Best of
Terrorism
2012
Black Site
Dalton Fury - 2012
Now, Fury draws upon his hard-won combat experience ”and his gift for true-to-life storytelling” to offer a brand-new series of thrillers that are as close to reality as readers can get.Meet Kolt Raynor. A Delta Force operator and one-time American hero, he is still trying to make sense of his life ”and duty” after a secret mission gone bad. Three years ago, in the mountains of Pakistan, Raynor made a split-second decision to disobey orders ”one that got some of his teammates killed and the rest captured. Now he's been given a second chance to do right by his country, his men, and himself. But Raynor's shot at redemption comes at a price.A shadowy group of former colleagues has asked Raynor to return, alone, to Pakistan's badlands. His assignment seems clear: find his missing men and bring them home. What Raynor never expected was to uncover a sinister al Qaeda plot to capture a Black Site--a secret U.S. prison--and destabilize the region. Meanwhile, a ruthless, unknown enemy is on his trail…and he will stop at nothing to make sure that Raynor's mission is not accomplished.An intense, gritty work of edge-of-your-seat suspense, Black Site is the first of what promises to be one of the most exciting fiction series of the new millennium.
Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad
Peter L. Bergen - 2012
Other key elements of the book will include:A careful account of Obama’s decision-making process as the raid was plannedThe fascinating story of a group of CIA analysts—largely women—who never gave up assembling the tiniest clues about OBL’s whereaboutsThe untold and action-packed history of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the SEALsAn analysis of what the death of OBL means for al Qaeda, and for Obama’s legacy. Just as Too Big to Fail captured, in riveting detail, the anatomy of this decade’s financial disaster, so too is Manhunt one of the key stories of this decade: the authoritative, immersive account of the operation that killed the man who organized the largest mass murder in American history.
Vatican Knights
Rick Jones - 2012
If the United States and its allies do not meet their demands, they will execute the pope. So when FBI Specialist Shari Cohen is called to duty to track down the terrorist cell responsible, she learns that she is not alone. Deep behind the Vatican walls a secret order dispatches a clandestine op group of elite commandos known as the Vatican Knights. Their mission: bring the pope back alive. As Cohen and the Knights work in tandem they uncover a White House conspiracy involving high-ranking members on Capitol Hill. When she begins to get too close to the truth about the pope’s kidnapping, she becomes the target of indigenous forces trying to keep the conspiracy safe. However, in order to get to her they must go through the Vatican Knights.
Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield
Jeremy Scahill - 2012
Now also an Oscar-nominated documentaryIn Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times bestseller Blackwater, takes us inside America’s new covert wars. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies.Drawn from the ranks of the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, former Blackwater and other private security contractors, the CIA’s Special Activities Division and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), these elite soldiers operate worldwide, with thousands of secret commandos working in more than one hundred countries. Funded through black budgets, Special Operations Forces conduct missions in denied areas, engage in targeted killings, snatch and grab individuals and direct drone, AC-130 and cruise missile strikes. While the Bush administration deployed these ghost militias, President Barack Obama has expanded their operations and given them new scope and legitimacy.Dirty Wars follows the consequences of the declaration that “the world is a battlefield,” as Scahill uncovers the most important foreign policy story of our time. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill reports from the frontlines in this high-stakes investigation and explores the depths of America’s global killing machine. He goes beneath the surface of these covert wars, conducted in the shadows, outside the range of the press, without effective congressional oversight or public debate. And, based on unprecedented access, Scahill tells the chilling story of an American citizen marked for assassination by his own government.As US leaders draw the country deeper into conflicts across the globe, setting the world stage for enormous destabilization and blowback, Americans are not only at greater risk—we are changing as a nation. Scahill unmasks the shadow warriors who prosecute these secret wars and puts a human face on the casualties of unaccountable violence that is now official policy: victims of night raids, secret prisons, cruise missile attacks and drone strikes, and whole classes of people branded as suspected militants. Through his brave reporting, Scahill exposes the true nature of the dirty wars the United States government struggles to keep hidden.
500 Days: Decisions and Deceptions in the Shadow of 9/11
Kurt Eichenwald - 2012
He reveals previously undisclosed information from the terror wars, including never-before-reported details about warrantless wiretapping, the anthrax attacks, and investigations and conflicts among Washington, D.C., and London.With his signature fast-paced narrative style, Eichenwald--whose book, "The Informant," ""was called "one of the best nonfiction books of the decade" by "The""New York Times Book Review--"exposes a world of secrets and lies that has remained hidden until now.
Special Agent Man: My Life in the FBI as a Terrorist Hunter, Helicopter Pilot, and Certified Sniper
Steve Moore - 2012
The book gives a firsthand account of a career in the Federal Bureau of Investigation from the academy to retirement, with exciting and engaging anecdotes about SWAT teams, counterterrorism activities, and undercover assignments. At the same time, it challenges the stereotype of FBI agents as arrogant, case-stealing, suit-wearing stiffs by portraying the real people who carry badges and guns. With honest, self-deprecating humor, Steve Moore’s narrative details his successes and his mistakes, the trauma the job inflicted on his marriage, his triumph over the aggressive cancer that took him out of the field for a year, and his return to the Bureau with renewed vigor and dedication to take on some of the most thrilling assignments of his career.
The Meadow
Adrian Levy - 2012
It tells of the escape of one hostage, the secret letters another wrote and hid in his clothing as he contemplated his situation, and how, with a brutal beheading, the kidnappers took an irreversible step into the abyss.
