May 2008

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, Singapore, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq……(Daily Times, 4 May 08)

For Your Eyes Only

…"Intelligence is not just getting good information. It's knowing when to use it," tour guide and retired NSA employee Howell McConnell tells a group on a recent Saturday in front of an exhibit about the World War I Zimmermann telegram…The gritty authenticity of the National Cryptologic Museum beats just about anything the Spy Museum has to offer, from the docents like McConnell to the exhibits assembled by real-life code-breakers to the barbed-wire fence and guard huts that separate the museum from the NSA buildings nearby. The museum gives an unclassified glimpse of the history of American espionage….(Washington Post, 2 May 08)

Book review: Islam's women scholars

Musalman Khawatin Ki Ilmi Khidmat ('The Intellectual Contributions of Muslim Women') by Allama Syed Ghulam Mustafa Bukhari Aqeel

One indicator of the development of a society is its female literacy rate and, related to this, the number of its female scholars. On both these fronts, India's Muslims are among the lowest of all the communities in the country. This unfortunate fact provides a basis for negative stereotyping of the community, particularly in matters related to inter-gender relations. This, however, is ironical, given that Islam is one of the few religions to have declared education to be a duty binding on all its followers, men as well as women. The irony is further heightened by the fact that early Islamic history provides examples of numerous Muslim women scholars who made valuable contributions to the intellectual life of their communities……(Indian Muslims, 1 May 08)

For CIA tech chief details espionage successes, failures

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

…A foreword by George I. Tenet, who headed the agency from 1997 to 2004, complains that the human drama often obscures the important work of the techies.

"Regrettably, there have been instances where secrecy was invoked to deny knowledge of information that has long since lost sensitivity but is vital for public understanding and consideration," he writes. "'Spycraft' is a history of the CIA's fusion of technical innovation with classic tradecraft, and, equally, a call to young men and women with similar talents to enlist in the battle against America's new enemies."….(AP, 1 May 08)

April 2008

Author to talk about life during Cold War

Andover resident Nicholas Daniloff will discuss his new book that describes his life as a journalist in the Soviet Union during the Cold War at 4 p.m. Sunday at Misty Valley Books. "Of Spies and Spokesmen: My Life as a Cold War Correspondent" details Daniloff's Cold War reporting during the 1980s, including his 1986 arrest for espionage by the KGB……(Rutland Herald, 30 Apr 08)

'Bleeding for Allah': New Book Warns Americans to Take Notice -- Islam Will Conquer the Free World

Bleeding for Allah: Why Islam will Conquer the Free World. What Americans Need to Know by Markus Aurelius

…Markus Aurelius scrutinizes Islam from its very birth. The Koran, holy book of more than one billion people worldwide, is systematically analyzed to reveal the true nature of its message. "Bleeding for Allah" goes the full distance in detailing the uncomfortable and painful truth of that message. Although terrorists in its name are dismissed as misguided fanatics, Islam is anything but a peaceful religion, Aurelius explains, providing countless examples of Koranic verse that readily demonstrate its militancy and violence. While Aurelius is quite sensitive to the influence of cultural bias on interpretation, he finds it extremely difficult to dismiss the troubling tenor of many verses…..(Sun Herald, 30 Apr 08)

Detecting More in the Story

PINKERTON'S SECRET by Eric Lerner

Allan Pinkerton's life story has always read like a spy thriller. The hard-edged Scottish immigrant entered the pages of history as the founder of the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency and as the head of the Union intelligence service during the Civil War… Pinkerton was also a staunch abolitionist, running a station on the Underground Railroad at great personal risk, and an early convert to the notion of women in the workplace, hiring America's first female detective, a young widow named Kate Warne, in 1856……(Washington Post, 30 Apr 08)

Still Willfully Blind After All These Years

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

I hate to seem ungracious, especially when a reviewer has had at least a few nice things to say about me and my new book, Willful Blindness — A Memoir of the Jihad. But I must confess to disappointment that the New York Sun, one of the best newspapers around, decided Laurie Mylroie would be a good choice to do the review.  BASIT’S NOT BASIT   Sometime in 1993 or 1994, a briefing at the Manhattan district attorney’s office was arranged for me and a few other federal prosecutors involved in the World Trade Center bombing cases. The briefer was Mylroie, then (if memory serves) a professor at Harvard, where she’d earned her doctorate in government. She was spouting a theory that the attack had been the work of Saddam Hussein and that we ignoramuses were completely missing the boat by charging Islamic terrorists, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence that they had carried out the atrocity……(National Review, 30 Apr 08)

'Why We Left Islam' editors blast CAIR

The editors of a new book compiling the testimonies of ex-Muslims say they weren't surprised when the Council on American-Islamic Relations attacked their work without reading it. But, say Islamic experts Joel Richardson and Susan Crimp, they were shocked that the New York Daily News characterized the group as the voice of moderate Muslims. "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out," published by WND Books, was skewered by CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in the paper – weeks before today's official release date. The book is controversial for two reasons – the gripping firsthand personal accounts of men and women who risked their lives by abandoning the Koran and because it is the first American book release to feature a picture of the prophet Muhammad on the cover…..(World Net Daily, 29 Apr 08)

Protracted warfare

INDIA, PAKISTAN AND THE SECRET JIHAD — The Covert War in Kashmir, 1947-2004 by Praveen Swami

