Hunting Bin Laden
How Al-Qaeda is Winning the War on Terror
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
An in-depth look at why America is losing the War on Terror and what we should do if we really want to defeat Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. "I first met al-Qaeda before there was an al-Qaeda, way back in the winter of 1984. It was an encounter that came within a split second of costing me my life." So begins Rob Schultheis's gripping account of his journey into the heart of one of the world's most dangerous places, on the trail of the world's most wanted man. A veteran war correspondent (he was one of a handful of Western journalists who covered the Russian war in Afghanistan from inside the country), Schultheis offers a first-hand look at how the seeds of al-Qaeda were planted by foreign jihadists in the 1980s, before most Americans knew what the word "jihad" meant. He then offers a radical assessment of why bin Laden remains at large, detailing the complicit role Pakistan has played in both offering him sanctuary and in helping al-Qaeda establish an almost impregnable stronghold in the Middle East. Finally, fresh from a recent visit to Afghanistan and armed with analysis of current satellite imagery, Schultheis makes his case for where exactly Osama bin Laden is hiding—and why the U.S. government is not acting on this information.
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An author and journalist who's covered Afghanistan for Time, CBS News and others for more than 20 years, Schultheis (Night Letters: Inside Wartime Afghanistan) offers a devastating critique of U.S. foreign policy blunders, including his opinion that members of Saudi Arabia's royal family and the Pakistani government were the real "powers behind 9/11." Schultheis provides a vivid account of his experiences on the front lines, which include the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the pre-9/11 struggle "between moderate Moslems and the Taliban and al-Qaeda," illustrating his contention the World Trade Center attacks were "a sideshow" in the long civil war between a moderate, forward-thinking Moslem majority and a minority of fanatic fundamentalists (whose main targets are other Moslems). U.S. strategies, he says, "multiply the numbers of our enemies while doing little effective to counter the terrorist threat." Schultheis wrote Waging Peace after spending six months with a U.S. Army Civil Affairs team working with Iraqis to rebuild a Baghdad neighborhood; he believes this kind of program could "turn the country into a shining example of a strong, progressive Islamic state." This passionate and persuasive book is an eye-opening personal tour for both laymen and policy wonks.
