The Speed of Heat: An Airlift Wing at War in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Thomas W. Young

From the publisher:
With its fleet of large transport aircraft, the United States military can put personnel and equipment anywhere on the globe within hours. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular, virtually every soldier, every bullet, every pint of blood, and every bite of food have arrived in the war zone by airlift.

This book tells the story of one Air National Guard airlift wing as related by its members. The 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard consisted of a squadron of 12 C-130 cargo planes, their crews, and all the supporting sections—in all, more than 1,200 people. The author, a former Associated Press reporter turned aviator, flew as an active member of that unit and interviewed nearly 70 servicemen and women for this book. They include aircrews who dodged heat-seeking missiles, mechanics who made combat repairs, flight nurses who treated and transported the wounded, even two motor pool truck drivers struck by a roadside bomb.

Senior Master Sergeant Thomas W. Young is a flight engineer with the West Virginia Air National Guard and a former writer and editor for the broadcast division of the Associated Press. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Global Security Watch - Iran: A Reference Handbook

by Thomas R. Mattair

From the publisher:
This book explains the foreign policy decisions of Iranian leaders, as well as the foreign policy decisions of its neighbors and major world powers.

Iran is not treated primarily as a problem to be dealt with by the United States and its friends. There is an effort to understand not only the concerns and policies of the United States and its allies, but also to understand Iranian concerns and policy. Thus, this book is better able than many others to explain the actions, reactions, and interactions of all the relevant actors and to explore the prospects for future war or peace.

Mattair provides a comprehensive analysis of Iran's relations with its neighbors and major world powers. He begins with a review of Iran's foreign relations from the time of Iran's founding in the 5th century B.C. through the Islamic era beginning in the mid-600's A.D., and the native dynasties that ruled in more recent centuries as Iran faced challenges from foreign powers such as the Ottoman Empire and Western colonial empires. The rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, from 1941 until 1979, is analyzed in detail, covering his efforts to deter aggression by the Soviet Union, forge an alliance with the United States, assert Iran's power in the Persian Gulf, and exercise Iran's economic power, particularly through its oil wealth.

The bulk of the book, however, focuses on the foreign relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979, during the time in which Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors have ruled. The reasons for Iran's early revolutionary activism, its antagonism toward the United States and Israel, and its war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988, are carefully examined. The reasons for international efforts to contain Iran, particularly efforts by the United States, are also analyzed. Iran's more pragmatic policies are explained, as well, including its close relations with Russia and China, its efforts to repair relations with Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states of the Gulf, its cooperation with U.S. efforts to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and its offer of comprehensive negotiations with the United States in May 2003. Finally, Mattair analyses the current global debate about whether diplomacy, sanctions, or military action are appropriate responses to Iran's nuclear programs, its role in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and its resistance to Israel.

"Dr. Mattair has written a superb, insightful work that thoroughly lays out the issues, history, and options regarding our relationship with Iran. It is a must read for those interested in this critical problem and for those who will decide our course of action." - General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC, (Ret.), Former Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command, commanding U.S. military forces in the Middle East, 1997-2000; Former special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 2002

Treating Victims of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Medical, Legal and Strategic Aspects

by Patrick Barriot and Chantal Bismuth (editors)

From the publisher:
During the last century, the weapons of war became increasingly sophisticated and their effects ever more remote from the actual user. Militarization of nuclear atomic forces, chemicals and biological agents has considerably enlarged the arena of warfare, but of possibly even greater concern is the threat of such agents being deployed by terrorists. This book was originally published in French in 2004: subsequent events, such as the London bombings in July 2005, have only reinforced the importance of all doctors and emergency personnel understanding the various agents that could be used and having the knowledge to deal with victims of an attack or even an industrial accident. The book has therefore been translated into English to make it available to a wider audience.

The book was coordinated by Chantal Bismuth, Professor of Medicine who has acted as an advisor for the Minister of Health in France and is an international consultant in toxicology. Her co-editor, Patrick Barriot, is an anaesthetist with operational experience in the Paris Fire Brigade and the 11th division of Paratroops who is now responsible for the department of ‘Biological risks from new technologies’. The authors are representative of the doctors who would have to deal with the human casualties of warfare or a terrorist attack. They review all weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological, including the use of bacteria, anthrax and viruses such as variola and influenza. In each case, they describe the pathogenic agent, the human consequences, organizational aspects of care for the victims and best practice for treatment. As one author reports, “The infections caused by potential biological warfare agents are seldom taught in the course of medical studies and the majority of physicians never encounter these types of pathology in their daily professional practice. Since its eradication, people are not trained to recognize smallpox or to make the differential diagnosis between anthrax and bronchitis.” Other chapters cover the effects of nuclear weapons and radiation on humans as well as the features of Gulf War syndrome. An important chapter deals with the organization of medical responses to chemical or biological attack: “Planning, equipping, and training responder services are the best responses to the dispersion of chemical and biological agents.”

The book addresses all those involved in the security of the civilian population, the organization of rescue services and the treatment of victims.

Restoring Justice After Large-scale Violent Conflicts: Kosovo, DR Congo and the Israeli-Palestinian Case

by Ivo Aertsen, Jana Arsovska, Holger-C Rohne, Marta Valinas, and Kris Vanspauwen (editors)

From the publisher:
This book provides a comparative analysis of the potential of restorative justice approaches to dealing with mass victimization in the context of large-scale violent conflicts – focusing on case studies from Kosovo, Israel-Palestine and Congo, incorporating contributions from leading authorities in these areas.

One of the main objectives of the book is to examine if, how and to what extent restorative justice is applicable in various different cultural, social and historical contexts, and what common themes can be identified within the different regions under analysis.

The book will also provide a critical analysis of the UN Basic Principles on the use of restorative justice programmes in criminal matters as applied to the context of large scale violence.

The 9/11 Encyclopedia

by Stephen E. Atkins

From the publisher:
Horror. Sadness. Protests. Military action. Conspiracy theories. From personal loss to economic upheaval to a paradigm shift in U.S. foreign relations, few events in the past 100 years have impacted American life so greatly as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

This comprehensive two-volume set details every event leading up to 9/11, going back up to a decade prior to the attacks, and including all participants from any place in the world. Also covered are events since the attack that have influenced our understanding of the ordeal. With A-Z entries, descriptive sidebars, and over 40 primary documents, The 9/11 Encyclopedia is an essential source for understanding one of the blackest marks on the pages of American history.

Volume one presents A-Z entries on the event, including:

# Conspiracy theories
# Economic impact of 9/11
# FBI and 9/11
# Flight 93
# Hamburg Group
# John O'Neill
# Khalid Sheik Mohammad
# Logan Airport
# Mohammad Atta
# New York Fire Department
# Osama Bin Laden
# Ramzi Ahmed Yousef
# World Trade Center Bombing (1993)

Volume two includes over 40 primary documents relating to the event. Selections include:

# Osama Bin Laden's declaration of Jihad
# Richard Clarke's memorandum to Condoleezza Rice on al-Qaeda
# Oral testimony from survivors of the 9/11 attack
# Interview with Mullah Umar Muhammad
# The White House declaration on the humane treatment of al-Qaeda and Taliban Detainees

STEPHEN E. ATKINS is Associate University Librarian for Collection Management at Texas A&M University. His numerous published works include Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremist Groups (Oryx 2002), Historical Encyclopedia of Atomic Energy (Greenwood 2000), which was awarded a Booklist Editors' Choice Award for 2000, and Terrorism: A Handbook (1992).

Iran, North Korea and the Emerging Nuclear Proliferation Crisis

by Arjun Makhijani

From the publisher:
North Korea has the bomb, as do eight other countries. Iran is developing the capacity to make one. Behind them, more than 30 other countries, including Japan, Egypt, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, and South Korea have the potential to become nuclear powers in the years ahead. Arjun Makhijani, one of the world's leading experts on nuclear proliferation, explains why the world could be on the brink of President Kennedy's nightmare - dozens of nuclear states, all threatening to use these apocalyptic weapons against one another. How can the global community stop the frightening rush to nuclear standoffs around the globe? This up-to-the-minute book reveals the untold story of the nuclear arms race in North Korea and Iran and how we can stop the spread of nuclear weapons before it's too late.

Warring Friends: Alliance Restraint in International Politics

by Jeremy Pressman

From the publisher:
Allied nations often stop each other from going to war. Some countries even form alliances with the specific intent of restraining another power and thereby preventing war. Furthermore, restraint often becomes an issue in existing alliances as one ally wants to start a war, launch a military intervention, or pursue some other risky military policy while the other ally balks. In Warring Friends, Jeremy Pressman draws on and critiques realist, normative, and institutionalist understandings of how alliance decisions are made.

Alliance restraint often has a role to play both in the genesis of alliances and in their continuation. As this book demonstrates, an external power can apply the brakes to an incipient conflict, and even unheeded advice can aid in clarifying national goals. The power differentials between allies in these partnerships are influenced by leadership unity, deception, policy substitutes, and national security priorities.

Recent controversy over the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Israeli governments--especially in regard to military and security concerns--is a reminder that the alliance has never been easy or straightforward. Pressman highlights multiple episodes during which the United States attempted to restrain Israel's military policies: Israeli nuclear proliferation during the Kennedy Administration; the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; preventing an Israeli preemptive attack in 1973; a small Israeli operation in Lebanon in 1977; the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982; and Israeli action during the Gulf War of 1991. As Pressman shows, U.S. initiatives were successful only in 1973, 1977, and 1991, and tensions have flared up again recently as a result of Israeli arms sales to China.

Pressman also illuminates aspects of the Anglo-American special relationship as revealed in several cases: British nonintervention in Iran in 1951; U.S. nonintervention in Indochina in 1954; U.S. commitments to Taiwan that Britain opposed, 1954-1955; and British intervention and then withdrawal during the Suez War of 1956. These historical examples go far to explain the context within which the Blair administration failed to prevent the U.S. government from pursuing war in Iraq at a time of unprecedented American power.

Jeremy Pressman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month. This is the first paperbak edition of a previously published hardback.

Global Terrorism

by James M. Lutz and Brenda Lutz

From the publisher:
This textbook is a comprehensive introduction to global terrorism helping students to understand the history, politics, ideologies and strategies of both contemporary and older terrorist groups.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

Security versus Justice?: Police and Judicial Cooperation in the European Union

by Elspeth Guild and Florian Geyer (editors)

From the publisher:
One of the most dynamic areas of EU law since the great changes brought to the EU constitutional order by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 has been cooperation in the fields of policing and criminal justice. Both fields have already been the subject of substantial legislative effort in the EU and an increasing amount of judicial activity in the European Court of Justice. In 2007 – after the Constitutional Treaty of 2004 failed – the new Reform Treaty planned very substantive changes to these policies.

Bringing together a wide-ranging set of topics and contributors, this book enables readers to understand these changes by examining three key questions: how did we get to the Reform Treaty; what have been – and still are – the key struggles in competence; and how do the changes fit into the transformation of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU?

Elspeth Guild is based at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium and is a Professor of European Migration Law at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Florian Geyer is based at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

From Terrorism to Politics

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Counterterrorism: Democracy's Challenge

by Andrea Bianchi and Alexis Keller (editors)

From the publisher:
Terrorist violence is no novelty in human history and, while government reactions to it have varied over time, some lessons can be learnt from the past. Indeed, the debate on when and how a state should use emergency powers that limit individual freedoms.

Andrea Bianchi is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University, Milan. In 2004 he edited Enforcing International Law Norms against Terrorism

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation

by Marwan Muasher

From the publisher:
Marwan Muasher, a prominent Jordanian diplomat, has been instrumental in shaping Middle East peace efforts for nearly twenty years. He served as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel and was also ambassador to the United States, spokesperson at peace talks in Madrid and Washington, minister of foreign affairs, and deputy prime minister in charge of reform. Here he recounts the behind-the-scenes details of diplomatic ventures over the past two decades, including such recent undertakings as the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Road Map.

Muasher’s insights into internal Arab politics and the successes and failures of the Arab Center are uniquely informed and deeply felt. He assesses how the middle road approach to reform is faring and explains why current tactics used by the West to deal with Islamic groups are doomed to failure. He examines why the Arab Center has made so little progress and which Arab, Israeli, and American policies need rethinking. Part memoir and part analysis, this book reveals the human side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is essential reading for all who share the hope that moderate, pragmatic Arab voices will be heard in today’s vitriolic debates over how to achieve an enduring peace in the Middle East.

The Military Error: Baghdad and Beyond in America's War of Choice

by Thomas Powers

From the publisher:
Why did George W. Bush invade Iraq? What were the real motives, the overarching policy decisions that drove events from September 11 until the war began?

To a large extent, we still don’t know. But by now we do know in some detail, as Thomas Powers carefully explains in the essays collected here, how the administration made its case for war, using faulty intelligence to argue that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a mounting threat to the Middle East. Once Iraq was occupied and the weapons turned out not to exist, the case for war seemed to disappear as well. Bit by bit the evidence–the documents suggesting that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger, the aluminum tubes that the United States claimed were meant for uranium enrichment, the Iraqi defector code-named Curveball who claimed Saddam had mobile biological weapons labs–has been exposed as unreliable, misinterpreted, “cherry-picked,” exaggerated, or just fake.

But as faulty as the intelligence was, it was always only a pretext, a way of persuading Congress, America, and the world to support a war that President Bush had already decided to wage. The real question remains: Why did Bush insist on a war of choice, refusing to accept any solution short of an American occupation of Iraq? The answers Powers proposes to that question, which assess the Iraq invasion as an insistence on responding to political and cultural conflicts with military action, suggest an overarching failure of American policy in the region that, as long as it remains insufficiently understood and publicly debated, will make it difficult for any president to change course.

No one is better prepared than Powers to evaluate the way the Bush administration used intelligence to make its case for war, used the CIA for political ends, and used arguments of secrecy to advance both its geopolitical agenda and its claims for executive power. But beyond the now-familiar stories of nonexistent WMDs, The Military Error proposes a new, deeper analysis of the error of using military force, which has succeeded primarily in generating opposition and increasing resistance to American aims. America went into Iraq full of bright hopes and confident ideas, but Powers argues that those ideas, based on the ability of force to solve problems, defeat opponents, and make friends, were largely illusions. Such illusions, as we learned at great cost in Vietnam, die hard, but we can make decisions about our future role in Iraq only by understanding the errors that got us embroiled there in the first place.

Thomas Powers is the author of The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, Heisenberg’s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb, Intelligence Wars, and The Confirmation, a novel. He won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971 and has contributed to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, The Nation, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone.

Condor Blues: British Soldiers at War

by Mark Nicol

From the publisher:
This honest and visceral account of British soldiers in Iraq, focusing on two platoons based at Camp Condor in Maysan Province, provides shocking insight into the consequences of the flawed thinking behind Allied operations in Iraq.

Mark Nicol is the author of the acclaimed Ultimate Risk and Last Round, and writes for the Mail on Sunday. He is also the defence analyst for Sky, GMTV and Radio Five Live.

From LWBN
This is the first paperback edition of a previously published hardback.

Justice at War: The Men and Ideas that Shaped America's War on Terror

by David Cole

From the publisher:
How did America become a nation that tortured prisoners, spied on its citizens, and gave its president unchecked powers in matters of defense? Has justice been the greatest casualty of the war on terror?After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration swiftly began to rethink its approach to national security. In a series of memos and policy decisions, many top secret and only made public much later, the administration’s lawyers dismissed the Geneva conventions as “quaint,” justified the torture of suspected terrorists, argued that the president in his capacity as commander in chief was bound by no laws in defending the nation at home and abroad, and approved a domestic surveillance program that flagrantly violated US law.

In Justice at War, David Cole takes a critical look at the men who made the decisions that shaped America’s war on terror. After September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft aggressively expanded federal law enforcement powers. John Yoo, who served in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, drafted some of the most controversial memos justifying torture. David Addington, Dick Cheney’s counsel, argued for virtually unlimited presidential power. Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s counsel, seemed willing to defend the president’s view on any issue.

Yet Cole believes that America can prevail against the threat of terror, not by dismantling the checks and balances that guarantee the fairness of our justice system but by restoring them. He discusses how Michael Mukasey, the new attorney general, may try to improve the Justice Department’s tattered reputation. He explains why the Supreme Court rejected the president’s claim of authority to try enemy combatants in military tribunals under rules that violated the Geneva conventions. And he considers arguments by legal scholars about the limits of constitutional protections when the nation is under the threat of terrorism.Yet above all we must remember that the Constitution embodies principles that we should not give up in times of fear, Cole argues: “Both the strength and security of the nation in the struggle with terrorists rest on adherence to the rule of law, including international law, because only such adherence provides the legitimacy we need if we are to win back the world’s respect.”

David Cole is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. His latest book, written with Jules Lobel, is Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

Savage Mules: The Democrats and Endless War

by Dennis Perrin

From the publisher:
Americans see the Democratic Party as the anti-war party: vacillating flip-floppers in the eyes of conservatives; or, in the liberal view, restrained, measured wagers of war as "last resort." In November 2006, voters put the Democrats into Congress to bring an end to the Iraq war. Yet the Democrats supported the "surge," giving Bush more money than he himself requested, and voted through the next $459.6 billion defense budget.

In this hard-hitting examination of their role in the War on Terror, political analyst and satirist Dennis Perrin shatters the myth of the reluctant-warrior Democrats. He explores Democrat collusion in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and support for Israeli assaults on Gaza and Lebanon, while revealing their overlooked appetite for planning wars and selling them to the electorate. Compelling and bleakly humorous, Savage Mules shows a party at odds with its public image on this key issue in the race for the White House.