History, conventionally, gets reconstructed around the axis of mega events; around towering personalities and their complex relationships. Beneath these high points, however, flows a subterranean stream — invisible but powerful — of unknown events: of intrigues and manipulation, often of dubious legality and morality, which cast their long shadows on the course of history. If historians could have the luxury of access into these backroom operations, written accounts of our near past might look unrecognizably different. But, that rarely happens. Praveen Swami’s India, Pakistan and the Secret Jihad is one such bold attempt in this direction, connecting the largely-unknown behind-the-scene occurrences to the highpoints of history in Jammu and Kashmir from 1947….(Hindu, 29 Apr 08)

The New Book that CAIR Does Not Want You to Read

Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out compiled and edited by Susan Crimp and Joel Richardson

…Islam, the world's fastest-growing religion, is a dangerous dead-end path, warn the contributors. "'Why We Left Islam' shows the true face of Islam, a religion that will not live in peace with the non-Muslim world," according to the editors. "When the Sudanese government jails a teacher because her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammad, when mobs pillage and murder over cartoon depictions of their Prophet that are mild compared to the vicious assaults our 'enlightened' media make on Jews and Christians, when an elderly nun dies because the Pope makes a comment at a scholarly conference, it's past time for Westerners to learn the truth about Islam from those who have escaped its yoke." In the face not just of virulent criticism from CAIR and its media enablers but literal death threats from radical Muslim leaders, the contributors share their shocking, disturbing stories….(PR Web, 23 Apr 08)

The Mystery of Oswald's Contacts with the CIA in Mexico

Our Man in Mexico City: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA by Jefferson Morely

…Newly declassified records and interviews with retired CIA officials illuminate the JFK story as it has never been seen before: through the eyes of Win Scott, long a shadowy figure in the history of the agency who was renowned for the brilliance and diligence of his espionage. In 1963, Scott was serving as the chief of the CIA’s station in Mexico City. It was here his path intersected with Oswald’s.

In the summer of 1963, Oswald, a 23-year old ex-Marine with a Russian wife, leftist political views and a penchant for scheming, was living in New Orleans. In the course of the next 100 days of his life, he would come in contact with four CIA intelligence gathering programs. Two of the programs that Oswald encountered were run by Scott, who operated out of an office on the top floor of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. The other two were run by his colleague David Atlee Phillips, a highly regarded counterintelligence officer also stationed in Mexico City. Scott had a front row seat on the events that would culminate in the Dallas tragedy…..(History News Network, 23 Apr 08)

Order not justice

Political Violence and the Police in India by K. S. Subramanian

…In addition to the police, a plethora of paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies now exists, and many are used in ways which make a nonsense of the Constitution. Law and order are state responsibilities, but few state governments have hesitated to call for central paramilitary forces, now a “parallel police”, when faced with significant dissent over almost any issue. Inevitably, the Indian state has vastly expanded the paramilitary forces, some of which have become a byword for brutality and political repression…Most of the intelligence agencies operate with no parliamentary oversight, despite evidence from other democracies that oversight generally restrains such bodies from the worst illegalities and can improve their functioning….(Hindu, 22 Apr 08)

Book Review:

The Third Jihad: When radical Muslims distort Islam by Stephen Schwartz

Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism, and the Roots of 9/11 by Matthias Küntzel

Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948 by Hillel Cohen

Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia by Stevan K. Pavlowitch

….(Weekly Standard, 21 Apr 08)

Reporter Reveals A Diverse Middle East

"Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East," by Robin Wright

…It's a sort of travelogue of internal social tumult within Islamic Middle Eastern countries and territories. Wright's journey takes us to Gaza and the West Bank, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Morocco and Iraq.

Wright patiently stacks conversation upon anecdote upon custom to build a ground-level view of the widely differing cultural, religious and civic textures unique to each country and people…..(Tampa Tribune, 20 Apr 08)

The mistake that cost the country

Marcus Klingberg: The Last Spy by Marcus Klingberg

"I was wrong," admits Prof. Alexander Keynan, the first director of the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Tziona, 50 years after the event that changed history. The mistake he's referring to is hiring Prof. Marcus Avraham Klingberg…The interview coincided with the publication of Klingberg's autobiography, "Marcus Klingberg: the Last Spy" (Maariv Books). Klingberg's memoir documents his experiences being sentenced in 1983, behind closed doors, to 20 years in prison for spying on Israel for the Soviet Union. To this day, Klingberg is considered the greatest asset the Soviets had in Israel and the Israeli who most betrayed the Jewish state.……(Haaretz, 16 Apr 08)

Countering terrorism

The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to Al-Qaeda by Jerrold Post

…provides a framework for understanding modern-day terrorism's psychological mindset. Such an approach is crucial, Dr. Post argues, because in order to deter terrorists in a way that is effective and durable one must understand their psychology and motivations. Dr. Post's framework is applied to more than 15 terrorist groups, some of whom began their operations in the late 1960s. Dr. Post, a psychiatrist and veteran terrorism analyst, is currently professor of psychiatry and political psychology at George Washington University. Earlier, he had a 21-year career at the CIA, serving as director of the Center for Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. Readers will find Dr. Post's book especially valuable for its capsulated histories and profiles of the world's terrorist groups and their leaders……(Washington Times, 16 Apr 08)

Fjordman on Ibn Warraq: Defending the West

Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism by Ibn Warraq

…Ibn Warraq's book was written as a response to Edward Said's deeply flawed, but highly influential Orientalism from 1979. Said chastised Western countries for their supposed racist and stereotypical view of "the Other." Ibn Warraq dubs Said's methods "intellectual terrorism" and demonstrates the logical inconsistencies of his positions:

