The same morning--the first of a new Muslim century--hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam's holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times. Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca's bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths. Despite U.S. assistance, the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satan--the United States --for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out the insurgents. Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels' supporters among the kingdom's most senior clerics, helping them nurture and export Juhayman's violent brand of Islam around the world. This dramatic and immensely consequential story was barely covered in the press in the pre-CNN, pre-Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request. Written with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, "The Siege of Mecca" reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that surround us today.

    Jacques Semelin achieves this, in part, by leading his readers through the three examples simultaneously, the unraveling of which sometimes converges but most often diverges.Semelin's method is multidisciplinary, relying not only on contemporary history but also on social psychology and political science. Based on the seminal distinction between massacre and genocide, Purify and Destroy identifies the main steps of a general process of destruction, both rational and irrational, born of what Semelin terms "delusional rationality." He describes a dynamic structural model with, at its core, the matrix of a social imaginaire that, responding to fears, resentments, and utopias, carves and recarves the social body by eliminating "the enemy." Semelin identifies the main stages that can lead to a genocidal process and explains how ordinary people can become perpetrators. He develops an intellectual framework to analyze the entire spectrum of mass violence, including terrorism, in the twentieth century and before. Strongly critical of today's political instrumentalization of the "genocide" notion, Semelin urges genocide research to stand back from legal and normative definitions and come of age as a discipline in its own right in the social sciences.

    But guerrilla war-fare is not just the tool of modern-day terrorists. Its roots stretch back to our very own revolution.In Violent Politics, William Polk takes us on a concise, brilliant tour of insurgencies throughout history, starting with the American struggle for independence, when fighters had to battle against both the British and the loyalists, those colonists who sided with the monarchy. Instinctively, in a way they probably wouldn't have described as a coherent strategy, the rebel groups employed the tactics of insurgency.From there, Polk explores the role of insurgency in several other notable conflicts, including the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon, the Irish struggle for independence, the Algerian War of National Independence, and Vietnam. He eventually lands at the present day, where the lessons of this history are needed more than ever as Americans engage in ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq—and beyond.

    Unlike most immigrant communities who either have been consistently marked as "non-white," or have made a transition from "non-white" to "white," Arab Americans historically have been rendered "white" and have increasingly come to be seen as "non-white."This book highlights emergent discourses on the distinct ways that race matters to the study of Arab American histories and asks essential questions. What is the relationship between U.S. imperialism in Arab homelands and anti-Arab racism in the lives of Arab Americans? What are the relationships between religion, class, gender, and anti-Arab racism? What is the significance of whiteness studies to Arab American studies? Transcending multiculturalist discourses after September 11 that have simply "added on" the category "Arab American" to the landscape of U.S. ethnic and racial studies, this volume locates September 11 as a turning point, rather than a beginning, in the history of Arab American engagements with race, multiculturalism, and Americanization.

    But as traditional festivities got underway, heavily armed terrorists stormed the school playground, changing ordinary lives in the southern Russian town forever. At least 330 parents and children were killed, some in the massive explosions that tore through the gymnasium, some caught in the crossfire of a three-hour gun battle between the Russian forces and the terrorists. This riveting account not only covers the three days of unimaginable terror and suffering that followed, but includes the people of Beslan speaking in their own words about their ordeal and about their lives in this deeply fractured region. The human story of the siege is here—including the terrible toll that thirst, hunger, and sleeplessness took on the hostages, and the bravery of those who dealt with the terrorists, such as the elderly headmistress of the school and the doctor who tried to relieve the children's suffering. This account also examines the authorities’ response to the siege, finding it wanting, and ultimately places the events of September 2004 in their wider context of centuries of conflict and enmity in the Caucasus.