Gunslinger Girl Omnibus 5
Yu Aida - 2012
His first act as new leader is to seize control of Venice's landmark St. Mark's Campanile and demand the release of fellow terrorist Aaron Cicero, along with fifty of their comrades-in-arms who are being held as political prisoners. Unable to bow to Dante's demands, the Italian government has no choice but to meet force with force, in a battle that will have dire consequences. Gunslinger Girl's explosive endgame starts here!
The Gilboa Iris
Zahava D. Englard - 2012
When the Harows are targeted by a terror cell in hot pursuit of technology not yet found in any country's arsenal, Dara finds herself at the center of a hierarchy of terror that threatens her life and the lives of those she loves. The Gilboa Iris is a blazing tale of romance, deceit and international intrigue. Its rich characters and explosive plot take readers from Israel's Gilboa Mountains to the streets of New York, to Germany's Zehlendorf Forest, and back to Israel amid seminal events that rocked the world between 1983 and 2002.
Neighbors
Jerry D. Young - 2012
YOUNG SOMETIMES NEIGHBORS ARE GREAT. SOMETIMES NOT SO MUCH. Hank Smith was a prepper. But he was a prepper with a problem. He lived on a cul-de-sac road, which was good. The bad part of it was it was on a hill. This would normally be good but in this case it put him in full view of the approach to the cul-de-sac and of most of his neighbors. The result of this was that everyone in the neighborhood saw his large garden, his solar panels, his hand well, and the other items that indicated his ability to get by without much help from anyone else. Even though his neighbors thought Hank was a little nutty, they respected his right to live the way he wanted. However, when a world war breaks out, will they respect his right to his own property? ABOUT AUTHOR JERRY D. YOUNG Author Jerry D. Young has been a fixture in the survival and prepping communities for more than twenty years. The author of more than 100 novels and short stories, Jerry’s writing has been a staple for men and women of all ages and from all walks of life that are interested in prepping, survival, and all-around self-sufficiency. Jerry’s books are written with the goal of educating as well as entertaining and generally enjoyed by all who seek to expand their knowledge of prepping and survival topics while enjoying a good book or short story. As daunting as the end of the world, nuclear fallout, World War III, Civil unrest, economic collapse, solar flares, EMP attacks, and other apocalyptic scenarios may be, society has always been interested in the “What If?” of a Post-Apocalyptic World. Jerry’s stories provide interesting and practical perspectives of heroes and villains navigating Post-Apocalyptic scenarios including everything from Mad Max type of events to more relevant plot lines that seem as if they could have come from the headlines of the modern world. Find more about Jerry D. Young at www.CreativeTexts.com.
Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation
Alfred W. McCoy - 2012
But the United States has done almost nothing to prosecute past abuses or prevent future violations. Tracing this knotty contradiction from the 1950s to the present, historian Alfred W. McCoy probes the political and cultural dynamics that have made impunity for torture a bipartisan policy of the U.S. government. During the Cold War, McCoy argues, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency covertly funded psychological experiments designed to weaken a subject's resistance to interrogation. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the CIA revived these harsh methods, while U.S. media was flooded with seductive images that normalized torture for many Americans. Ten years later, the U.S. had failed to punish the perpetrators or the powerful who commanded them, and continued to exploit intelligence extracted under torture by surrogates from Somalia to Afghanistan. Although Washington has publicly distanced itself from torture, disturbing images from the prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are seared into human memory, doing lasting damage to America's moral authority as a world leader.
The Big Bamboozle: 9/11 and the War on Terror
Philip Marshall - 2012
Based on a comprehensive ten-year study into the murders of his fellow pilots on 9/11, he explains how hijackers, novice pilots at the controls of massive guided missiles, were able to beat United States Air Force fighters to iconic targets with advanced maneuvering, daring speeds and a kamikaze finish. But, as Marshall explains, the tactical plan was so precise that it rules out car-bombers and shoe-bombers known as al Qaeda, KSM and Osama bin Laden. So then, who was it? That's what you are about learn. Backed by official NTSB, FAA and black box recordings, Marshall finds the most capable and most documented group of conspirators buried deep within a Congressional Inquiry's report and retraces their work in gripping detail. Fasten your seatbelt--- the sad truth is that all of the solid evidence points to a dark collaboration between members of the Bush Administration and a covert group of Saudi government officials. This is a game changer that will finally set the record straight on the most horrific crime in US history. This book is a compilation of official reports that disputes the Bush Administration, the Bush Intelligence Community and the American media's account of the 9/11 attack. United States Senator Bob Graham's Congressional Joint Inquiry in 2002 revealed that Saudi Arabian Intelligence agents met the 9/11 hijackers in the Los Angeles in January of 2000, harbored them and led them to 18 months of flight training in Florida and Arizona. Marshall follows reports from FBI field agents that warned George W. Bush's Administration that a "cadre of individuals of investigative interest were engaged in flight training" in the Arizona desert in the spring of 2001. Marshall identifies three top federal investigators who complained that Dick Cheney obstructed justice by refusing access to suspects who supposedly confessed to the greatest crime in U.S. history. None of the federal investigators were ever allowed to verify the confession of Khalid Sheik Mohammed who had been water boarded over 180 times at Guantanamo detention facility. The book disputes the video and media confession of Osama bin Laden and points out that none of the accusations by the Bush Administration could be proved. Marshall asserts that the Saudi government was the true executioners of the 9/11 attack and framed their enemies while CIA special operations set up an elaborate decoy named Osama bin Laden to divert attention away from the Saudi operation. He follows the hijackers to flight training airports and finds that Saudi agents led the hijackers to the Arizona desert where Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 airliners were parked at a secluded CIA operated airport. The operators of the CIA airport were traced to suspicious insider stock trades on two airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines, the only two airlines used in the 9/11 attack. Marshall breaks down the tactical flight plan that was used by the hijackers and chronicles the actions of Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Dick Cheney and George W. Bsuh to learn that their account of the attack was severely flawed. Three top investigators wrote that Dick Cheney had obstructed the investigation and redacted the involvement of the Saudi government agents who were employed in California by the Saudi Civil Aviation authority. The Congressional Inquiry reported that the Saudi agents had "seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia" and had traced the hijacker financial support to Prince Bandar through a Riggs Bank account. Finally Marshall chronicles the media trial that allowed Bush and Cheney to derail American Justice by trying the 9/11 case with media propaganda and away from the American federal court sys
Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa'ida since 9/11
Seth G. Jones - 2012
An internationally recognized authority on terrorism and counterinsurgency, Seth G. Jones presents a dramatic narrative of the on-the-ground police work; the elaborate, multiyear investigations led by the CIA, FBI, and Britain’s MI5; and the shifting and deadly alliances between terrorist groups that have characterized the conflict. With gripping detail he recounts the against-the-clock hunt for the Times Square bomber and reveals startling information about Osama bin Laden’s behavior during his final days. Drawing on recently declassified documents and court materials, transcripts of wiretapped conversations, and interviews with current and former government officials from the United States and key allies, Jones navigates the “waves” (al Qa’ida attacks) and “reverse waves” (successful efforts to disrupt al’Qa’ida), explaining how we might analyze past patterns in order to successfully counter al Qa’ida and its allies in the future.
Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies
Laleh Khalili - 2012
Counterinsurgency theoreticians and practitioners explain this dizzying rise of detention camps, internment centers, and enclavisation by arguing that such actions "protect" populations. In this book, Laleh Khalili counters these arguments, telling the story of how this proliferation of concentration camps, strategic hamlets, "security walls," and offshore prisons has come to be.Time in the Shadows investigates the two major liberal counterinsurgencies of our day: Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S. War on Terror. In rich detail, the book investigates Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, CIA black sites, the Khiam Prison, and Gaza, among others, and links them to a history of colonial counterinsurgencies from the Boer War and the U.S. Indian wars, to Vietnam, the British small wars in Malaya, Kenya, Aden and Cyprus, and the French pacification of Indochina and Algeria.Khalili deftly demonstrates that whatever the form of incarceration—visible or invisible, offshore or inland, containing combatants or civilians—liberal states have consistently acted illiberally in their counterinsurgency confinements. As our tactics of war have shifted beyond slaughter to elaborate systems of detention, liberal states have warmed to the pursuit of asymmetric wars. Ultimately, Khalili confirms that as tactics of counterinsurgency have been rendered more "humane," they have also increasingly encouraged policymakers to willingly choose to wage wars.
Breakfast with the Dirt Cult
Samuel Finlay - 2012
Breakfast with the Dirt Cult chronicles the days of love and war in the life of Tom Walton. Torn between a beautiful, bibliophilic, Canadian ex-stripper and the hunt for Al-Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan, Walton finds himself forced to grapple with being a young man in the days of modernity. While Breakfast with the Dirt Cult has been written as a novel, it is based on a true story. The names have been changed and the chronology has been condensed for the sake of editing.
The Taliban Don't Wave
Robert Semrau - 2012
The trial and its outcome are a matter of public record. What you are about to read about the tour of duty that inspired this book is not.What you are about to read is an emotionally draining and mind-snapping firsthand account of war on the ground in Afghanistan. It’s raw and explosive. Names have been changed to protect the brave and not so brave alike. What you are about to read is an account of soldiers who live, fight and die in a moonscape of a country where it’s sometimes hard to tell your friend from your enemy. It’s about trying to hold it together when a mortar attack is ripping your friends and allies apart, and your world unravels before your eyes.Rob Semrau wrote this book to tell us about the sheer hell that is the Stan, but also to recognize the incredible courage and compassion he witnessed in the heat of battle. The soldiers you are about to meet and the events that befall them will linger on in your mind long after you have closed these pages.
The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Terry McDermott - 2012
Only minutes after United 175 plowed into the World Trade Center's South Tower, people in positions of power correctly suspected who was behind the assault: Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. But it would be 18 months after September 11 before investigators would capture the actual mastermind of the attacks, the man behind bin Laden himself. That monster is the man who got his hands dirty while Osama fled; the man who was responsible for setting up Al Qaeda's global networks, who personally identified and trained its terrorists, and who personally flew bomb parts on commercial airlines to test their invisibility. That man withstood waterboarding and years of other intense interrogations, not only denying Osama's whereabouts but making a literal game of the proceedings, after leading his pursuers across the globe and back. That man is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and he is still, to this day, the most significant Al Qaeda terrorist in captivity. In The Hunt for KSM, Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer go deep inside the US government's dogged but flawed pursuit of this elusive and dangerous man. One pair of agents chased him through countless false leads and narrow escapes for five years before 9/11. And now, drawing on a decade of investigative reporting and unprecedented access to hundreds of key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly -- as well as jihadis and members of KSM's family and support network -- this is a heart-pounding trip inside the dangerous, classified world of counterterrorism and espionage.
Hero Dogs: Secret Missions and Selfless Service
Lance M. Bacon - 2012
Many have earned recognition for heroism. Others struggle with wounds and post-traumatic stress. Dozens died in the line of duty. Filled with hundreds of dramatic never-before-seen photos, this one-of-a-kind book features inspiring tales of selfless battlefield service related by the war dogs handlers and fellow soldiers.
The Terrorism Lectures
James J.F. Forest - 2012
Forest. The book and accompanying online materials delve into the history of terrorism, its root causes, and its many forms and organizations, as well as the frameworks that analysts use to determine the scope of a terrorist threat.