"To argue his case, Said very conveniently leaves out the important contributions of German Orientalists, for their inclusion would destroy – and their exclusion does indeed totally destroy - the central thesis of Orientalism, that all Orientalists produced knowledge that generated power, and that they colluded and helped imperialists found empires. As we shall see, German Orientalists were the greatest of all scholars of the Orient, but, of course, Germany was never an imperial power in any of the Oriental countries of North Africa or the Middle East……(Jihad Watch, 15 Apr 08)

A Lack of Intelligence

THE COMMISSION: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

…Though Shenon vividly illuminates the obstacles to holding high-level intelligence and government officials accountable for their bungling, he doesn’t discuss the reforms passed by Congress after the 9/11 report appeared. He might have noted that absent charges of personal culpability and punishment for failure, intelligence officials have little incentive to improve their performance. And for all the sound and fury about intelligence lapses, the Congressional reforms themselves amounted to little more than shuffling boxes on paper. Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of the commission itself was to endorse a patchwork of feel-good reforms that simply slathered on a new layer of bureaucracy in the form of the director of national intelligence, who lacks the authority to supervise the unwieldy 16 agencies that constitute the intelligence community……(New York Times, 13 Apr 08)

War Plans

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

…But “Terror and Consent” is much more than that readership might suggest. This is quite simply the most profound book to have been written on the subject of American foreign policy since the attacks of 9/11 — indeed, since the end of the cold war. I have no doubt it will be garlanded with prizes. It deserves to be. It is more important that it should be read, marked and inwardly digested by all three of the remaining candidates to succeed George W. Bush as president of the United States. Bobbitt’s originality lies in his almost unique ability to synthesize three quite different traditions of scholarship. The first is history. The second is law, particularly constitutional law. The third is military strategy. This synthesis owes as much to the corridors of power as to the sequestered groves of academe……(New York Times, 13 Apr 08)

Editor's Notes: It was always a jihad

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris

…Morris's bleak assessment of historical flux is that the odds of the Zionist enterprise prevailing in a region so ruthless, so hostile to Jewish sovereignty, so consumed by the perceived religious imperative to annihilate Israel, are "very poor."

Morris does have an optimistic caveat... if you consider a nuclear strike to offer any conceivable grounds for optimism. His dismal outlook, he says, is based on "the current situation and trends."…..(Jerusalem Post, 11 Apr 08)

Spy Vs. CIA
Why Spy? by Frederick Hitz

Frederick Hitz was the inspector general of the CIA from 1990 to 1998, and now teaches at the University of Virginia law school. Inspectors general know a lot, because they investigate allegations of malfeasance inside the Agency, and thus get to ask probing questions of the sort the rest of us don't… Most of "Why Spy?" is dedicated to the strategy of recruiting spies, and Mr. Hitz runs through a laundry list of possible motives for betraying one's own country in the service of American intelligence or, in the case of contemporary terrorists, one's organization. I doubt anyone who has read John Le Carré or Charles McCarry will learn anything new, aside from a few details about some of the most famous foreigners (mostly Soviets) who spied for or betrayed America. He says that these are the motives that our spymasters must keep in mind in order to recruit agents, and he writes as if our case officers (he calls them "spy runners") have had great success over the years in identifying and then recruiting foreign agents. However, so far as I have been able to learn, virtually every important American agent during the Cold War was a "walk-in" — someone who contacted us because he had already made the decision to work with us… Mr. Hitz speaks well, and knowledgeably, about cooperation with friendly intelligence services, and he eloquently calls for new techniques and insights "from other disciplines such as law enforcement and the military," but he is curiously uninterested in learning the methods of our allies, even though some of them have been spectacularly successful. He calls for new technologies and "new teamwork," but he never asks why the Israelis, French, and British have been so much more successful in the Middle East than we have…..(New York Sun, 10 Apr 08)

Author: Cuba Wanted U.S. Journalist As Spy

Ruse: Undercover with FBI Counterintelligence by Robert Eringer

…He asserts that representatives from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., in 1999 sought to recruit him to obtain financial information on three Cuban-American legislators — Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez. They also wanted him to infiltrate the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation. In exchange, the Cubans promised him exclusive contacts and business opportunities in Cuba…What the Cubans didn’t know was that Eringer was at the time working as an undercover FBI agent. “Of course, at the FBI they went crazy with the case,” Eringer told the Miami Herald. “A Cuban intelligence officer asking me, a U.S. citizen, for help spying on other U.S. citizens on U.S. soil was something completely incompatible with his diplomatic status.”…..(Newsmax, 10 Apr 08)

Ardent critic of Islam tells her story in Infidel'

Infidel (Paperback) by Hirsi Ali

After Muhammad Bouyeri murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh on the streets of Amsterdam, he stabbed a five-page death threat addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali onto the corpse. Bouyeri considered both figures defamers of Islam. At the time, 2004, Hirsi Ali was ob scure to most Amer icans, but she was controver sial in Eu rope as a member of the Dutch Parliament who decried Islam and sought to empower Muslim women…..(Plain Dealer, 9 Apr 08)

The saga of the bin Ladens

THE BIN LADENS: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll

…The Bin Ladens proposes not so much an alternate history of the 20th century but an account of one that occurred simultaneous to our usual collective recollection of the last 100 years… Coll's book is important because it's a history of two families, the bin Laden and Al-Saud, whose patriarch Abdulaziz Ibn Saud ''walked out of Kuwait in 1902 with a sword, some camels and a small band of followers to reclaim, in his family's name, the mud-walled town of Riyadh in the central Arabian plateau, and the paltry realm it oversaw.'' Thirty blood-soaked years later, he ''announced at last the formation of the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.'' A few years after Abdulaziz stormed out of Kuwait, an impoverished, one-eyed teenage boy named Mohammed bin Laden walked north out of his native Yemen to the Arabian port city of Jeddah in search of work. Eventually, he would found a construction and trading company that would become Saudi Arabia's largest, with holdings that, today, extend around the globe, including in the United States. …..(Miami Herald, 8 Apr 08)

In search of a new Islamic state

The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Noah Feldman

…Feldman begins by taking a look at the past. The first Islamic state was founded 14 centuries ago by the prophet Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Out of this modest archetypal community grew vast empires, ruled by ambitious men on spiritual and temporal missions.