    This weapon consisted of small teams of Special Forces operatives trained in close air support (CAS) who, in cooperation with the loose federation of Afghan rebels opposed to the Taliban regime, soon began achieving impressive—and unexpected—military victories over Taliban forces and the al-Qaeda terrorists they had sponsored. The astounding success of CAS tactics coupled with ground operations in Afghanistan soon drew the attention of military decision makers and would eventually factor into the planning for another campaign: Operation Iraqi Freedom. But who, exactly, are these air power experts and what is the function of the TACPs (Tactical Air Control Parties) in which they operate? Danger Close provides a fascinating look at a dedicated, courageous, innovative, and often misunderstood and misused group of military professionals. Drawing on the gripping first-hand accounts of their battlefield experiences, Steve Call allows the TACPs to speak for themselves. He accompanies their narratives with informed analysis of the development of CAS strategy, including potentially controversial aspects of the interservice rivalries between the air force and the army which have at times complicated and even obstructed the optimal employment of TACP assets. Danger Close makes clear, however, that the systematic coordination of air power and ground forces played an invaluable supporting role in the initial military victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq. This first-ever examination of the intense, life-and-death world of the close air support specialist will introduce readers to a crucial but little-known aspect of contemporary warfare and add a needed chapter in American military history studies.

    Where were they in the 90s? Unholy Terror provides the answer, with all its terrifying implications for our world today. This book provides the missing piece in the puzzle of al-Qa’ida’s transformation from an isolated fighting force into a lethal global threat:  the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995.  John R. Schindler reveals the unexamined role that radical Islam played in that terrible conflict--and the ill-considered contributions of American policy to al-Qa’ida’s growth.  His book explores a truth long hidden from view:  that, like Afghanistan in the 1980s, Bosnia in the 1990s became a training ground for the mujahidin.  Unholy Terror at last exposes the shocking story of how bin Laden successfully exploited the Bosnian conflict for his own ends--and of how the U. S. Government gave substantial support to his unholy warriors, leading to blowback of epic proportions.

    By tracing the psychological, cultural, and political meanings of torture at the end of the French empire, Marnia Lazreg also sheds new light on the United States and its recourse to torture in Iraq and Afghanistan.This book is nothing less than an anatomy of torture--its methods, justifications, functions, and consequences. Drawing extensively from archives, confessions by former torturers, interviews with former soldiers, and war diaries, as well as writings by Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and others, Lazreg argues that occupying nations justify their systematic use of torture as a regrettable but necessary means of saving Western civilization from those who challenge their rule. She shows how torture was central to guerre r�volutionnaire, a French theory of modern warfare that called for total war against the subject population and which informed a pacification strategy founded on brutal psychological techniques borrowed from totalitarian movements. Lazreg seeks to understand torture's impact on the Algerian population--especially women--and also on the French troops who became their torturers. She explores the roles Christianity and Islam played in rationalizing these acts, and the ways in which torture became not only routine but even acceptable.Written by a preeminent historical sociologist, Torture and the Twilight of Empire holds particularly disturbing lessons for us today as we carry out the War on Terror.

    Of more than 200 bombings that were carried out during this period, the most shocking was the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building on the morning of October 1, 1910, which killed twenty-one people.Deadly Times tells the fascinating story of the bombing,  the search to apprehend the bombers, the issues that polarized the nation, and the dramatic trials that ensued. The magnificent cast of characters includes:General Harrison Gray Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, whose proposal to de-unionize San Francisco and Los Angeles  led to its being singled out as a bombing target.William J. Burns, who tracked down the bombers and would eventually become the first director of the FBI.Earl Rogers, the brilliant criminal attorney, drinking companion of Jack London, who became the model for Perry Mason.The legendary Clarence Darrow, who defended the bombersAnd the bombers themselves, the brothers J.J. and J.B. McNamara, who on their arrest became symbols of capitalist treachery to the working class.

    The highest order of Western occultism, Scottish Rite Freemasonry, traces its descent to the heretical of the Ismaili Muslims of Egypt, known as the Assassins. During the Crusades, European knights derived from them an ancient occult tradition with its roots in Babylon of the sixth century BC, known as Kabbalah. With Napoleon's conquest of Egypt, the Freemasons reconnected with their brethren in Egypt, sparking a relationship that was pivotal to the development of the Occult Revival of the late nineteenth century. It produced the Salafi reform movement of Islam, since promoted by Saudi Arabia, and the Nazis of Europe, who collaborated to found the Muslim Brotherhood, that collective of Islamic terrorists who have been serving the New World Order plot ever since.

    Examining not only the life of Al-Suri but also the world that gave rise to him, the author reveals al-Suri's skill for maximizing the political impact of jihadi violence.