The Longest War
J.F. Holmes - 2012
Everyone in a war has a story. These are their voices, these are their stories. This book is a collection of 45 stories told by the men and women who have lived through the war. Some are soldiers, some are civilians. All have been affected in one way or another, for better or worse. These tales will bring you to the front line in Americas’ longest war. Each is written by the person who lived it, with little editing. Their stories, their voices. 40 different persons contributed to this book. Some are soldiers, ranging from Privates to Sergeants to Officers. Some are civilians who have been caught up in the war. The editor, Sergeant First Class John Holmes, is himself a 20 year soldier and an Iraq War Veteran.
Ask Forgiveness Not Permission: The True Story of an Operation in Pakistan's Badlands
Howard Leedham - 2012
in PakistanOn retirement from an unusual military career Howard Leedham settled in the U.S. with his American wife and successfully flew executive jets—until he was recruited in 2003 by the State Department's airwing. Despite being British, he had the unusual skills they required, and his specific brief was to activate a fleet of antiterrorist helicopters which had been given to the Pakistan armed forces, but never properly used. This was easier said than done—he had to win over opposition from inside the State Department and in particular from their Islamabad Embassy, and also dispel the suspicions of the Pakistani Armed Forces. The helicopters were released and brought up to the high standard of mechanical and operational maintenance required. He had to get past the closed door of the appropriate Pakistani general—which he did by offering to stand outside the general's bathroom and outline his plans. He was given command of a team of Pathan soldiers to train in Special Forces tactics and helicopter skills—they became an amazingly loyal team and the book describes in detail several very successful discreet operations. Howard had to do all this while under great personal threat, unable to tell who friend and who was foe, even among his own troops. This book recounts in fascinating detail the successes and failures of an unusual military operation in one of the most inhospitable and turbulent environments in the world.
Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner
Lela Gilbert - 2012
Long fascinated by a land that has become an abstraction centering on international conflicts of epic proportions, Lela Gilbert arrived in Israel on a personal pilgrimage in August 2006—in the midst of a raging war. What she found was a vibrant country, enlivened by warm-hearted, lively people of great intelligence and decency.Saturday People, Sunday People tells the story of the real Israel and of real Israelis—ordinary and extraordinary—and the energetic rhythm of their lives, even during times of tragedy and terror. The book interweaves a memoir of Gilbert’s experiences with Israel’s people and places, alongside a rich account of past and present events that continue to shape the lives of Israelis and the world beyond their borders.As she watched events unfold in the Middle East, Gilbert witnessed how the simplest facts turned into lies, from denial of the existence of a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to the characterization of Israel’s defensive border fence as “Apartheid.” Then Gilbert learned of a story that had all but vanished into history: the persecution and pogroms that drove more than 850,000 Jews from Muslim lands between 1948 and 1970—the “Forgotten Refugees.” Their experience is now repeating itself among Christian communities in those same Muslim countries. This cruel pattern embodies the Islamist slogan calling for the elimination of “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.”
Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel
Reece Jones - 2012
In this groundbreaking work, Reece Jones analyzes how these controversial border security projects were justified in their respective countries, what consequences these physical barriers have on the lives of those living in these newly securitized spaces, and what long-term effects the hardening of political borders will have in these societies and globally.Border Walls is a bold, important intervention that demonstrates that the exclusion and violence necessary to secure the borders of the modern state often undermine the very ideals of freedom and democracy the barriers are meant to protect.Border Walls won the 2013 Julian Minghi Outstanding Research Award presented at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting. The award is presented for a book that makes an innovative, original contribution to political geography.
Cheating Justice: How Bush and Cheney Attacked the Rule of Law and Plotted to Avoid Prosecution? and What We Can Do about It
Elizabeth Holtzman - 2012
Deceiving Congress about the war in Iraq, illegal wire-tapping, and torture are only a few of the ways that the Bush-Cheney administration transgressed the law. Yet, they remain unindicted for these and other offenses. This book details how they got away with it, and how we can hold them accountable.
Terrorism and Counterintelligence: How Terrorist Groups Elude Detection
Blake W. Mobley - 2012
Some strategies work well, some fail, and those tasked with tracking these groups are deeply invested in the difference.Discussing the challenges terrorist groups face as they multiply and plot international attacks, while at the same time providing a framework for decoding the strengths and weaknesses of their counterintelligence, Blake W. Mobley provides an indispensable text for the intelligence, military, homeland security, and law enforcement fields. He outlines concrete steps for improving the monitoring, disruption, and elimination of terrorist cells, primarily by exploiting their mistakes in counterintelligence.A key component of Mobley's approach is to identify and keep close watch on areas that often exhibit weakness. While some counterintelligence pathologies occur more frequently among certain terrorist groups, destructive bureaucratic tendencies, such as mistrust and paranoia, pervade all organizations. Through detailed case studies, Mobley shows how to recognize and capitalize on these shortcomings within a group's organizational structure, popular support, and controlled territory, and he describes the tradeoffs terrorist leaders make to maintain cohesion and power. He ultimately shows that no group can achieve perfect secrecy while functioning effectively and that every adaptation or new advantage supposedly attained by these groups also produces new vulnerabilities.
Israel's Silent Defender: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence
Amos Gilboa - 2012
Through its professionalism, daring and creativity, it has made important contributions to intelligence services around the world in the struggle against global terrorism. But how much is known about it? How was it built? What are its areas of activity -and what are the secrets of its success? In Israel's Silent Defender, Brigadier Generals (Res.) Amos Gilboa and Ephraim Lapid have compiled thirty-seven essays written by experts and leaders of Israeli intelligence, among them high-ranking analysts and J2s, commanders of human intelligence (HUMINT), signal intelligence (SIGINT), visual intelligence (VISINT) and open source intelligence (OSINT) units, and heads of the Israel Defense Intelligence (IDI), the Mossad and the Shabak. This book is a project of the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center and dedicated to the memory of Meir Amit, who was both head of the Mossad and director of IDI. It is published in memory of the fallen heroes of the intelligence community, with profound appreciation for its founders - those who laid the groundwork for the security of the State of Israel.
