Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror |
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| Title: | Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror |
| Author: | Rohan Gunaratna |
| Publisher: | Berkley Trade |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 03 June, 2003 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0425191141 / 9780425191149 |
| List Price: | $16.00 |
| You Save: | $5.12 |
| Amazon Price: | $10.88 |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Based on over five years of research, Inside Al Qaeda provides the definitive story behind the rise of this small, mysterious group to the notorious organization making headlines today.
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Customer Reviews:
• Good Overview
04 October, 2007
Rohan Gunaratna scrutinizes this worldwide terrorist organization and its theater of operations country by country. He examines Al Qaeda's reach, strategic and tactical threat, mind-set, and messianic culture. There are some suggestions of ways given on ways that the international community could counter this movement. The book is written based on five years or interviews, research, and travel.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Dated, But Still Good Background....
14 June, 2008
2003's "Inside Al Qaeda" is the third edition of Rohan Gunaratna's extensive investigation of Osama bin Laden's extremist Islamic terrorist group. "Inside Al Qaeda" provides much detailed background information on the origins and history of al Qaeda. It documents how al Qaeda (AQ) organized and manipulated a global network of associated Jihadists to conduct terrorism around the planet.
Gunaratna opens with a biographical sketch of Osama bin Laden. He devotes a long chapter to a description of AQ's organization, ideology, and strategy. The bulk of the book is a long narrative describing the actions of al Qaeda's global network, including its array of points of contact and associated groups around the world. The final chapter assessed al Qaeda's status as of 2003 and projected both its future and a recommended response by the United States.
"Inside Al Qaeda" represents a signficant amount of unclassified research, and probably captures the lay of the land as it was understood at the time of publication. Gunaratna predicted that AQ would evolve in the face of US and allied countermeasures. Its sanctuaries in Afganistan are long gone, and its personnel and communications are under increasing pressure, but as he predicted, AQ was able to adapt as an organization and continue its mission of Jihad.
Time has moved on since this edition was published. New investigations have released much formerly classified material. Some of the gaps in our knowledge of AQ have been filled, in the process rendering poritions of Gunaratna's content out of date. Constant combat since 2003 in Iraq has also seen the waxing and the likely waning of a dedicated AQ effort to make Iraq the centerpiece of its strategy to restore the Caliphate. AQ's central staff is isolated and under pressure in the tribal areas of western Pakistan, while neither AQ nor its associated groups have quite managed to duplicate the stunning success of 9/11. Readers are cautioned that Gunaratna's writing style tends to mix assumptions, assertions, and facts in a manner that may be confusing to those without background on the topic.
"Inside Al Qaeda" is recommended as a good background document on AQ. It contains worthwhile information on a still evolving organization that continues to threaten the United States and its allies.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Good Look Into Al Qaeda
07 February, 2010
This book gives a very deep picture of Al Qaeda and its cells around the world. It goes into detail about the organization and leadership of the group, and also gives some background on the ideology. Rated 4 because it is constantly jumping around chronologically, making the history difficult to understand at times.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Informative With One Major Omission..
21 August, 2007
Where's KSM?
The book overlooks Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, leader in the 1993 WTC bombing. There's no mention of his emergence into global terrorism, his efforts with Yousef in the Philippines (Project Bojinka, 1995) and his masterminding of the 9/11 attacks.
Perhaps the revised version includes him?
- Amazon Customer Review
• A Mixed Bag Assessment Of Al Qaeda's International Operations
24 February, 2010
After 9/11, publishers naturally raced to fill the demand for books on the Middle East, terrorism, and al Qaeda in particular. This book feels like it was thrown together in haste by the publisher, due to the poor organization, bad translations, and glaring omissions. However, the book contains a wealth of interesting facts - now dated - for the reader with a good background who can slog through. I tepidly recommend it to advanced students of terrorism and geopolitics.
Many of the passages were not so much written as vomited onto the page. Gunaratna mentions, for example, that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) "has ideological and political links with a few members of the following: Movement of Islamic Unity (APU); Islamic Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM); Islamic Front of Malaysia (IFM); Front Malaysia Islamic Council (FMIC); Kongress Indian Muslim Malaysia (KIMM); Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (MIYM); Barisan Nasional; and PAS (Parti Islam Se Malaysia)" (p. 263). I cannot fathom who could find this acontextual alphabet soup, with no further discussion, interesting reading.
The book assumes a certain level of background knowledge. Gunaratna quotes an al Qaeda source as threatening India with "another trial like Kargil" (p. 290). If the reader does not know what happened at Kargil, the passage loses much of its meaning.
Other reviewers have noted the author's translation errors. He also misidentifies the Urdu phrase "Mujahidin ki Lalkaar" as Arabic. Simply stated, Gunaratna's qualifications "to talk with authority about al-Qaeda," according to London's Sunday Times, are highly suspect, if he can't read the primary sources in the original language.
Finally, the book notes that in 2001, at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Sudeis "converted [the mosque] into a political platform" (p. 316). This, and Gunaratna's frequent, unsourced assertions about what "the vast majority" of Muslims think, is extremely odd, given the centuries-long history of mosques as centers of political activity.
The book is not useless, but could and should have been much better with more thorough editing and better organization.
- Amazon Customer Review
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