Description
This reader offers about 75 readings selected from historical documents and participants' statements speeches, charters, testimonies, FBI documents (most-wanted lists), interviews, and first-hand accounts. Arrangement is in sections focused on conveying the ideas, activities, and rhetoric of radical Islamist movements, American foreign policy, anti-Americanism, Usama Bin Ladin, Al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, Middle East reaction to September 11, and the war against terrorism. The last section includes addresses from Bush and Blair, and a UN Security Council resolution. The editors provide a general introduction and an introduction to each section of documents, as well as a chronology of Middle East-connected terrorism against Americans beginning in 1969, and a glossary of terms and names. Edited by Barry Rubin (director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs , and journalist Judith Colp Rubin, who has extensively covered the Middle East for U.S. print media. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a stunned public asked: How could this happen? Why did the attackers do what they did? What did they hope to accomplish? This wasn't the first battle in a conflict that has included bombings of U.S.embassies and planes, the Iran hostage crisis, and kidnappings or shootings of American citizens. This unique volume sets out to answer these questions using the unfiltered words of the terrorists themselves. Over many decades, radical forces in the Middle East have changed and evolved, yet theirbasic outlook and anti-Western views have remained remarkably consistent. Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin have assembled nearly one hundred key documents, charting the evolution of radical Middle East movements, their anti-Americanism, and Western policy response. The buildup to the battle betweena world superpower and Middle East revolutionaries is brought dramatically to life. Among the documents included are the charters of such organizations as Hizballah, Hamas, and World Islamic Front; speeches by Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad and Iraqi president Saddam Hussein; al-Qa'ida recruitmentmaterials; and terrorist training manuals. The book also shows and analyzes the often conflicting and deeply conflicted responses to September 11 by journalists, clerics, and activists in the Arab world. Supplemented by an annotated chronology, a glossary of terms, and sections that put eachselection in context, this comprehensive reference serves not only as essential historical background to the ongoing aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but more generally as an invaluable framework for understanding a long-term, continuing conflict that has caused many crises for the UnitedStates.
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