These leaders (caliphs) were considered God's representatives on earth, charged with implementing sharia. Sharia is based on the Koran and the Sunnah – the example of the prophet Muhammad – but, it does not apply itself. Islamic law needed to be shaped and interpreted by trained scholars and competent jurists.

Feldman expertly documents their essential role in the amazing longevity of Islamic government. Radical change was under way, however, as the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) disintegrated in the 20th century…..(Christian Science Monitor, 8 Apr 08)

Bhutto and the Future of Islam

RECONCILIATION: Islam, Democracy, and the West By Benazir Bhutto

…these pages are neither fresh nor frank. In their lack of candor, these sections resemble the memoirs of most politicians. But never mind. The other, larger part of the book is stirring and important — and takes up most of the first three chapters. If the reader loses interest by the time he gets to Pakistan, that’s just fine.

Bhutto begins the book by saying frankly and unhesitatingly that the Muslim world has many problems and that it has refused to look at them with much honesty. “It is so much easier to blame others,” she writes, “than to accept responsibility ourselves.” She takes on issues that most Muslim leaders have preferred to ignore or avoid, like the sectarian war within Islam. “One billion Muslims around the world seemed united in their outrage at the war in Iraq ... but there is deadly silence when they are confronted with Muslim-on-Muslim violence. ... Even regarding Darfur, where there is an actual genocide being committed against a Muslim population, there has been a remarkable absence of protests.”…..(New York Times, 6 Apr 08)

Spies Like Us

Comrade J By Pete Earley

…In “Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War” Earley tells the true story of Sergei Tretyakov, the Russian spymaster who ran his country’s post-Cold War espionage operation in New York City from 1995 to 2000 until he defected to the United States. Tretyakov, who personally oversaw all covert operations against the United States and its allies in the United Nations, was a double agent for the FBI from 1997 to 2000…….(FrontPage, 2 Apr 08)

Bin Laden Took Part in 1986 Arms Deal, Book Says

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by

Steve Coll

Osama bin Laden flew to London in 1986 to help negotiate the purchase of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles to be used by Arab fighters then battling the Soviet military in Afghanistan, according to a new book on the bin Laden family……(Washington Post, 1 Apr 08)

MSU historian takes reader behind the scenes of East Germany’s Stasi

Seduced by Secrets by Kristie Macrakis

In its day, the East German secret police, now known as the “Stasi,” was one of the most feared spy agencies in the world. But despite its reputation and seemingly unlimited access to James Bond-like technology, the best national security system couldn’t help an ailing communist regime, according to a Michigan State University historian. In her new book, “Seduced by Secrets,” MSU’s internationally recognized historian Kristie Macrakis debunks the myths surrounding the East German Ministry for State Security, while offering insights into the workings of all spy agencies.  “Most people have a script in their head about what the Stasi was,”….(Michigan State University, 1 Apr 08)

Inside the Black Budget

‘I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me’ by Trevor Paglen

...according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon’s classified, or “black,” budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors. The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens — patches — the kind worn on military uniforms. “It’s a fresh approach to secret government,” Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said in an interview. “It shows that these secret programs have their own culture, vocabulary and even sense of humor.”…..(New York Times, 1 Apr 08)

March 2008

Outcast: How Osama bin Laden's family grew rich, powerful and divided

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by

Steve Coll

…Coll dwells only in passing on the violence later attributed to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. He charts Osama's rising anger at the Sauds and at America. He leaves no doubt that Osama's organizational and fund-raising talents remained sharp; he even credits Osama's engineering with making the caves of Tora Bora, where he took refuge, impregnable to U.S. forces. As for bin Laden's kin, Coll suggests that, though most retain warm feelings for him, after 9/11 necessity forced them to distance themselves from his actions. Taken together, they seem more bewildered than angered by the course he has chosen. Responsible for what is now a global company, the brothers have been particularly stringent; the sisters appear to be more sympathetic. Whether any of them secretly sends him money remains uncertain. As for the 9/11 conspiracy, Coll repeats little of what we already know. Instead, he has chosen to write about a man and his family, enriching our understanding of the powerful impact they have made on our times……(Washington Post, 30 Mar 08)

Guess Who’s Coming to Power

THE SECOND WORLD: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order by Parag Khanna

After the collapse of Communism, the “new world order” quickly disintegrated into the new world disorder, as pent-up nationalism erupted, most dramatically in the Balkans. The nationalistic volcano subsided, replaced by fears about the “clash of civilizations,” which meant the West against the rest, and primarily Islam. After 9/11, the “ism” of concern became “terrorism,” and our book shelves groan under the weight of policy prescriptions from public officials, academics, journalists and even former spies……(New York Times, 30 Mar 08)

Islam, Peace and Conflict: Based on Six Events in the year 1979 which were harbingers of the Present Day Conflict in the Muslim World; by SV Salahuddin

BOOK REVIEW: 1979: pivot of change in Islam

SV Salahuddin is a chemical engineer engaged in oil industry who has studied the year 1979 as the year of pivotal changes in the world of Islam that presaged the paradigm shift that came in 2001 when Muslim suicide terrorists attacked the United States. One look at the events of that year will convince you of the thesis. That year the Islamic Revolution occurred in Iran, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty at Camp David, Prime Minister Bhutto was hanged in Pakistan, Saddam Hussein arose to be president of Iraq, Islamic radicals captured the Holy Kaaba, and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan……(Daily Times, 26 Mar 08)

Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East by Priya Satia

In her latest book, Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, author and historian Priya Satia delves into an aspect of the British intelligence community which few have scrutinized before. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources, including recently declassified documents; Spies in Arabia tells the first detailed account of an unprecedented twentieth-century style of espionage and military control undertaken by British intelligence agents in the Middle East following WWI. This wholly new style of "covert empire" was reliant on an intensely brutal aerial surveillance regime designed to secure the region by preventing and controlling any subversive or insurgent activities……(Business Wire, 20 Mar 08)

New Book: The Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad

This is to introduce my new book The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad which has been released today. In my first post 9/11 book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against the West, I attempted to explain the roots, the strengths and the strategies of the Jihadist regimes and movements. In short the "what do they want to do." In my following book, The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy, I tried to show how the Jihadi forces waged three campaigns to seize the minds and hearts of millions of people. The first war of ideas was when they penetrated the Arab and Muslim world. The second war of ideas was when they infiltrated the West. And the Third War of Ideas is taking place now. In short the "how they did it."  My first two books were both read widely, particularly by members of the U.S. Congress, the UK House of Lords and Commons and in the European Parliament, as well as the defense, national security and expert communities. In this third book of the "trilogy" I am attempting to analyze the long-term plans of the terror forces and their capacities both within the nation and around the world: A potential outline of the blueprints for the next stage……(Counterterrorism Blog, 19 Mar 08)

Jihad, Islamism, and Non-Interventionism

As seen in two recent books by counterterrorism analysts, the ideology of Non-Interventionism is gaining popularity with a segment of the American public. While Non-Interventionist ideology plays off the frustrations of some of the American public with America's handling of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is the wrong answer to the confusion over global Jihad and Islamism. Two recently-released books by counterterrorism analysts offer a panacea of Non-Interventionism ideology: Michael Scheuer's "Marching Toward Hell - America and Islam After Iraq", and Marc Sageman's "Leaderless Jihad". The Non-Interventionist ideology represented by these authors does not critically examine the role of political Islamism in Islamist terrorism; therefore the authors conclude that an appeasement approach towards Islamism will improve American national security…..(Counterterrorism Blog, 17 Mar 08)

Celebrated History of the CIA Comes Under Belated Fire

The New York Times’ Tim Weiner has had the kind of career that most reporters can only dream of. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Weiner’s reporting on national security issues, and particularly the CIA, has earned him the near-unanimous respect of his peers, a loyal following of readers and, of course, clout. Last summer Weiner’s career reached yet another peak when his latest book, “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA,” hit the New York Times best-seller list……..Yet it is Weiner’s handling of documents and sources, not to mention his book’s theme that the CIA’s record is one of almost abysmal failure, that has come under serious question by a growing cadre of critics. The grumbling — in specialist journals, on the Web and in a flurry of e-mail among historians and investigative reporters — has gone undetected, or perhaps ignored, by the usually sensitive radar of the East Coast media, even as it now threatens to deny Weiner another Pulitzer next month…….(CQ Politics, 15 Mar 08)

To Hell and Back

The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea by Charles Robert Jenkins

Can a deserter, a seeming traitor and a star in a propaganda film produced by a Communist dictatorship also be, in the end, an American patriot? That is one of the questions posed by the life of Charles Robert Jenkins, the author of "The Reluctant Communist." Uneducated, dirt poor, from rural North Carolina, Mr. Jenkins joined the U.S. Army in 1958 and rose to the rank of sergeant within three years. He was soon sent to South Korea, where he was assigned to patrols along the demilitarized zone and regularly came under hostile fire. Depressed and drinking heavily, he started searching for a way home. The scheme he cooked up: Cross into North Korea, get handed over to the Russians and then repatriated to the U.S. At most he would face the sanction of a court-martial. But there was a hitch. "I did not understand," Mr. Jenkins writes, "that the country I was seeking temporary refuge in was literally a giant, demented prison; once someone goes there, they almost never get out." Mr. Jenkins was to spend the next four decades in North Korea. His memoir, written with the help of Jim Frederick, a Time magazine senior editor, is the story of his life in that bizarre and barbaric land. After his capture, Mr. Jenkins recounts, he was subjected to a none-too-gentle period of interrogation and then brought together with three other Americans who had done the same thing, "all young dumb soldiers from poor backgrounds" like himself whose misbegotten actions turned them into North Korea's "cold-war trophies." Their lives were privileged compared with those of ordinary North Koreans, but the physical hardship was extreme: scarce, rotten food, lack of heat and indoor plumbing (not to mention privacy), insect and rat infestation……(Wall Street Journal, 13 Mar 08)

