The Search for Al Qaeda

Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future

Bruce Riedel

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780815704522
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Terrorism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Al Qaeda is the most dangerous terrorist movement in history. Yet most people in the West know very little about it, or their view is clouded by misperceptions and half truths. This widely acclaimed book fills this gap with a comprehensive analysis of al Qaeda—the origins, leadership, ideology, and strategy of the terrorist network that brought down the Twin Towers and continues to threaten us today.

Bruce Riedel draws on decades of insider experience—he was actually in the White House during the September 11 attacks—in profiling the four most important figures in the al Qaeda movement: Usama bin Laden, ideologue and spokesman Ayman Zawahiri, former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musaib al Zarqawi (killed in 2006), and Mullah Omar, its Taliban host. These profiles provide the base from which Riedel delivers a much clearer understanding of al Qaeda and its goals, as well as what must be done to counter and defeat this most dangerous menace.

Index

Surnames starting with “al” or “al-” are alphabetized by the following part of the name.

Abbas, Mahmoud, 34

Abdullah, King of Jordan, 28, 91

Abdullah II, King of Jordan, 93–94, 153–54

Abdullah, King of Saudi Arabia, 28, 108, 128, 146

Abdulmutallab, Omar al Farooq, 158

Abqaiq oil-processing center attack, 114–15

The Absent Precept (Faraj), 19

Abu Qutaiba, 90

Adl, Seif al-, 94, 98

Advice and Reform Committee in London, 53

Afghanistan: in al Qaeda strategy for, 122–24; bin Laden returns to, 56–57; bin Laden’s fight against communism in, 42–52; border with Pakistan, 150; economic reconstruction proposal for, 150–51; international aid to, 62–63; jihadist success in, 7, 33; Karzai government in, 82; recommendations for, 148–51; sanctions imposed on, 74; Saudi aid to, 44, 146; Soviet occupation of, 42–52, 62–63; U.S. aid to, 82; Zarqawi in, 90, 94; Zawahiri in, 22, 23, 34. See also Operation Enduring Freedom; Taliban

Ahmed, Mahmud, 78, 79

Air Force One, 117, 119

Air France Flight 8969 hijacking, 3–4

Air India Flight 814 hijacking, 68–69, 83, 95, 96

Al Aqsa Mosque, 60

Al-Azhar University, 16

Albania, 23

Albright, Madeleine, 119

Algeria, 3–4, 126–27

Algiers, Algeria, 126

Allawi, Iyad al-, 101

Allegiance and Disavowal (...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• ONE The Manhattan Raid
• TWO The Thinker: Zawahiri
• THREE The Knight: Osama
• FOUR The Host: Mullah Omar
• FIVE The Stranger: Zarqawi
• SIX Al Qaeda’s Plans
• SEVEN How to Defeat al Qaeda
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover