Several outstanding books have been written about the road to September 11. The Search for Al Qaeda has a different mission. While it does review how al Qaeda was created and developed, it focuses more closely on what has happened to the terrorist network since that awful day. According to Riedel, al Qaeda's ultimate goals are to drive America from the Muslim world (the ummah); to destroy Israel; and to create a jihadist caliphate along the lines of the Ottoman Empire at its height. The book reveals al Qaeda's multi-pronged strategy for accomplishing those goals; draw America into the type of "bleeding wars" that drove the Soviets from Afghanistan, build a safe haven for al Qaeda in Pakistan; develop other "franchises" in the Islamic world that can overthrow pro-American regimes; and conduct more Western attacks along the lines of 9-11 or the transit bombings in Madrid and London. Bruce Riedel is an expert on the Middle East and South Asia, with 30 years of policymaking experience in regional diplomacy and counterterrorism. He draws on this experience and firsthand knowledge in profiling the four most important figures in the al Qaeda movement: Osama bin Laden, its creator and charismatic leader: ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian co-leader of al Qaeda and its principal spokesman; Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, the tenacious leader of al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006; and Mullah Omar, Taliban host to al Qaeda. These profiles provide the base from which Riedel delivers a much clearer understanding of al Qaeda and what must be done to counter it. NO Mirrors !!!

 

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