THE NEW COLD WAR: How the Kremlin menaces both Russia and the West by Edward Lucas
The distinguished British journalist Edward Lucas has produced a firecracker of a book to throw into the growing crowd of Putinophiles. He is a well-qualified commentator on Russia today, and an accomplished linguist. As a foreign correspondent from the 1980s, he reported on Eastern and East-Central Europe when the Soviet Bloc was disintegrating. He pities Russia and the Russians, and one half of The New Cold War is a convincing account of the damage their rulers have done to them. Few recent books range so vividly across the media, courts, pipelines, criminality and Kremlin politics. Democratic and civil rights are poorly protected in Russia. The Federal Security Bureau, heir to the KGB, was almost certainly involved in the terrorist bombing campaign in autumn 1999 which Vladimir Putin – when he was still only Prime Minister – exploited to restart the war in Chechnya. Scores of investigative journalists, including the author’s friend Anna Politkovskaya, have been assassinated. Television station owners got into trouble for letting their programme-makers object to government policy or ridicule ministers. The big entrepreneurs have been subjected to judicial persecution whenever they defended their private interests against demands by the State. Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, leading “oligarchs” in the Yeltsin period, fled abroad to avoid arrest; Mikhail Khodorkovsky stood his ground only to be put on trial for fraud and incarcerated in eastern Siberia…..(Times of London, 14 Mar 08)

Fighting the Wrong Foe With the Wrong Weapons

If readers thought Michael Scheuer, the former C.I.A. officer who headed the agency’s Osama bin Laden unit, was angry about the folly of the Iraq war in his 2004 book, “Imperial Hubris” (published under the byline “Anonymous”), then wait until they delve into his latest assessment of the war on terror: “Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq.” This scathing, wildly uneven and often intemperate work eviscerates not just the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, but also the entire foreign policy establishment, and it is filled with arguments sure to enrage just about everyone, including Republicans and Democrats, neo-conservatives and liberals, oil companies and international humanitarian organizations……(New York Times, 14 Mar 08)

First Chapter: ‘Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq’ by Michael Sheuer

The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph J. Trento

…The picture Trento paints of the CIA is a bleak one.  After World War II, the CIA was formed almost behind the back of President Truman, as former intelligence agents from World War II continued their covert operations without the government’s permission…The most fascinating parts of the book, however, are the revelations about the CIA’s recruitment of Nazi war criminals after the end of WWII; the disturbing facts surrounding the Kennedy brothers (who Lyndon B. Johnson dubbed Murder Inc.) as well as the Soviet-sponsored assassination of J.F.K…….(Blogger News, 13 Mar 08)

Road to Nowhere

The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by David Kaiser

At first glance, David Kaiser’s book promises to be one of the more sensible volumes on the JFK assassination...In several respects, Kaiser does not disappoint. He cheerfully concedes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president in Dealey Plaza, and accepts the single bullet explanation. He provides a solid account of Kennedy-era assassination plots against Fidel Castro (which originated under President Eisenhower), and a workmanlike narrative of the Kennedy administration’s campaign against organized crime…But not far into the book, Kaiser’s judgment deserts him. He tries to make the case that the Kennedys’ anti-Castro plots and crusade against organized crime climaxed in the president’s assassination, and hammers the facts until they fit this thesis…….(Washington Decoded, 11 Mar 08)

How Europe was shaped by Islam

God’s Crucible: Islam and the making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis

…The book casts the origins of the ongoing division between East and West in a new light, analysing how Europe defined itself in opposition to a flourishing Islam and made virtues out of hereditary aristocracy, religious intolerance, and perpetual war. Professor Lewis’ talk will offer a new perspective of how these events shaped today’s world and especially Europe. In his book, he clear-sightedly lays out the strengths and weaknesses of both worlds and re-examines what we know about the cultural conflict between Islam and the West……(Huliq, 11 Mar 08)

Review: Women Shaping Islam: Reading the Qur’an in Indonesia

In Women Shaping Islam: Reading the Qur’an in Indonesia, Pieternella van Doorn-Harder provides valuable insight into the role of Muslim women leaders in Indonesia’s largest mass-based Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, and their respective women’s organizations Nasyiatul Aisyiyah and Fatayat NU. Until now this work has been a missing piece of the puzzle in the academic literature on Indonesian Islam. It reveals the unique character of Indonesian Islam that permits deep female scholarship and interpretation of Islam’s holy texts. This in turn produces a learned and heterogeneous echelon of Muslim women leaders who actively shape Islamic teachings and interpretations at the grass-roots level……(Inside Indonesia, 11 Mar 08)

Ex-Defense Official Assails Colleagues Over Run-Up to War

War and Decision by Douglas J. Feith

…Among the disclosures made by Feith in "War and Decision," scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush's declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that "war is inevitable." The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a "momentous comment."…..(Washington Post, 9 Mar 08)

Ex-F.B.I. Chief’s Book Revisits Watergate

In Nixon’s Web: A Year in the Crosshairs of Watergate by L. Patrick Gray III

…The book asserts that the famous “smoking gun” tape recording of June 23, 1972, created a lasting misimpression. On that tape, recorded just six days after the Watergate burglary, H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff, is heard telling him that the F.B.I. is getting too close to the truth “because Gray doesn’t exactly know how to control them.”….(New York Times, 9 Mar 08)

An equal-opportunity offender regarding U.S. foreign policy in "Marching Toward Hell"

