The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda

The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda PDF Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199790655
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The author re-evaluates the threat posed by Al-Qaeda following a decade of war.

The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda

The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda PDF Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199790655
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The author re-evaluates the threat posed by Al-Qaeda following a decade of war.

The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden

The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982170530
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the “riveting” (The New York Times) definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today. In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergan provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long war with al-Qaeda and its decedents, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on his two wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make critical strategic decisions. Yet, he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious but willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty, yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. In his final years, the lasting image we have of bin Laden is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just as another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet, despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s “comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling” (H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World) portrait of Osama bin Laden reveals for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.

The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda

The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda PDF Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199911711
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In this concise and fascinating book, Fawaz A. Gerges argues that Al-Qaeda has degenerated into a fractured, marginal body kept alive largely by the self-serving anti-terrorist bureaucracy it helped to spawn. In The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda, Gerges, a public intellectual known widely for his expertise on radical ideologies, including jihadism, argues that the Western powers have become mired in a "terrorism narrative," stemming from the mistaken belief that America is in danger of a devastating attack by a crippled al-Qaeda. To explain why al-Qaeda is no longer a threat, he provides a briskly written history of the organization, showing its emergence from the disintegrating local jihadist movements of the mid-1990s-not just the Afghan resistance of the 1980s, as many believe-in "a desperate effort to rescue a sinking ship by altering its course." During this period, Gerges interviewed many jihadis, gaining a first-hand view of the movement that bin Laden tried to reshape by internationalizing it. Gerges reveals that transnational jihad has attracted but a small minority within the Arab world and possesses no viable social and popular base. Furthermore, he shows that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a major miscalculation--no "river" of fighters flooded from Arab countries to defend al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, as bin Laden expected. The democratic revolutions that swept the Middle East in early 2011 show that al-Qaeda today is a non-entity which exercises no influence over Arabs' political life. Gerges shows that there is a link between the new phenomenon of homegrown extremism in Western societies and the war on terror, particularly in Afghanistan-Pakistan, and that homegrown terror exposes the structural weakness, not strength, of bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Gerges concludes that the movement has splintered into feuding factions, neutralizing itself more effectively than any Predator drone. Forceful, incisive, and written with extensive inside knowledge, this book will alter the debate on global terrorism.

The Secret History of Al Qaeda

The Secret History of Al Qaeda PDF Author: Abdel Bari Atwan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520255616
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Drawing on unparalleled access to Osama bin Laden and his key associates, journalist Abdel Bari Atwan gives an incisive and timely account of the rise of the notorious terrorist organization, al Qaeda.

American Traitor

American Traitor PDF Author: Stalinsky
Publisher: Memri Books
ISBN: 9780967848020
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This is the hardcover edition of the same book as a paperback already listed.

The Longest War

The Longest War PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743278941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
At a critical moment in world history The Longest War provides the definitive account of the ongoing battle against terror. --Book Jacket.

Al Qaeda's Global Crisis

Al Qaeda's Global Crisis PDF Author: V. G. Julie Rajan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317645383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
This book focuses on the crises facing Al Qaeda and how the mass killing of Muslims is challenging its credibility as a leader among Islamist jihadist organizations. The book argues that these crises are directly related to Al Qaeda’s affiliation with the extreme violence employed against Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the decade since 9/11. Al Qaeda’s public and private responses to this violence differ greatly. While in public Al Qaeda has justified those attacks declaring that, for the establishment of a state of ‘true believers’, they are a necessary evil, in private Al Qaeda has been advising its local affiliates to refrain from killing Muslims. To better understand the crises facing Al Qaeda, the book explores the development of Central Al Qaeda’s complex relationship with radical (mis)appropriations and manifestations of takfir, which allows one Muslim to declare another an unbeliever, and its unique relationship with each of its affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The author then goes on to consider how the prominence of takfir is contributing to the deteriorating security in those countries and how this is affecting Al Qaeda’s credibility as an Islamist terror organization. The book concludes by considering the long-term viability of Al Qaeda and how its demise could allow the rise of the even more radical, violent Islamic State and the implications this has for the future security of the Middle East, North Africa and Central/South Asia. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence and terrorism, Islamism, global security and IR.

Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State

Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State PDF Author: Ali Soufan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039324203X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"Anyone who wants to understand the world we live in now should read this book." —Lawrence Wright To eliminate the scourge of terrorism, we must first know who the enemy actually is, and what his motivations are. In Anatomy of Terror, former FBI special agent and New York Times best-selling author Ali Soufan dissects Osama bin Laden’s brand of jihadi terrorism and its major offshoots, revealing how these organizations were formed, how they operate, their strengths, and—crucially—their weaknesses. This riveting account examines the new Islamic radicalism through the stories of its flag-bearers, including a U.S. Air Force colonel who once served Saddam Hussein, a provincial bookworm who declared himself caliph of all Muslims, and bin Laden’s own beloved son Hamza, a prime candidate to lead the organization his late father founded. Anatomy of Terror lays bare the psychology and inner workings of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their spawn, and shows how the spread of terror can be stopped. Winner of the Airey Neave Memorial Book Prize

The Looming Tower

The Looming Tower PDF Author: Lawrence Wright
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525564365
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
Explores both the American and Arab sides of the September 11th terrorist attacks in an account of the people, ideas, events, and intelligence failures that led to the tragedies.

Global Jihadism

Global Jihadism PDF Author: Jarret M. Brachman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134055404
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Global Jihadism exposes the core doctrine and strategy of today’s global Jihadist movement. The first half of the book explores the ideas upon which groups such as Al Qaeda are built, including the concepts of Jihad, al-Wala wal-Bara, Takfir and Tawhid. Jarret Brachman exposes a genre of Jihadist strategic scholarship that has been virtually ignored in the West and helps to situate it within the broader Salafist religious movement. The second half explores the thinking and activities of Al Qaeda’s propaganda machine, explaining its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. It includes case studies on the rise and fall of global Jihadist terrorism in Saudi Arabia post-9/11, and highlights the explosive results of bringing theory to bear on practice in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. The book concludes by providing innovative strategies for combating the global Jihadist ideology.