Dennis Perrin is the author of Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue, The Man Who Made Comedy Dangerous and American Fan: Sports Mania and the Culture That Feeds It. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Realist, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, at MSNBC, and in numerous independent weeklies and newspapers. He was a jokewriter for Bill Maher, and has blogged under the name Red State Son.

My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me

by Mahvish Khan

From the publisher:
Mahvish Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Afghan parents in Michigan. Outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, she volunteered to translate for the prisoners. She spoke their language, understood their customs, and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home. And they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away.

For Mahvish Khan the experience was a validation of her Afghan heritage—as well as her American freedoms, which allowed her to intervene at Guantanamo purely out of her sense that it was the right thing to do. Mahvish Khan's story is a challenging, brave, and essential test of who she is — and who we are.

Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror

by Benjamin Wittes

From the publisher:
Benjamin Wittes offers the first nonpartisan critique of a crucial front in America’s war on terror—the legal battles fought by and among the Bush administration, the U.S. Congress, and the Supreme Court

Six years after the September 11 attacks, America is losing a crucial front in the ongoing war on terror. It is losing not to Al Qaeda but to its own failure to construct a set of laws that will protect the American people—its military and executive branch, as well as its citizens—in the midst of a conflict unlike any it has faced in the past. Now, in the twilight of President Bush’s administration, Brookings Institution fellow Benjamin Wittes offers a vigorous analysis of the troubling legal legacy of the Bush administration as well as that of the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court. Law and the Long War tells as no book has before the story of how America came to its current impasse in the debate over liberty, human rights, and counterterrorism and draws a road map for how the country and the next president might move forward.

Moving beyond the stale debate between those fixated on the executive branch as the key architect of counterterrorism policy and those who see the judiciary as the essential guarantor of liberty against governmental abuses, Wittes argues that the essential problem is that the Bush administration did not seek—and Congress did not write—new laws to authorize and regulate the tough presidential actions this war would require. In a line of argument that is sure to spark controversy, Wittes reveals an administration whose most significant failure was not that it was too aggressive in the substance of its action, but rather that it tried to shoulder the burden of aggressiveness on its own without seeking the support of other branches of government. Using startling new empirical research on the detainee population at Guantánamo Bay, Wittes avers that many of the administration’s actions were far more defensible than its many critics believed and actually warranted congressional support. Yet by resisting both congressional and judicial involvement in its controversial decisions, the executive branch ironically prevented both of those branches from sharing in the political accountability for necessary actions that challenged traditional American notions of due process and humane treatment.

Boldly offering a new way forward, Wittes concludes that the path toward fairer, more accountable rules for a conflict without end lies in the development of new bodies of law covering detention, interrogation, trial, and surveillance. Sure to discomfort and ignite debate, Law and the Long War is the first nonideological argument about a controversial issue of vital importance to all Americans.

Benjamin Wittes is a Fellow and Research Director in Public Law at the Brookings Institution. A former editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs, he currently writes a column for The New Republic Online and is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly. He is a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law.

Security Informatics and Terrorism: Patrolling the Web:Social and Technical Problems of Detecting and Controlling Terrorists' Use of the WWW

Edited by C.S. Gal, P.B. Kantor and B. Shapira

From the publisher:
This work is intended to be of interest to counter-terrorism experts and professionals, to academic researchers in information systems, computer science, political science and public policy, and to graduate students in these areas.

The goal of this book is to highlight several aspects of patrolling the Web that were raised and discussed by experts from different disciplines. The book includes academic studies from related technical fields, namely, computer science and information technology, the strategic point of view as presented by intelligence experts, and finally the practical point of view by experts from related industry describing lessons learned from practical efforts to tackle these problems.

This volume is organized into four major parts: definition and analysis of the subject, data-mining techniques for terrorism informatics, other theoretical methods to detect terrorists on the Web, and practical relevant industrial experience on patrolling the Web.

Social Dynamics of Global Terrorism and Prevention Policies

by N. Çabuk Kaya and A. Erdemir, editors

From the publisher:
Over the course of the first decade of the third millennium, terrorism has become a phenomenon that no state, society, or individual can afford to ignore. Particularly in the post-9/11 world, terrorism has not only turned into an ubiquitous fact and an omnipresent spectacle but also an alarming global concern. It is, nevertheless, surprising for many people that the global convergence towards growing fear and anxiety of terrorism has not necessarily led to a parallel convergence in our understanding and definition of the phenomenon. Defining terrorism today is no simpler a task than the days of the French revolution during which the term was first coined. Although definitional exercises are often perceived by various politicians and practitioners as yet another bizarre avocation of scholars, attempts to redefine the term terrorism time and again is neither straightforward nor vein.

This edited volume is compiled in response to the challenge of global terrorism, bringing together over two dozen scholars and practitioners from around the world who are experts on the study of terrorism.

Should Governments Negotiate With Terrorists?

by Amanda Hiber

From the publisher:
Books in this anthology series focus a wide range of viewpoints onto a single controversial issue, providing in-depth discussions by leading advocates. Articles are printed in their entirety and footnotes and source notes are retained. These books offer the reader not only a full spectrum of dissent on the subject, but also the ability to test the validity of arguments by following up on sources used as evidence. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research. This series provides a quick grounding in the issues, a challenge to critical thinking skills, and an excellent research tool in each inexpensive volume.

Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria since 1989

by James D. Le Sueur

From the publisher:
This book by an internationally recognized expert on Algeria and political Islam, tells the story that began with that country's attempt to make the transition from authoritarianism to democracy - a move never made after the imposition of martial law in 1992 by a military government forestalling the imminent electoral success of the Islamist National Salvation Front. The principle Islamist leaders were arrested, other militants went underground, and the aggressive actions of the military government spun the country into chaos. Islamists declared a jihad against the state which responded in turn with extreme methods of suppression. During the next decade, over 100,000 civilians were killed, often caught in the crossfire. Today, despite the historic 2005 amnesty referendum, which sought to end the standoff between the State and Islamic militants, the violence continues to threaten the stability of the current government as well as the entire region. Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria since 1989 is mandatory reading for those seeking to understand the current international situation.