"Marching Toward Hell" is a dark, opinionated and radical book. Its author, Michael Scheuer, was a CIA counterterrorism officer until 2004, and in the 1990s, he headed the CIA's unit that attempted to understand and track Osama bin Laden. Scheuer, who wrote "Imperial Hubris" (2004) and revealed his authorship after he resigned from the agency, says America's leaders don't understand our enemy and are trooping toward defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He argues that by occupying two countries in the world of Islam, America has undertaken a "nation-building" mission that is culturally impossible. The inevitable defeat, he says, will prove to our enemies that America "never wins any war it fights."….(Seattle Times, 7 Mar 08)

The Unending Saga of Intelligence Reform

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA  by Tim Weiner

Summary: Two new books on intelligence reform -- Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes and Amy Zegart's Spying Blind -- distort the historical record. A third, by Richard Betts, rightly observes that no matter how good the spies, failures are inevitable……(Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008 Issue)

Book Review: Preying on Western Naivete
Brother Tariq by Caroline Fourest

… Brother Tariq is divided into two parts. The first involves Ramadan's life, including how his father, Said Ramadan, escaped Egypt and ultimately settled in Geneva, where the Muslim Brotherhood tasked him with making political Islam palatable on the Continent. Tariq nearly failed to have his Ph.D. dissertation accepted, a development that required him to re-work it and convene a second jury……(IPT, 3 Mar 08)

The Wacky World of Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan is an enigma. The grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna and the son of the late top Brotherhood leader in Europe, the Swiss academic is the probably the most celebrated Muslim public "intellectual" on the planet today. He is no longer welcome in France or Egypt, and his appointment to the faculty of Notre Dame is very much in doubt, based on the Department of Homeland Security's denial of his U.S. visa. The denial is premised on his financial support to Hamas, which Ramadan claims was - ha! - inadvertent……(Counterterrorism Blog, 2 Mar 08)

The End of Jihad

DREAMS AND SHADOWS: The Future of the Middle East by Robin Wright

…Opening on an optimistic note, Wright describes how in 1983 she stood across the street from the ruins of the United States Embassy in Beirut after more than 60 Americans had been killed by a suicide bomber. At that time, she recalls, it seemed that Islamic fundamentalists had the initiative and were shaping the future of the region. “Yet a generation later,” she writes, “Islamic extremism is no longer the most important, interesting or dynamic force in the Middle East.”…..(New York Times, 2 Mar 08)

February 2008

The Fading Jihadists

Leaderless Jihad by Marc Sageman

…What distinguishes his new book, "Leaderless Jihad," is that it peels away the emotional, reflexive responses to terrorism that have grown up since Sept. 11, 2001, and looks instead at scientific data Sageman has collected on more than 500 Islamic terrorists -- to understand who they are, why they attack and how to stop them……(Washington Post, 28 Feb 08)

New book details Chinese spy effort ahead of Olympics

The Chinese Secret Services from Mao to the Olympic Games by Roger Faligot

As athletes train for the summer Olympics in China, a new book claims that the country's vast spy network is gearing up for a different challenge - keeping an eye on journalists and potential troublemakers…According to him (Author-Faligot), two million Chinese work directly or indirectly for the intelligence services through the state security agency. In a chapter titled 'China: Gold Medal for Espionage', the author says the director of the group coordinating Olympic security, Qiang Wei, has a 1.3-billion-dollar (885-million-euro) budget...the intelligence services won't only be deployed during the Olympics to keep an eye out, Faligot says. They'll also be recruiting among the two million visitors expected for the event.....(AFP, 26 Feb 08)

Lincoln's Generation Also Faced Crises Involving Religion and Terrorism

The Age of Lincoln by Vernon Burton

The problems of the nineteenth century parallel some of our own. Then, as now, America confronted terrorism and religious fanaticism. Then, as now, America conducted a war and engaged in occupation and nation-building. Religious zeal in the nineteenth century strongly influenced events, a fact that deserves underscoring, particularly when we see how the extremes of religion are currently influencing the world….(HNN, 25 Feb 08)

Jihad and Jew-Hatred

Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 by Matthias Kuentzel

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Matthias Kuentzel, a political scientist in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2004, he has been a research associate at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2006, he became a member of the Boards of Directors of “Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.”….(FrontPage, 21 Feb 08)

Former CIA Counterterrorism Operations Officer John Kiriakou to Speak at Pitt on “Ethics in Intelligence”

John Kiriakou, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded, will speak at Pitt from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. Feb. 28…..(University of Pittsburgh, 21 Feb 08)

What Every American Needs to Know about the Qur’an

What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur’an – A History of Islam & the United States by William J. Federer

Excerpt - THE HADITH: In addition to the Qur’an, Muslims respect the “Hadith” - sayings of Mohammed recounted by his wives, relatives and warriors. Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari states: No Muslim should be killed for killing a kafir (a disbeliever). (Volume 1, Book 3, No. 111)…..(FSM, 20 Feb 08)

Leaderless jihad

Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty First Century by Dr. Marc Sageman

…In "Leaderless Jihad" Dr. Sageman, whom I know professionally, updates and expands his earlier work on what drives radical elements of a society to terrorism… Here he has assembled profiles of individual operatives to generate insights about their personal characteristics and motivations, recruitment patterns, organizational formations and warfare…..(Washington Times, 19 Feb 08)

Radical heritage

Red Chicago: American Communism and Its Grassroots, 1928-35 by Randi Storch
…From 1886, when Chicago workers held the parade that would become the model for May Day celebrations, to the 1932 International Workers' Athletic Meet, the city was a lodestone for those who felt the nation's ills required drastic political surgery…It's not just the passage of time that erased that heritage from Chicagoans' minds. The McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s quickened the process. Communism became identified with Soviet totalitarianism. Even many leftists were persuaded to go amnesiac in the wake of notorious spy scandals, like the Rosenberg case…..(Chicago Tribune, 16 Feb 08)

