July 2008

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, 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)

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