Killer App
Emerson Freedman - 2012
When Jacob is hired to find lost property, his instinct screams that something stinks.Finn and Victoria bicker while trying to stop a terrorist cell from slaughtering thousands.Ben is being chased across the country by remorseless killers, trying to reach a safe haven that haunts his dreams.As the clock ticks down to midnight, hunters and hunted race to work out what is real in a world where even your own memory cannot be trusted.
Snow White and the Hunter
Sara M. Barton - 2012
Manhattan transplant, now living in the small Vermont village of Latimer Falls. She’s got her work cut out for her when ruthless terrorists come a-calling! As the war on terror invades her idyllic Vermont village and its pastoral way of life, threatening its good citizens, Gabby refuses to surrender.... As the only female deputy in the eight-member Latimer Falls Sheriff's Department, Gabby Grimm knows how to handle men. Armed with a degree in psychology and trained in law enforcement, she's accustomed to using her head to solve the community's problems, whether it's an escaped cow, young pranksters out to have fun, or a local resident who's had a snootful. But her world is mercilessly turned upside down in less than 24 hours, starting with a killer kiss from a mysterious masked man in the woods in the middle of an unexpected shoot-out. Seasonal resident Jonathan Klarsfeld is brutally murdered at his lakeside cabin while working on an antiterrorist software program for Ramparts Manufacturing, his family taken hostage. Sent to the Klarsfeld cabin to check out a report of suspicious activity, Gabby and her cohort, Woody, are just in time to witness a powerful explosion and discover the body. Enter Sam Hogan, Army counter-terrorism specialist. He shakes, rattles, and rolls his way into her world with a flash bang! With gumption and guts, she and her colleagues join forces with Sam and the Vermont State Police to wage their own campaign on the bad guys, hoping to rescue the Klarsfeld family in time. In the breathless blink of an eye, the wild chase is on and all bets are off on what happens next!
No Greater Love: An Afghan Memoir
Tim Moynihan - 2012
But his heroic demeanor and outward confidence mask a burden he carries on the inside, the agonizing memory of two brothers with whom he served in the war. Caught off-guard at a public speaking event, Sanchez is compelled to expose the ghosts of his past and his searing memories of a bloody battle on a blasted Afghanistan hilltop where love conquered fear forever.
Traitor: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban"
Jesselyn A. Radack - 2012
This is the the memoir of the Justice Department legal ethics advisor, Jesselyn Radack, who blew the whistle on government misconduct in the case of the so-called "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh--America's first terrorism prosecution after 9/11.(from amazon.com)
Great Game East
Bertil Lintner - 2012
But there is another Great Game that’s playing out in Asia – one that will significantly impact the course of global politics. Bertil Lintner calls it the ‘Great Game East’. On the eastern fringes of the Indian subcontinent, the rivalry between India and China grows ever warmer. The call of theNehruvian era, Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai, was drowned out by the resistance in Tibet and the unrest in India’s northeast, and the role the two countries played in these. The rivalry resulted in an on-the-ground battle in 1962, and an undeclared war since. Spies and agents from both countries have been stirring up trouble in the volatilefrontier areas all these years. Besides, intelligence agencies of various other countries (the United States, among them) have also been keeping a sharp eye on the developments in the region, particularly India’s northeast.Strategically located at the crossroads of the Indian subcontinent, China and Southeast Asia, the northeastern states of India and the continuing armed strife in that sector hold the key to understanding the true complexity of the hostilities and political ambitions that Asia’s two giants harbour. In the Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile Frontier, Bertil Lintner – acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on insurgencies in the region – unpacks the layers and layers of complex political intrigues and spy networks that define the Great Game East. A must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the political future of a continent, or indeed the world.
Gladio: NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis
Richard Cottrell - 2012
Leaders are murdered, movements are subverted. Under the surface, the empire rules by death squads, as it always has south of the border. The attack on Libya laid bare the iron fist within the velvet glove of slogans such as humanitarian intervention. Like the destruction of Yugoslavia and the rape of Afghanistan, the reduction of Libya to a virtual slave colony was performed under the banner of NATO. And what exactly is NATO? Richard Cottrell tells the story of mayhem and murder behind the alliance for peace, and predicts an emerging military colossus fighting to seize control of strategic resources such as oil, gas, minerals and water anywhere on the planet. Masquerading as a rear guard against Soviet invaders, NATO's covert forces warped into psychological and physical terrorism. These were the years of lead, in which hundreds perished in a synthetic war in the streets of Europe. NATO commander General Lyman Lemnitzer ordered serial attacks on French president Charles de Gaulle.Sacked from the Pentagon by John F Kennedy for rank insubordination, then exiled to Europe, Lemnitzer reaped revenge in Dallas. The secret armies forged bonds with organised crime and neo-fascists. NATO-backed coups struck down governments in Greece and Turkey; the island state of Cyprus was sundered amid bitter genocide. Urban guerrillas like the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof Gang were cunningly manipulated. Italy gained a deep-state government, the ultra-secret P2 pseudo-Masonic lodge, founded by former Blackshirts. Swedish premier Olof Palme and Italian ex-PM Aldo Moro were assassinated. Pope John Paul II was shot by Turkish gangsters who had regular work as Gladio guns for hire. In 2009, a Gladio copy-cat outfit codenamed Ergenekon came to light in Turkey. The shootings in Norway in July 2011, and in Belgium, France and Italy in 2012, all bore the classic stripe of Gladio false-flag operations.
