Leaderless Jihad - again

(Yup, should have posted thsi months ago)

I admire Mr Sageman's research on known AQ operators, and the information he has gathered on those. The book covers areas that other experts haven't touched.

He clearly writes very much for an American audience, (e.g. referring to the little-known “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” in the Spanish Civil War, rather than “the International Brigades”), and this may help explain his odd views – cheerleading for the American Dream - on Islamic experience in the US and Europe (see my earlier comment on this book).

So, good on basics, less so in analysis, and, there is an obvious lack of knowledge of terrorism, even of the better known events. The US Embassy bombings in E Africa took place in 1998, the Beslan school atrocity occurred in 2004, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the French Embassy (!) that was suicide-bombed in Beirut in 1983…

(Digression: it was of course the US Embassy that was blown up in Beirut – and not once, but twice, albeit in 2 different locations). [Does anyone know who was in charge of security at the time of the second attack? And what happened to them subsequently ? Just curious...]

The book is certainly of interest for those seeking understanding of AQ terrorism - but only if you take some of his statements with a pinch of salt…

Since reading this I have also purchased his earlier work on Understanding Terror Networks, [so even though I may not be his biggest fan, I am helping to pay his bills :-) ] which is a much simpler and more straightforward explanatory text, with less imposition of his own deductions and analysis (and all the better for that ?). That said, being published in 2004 it’s fairly old hat now and possibly wouldn’t add a great deal to your understanding of AQ or other groups.


Of course, the recent Ft Hood attack and the lengthening list of small-scale attacks within the US do rather undermine his position on Mulsim immigrants 'successful integration'.