First published 2017
Former FBI special agent Ali Soufan takes readers inside the machinery of modern jihadi terrorism. Soufan examines how Osama bin Laden built his organization and spawned its major branches. The book reveals the formation and operations of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State through the stories of key figures. Readers meet a U.S. Air Force colonel who served Saddam Hussein, a bookish provincial who proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims, and Hamza bin Laden, the founder's son positioned to inherit leadership. Soufan exposes the psychology driving these movements and maps their organizational structures. He identifies both the strengths that allowed these groups to spread globally and the critical weaknesses that offer paths to defeating them. The analysis shows how terror networks recruit, plan attacks, and maintain control while offering concrete strategies for stopping their expansion.
Genres: history, politics, non-fiction, 21st-century, military-history, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, true-crime
Setting: United States, Middle East
Period: 21st Century
379 pages · Kindle Edition · W. W. Norton & Company
Content warnings: violence