James D. Le Sueur is Associate Professor of history at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and a Senior Associate Member of the Middle East Center at St. Antony's College, Oxford.

Media and Peace: From Vietnam to the 'War on Terror'

by Graham Spencer

Much is known about the media's role in conflict, but far less is known about the media's role in peace. Graham Spencer's study addresses this deficiency by providing a comparative analysis of reporting conflicts from around the world and examining media receptiveness to the development of peace. This book establishes an argument for the need to rethink journalistic responsibility in relation to peace and interrogates the consequences of news coverage that emphasizes conflict over peace.

Terrorism, War, or Disease?: Unraveling the Use of Biological Weapons

by Anne Clunan (Editor), Peter Lavoy (Editor), Susan Martin (Editor)

From the publisher:
The use of biological warfare (BW) agents by states or terrorists is one of the world's most frightening security threats but, thus far, little attention has been devoted to understanding how to improve policies and procedures to identify and attribute BW events. Terrorism, War, or Disease? is the first book to examine the complex political, military, legal, and scientific challenges involved in determining when BW have been used and who has used them.

Through detailed analysis of the most significant and controversial allegations of BW use from the Second World War to the present, internationally recognized experts assess past attempts at attribution of unusual biological events and draw lessons to improve our ability to counter these deadly silent killers. This volume presents the most comprehensive analysis of actual and alleged BW use, and provides an up-to-date evaluation of law enforcement, forensic epidemiology, and arms control measures available to policymakers to investigate and attribute suspected attacks.

"This book offers flashes of insight over the dark terrain of bioterrorism. A real contribution." —Richard Danzig, Secretary of the Navy 1998-2001

Terrorism and Homeland Security: Thinking Strategically About Policy

by Paul Viotti (Editor), Michael Opheim (Editor), Nicholas Bowen (Editor)

From the publisher
Despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been active since November of 2002, the American homeland is still not secure from terrorist attack. What passes as DHS strategy is often just a list of objectives with vague references to the garnering of national resources, and the marshalling of support from other nations.

Drawing on the expertise of several of the nation's leading reseachers and policy experts, Terrorism and Homeland Security: Thinking Strategically About Policy provides policymakers with a much needed starting point for the creation of an effective coherent national security strategy. Its origins pre-dating 9-11, this volume grew out of an extensive project featuring the participation of various institutions including the Army War College.

The primary goal: develop a strategy that optimizes security with minimal infringement on rights and liberties.

After addressing points salient to a central strategy, the book then identifies the domestic and external elements that need to be addressed in building such a strategy. To this end, it examines the nature of terrorist threats, looks at challenges specific to various weapons of mass destruction, and then goes beyond terrorism to discuss safeguarding society and its infrastructure from natural disasters.

In concluding, the editors present a number of preliminary suggestions. It is hoped that policymakers and others may take these suggestions into account when developing a comprehensive national security strategy.

Explosion and Blast-Related Injuries: Effects of Explosion and Blast from Military Operations and Acts of Terrorism

by Nabil M. Elsayed and James L. Atkins

From the publisher:
Explosion and Blast-Related Injuries is an authoritative text that brings together diverse knowledge gained from both the experience of clinicians treating blast casualties and the insights of scientists obtained from research and modeling of blast exposures.

By providing information on explosion and blast injury patterns, as well as the mechanism of blast-induced injuries, it is a useful reference for both physicians and researchers. With contributions by experts from around the globe, the book covers topics such as the epidemiology of blast and explosion injury, pathology and pathophysiology, and the modeling and mechanism of injury. Finally, this book might stimulate additional studies into ways to improve our current mass casualty response systems.

* Contains contributions from current and retired military Commanding Officers including the Commanding General of US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the former US Navy Surgeon General, and the Director of the Bureau of Medicine

* Presents practical, real-world tactics and experiences in dealing with explosives and blast injury

* Covers the latest in current issues and hazards encountered by US and world forces in Iraq and Afghanistan

Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent

by Fred Burton

From the publisher:
For decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spycraft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few.

In the mid-eighties, the idea of defending Americans against terrorism was still new. But a trio of suicide bombings in Beirut–including one that killed 241 marines and forced our exit from Lebanon–had changed the mindset and mission of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe. Burton, a member of DSS’s tiny but elite Counterterrorism Division, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums. From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to having facing down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against Terror.

In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan–classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”

Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time.

Fred Burton is one of the world’s foremost experts on security, terrorists, and terrorist organizations. He is vice president for counterterrorism and corporate security at Stratfor, an influential private intelligence company. He is the former deputy chief of the Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of State’s counterterrorism division.

Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror - A Public Defender's Inside Account

by Steven T. Wax

From the publisher:
“OUR GOVERNMENT CAN MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR.”

Those were words Steven T. Wax never imagined he would hear himself say. In his thirty-four years as a lawyer, Wax didn’t have to warn a client that he or she might be taken away to a military brig, or worse, a “black site,” one of our country’s dreaded secret prisons. So how had we come to this? The disappearance of people happens in places ruled by tyrants, military juntas, fascist strongmen–governments with such contempt for the rule of law that they strip their citizens of all rights. But in America?

Under the Bush administration, not only have the civil rights of foreigners been in jeopardy, but also those of U.S. citizens. In Kafka Comes to America, Wax interweaves the stories of two men he represented who were caught up in our government’s post-9/11 counterterrorism measures. Brandon Mayfield, an American-born, small-town lawyer and family man, was arrested as a terrorist suspect in the Madrid train station bombings after a fingerprint was mistakenly traced back to him by the FBI. Adel Hamad, a Sudanese hospital administrator working in Pakistan, was taken from his apartment and flown in chains to the United States military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for no substantiated reason. Kafka Comes to America reveals where and how our civil liberties have been eroded in favor of a false security, and how each of us can make a difference. If these events could happen to Brandon Mayfield and Adel Hamad, they could happen to anyone. They could happen to you.

