Author: Rohan Gunaratna
Publisher: Roli Books
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174362436
Description
The definitive work on Al Qaeda, this book is based on five years of research, extensive interviews with its members and field research in Al Qaeda-supported conflict zones around the globe.
The book sheds light on Al Qaeda's financial infrastructure and how the organization trains combat soldiers and vanguard fighters for multiple guerrilla, terrorist and semi conventional campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans. In Addition, Rohan Gunaratna investigates the clandestine Al Qaeda operational network in the West.
Guaranty reveals:
- how the charismatic fanatic Osama bin Laden provides much of the brain power and most of the inspiration behind Al Qaeda
- how Osama bin Laden had his mentor and Al Qaeda founder, "Azzam" assassinated in order to takeover the organization and how Al Qaeda officers who stood his way were murdered
how Al Qaeda planned to destroy the British Parliament on 11 September and to use nerve gas on the European Parliament
- how the Iran-Hezbollah-Al-Qaeda link provided the knowledge required to conduct coordinated, simultaneous attacks on multiple targets, including failed plans to destroy Los Angeles Airport, USS The Sullivans, the Radisson Hotel in Jordan and 11 US commercial airliners over the Pacific Ocean
-that one-fifth of international Islamic charities and NGOs are infiltrated by Al Qaeda
- how the US response is effective militarily in the short-term but insufficient to counter Al Qaeda's ideology and strategy in the long term
Finally, Gunaratna shows that for Al Qaeda to be destroyed or seriously weakened there needs to be a multipronged, multiagency and multinational response by the international community.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Who is Osama bin Laden?
Al Qaeda's Organization, Ideology and Strategy
Al Qaeda's Global Network
Asia: Al Qaeda's New Theatre
The Al Qaeda Threat and the International Response
Notes
Index