Usama Bin Laden's Al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network (Terrorism Library Series) (Paperback)

by Yonah Alexander (Author), Michael S. Swetnam (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
...a primer that is all too timely...a quick reference quide ...to put recent headlines in context -- nationaljournal.com

Product Description
The al-Qaida informal and loose international network in over 50 countries has been responsible for spectacular terrorist operations such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, and is apparently linked to the attack of the destroyer USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, in 2000.

The purpose of this book is not to glorify bin Laden and al-Qaida. Rather, it is designed to provide an easily accessible reference for academics, policy makers, reporters and other interested individuals on one of the most notorious terrorist groups. The volume exposes much of al-Qaida’s mystique and thereby places it in perspective as one of the many challenges facing the international community in the 21st Century.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Hotei Publishing (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571052194
• ISBN-13: 978-1571052193
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,143,404 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the better book to inform us of terrorists, November 30, 2001

By	Michael Kraft (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

I am Just an average American and not anything more than the average reader but I can deduce facts, this book brings us factual information about the terrorist. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the subject, but remember this is not a fantasy of entertainment piece, it simply brings us the account.
Another Good Book that goes into some detail about the future of terrorism and did predict this terror by saying they would blow up the buildings and use bio war is Karl Mark Maddox's SB 1 or God

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An extremely short encyclopeadia, October 25, 2001

By	David Gunstensen (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

If you are looking for some insight into the history of terrorist networks and what motivites these peaople then keep looking. If you are looking for a short book of facts about al-Qaida then this is the book for you. I found this book extremely dissappointing. For one it is a mere 52 pages. (excluding the bibliography and long appenices). The rest of the book is little more than a list of facts. ie 27 pages listing known or suspected members with a brief paragraph about each and 15 pages of a timeline listing several dates with a sentance or 2 about each.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointing, November 18, 2001

By A Customer

As a professional who deals with this subject matter for a living, I must say I was extremely disappointed in this book. It contains very little information and no analysis whatsoever, and is neither "detailed" nor "informative". All of the information in this book (and much more) can be found on the Internet for free after an hour's worth of searching, and information seems to have been taken from easily available open sources with no value added by the authors. For those who want to learn about bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, I would recommend reading PBS's excellent website "Hunting bin Laden" or transcripts from al-Qa'ida trials (the 98 embassy bombing trial and the millenium bombing plot) at Findlaw's website. For those who want a book on the subject, check out "The New Jackals" by Simon Reeve or "Holy War, Inc." by Peter Bergen. Both are done by journalists rather than scholars, but are informative and interesting reading. For a more scholarly discussion of terrorism in general, see "Inside Terrorism", a great introduction to the subject by RAND's Bruce Hoffman, or "Origins of Terrorism", edited by Walter Reich.