The Age of Sacred Terror

by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon

Book Overview

Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon began working on this book shortly after leaving the National Security Council, where, as director and senior director for counterterrorism, they watched the rise of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375508597
• ISBN13: 9780375508592
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 490 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Superb Introduction

I've read six or seven books on terrorism, al qaeda, and similar (but not related!) issues like Iraq. This is by far the finest introduction. It will tell you a lot and guide you to areas to explore further. I think it is the first "essential" book I've read on September 11, its prelude and its implications.An early chapter on the history of jihadist thought in Islam makes al qaeda's theology comprehensible, if no less mad. It is the best short exegesis I've encountered of the development of jihadism, wahabbism, and finally bin Ladenism. Not to be missed.The last few chapters are as riveting as a spy novel and describe the inexcusable failures of the FBI, the puzzle of the CIA failures, and the monumental lapse of social responsibility that the press made in focusing on Clinton's personal problems while al Qaeda was honing its craft.Bottom line: stop reading these reviews. Buy it and read it.

Nothing Is Sacred Any More !

At the beginning of this book we are presented with the demands of Islamic terrorists at the time of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. These being the cessation of all US military, economic & political aid to Israel and the suspension of all diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. This tied in with a demand for non-interference with the interior affairs of any Middle East country. In other words, the Arab/Islamic world must be left alone, unhindered, to complete it's declared agenda of the eradication of Israel from it's midst.Whilst this book provides an excellent outline of the rise of Osama bin Laden, radical Islam and al-Qaeda, and examining the mindset and agenda of the Islamic terrorist, this abiding principle of hatred towards the Jewish state, it's continued existence & a hostile malevolence towards all those who would support it, is clearly foundational to all the terrorist entities referred to.Early on the book succeeds in detailing the events & political failures before September 11th atrocities which should have led the US Government, the West & it's Intelligence Agencies to be more vigilant and effective in detecting & preventing the forthcoming attacks of September 11th. The writers make their points very professionally and eloquently.The writers, both former directors of counter-terrorism within the US National Security Council have also provided an excellent study & insight into why Islamic terrorists are prepared to murder an infinite number of innocent civilians in pursuit of their goal of destroying Israel and their global agenda of Islamic expansion. One is left in no doubt that should these Islamic terrorists obtain nuclear/chemical weapons of mass destruction, then they would indeed be prepared to use them to obtain their goals.In the Middle East, with hindsight, the Palestinian terrorist groups were perhaps themselves testing out a whole new form of warfare, using their own suicide bombers, with individuals strapping explosives to their bodies in order to murder and maim innocent Israeli civilians to achieve their political aims. Subsequent sympathetic attitudes within the International community revealing that such methods could indeed be exploited for political purposes, even when fellow Muslims were seen publicly celebrating such atrocities en masse. A savage foretaste of what was to come after the horrific atrocities in the USA.Hiding behind the mantle of respectability and the soft underbelly of Western human rights, recent events and the disclosures in this book disturbingly reveal that virtually every Muslim/Arab is now a potential suicide bomber capable of inflicting enormous civilian casualties. Nothing is sacred any more !!! The writers reveal quite convincingly that al-Qaeda, it's operatives and supporters are far, far more capable, dangerous and widespread than ever previously thought.The West has backed itself into a corner. Anyone who criticises Islam and it's history or age

THE book that every American ought to read.

A cliche, yes, but this actually is a book that every American ought to read. The Book explains radical Islam and details the events before 9/11 that should have led our government, particularly the FBI, to be more vigilant and effective. The Authors convincingly explain that Al-qaeda is far more capable, widespread, and dangerous than most of us could have imagined. Indeed, the threat has diminished little after 9/11 and our efforts in Afghanistan. The Authors demonstrate that we quickly need to surmount special interests and competing bureaucracies in order to prevent terrorist attacks and protect our population from the consequences of the attacks that inevitably will be successful (eg., protection from the horrific and very real threat of biological attacks). At stake are a great many lives, and perhaps even our way of life. Read this book. Better yet, get your legislators to read it.

Essential guide to the changed face of terrorism

Benjamin and Simon headed the National Security Council's antiterrorism team during the nineties, and they began this book in 99, hoping to convince a skeptical country that Al-Qaeda was the most serious threat facing the West. They wanted to explain why it represented a new *kind* of terrorism, and a far more dangerous kind. We no longer need convincing that the threat is real; we need information and perspective. The book they wound up writing is a fountain of both. Still central to its theme and its value is their analysis of what makes Al-Qaeda different. For this new breed of terrorist, strategic considerations will never limit the level of destruction they mete out, because violence is not their tactic to gain some other end. Destruction of the infidel *is* their strategy. The first half is a crisp, brisk read jammed with vital detail on the history behind radical Islamism. That history, from the Crusades to the Balfour declaration, is ever present before the minds' eye of the terrorists, so it behooves us to know it. These are guys who know how to put together an executive summary. Without a word wasted on horrified emotion, partisan sentiment, or political correctness, they give us the names, the dates, the theologies, the actions that led to the current confrontation. You are unlikely to find a precis of Al-Qaeda's motivations and makeup anywhere as complete, concise, and pertinent.In particular, Benjamin and Simon give the definitive answer to "why they hate us." Many social, economic, and political factors go into the level of tacit support for Al Qaeda on "the street." But the operatives themselves are motivated entirely by religion, and nothing short of the death of all Jews and the destruction of the West will satisfy them. In one sense it is true that what they peddle is a perversion of Islam. Even the virulently anti-American head of Iran's clergy, Ali Khamenei, condemned the WTC attacks, because the Quran clearly forbids targeting civilians. But at the same time, Al-Qaeda's theological line has very deep historical roots in Islam, tracing back to Wahabbi in the seventeenth century (a version of Islam which Saudi money has recently made dominant through much of Asia), to ibn Taymiyya in the thirteenth century (who held that jihad in the sense of killing unbelievers was more important than any of the traditional five pillars of Islam). And ibn Taymiyya was a kind of Reformation figure; in his exaltation of jihad, he was rejecting all of the Islamic scholarship of the preceding five centuries, and trying to return to a kind of 'sola scriptura' depending only on the Quran and the hadith, in which with one ill attested exception there was no concept of a "greater" or "inner" jihad. It is difficult for moderate Muslims to mount a theological response to the jihaddists, especially when the "ulemas", the scholarly establishment within each Muslim country, are so closely identified with governments that are repressive, or dismissive of

The Age of Sacred Terror

Benjamin and Simon give an in depth review of the last decade regarding the rise of terrorism in the US. The apparent failure of the FBI to alert the Clinton administration is revealed in shocking detail. The authors express clearly the extent the intelligence network failure and the obvious result which struck the US in 2001. The text is exceedingly readable and flows elegantly. While "The Age of Sacred Terror" is a very erudite and highly detailed work, it maintains a high degree of interest and fasination for the reader. The book fully deserves the 5 star rating.