    Timmerman.Israeli intelligence picks up the departure of a mysterious cargo ship from Iran, while half-way across the world, a Muslim-American girl is found dead in suburban Maryland. The two events appeared to be worlds apart. But they were not.Major Danny Wilkens, the U.S. government's top Iran analyst, becomes convinced that the cargo ship is part of an Iranian scheme to kill millions of Americans. But incompetent bureaucrats and a broken CIA force him to go outside the system, where he puts his career and even his marriage on the line in order to stop its relentless trajectory toward America.FBI Special Agent Michael Brannigan is perplexed by the "honor killing" of a Muslim girl. But it's only when his investigation is shut down by G-girl Joanna Greary that he discovers a sordid underworld of steamy sex, corrupt government officials, and local Muslim leaders who have exploited America's loose immigration laws for terror.In this fast-paced Washington novel of spies, faith, betrayal, and lust, New York Times best-selling author Kenneth R. Timmerman tells a story so chilling that it had to be kept out of the newspapers.Is there really a spy for the terrorists who has access to the highest reaches of the United States government, including the White House?Have our intelligence agencies become so bureaucratic and corrupt they can no longer act when a clear and present danger appears?Is Iran's master-terrorist at work today, probing our weaknesses?Is the American Muslim community giving shelter to deadly enemies?Timmerman takes us from underground hide-outs in Iran to beach-side bars in the British Virgin Islands, from the port of Maracaibo to a shoot-out in Dubai. He brings us smooth Mossad operators, CIA bumblers and a Persian beauty named Aryana, who uses a computer company in California as a front for clandestine operations inside Iran.As the Iranians get ever closer to our shores, readers are in for a surprising climax that may have many of them down on their knees.

    Book contains cartoons and caricatures from Nov. 2006 to Sept. 2007., an interview by cartoonist Daryl Cagle, developmental sketches and more.

    He convincingly argues that two of the main solutions to terrorism offered by politicians-military intervention and the democratization of the Arab world-shouldn't even be our top priorities. Instead, he presents a fresh way to face intelligence and law enforcement challenges ahead: conduct counterinsurgency operations, undermine al-Qaeda's ideology, selectively push for reforms, and build key lasting alliances.Daniel Byman (Washington, DC) directs the Security Studies Program and the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and also served on the 9/11 Commission. He regularly writes about terrorism and the Middle East for the Washington Post, Slate, and other publications.

    The team had gone to Iraq as Christian Peacemakers, determined to work for peace in a war-torn country.In this gripping book, Norman Kember describes his long experiences with the peace movement, and how he slowly came to the view that he should go with other peace advocates to Iraq. He describes in detail his team's four-month ordeal, during which they were imprisoned in a small room and chained together until the fateful day when American Tom Fox was led away by his captors. Later, they learned that he had been killed. Rescued by British forces after a successful international police effort to discover the hideout, Kember describes the conflicts he and his fellow activists have faced since their return over their opposition to military force and their reluctance to testify at the trials of the men accused of their kidnapping.This book offers a startling new perspective on the war in Iraq and its many opponents.

    In this book, she describes her account of that terrible day and her personal struggle to face the senseless death of her son.

    This volume seeks to move beyond these portrayals, to examine some of the structuring conditions that play a part in a girl or woman's decision to commit violence. Amidst the contextual factors informing her involvement, the volume seeks also to explore the political agency of the female terrorist or militant. Several of the articles are based on research where authors had direct contact with female terrorists or militants who committed acts of political violence, or with witnesses to such acts.

    To this day, Pieczenik has refused to testify about the incident before the Italian Parliament and remains on the "hit" list of several terrorist organizations.-----------------The year is 1978. The country is Italy. The incident is the kidnapping of PrimeMinister Carlo Tosi by the infamous terrorist group, Red Brigades.Richard Baker, Assistant Secretary of State for Crisis Management, is sent to Italy by Secretary of State Douglas Wheat to prevent the assassination of the prime minister and the destabilization of the country. While working with the Italian government for the release of Tosi, Baker uncovers a web of unexpected alliances and hidden agendas that lead him to question whether anyone really wants Tosi back-alive!

    Keith Gessen's "Torture and the Known Unknowns," a fable by Benjamin Kunkel, a report on flying cars. Plus fiction about nuclear proliferation