Book Reviews
by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Author: Daniyal Mueenuddin Published by W.W. Norton and Company
Reveiwed by Betty G. O'Hearn
by Brian Michael Jenkins
Will terrorists go nuclear? That is the essential questioned posed by counterterrorism expert Brian Jenkins in a book of the same title. Jenkins has written a sobering and critical analysis of this question that spans over his decades of research on the topic. In fact, the book shares the title of a research paper Jenkins wrote over 30 years ago and it is that essay he uses as the entrance point for his observations.
by Steven C. Drielak, Thomas R. Brandon
This book is well written for First Responders and is simple enough but thorough for every level of WMD response. As a police commander who had to develop a WMD response team from scratch in the early 90's, I only wished such book was available for my reference. It sure would have made planning and organizing the United States Capitol Police ALERT and Hazardous Materials Response Team a whole lot easier. The authors move from threat analysis through WMD awareness, initial response and the necessary safe procedures, through incident command.
by J. RICHARDSON
I picked up this book thinking it was the terrorism version of Jared Diamond's popular nonfiction volume "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" (1999). Disappointingly, Richardson's book was more an extension of Diamond's rather than a terrorism version. That is not to say that the volume isn't use interesting or useful. Richardson divides his treatise into three sections including Part I: Preparation for Conflict; Part II: Warfare and its Management; and Part III: Behind the Action and Wars to Come.
by Jonathan B. Tucker
Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons, edited by Jonathan B. Tucker is an excellent work on past cases of chemical and biological terrorism. Separate authors take on the task of analysing in depth one of twelve cases (Aum Shinrikyo, Alphabet bomber, Rajneeshees, etc.), and do so by utilizing many primary sources. Toxic Terror provides a clear and unambiguous look into what has happened in the past and then looks to the future based on this realistic view of history.
by Thomas X. Hammes
I would like to start off by proudly saying that Col. Hammes is a friend of mine. We worked together while he was the Commanding Officer of the Marine's Chemical Biological Incident Response Force and most particularly during the U.S. Senate's Hart Anthrax and Dirksen-Ricin Incidents as well as many other National security events like Presidential State of the Union Addresses to Congress.
by Mark Silverberg
There is a reason why fifteen of the nineteen September 11th terrorists, forty percent of the suicide bombers in Iraq and eighty percent of the "detainees" taken from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were from Saudi Arabia. It is because Islam itself is involved in an ideological and religious struggle within itself and has been hijacked by a radical Islamic cult that now dominates that country. As a consequence, the Saudi monarchs are caught between a past they cannot shed and a future to which they cannot adapt.
by John Horgan
From a European perspective, this forensic psychologist and university lecturer, this useful volume covers a variety of the basic questions behind individual participation in terrorist attacks after first grappling with a definition of the topic in the first two chapters.
by Walter Laqueur
Walter Laqueur's latest book, The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction fits the mold of his past works-detailed and descriptive. Laqueur is one of the best known names in counter terrorism analysis, and The New Terrorism continues along his strong tradition of well-written books. If you are looking for a comprehensive book that will help explain the historical, cultural, and behavioral aspects of terrorism and the direction it may go in the future, then Laqueur's book is for you.
by Simon Reeve
The New Jackals chronicles the activities of terrorists Ramzi Yousef and Osama bin Laden and the U.S. efforts to apprehend them. The book also details current terrorist activities and future trends. The book reads well and provides useful insights for those interested in the future of terrorism.