Steven T. Wax is in his seventh term as the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon. A cum laude graduate of Colgate University and Harvard Law School, he was a key part of the Brooklyn, N.Y. District Attorney’s prosecution of David Berkowitz, a.k.a. “Son of Sam.” Wax and his team are representing seven men held as “enemy combatants” in Guantánamo. He has taught at the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, serves as an ethics prosecutor for the Oregon State Bar, and lectures throughout the country.

The Poet of Baghdad: A True Story of Love and Defiance

by Jo Tatchell

From the publisher:
In the winter of 1979 Nabeel Yasin, Iraq's most famous young poet, gathered together a handful of belongings and fled Iraq with his wife and son. Life in Baghdad had become intolerable. Silenced by a series of brutal beatings at the hands of the Ba'ath Party's Secret Police and declared an “enemy of the state,” he faced certain death if he stayed.

Nabeel had grown up in the late 1950s and early '60s in a large and loving family, amid the domestic drama typical of Iraq's new middle class, with his mother Sabria working as a seamstress to send all of her seven children to college. As his story unfolds, Nabeel meets his future wife and finds his poetic voice while he is a student. But Saddam's rise to power ushers in a new era of repression, imprisonment and betrayal from which few families will escape intact. In this new climate of intimidation and random violence Iraqis live in fear and silence; yet Nabeel’s mother tells him “It is your duty to write.” His poetry, a blend of myth and history, attacks the regime determined to silence him. As Nabeel’s fame and influence as a poet grows, he is forced into hiding when the Party begins to dismantle the city’s infrastructure and impose power cuts and food rationing. Two of his brothers are already in prison and a third is used as a human minesweeper on the frontline of the Iran-Iraq war. After six months in hiding, Nabeel escapes with his wife and young son to Beirut, Paris, Prague, Budapest, and finally England.

Written by Jo Tatchell, a journalist who has spent many years in the Middle East and who is a close friend of Nabeel Yasin’s, this is the gripping story of a family and its fateful encounter with history. From a warm, lighthearted look at the Yasin family before the Saddam dictatorship, to the tale of Nabeel’s persecution and daring flight, and the suspense-filled account of his family’s rebellion against Saddam's regime, Nabeel's Song is an intimate, illuminating, deeply human chronicle of a country and a culture devastated by political repression and war.

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11

by Lynn Spencer

From the publisher:
On the azure blue morning of 9/11 the skies were pronounced "severe clear," in the parlance of airline pilots; a gorgeous day for flying. Nearly 5,000 flights were cruising the skies over America when FAA Operations Manager Ben Sliney arrived at the Command Center for his first day on that job. He could never have anticipated the historic drama that was about to unfold as Americans who found themselves on the front lines of a totally unprecedented attack on our homeland sprang into action to defend our country and save lives.

In this gripping moment-to-moment narrative, based on groundbreaking reporting, Lynn Spencer brings the inspiring true drama of their unflinching and heroic response vividly to life for the first time, taking us right inside the airliner cockpits and control towers, the fighter jets and the military battle cabs. She makes vital corrections to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, and reveals many startling, utterly unknown elements of the story.

As a commercial pilot herself, for whom the attacks hit terribly close to home, she knew that the true scope and nature of the response so brilliantly improvised that morning by those in the thick of the action -- with so little guidance from those at the highest levels -- had not at all been captured by the news coverage or the 9/11 Commission. To get to the truth, she went on a three-year quest, interviewing hundreds of key players, listening to untold hours of tapes and pouring through voluminous transcripts to re-create each heart-stopping moment as it happened through their eyes and in their words as the drama unfolded.

From the shocking moment at 7:59 a.m. that American 11 fails to respond to a controller's call, until the last commercial flight has safely landed and military jets rule the skies, all Americans will find themselves deeply moved and amazed by the grace and fierce determination of these steely men and women as they draw on all of their exquisite training to grasp, through the fog of war, what is happening, put their lives on the line, and mount an astonishing response.

This beautifully crafted and deeply affecting account of the full story of their courageous actions is a vital addition to the country's understanding of a day that has forever changed our nation.

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava

by Jay Kopelman and Melinda Roth

From the publisher:
In From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava, Jay Kopelman tells a story that is both tender and thought-provoking--candidly portraying the ugly conditions in wartime Iraq, while also describing his (and his fellow Marines') growing attachment to a scruffy stray puppy.

... a tale of radiant joy about Kopelman's efforts to safely transport Lava, the stray dog his Marine unit found in the wreckage of Fallujah - Publisher's Weekly

From LWBN:
This is the first softcover edition of a previously released hardback.

Ghosts: Marine Snipers in Iraq

by Charles W. Henderson

From the publisher:
In the chaos of the combat zone, there are the living, the dead, and the Ghosts.

In the ongoing Iraq conflict, there are no battle lines, no direct offensives, no ground won or lost-just the daily fight against an enemy who hits and runs, hides and sneaks. If the enemy shows himself, it's only for a moment. But for a Marine Sniper, that is all that is needed.

Readers now have the opportunity, from these warriors' perspective to peer into the killing zone through a telescopic lens, down the barrel of a high-powered rifle, and into the very heart of the enemy. The training, the techniques, and the steel will necessary to survive as a sniper are all described in vivid detail.

Charles Henderson also delves into the core of the enemy--the maniacal ideology, and the tactics that have sown so much violence in Iraq--and how they are all vulnerable to a single bullet from a Ghost.

Charles W. Henderson is a veteran of more than 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, with a distinguished career spanning from Vietnam to the Gulf War, after which he retired as a Chief Warrant Officer.

War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq

by Richard Engel

From the publisher:
In the most dramatic and intimate account of battle reporting since Michael Herr's classic Dispatches, NBC News's award-winning Middle East Bureau Chief, Richard Engel, offers an unvarnished and often emotional account of five years in Iraq. Engel is the longest serving broadcaster in Iraq and the only American television reporter to cover the country continuously before, during, and after the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Fluent in Arabic, he has had unrivaled access to U.S. military commanders, Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, Iraqi families, and even President George W. Bush, who called him to the White House for a private briefing. He has witnessed nearly every major milestone in this long war.