'Spies, bribes and nuclear bombs'? Not really

COMRADE J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America, After the End of the Cold War by Pete Earley

'Banned in Canada" is always a spur to curiosity. A subject of news stories in this country even as copies appeared on bookstore shelves, Comrade J has been quickly whisked away, withdrawn for "legal reasons." Media references to Canadians, including a former member of Parliament, supposedly spying for Russia were enough to flutter the publisher's confidence - especially after the same stories carried sharp denials of the charges……(Globe & Mail, 16 Feb 08)

The Destruction of Memory

THE WHISPERERS: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes

… Orlando Figes is known for exploring Russian history in eminently readable books. He has unwrapped the mystery inside the enigma of Stalinism with the help of Memorial, a Russian non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving the memory of victims of Soviet repression……(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Facing terrible truths

BLOOD AND RAGE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TERRORISM by Michael Burleigh

…Before we hasten to 'understand' terrorism it helps to know a little of its history. From the Russian revolutionary group who blew up Tsar Alexander II after many a botched attempt, to the recently sentenced Islamists whose only regret appears to be that their spatchcocked bombs failed to tear apart hundreds of bodies on the Tube, Burleigh presents a horribly readable account…..(Daily Mail, 15 Feb 08)

Book Review:  Islam and Democracy:  A Foundation for Ending Extremism and Preventing Conflict

…The author of this book J.E. Rash is both an experienced Muslim religious leader and educator as well as a committed democratic thinker, giving this work a depth of understanding and commitment seldom found in other texts dealing with these issues. This book provides a critical reading of the position of democracy in the Islamic tradition…..(American Muslim, 15 Feb 08)

The New G-Men: A Review of Ronald Kessler's Terrorist Watch

Terrorist Watch by Robert Kessler

…Terrorist Watch has a number of revelations that should be of intense interest to future historians, and even to lawyers currently suing the U.S. government…It provides some new revelations and additional contexts for cases that have been publicized but seemingly forgotten when critics issue their predictable adverse report card on how the government is fairing in the War on Terror……(IPT, 12 Feb 08)

'Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West'

Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West by Benazir Bhutto

…In part, it's a story of Bhutto's return and the campaign that followed. In part, it's a fragmentary account of her years preparing for and exercising power in a tumultuous Muslim state. Bhutto's account of these events is, at best, fragmentary and selective. She campaigned -- and presents herself in "Reconciliation" -- as a modernizing, reasonably secular democrat, and so she was. However, she also was prime minister when fateful connections were made between Pakistan's powerful, shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) group and the militantly fundamentalist Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam and the Afghan Taliban….(LA Times, 12 Feb 08)

Pentagon Intelligence Unit Comes Off Like M*A*S*H in New Book

Still Broken: A Recruit’s Inside Account of Intelligence Failures, From Baghdad to the Pentagon by A.J. Rossmiller

… Like the Army field hospital so authentically portrayed in M*A*S*H, Rossmiller’s memoir of two years as a Defense Intelligence Agency Iraq analyst is darkly funny, with its own versions of Hawkeye, B.J., Colonel Potter, and of course, Frank Burns. Unfortunately, it’s all too true. And frightening, from the viewpoint of national security…..(CQ Homeland Security, 8 Feb 08)

Mexico 'secretly helped' the CIA against Cuba

Our man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA by Jefferson Morley

Three former Mexican presidents supported the US secret service Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its clandestine campaign against Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a US journalist…Former Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley said he will publish his investigative book based on declassified US documents that show Mexico provided assistance to the failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion in April 1961 aimed at toppling Castro's government…..(Gulf News, 4 Feb 08)

Tragicomic Tale of the 9/11 Report

THE COMMISSION: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Commission by Philip Shenon

…Philip Shenon, a reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, set out to get behind the scenes of the 9/11 Commission. The inside story of a government commission doesn’t sound very promising; most commission reports wind up unread on dusty shelves… Mr. Shenon is a skillful writer and storyteller as well as a dogged reporter. In “The Commission” he makes bureaucratic warfare exciting, largely because he has a keen grasp of human frailty and folly….(New York Times, 4 Feb 08)

9/11 Panel Chief's Contacts With White House Cited

The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

…Philip Zelikow, a friend of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, once tried to push through wording in a draft report that suggested a greater tie between al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Iraq, in line with White House claims but not with the commission staff's viewpoint, according to Philip Shenon's "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation."…..(AP, 4 Feb 08)

Analysis: Jihad in Asia

Jihad in Asia by Berndt Georg Thamm

…While China and Russian aren't exactly role models when it comes to civil rights, Thamm argues that their problems with Islamist terrorism should nevertheless be taken seriously in the West. Between 19 million and 22 million Muslims live in Russia, with some 20 million Muslims living in China. "Islamist Jihad does not separate the world in East and West, but in a world of believers and nonbelievers, and militant Islamists count to the group of infidels Europeans and Americans, as well as Chinese and Russians,"…..(UPI, 1 Feb 08)

January 2008

How jihad went freelance

Understanding Terror Networks by Marc Sageman

…Mr Sageman is a leading advocate of what is called the “buddy” theory of terrorism. He has spent much time asking why well-educated young men, from middle-class backgrounds, often with a secular education and wives and children, become suicide bombers. He suggests that radicalization is a collective rather than an individual process in which friendship and kinship are key components……(Economist, 31 Jan 08)