim government, in 1953. Since then, it has backed a seemingly endless stream of kings, dictators, and military strongmen in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia……(Boston Globe, 14 May 08)

In a Changing World, an Ever-Evolving Terrorism

TERROR AND CONSENT: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century by Philip Bobbitt

…In current parlance the pirates were terrorists, since they sought to instill terror in innocent victims to further their own ends. But as Philip Bobbitt points out in his powerful, dense and brilliant new book, “Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century,” in the late 18th century they were also quite different from the terrorists we now know. They resembled the type of “territorial states” they preyed upon. Emulating them, the pirates demarcated their terrain, humiliated their nemeses and copied “the mercantile, cynical manners of the era.” That style of terror, Mr. Bobbitt argues, was far different from the kind practiced by the 20th-century Irish Republican Army, which in turn was far different from the tactics of 21st-century Al Qaeda. But in each case, Mr. Bobbitt suggests, the ambitions and techniques of an era’s terrorist groups reflected the states they were confronting……(New York Times, 9 May 08)

Book challenges terrorism cliches

The Second Plane by Martin Amis

…Even the title is provocative: when United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., everyone knew that the crash of American Airlines Flight 11, 17 minutes earlier, was not a horrible accident. The entire collection -- a couple of imaginative pieces, In the Palace of the End, a first-person account of one of the doubles of Saddam Hussein, and the self-explanatory The Last Days of Muhammad Atta, and a dozen other non-fiction essays -- all deal with the impact, the significance and the aftermath of the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001……(Calgary Herald, 7 May 08)

What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the root Causes of Terrorism by Alan B. Kreuger

Alan B. Krueger, economy professor at the Princeton University and adviser to the US National Counterterrorism Center, studies the effects of poverty and lack of education on terrorism in What Makes a Terrorist. The author bases his book on three lectures he gave at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006. Krueger’s work comes out against the conventional wisdom regarding the link between poverty and illiteracy on the one hand and terrorism on the other. Passing judgment on a general belief which addresses unsatisfactory life conditions and lack of education as the main reasons of terrorism, Krueger attempts to show that that such a causality does not exist. Those connecting underdevelopment with terrorist acts have no systematic empirical evidence, according to the author. Even if poverty and illiteracy affect hate crimes, such consequences only occur indirectly and a very weak causality is the case. The author signifies enhancing civil liberties as the most effective way of dealing with the issue…..(Turkish Weekly, 6 May 08)

'Willful blindness' to the Jihad

Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad by Andy McCarthy

You might expect the lead prosecutor against the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to tout the criminal justice system as the premier strategy to fight terrorism. If so, you're wrong. It is precisely because of Andy McCarthy's experience in that capacity that he understands — in a way others can't — the crippling limitations of law enforcement and criminal prosecutions in combating global terrorism. Though he led the Justice Department prosecution team that convicted Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheik," Mr. McCarthy is painfully aware that "as a class, Baby-Boom attorneys know nothing of war. Prosecutors included." Even this successful effort left way too many militants in place and encouraged the idea they could attack us with impunity…..(Washington Times, 5 May 08)

New book takes on 'Fitna' verses

Ayat-Ayat Fitna, Sekelumit Keadaban Islam di Tengah Purbasangka (Fitna Verses, a Tiny Bit of Islamic Civility in the Middle of Prejudice) by Quraish Shihab 

Noted Koranic scientist Quraish Shihab has written a book to counter the "false accusations against Islam" contained in the controversial movie Fitna, released recently by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Ayat-Ayat Fitna, Sekelumit Keadaban Islam di Tengah Purbasangka (Fitna Verses, a Tiny Bit of Islamic Civility in the Middle of Prejudice), launched in Jakarta on Sunday, refutes Wilders' misleading interpretations of the five Koranic verses quoted in the film. In the 90-page book, Quraish clarifies each of the verses, reflecting the interpretations to which Muslims worldwide generally adhere…..(Jakarta Post, 5 May 08)

The strategy of suicide-bombing

Dying to Kill: the Allure of Suicide Terrorism by Mia Bloom

…Suicide bombing was initially embraced by only a couple of Islamist groups: al Dawa, an Iraqi Shia group, and the Lebanese Shia organization, Hezbollah. Later, it was copied by others moved by nationalism and, more frighteningly, ethnic sub-nationalism. Toward the end of the 1980s, suicide terrorism began to spread beyond Lebanon and Kuwait in the Middle East: first to Sri Lanka but then, as the 1990s unfolded, to India, Argentina, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Apart from the Eelam Tigers of Sri Lanka, most of the stuff has been motivated by religion. From 2001 to 2005, 78 percent of all the suicide terrorist incidents were religion-driven. Indeed, of thirty-five terrorist organizations employing suicide tactics in 2005, 86 percent were Islamic. These movements have been responsible for 81 percent of all suicide attacks since 9/11. By 2005, more than 350 suicide attacks took place in at least twenty-four countries — including the United Kingdom, Israel, Sri Lanka Russia, Lebanon, Turkey, Italy, Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, Argentina, Kenya, Tanzania, Croatia, Morocco, Singapo