War Journal describes what it was like to go into the hole where U.S. Special Operations Forces captured Saddam Hussein. Engel was there as the insurgency began and watched the spread of Iranian influence over Shiite religious cities and the Iraqi government. He watched as Iraqis voted in their first election. He was in the courtroom when Saddam was sentenced to death and interviewed General David Petraeus about the surge. In vivid, sometimes painful detail, Engel tracks the successes and setbacks of the war. He describes searching, with U.S troops, for a missing soldier in the dangerous Sunni city of Ramadi; surviving kidnapping attempts, IED attacks, hotel bombings, and ambushes; and even the smell of cakes in a bakery attacked by sectarian gangs and strewn with bodies of the executed.

War Journal describes a sectarian war that American leaders were late to understand and struggled to contain. It is an account of the author's experiences, insights, bittersweet reflections, and moments from his private video diary itself the subject of a highly acclaimed documentary on MSNBC. War Journal is the story of the transformation of a young journalist who moved to the Middle East with $2,000 and a belief that the region would be the story of his generation into a seasoned reporter who has at times believed that he would die covering the war. It is about American soldiers, ordinary Iraqis, and especially a few brave individuals on his team who continually risked their lives to make his own daring reporting possible.

Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians

by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian

From the publisher:
Best-selling author and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila al-Arian spent several months interviewing Iraqi war veterans to expose the patterns of the occupation and how it affects Iraqi civilians. The testimonies of these soldiers and Marines provide a disturbing window into the indiscriminate killing of unarmed and innocent Iraqis that is carried out daily by the occupation forces.

Collateral Damage is organized around key military operations on the battlefield — Convoys, Checkpoints, Detentions, Raids, Suppressive Fire, and “Hearts and Minds.” Hedges and Al-Arian uncover how the very conduct of the war and occupation have turned the American forces into agents of terror for most Iraqis. The military convoys that speed through the centers of towns, often driving on the wrong side of the street or on sidewalks, have become trains of death. Soldiers fire upon Iraqi vehicles with impunity at checkpoints; pregnant women being rushed to hospital have been killed at roadblocks when their husbands failed to slow down and children have watched in horror as their parents have been killed.

Hedges and Al-Arian show how this widespread pattern of civilian killing has fueled the insurgency in Iraq, giving rise to instability, sectarian violence, and total chaos.

Chris Hedges has been a foreign correspondent for fifteen years. He joined the staff of The New York Times in 1990 and previously worked for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. He lives in New York City.

Faith- Based Diplomacy Trumping Realpolitik

by Douglas Johnston

From the publisher:
For most of the twentieth century, the most critical concerns of national security have been balance-of-power politics and the global arms race. The religious conflicts of this era and the motives behind them, however, demand a radical break with this tradition. If the United States is to prevail in its long-term contest with extremist Islam, it will need to re-examine old assumptions, expand the scope of its thinking to include religion and other "irrational" factors, and be willing to depart from past practice. A purely military response in reaction to such attacks will simply not suffice. What will be required is a long-term strategy of cultural engagement, backed by a deeper understanding of how others view the world and what is important to them.

In non-Western cultures, religion is a primary motivation for political actions. Historically dismissed by Western policymakers as a divisive influence, religion in fact has significant potential for overcoming the obstacles that lead to paralysis and stalemate. The incorporation of religion as part of the solution to such problems is as simple as it is profound. It is long overdue.

This book looks at five intractable conflicts and explores the possibility of drawing on religion as a force for peace. It builds upon the insights of Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (OUP, 1994) -- which examined the role that religious or spiritual factors can play in preventing or resolving conflict -- while achieving social change based on justice and reconciliation. The world-class authors writing in this volume suggest how the peacemaking tenets of five major world religions can be strategically applied in ongoing conflicts in which those religions are involved. Finally, the commonalities and differences between these religions are examined with an eye toward further applications in peacemaking and conflict resolution.

Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: Or, How Not to Learn from the Past

by Lloyd C. Gardner (Editor), Marilyn B. Young (Editor)

From the publisher:
With countless lives lost and the situation in Iraq more desperate than ever, it is clear that U.S. foreign policy makers have learned little from the past, even as they have been obsessed with the "Vietnam syndrome." Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam explores this conundrum.

In Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam, Lloyd C. Gardner, author of several celebrated books about U.S. foreign policy and Vietnam, and Marilyn B. Young, author of the leading history of the Vietnam War, have brought together the most renowned historians of Vietnam—and leading analysts of contemporary U.S. foreign policy—to consider the correspondences between then and now. By closely examining how our policy makers have failed to understand the history of our wars, relations with allies and antagonists, military strategies and capabilities, and the nature and limitations of presidential and American power, these writers demonstrate that Rumsfeld had it right when he noted that "the biggest problem we've got in the country is people who don't study history anymore." As Howard Zinn notes, "Iraq is not Vietnam, the makers of war tell us, hoping we will forget. The writers in this volume insist that we remember, and, in these thoughtful, sobering essays, they explain why. It is history at its best—meaning, at its most useful."
With contributions by: Christian G. Appy • Andrew J. Bacevich • Alex Danchev • David Elliott • Elizabeth L. Hillman • Gabriel Kolko • Walter LaFeber • Wilfried Mausbach • Alfred W. McCoy • Gareth Porter • John Prados

Lloyd C. Gardner is Research Professor of History at Rutgers University and the author of more than a dozen books, including Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam. He lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Marilyn B. Young is a professor of history at New York University and the author of numerous books, including The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990. She lives in New York City.