Right-Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored
Daryl Johnson - 2012
In 2009, that number more than tripled to 512, and now there are nearly 600. In Right Wing Resurgence, author Daryl Johnson offers a detailed account of the growth of right wing extremism and militias in the United States and the ever-increasing threat they pose. The author is an acknowledged expert in this area and has been an intelligence analyst working for several federal agencies for nearly 20 years. The book is also a first-hand, insider s account of the DHS Right Wing Extremism report from the person who wrote it. It is a truthful depiction of the facts, circumstances, and events leading up to the leak of this official intelligence assessment. The leak and its aftermath have had an adverse effect on homeland security. Because of its alleged mishandling of the situation, the Department s reputation has declined in the intelligence and law enforcement communities and the analytical integrity of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis was undermined.Most importantly, the nation s security has been compromised during a critical time when a significant domestic terrorist threat is growing. This book is replete with case studies and interviews with leaders which reveal their agendas, how they recruit, and how they operate around the country. It presents a comprehensive account of an ever-growing security concern at a time when this threat is only beginning to be realized, and is still largely ignored in many circles.
Contemporary Debates on Terrorism
Richard Jackson - 2012
Within the broader field, there are many identifiable controversies and issues which divide scholarly opinion, a number of which are discussed in this text:Theoretical issues, such as the definition of terrorism and state terrorism;Substantive issues, including the threat posed by al Qaeda and the utility of different responses to terrorism;Ethical issues, encompassing the torture of terrorist suspects and targeted assassinationThe format of the volume involves a leading scholar taking a particular position on the controversy, followed by an opposing or alternative viewpoint written by another contributor. In addition to the pedagogic value of allowing students to read opposing arguments in one place, the volume will also be important for providing an overview of the state of the field and its key lines of debate.Contemporary Debates on Terrorism will be essential reading for all students of terrorism and political violence, critical terrorism studies, critical security studies, security studies and IR in general.
Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists
John Horgan - 2012
In the years after the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, which killed 29 people, violent dissident Republican groups have re-emerged as a major security threat to a region that has been denied peace, stability, and prosperity for toolong.Those responsible have many names. They are breakaways, splinter factions, spoilers, and residual terrorists. The Real IRA, Continuity IRA, and �glaigh na h�ireann are only some of the groups now responsible for a growing wave of bombings, shootings, threats, and intimidation across NorthernIreland. Commonly known as the dissidents, these are the rejectionists for whom there seems to be no negotiated settlement, no peace deal, no consensus solution that will convince them to accept the will of the majority of the people on the island of Ireland.Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists presents the results of meticulous research conducted by the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2007, John Horgan, Director of the center, has led aresearch project to monitor the activities of Ireland's new terrorists. Drawing on one of the largest open-source militant databases ever assembled, Divided We Stand describes the activities, histories, motivations, psychology, and strategy of the small, dynamic, and rapidly evolving splintergroups that continue to erode peace, stability, and normalization in Northern Ireland.
Terror and Democracy in West Germany
Karrin Hanshew - 2012
The militants failed to bring down the state, but this book argues that the decade-long debate they inspired helped shape a new era. After 1945, West Germans answered long-standing doubts about democracy's viability and fears of authoritarian state power with a 'militant democracy' empowered against its enemies and a popular commitment to anti-fascist resistance. In the 1970s, these postwar solutions brought Germans into open conflict, fighting to protect democracy from both terrorism and state overreaction. Drawing on diverse sources, Karrin Hanshew shows how Germans, faced with a state of emergency and haunted by their own history, managed to learn from the past and defuse this adversarial dynamic. This negotiation of terror helped them to accept the Federal Republic of Germany as a stable, reformable polity and to reconceive of democracy's defence as part of everyday politics.
Terrorism TV: Popular Entertainment in Post-9/11 America
Stacy Takacs - 2012
This book marks the first comprehensive survey and analysis of War on Terror themes in post-9/11 American television, critiquing those shows that--either blindly or intentionally--supported the Bush administration's security policies.Stacy Takacs focuses on the role of entertainment programming in building a national consensus favoring a War on Terror, taking a close look at programs that comment both directly and allegorically on the post-9/11 world. In show after show, she chillingly illustrates how popular television helped organize public feelings of loss, fear, empathy, and self-love into narratives supportive of a controversial and unprecedented war.Takacs examines a spectrum of program genres--talk shows, reality programs, sitcoms, police procedurals, male melodramas, war narratives--to uncover the recurrent cultural themes that helped convince Americans to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and compromise their own civil liberties. Spanning the past decade of the ongoing conflict, she reviews not only key touchstones of post-9/11 popular culture such as 24, Rescue Me, and Sleeper Cell, but also less remarked-upon but relevant series like JAG, Off to War, Six Feet Under, and Jericho. She also considers voices of dissent that have emerged through satirical offerings like The Daily Show and science fiction series such as Lost and Battlestar Galactica.Takacs dissects how the War on Terror has been broadcast into our living rooms in programs that routinely offer simplistic answers to important questions--Who exactly are we fighting? Why do they hate us?--and she examines the climate of fear and paranoia they've created. Unlike cultural analyses that view the government's courting of Hollywood as a conspiracy to manipulate the masses, her book considers how economic and industry considerations complicate state-media relations throughout the era.Terrorism TV offers fresh insight into how American television directly and indirectly reinforced the Bush administration's security agenda and argues for the continued importance of the medium as a tool of collective identity formation. It is an essential guide to the televisual landscape of American consciousness in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers & Martyrs to Combat Terrorism in Prison & Community Rehabilitation
Anne Speckhard - 2012
Dr. Speckhard gives us the inside story of what puts vulnerable individuals on the terrorist trajectory and what might take them back off of it. With more than four hundred interviews with terrorists and their friends, family members and hostages, Dr. Speckhard is one of the few experts to have such a breadth of experience. She visited, and even stayed overnight, in the intimate spaces of terrorists' homes, interviewed them in their stark prison cells, or met them in the streets of their cities and villages. Dr. Speckhard gives us a rare glimpse of terrorists within their own contexts. From the mouths of terrorists, their family members, comrades-and even their hostages, we learn of the manipulation of human weakness that can lead to violent acts. Through careful research of culture and religion and a genuine desire to understand the factors that motivate individuals to embrace terrorism, Dr. Speckhard deftly defines the lethal cocktail that leads to the creation of a terrorist. An internationally recognized expert on the psychological aspects of terrorism and an expert in the area of posttraumatic stress disorder, Dr. Speckhard's research also produces a knowledge of how to disengage, deradicalize, rehabilitate, and reverse the trajectory of a terrorist. Dr. Speckhard's studies spanning over a decade provide us with a deeper understanding of one of the most dangerous and violent phenomena of our times.
Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance
George Michael - 2012
He didn't stop there, traveling several hours from the city to ambush a youth camp while the rest of Norway was distracted by his earlier attack. That's where the facts end. But what motivated him? Did he have help staging the attacks? The evidence suggests a startling truth: that this was the work of one man, pursuing a mission he was convinced was just. If Breivik did indeed act alone, he wouldn't be the first. Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City based essentially on his own motivations. Eric Robert Rudolph embarked on a campaign of terror over several years, including the Centennial Park bombing at the 1996 Olympics. Ted Kaczynski was revealed to be the Unabomber that same year. And these are only the most notable examples. As George Michael demonstrates in "Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance," they are not isolated cases. Rather, they represent the new way warfare will be conducted in the twenty-first century."Lone Wolf Terror" investigates the motivations of numerous political and ideological elements, such as right-wing individuals, ecoextremists, foreign jihadists, and even quasi-governmental entities. In all these cases, those carrying out destructive acts operate as "lone wolves" and small cells, with little or no connection to formal organizations. Ultimately, Michael suggests that leaderless resistance has become the most common tactical approach of political terrorists in the West and elsewhere.
Counterterrorism
Marie-Helen Maras - 2012
This full-view understanding enables students to think sensibly about terrorism and better understand effective, and equally important, ineffective measures within counterterrorism. Appropriate for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in criminal justice and homeland security, as well as political science and sociology departments, Counterterrorism focuses on domestic terrorist groups from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, and North America. It offers critical evaluation of the counterterrorism measures implemented in response to these terrorist groups. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this comprehensive resource compares terrorist groups, assesses the factors that are conducive to certain groups' sustainability and those that led to other groups' demise, and notes measures that were successfully used in the past to combat terrorists and terrorist groups worldwide. This text also incorporates efficient policies into a strategy that can be used to effectively contend with the current threat of terrorism by al-Qaeda operatives, affiliates, and homegrown terrorists inspired by al-Qaeda's cause. Key Features: -Employs an international scope and multi-group approach to provide students with a full understanding of terrorism and terrorist groups, not simply al-Qaeda. -Provides comprehensive coverage of the theory behind terrorists' motivations and actions for students to grasp how and why terrorist groups act as they do. -Contains boxes with case studies corresponding to the material as well as Food for Thought sections throughout, offering interesting research topics and questions on counterterrorism practices. -Includes end-of-chapter review questions and hypothetical terrorist scenarios which test students on their comprehension of the section material and confirm that they understand terrorist groups' goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern, and operational area, and the appropriateness of selected measures to counter these threats.
Watching War
Jan Mieszkowski - 2012
By showing that the battlefield was a virtual phenomenon long before the invention of photography, film, or the Internet, this book proposes that the unique character of modern conflicts has been a product of imaginary as much as material forces.Warfare first became total in the Napoleonic era, when battles became too large and violent to be observed firsthand and could only be grasped in the imagination. Thenceforth, fantasies of what war was or should be proved critical for how wars were fought and experienced. As war's reach came to be limited only by the creativity of the mind's eye, its campaigns gave rise to expectations that could not be fulfilled. As a result, war's modern audiences have often found themselves bored more than enthralled by their encounters with combat. Mieszkowski takes an interdisciplinary approach to this major ethical and political concern of our time, bringing literary and philosophical texts into dialogue with artworks, historical documents, and classics of photojournalism.
Liberty Is Dead: A Canadian in Germany, 1938
Franklin Wellington Wegenast - 2012
Franklin Wellington Wegenast drove through Austria, Italy, France, Luxembourg, and Germany. He stopped to talk to people along the way and offered rides to those requesting them. He listened to what his passengers had to say about their lives, the conditions they lived under, and their views on what was happening in Europe. Wegenast heard Hitler speak in Innsbruck, and so witnessed first-hand Nazi power as Austria's independence crumbled. In his journal he noted "the sheer animal force in the cries of the crowd," and foresaw the "collision course" that was shaping up between the Germans who supported Hitler's ideology and the rest of the world. Wegenast was unable to publish the journal he kept on his journey, and at the time of his death in 1942 it was in an unorganized state. It is published here for the first time alongside commentary that puts the entries in the contexts of Wegenast's life experiences, the prevailing attitudes of the day, both in North America and Europe, and modern scholarship on Germany in the 1930s. The book includes correspondence Wegenast had with a young German for a few months after his return to Canada, correspondence that reveals even more clearly the intensity of his feelings and his fear for the future. Newly released government documents and diaries kept by Germans during the interwar period have meant a considerable outpouring in recent years of material on German sentiment in the 1930s. Wegenast's diaries and letters corroborate modern assessments of German thinking and add insightful commentary, providing an outsider/insider view on the brewing conflict.
Terrorism: All That Matters
Andrew Silke - 2012
Inside you will find an introductory chapter that maps out the subject for you, while later chapters will go deeper, looking at the details of the most interesting areas. You will read different viewpoints, making "Terrorism: All That Matters" perfect for when you are writing an essay on this controversial topic. Features original and inspirational ideas to help you explore the subject in more depth Includes web links and QR codes throughout the text, linking to videos from the author, or more detailed audio explanations Text boxes around key concepts makes navigating through the material a snap
Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Approach (Aspen Casebook)
Geoffrey S. Corn - 2012
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Deployed
Mel Odom - 2012
But when her team is activated and sent to Somalia on a peacekeeping mission, Bekah struggles with being separated from her son and vows to return safely.Once a successful Somalian businessman, Rageh Daud has lost everything. Determined to seek revenge on the terrorists who killed his wife and son, he teams up with a group of thieves, killers, and others displaced by war. Despite his better judgment, Daud becomes the protector of a young orphaned boy--who becomes a pawn between the warring factions.To defeat the terrorists and bring peace to the region, Bekah and her team must convince Daud that they are on the same side.
The Snake Eaters: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq
Owen West - 2012
Marine and acclaimed novelist Owen West puts readers into the boots of an isolated band of American advisors and Iraqis fighting together in tumultuous Anbar Province, where the people they are trying to protect and the insurgents who are trying to kill them are indistinguishable. WHEN A DOZEN UNPREPARED AMERICAN ARMY RESERVISTS ARE DROPPED OFF on an isolated Iraqi outpost with orders to be its military advisors, they have no idea that what they will really be doing is fighting. With no training to fall back on, this group—including a guitarist, a DEA agent, a plumber, and a postal worker—must somehow mentor the “Snake Eaters,” an Iraqi battalion locked in a deadly struggle over an insurgent-infested town along the Euphrates River. They are plunged into complex counterinsurgent warfare side by side with their Iraqi charges, soon discovering that at such close quarters moral standards are inevitably blurred. The battle becomes so personal that the combatants know each other’s names, faces, and especially the families caught in the middle. Owen West, a third-generation U.S. Marine, tells the gripping, boots-on-the-ground story of the remarkable American and Iraqi troops who for two years fought the insurgency street by street and house by house in the poisonous city of Khalidiya, Iraq. The American advisors were a ramshackle group of Army reservists, Marines, and National Guardsmen with little support or understanding from the higher ranks. The Iraqi battalion they were assigned was from the very first both amateurish and hostile. In a town where the people they were trying to protect were indistinguishable from the enemy they were trying to kill—and few locals ever told the truth—it seemed like a mission doomed to failure. But with courage, infinite patience, and a sense of duty few outsiders understood, the young American and Iraqi soldiers on patrol learned to work with each other and with the townspeople, winning their trust and revealing war as a series of human acts. From Major Mohammed, the Snake Eater who garners the most respect from the Americans precisely because he likes them the least, to the bighearted Staff Sergeant Blakley, a medic stalked by a sniper, the heroic soldiers in these pages are as complex as their war. By the end of the mission, the Snake Eaters was the first Iraqi battalion granted independent battle space, the insurgency was wiped off the streets of Khalidiya, and peace was restored. A rare success story to emerge from the war, West’s exceptional book is as instructive as it is impossible to put down. Owen West is donating his net proceeds from The Snake Eaters to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and to the families of fallen advisors and fallen Iraqi “Snake Eaters.”
Year of the Tiger
David Miller - 2012
But when the tides of war turned against Japan in 1943, much of this treasure had to be buried in secret. Over the decades, the search for the legendary Yamashita's Gold had been in vain until now...A group of foreign workers digging a tunnel under the Padang in present-day Singapore stumbles across a treasure vault and inadvertently triggers a biological booby trap. An unknown strain of anthrax is released threatening a global holocaust. It is up to Assistant Superintendent Gerald Loh of the Singapore Police Force to decipher a cryptic clue left behind with the loot to halt this deadly plague.
Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion
Peter L. Bergen - 2012
But when we speak of Afghanistan, we really mean a conflict that straddles the border with Pakistan--and the reality of Islamic militancy on that border is enormously complicated.In Talibanistan, an unparalleled group of experts offer a nuanced understanding of this critical region. Edited by Peter Bergen, author of the bestselling books The Longest War and The Osama Bin Laden I Know, and Katherine Tiedemann, these essays examine in detail the embattled territory fromKandahar in Afghanistan to Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. They pull apart the distinctions between the Taliban and al Qaeda--and the fractures within each movement; assess the effectiveness of American and Pakistani counterinsurgency campaigns; andexplore the pipeline of militants into and out of the war zone. Throughout, these scrupulously researched studies challenge convenient orthodoxies. Counterterrorism expert Brian Fishman criticizes the customary distinction between an Afghan and Pakistani Taliban as being too neat to describe theirfragmented reality. Hassan Abbas paints a subtle portrait of the political and religious forces shaping the insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, uncovering poor governance, economic distress, and resentment of foreign troops in nearby Afghanistan. And Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemanntry to identify the real numbers of drone strikes and victims, both militants and civilians, while disputing claims for their strategic effectiveness.These and other essays provide profound new insight into this troubled region. They are required reading for anyone seeking a fresh understanding of a central strategic challenge facing the United States today.