Synopses & Reviews
In
Insurgent Iraq, Loretta Napoleoni examines the climate in which Iraq's most notorious insurgent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, opened a new front in the modern jihad. With the help of George W. Bush's war, al-Zarqawi was able to do what bin Laden could not: spread the message of jihad into Iraq.
Arguing that the American adventure in Iraq resuscitated a network rife with conflict and birthed a new generation of post-Cold War mujahedin, the author presents previously unpublished documents from Afghanistan that reveal bitter disagreement between the Egyptian and the Saudi factions of al-Qaeda prior to 9/11. Within this dispute Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a working-class, uneducated Jordanian, emerged to successfully create his own network of Islamist warriors based in Afghanistan, opening up a new front in the modern jihad in Iraq.
In Insurgent Iraq, Napoleoni presents a chilling account of the regrouping of terror networks under a new leadership with a new agenda, tracing the ascent of one of the globe's most enigmatic and deadly figures.
Loretta Napoleoni, a former Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics, is an expert on international terrorism who has worked as an economist and foreign correspondent for Italy's financial papers. She has written novels and guidebooks in Italian and translated and edited books on terrorism. Her most recent novel, Dossier Baghdad, is a financial thriller set during the Gulf War. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. She is the author of Terror Incorporated(Seven Stories Press, May 2005).
Synopsis
In
Insurgent Iraq, Loretta Napoleoni examines the climate in which Iraq's most notorious insurgent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, opened a new front in the modern jihad. With the help of George W. Bush's war, al-Zarqawi was able to do what bin Laden could not: spread the message of jihad into Iraq.
Arguing that the American adventure in Iraq resuscitated a network rife with conflict and birthed a new generation of post-Cold War mujahedin, the author presents previously unpublished documents from Afghanistan that reveal bitter disagreement between the Egyptian and the Saudi factions of al-Qaeda prior to 9/11. Within this dispute Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a working-class, uneducated Jordanian, emerged to successfully create his own network of Islamist warriors based in Afghanistan, opening up a new front in the modern jihad in Iraq.
In Insurgent Iraq, Napoleoni presents a chilling account of the regrouping of terror networks under a new leadership with a new agenda, tracing the ascent of one of the globe's most enigmatic and deadly figures.
Synopsis
An unparalleled look into the Iraqi insurgency and the multitude of forces that continue to shape it, Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation presents a chilling account of the regrouping of terror networks, and the development of an Iraqi resistance since the invasion by coalition forces over two years ago. One of the worlds leading specialists on terrorism, economist Loretta Napoleoni is uniquely qualified to make sense of the ways in which terror networks do and do not operate in Iraq, and what role they play in the Iraqi resistance.
Is the insurgency in Iraq a counter-Crusade, a national liberation movement, or a civil war? With a complex understanding of all the intricacies inherent in such a question, Napoleoni provides a mindful discussion, offering a much-needed understanding of how the US occupation of Iraq has catalyzed the cultural, religious, and political divides within the country to create a wholly changed, more volatile landscape. Composed of independent Iraqi Jihadist groups, Islamo-Nationalist and Baath party resistance, ethnic infighting between Sunni, Shiite and Kurd, and foreign suicide bombers, the resistance is a divided yet maintains one demand: the end of US occupation.
Overall, Napoleoni offers a breakdown of the current political landscape in Iraq, and a renovated al-Qaeda. Insurgent Iraq is a necessary read for anyone concerned with the future of Iraq, or seeking greater insight into the U.S.s critical role in the Middle East.
Synopsis
An expose of Iraq's most notorious insurgent and how America's "war on terror" saved a fractured al-Qaeda.
About the Author
Loretta Napoleoni, a former Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics, is an expert on international terrorism who has worked as an economist and foreign correspondent for Italy's financial papers. She has written novels and guidebooks in Italian and translated and edited books on terrorism. Her most recent novel, Dossier Baghdad, is a financial thriller set during the Gulf War. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. She is the author of Terror Incorporated (Seven StoriesPress, May 2005).