In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran

by Nastaran Kherad

From the publisher:
This is a powerful memoir of a girlhood spent during the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution. From early childhood, Nastaran chronicles vivid recollections of her imprisonment at age 18 on trumped-up political charges. During her brutal incarceration in the women’s cell block of Adelabad Prison in the city of Shiraz, in southern Iran, she was tortured and made to live in harsh over-crowded conditions. Many of the people imprisoned at Adelabad were innocent victims of tyranny, and this included Nastaran’s brother, Mohammed, 24 years old, who was on death row for his political views and his belief in a free and just society. The Ayatollah Khomeini’s secret police executed tens of thousands of young university students and schoolchildren in a sweeping attempt to destroy all signs of modernization and to sever all ties with the West. Nastaran’s narrative is a compelling glimpse into this nightmare world.

Nastaran grew up in Shiraz, a beautiful garden city, under the protection of Bibi, her maternal grandmother. Bibi mesmerized her granddaughter with countless stories, traditional prayers, and simple yet profound wisdom gleaned from a harsh life. At first it was just Nastaran and Bibi in the house, but when Nastaran turned 6 years old, her mother and brothers came to live with them, turning Bibi’s simple home into a microcosm of the clash of cultures that was Iran in the 1970s. Nastaran was torn between the traditional upbringing of a girl her age, and the call of the modern world. She established a special bond with Mohammed, her agate-eyed older brother, who introduced her to the world of ideas, literature, and art. It is the love and nurturing of Bibi and Mohammed that guide Nastaran through her tangled and tumultuous adolescence. This is a dramatic story of struggle and survival, and readers will gain a deeper understanding of a country and its people about which many in the West know very little.

Nastaran Kherad was born in 1964 in Abadan, Iran, near the Persian Gulf. At age two, after her father’s sudden death, she moved to Shiraz to live with her maternal grandmother, Bibi. After fleeing Iran she graduated from California State University, Long Beach. She currently is pursuing a doctorate in Contemporary Persian Studies and Exile Literature at the University of Texas in Austin. This is her first book.

Two Wars: One Hero's Fight on Two Fronts--Abroad and Within

by Nate Self

From the publisher:
For the first time, Army Ranger hero Nate Self tells his story. Self recounts the Roberts Ridge Rescue mission, the ferocious battles in Afghanistan, and the lone war of attrition that Nate Self has waged against post-traumatic stress disorder. This book will become a go-to book for understanding the long-term effects of the war on terror. Thousands of families are fighting this battle, and Nate Self opens up his whole life--tragedies, successes, failures, and a struggle with suicidal thoughts--to share the facts and to show how his family and his faith pulled him through.

War Without End: The Iraq War in Context

by Michael Schwartz

From the publisher:
In this razor-sharp analysis, TomDispatch.com commentator Michael Schwartz turns every mainstream conclusion about Iraq on its head. He shows how US occupation is fueling civil war in Iraq and beyond, and how US officials dismantled the Iraqi state and economy, helping to destroy rather than rebuild the country.

In a popular style reminiscent of the best writing against the Vietnam War, he punctures the myths used to sell the US public the idea of an endless "war on terror" centered in Iraq. Schwartz shows how the real US interests in Iraq were rooted in the geopolitics of oil and the expansion of a neoliberal economic model in the Middle East-and around the globe-at gunpoint.

War Without End also reveals how the failure of the United States in Iraq has forced US planners to fundamentally rethink the imperial dreams driving recent foreign policy.

This book is the third in a series of very successful books published in cooperation with TomDispatch.com, including the New York Times bestseller United States v. George W. Bush et al. by Elizabeth de la Vega (Seven Stories Press).

Michael Schwartz, professor of sociology and faculty director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University, has written extensively on the war in Iraq at websites including TomDispatch, ZNet, Asia Times, and Mother Jones, and in numerous magazines, including Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine.

Hunting bin Laden: How al-Qaeda Is Winning the War on Terror

by Rob Schultheis

From the publisher:
"I first met al-Qaeda before there was an al-Qaeda, way back in the winter of 1984. It was an encounter that came within a split second of costing me my life."

So begins Rob Schultheis's gripping account of his journey into the heart of one of the world's most dangerous places, on the trail of the world's most wanted man. A veteran war correspondent (he was one of a handful of Western journalists who covered the Russian war in Afghanistan from inside the country), Schultheis offers a first-hand look at how the seeds of al-Qaeda were planted by foreign jihadists in the 1980s, before most Americans knew what the word "jihad" meant. He then offers a radical assessment of why bin Laden remains at large, detailing the complicit role Pakistan has played in both offering him sanctuary and in helping al-Qaeda establish an almost impregnable stronghold in the Middle East. Finally, fresh from a recent visit to Afghanistan and armed with analysis of current satellite imagery, Schultheis makes his case for where exactly Osama bin Laden is hiding—and why the U.S. government is not acting on this information.

Rob Schultheis, author of four previous books, including the acclaimed Night Letters: Inside Wartime Afghanistan, has been filing dispatches from Afghanistan for over twenty years. His screenplay credits include Seven Years in Tibet, and his articles have appeared in Time, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian. He lives in Telluride, Colorado.

The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel

by Stephen J. Sniegoski

From the publisher:
Although it is generally understood that American neoconservatives pushed hard for the war in Iraq, this book forcefully argues that the neocons' goal was not the spread of democracy, but the protection of Israel's interests in the Middle East.

Showing that the neocon movement has always identified closely with the interests of Israel's Likudnik right wing, the discussion contends that neocon advice on Iraq was the exact opposite of conventional United States foreign policy, which has always sought to maintain stability in the region to promote the flow of oil.

Various players in the rush to war are assessed according to their motives, including President Bush, Ariel Sharon, members of the foreign-policy establishment, and the American people, who are seen not as having been dragged into war against their will, but as ready after 9/11 for retaliation.

"Sniegoski leaves no stone unturned in exposing the Israeli-neocon alliance and its catastrophic consequences in the Middle East. Timely and important, his book should provoke a much-needed debate about who truly benefits from current US policies in the region." —Jonathan Cook, author, Israel and the Clash of Civilisations

"This is a riveting book." —Paul Craig Roberts, PhD, syndicated columnist; former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; and former associate editor, Wall Street Journal