Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network

Written by a research team under the supervision of Alexander and Swetnam, this is a highly useful handbook on al-Qaida. Fifty-one pages are devoted to a brief history of al-Qaida; its ideology and objectives, organizational structure, funding, affiliated groups, areas of operation, headquarters, tactics and capabilities, and targets; arrests of its members and associates; and a timeline of its history and activities. This is followed by a seven-page bibliography. The remaining 90 pages consist of statements, declarations, and interviews by bin Laden, an excerpt of a U.S. government indictment against an al-Qaida operative involved in the African embassy bombings, excerpts of testimonies of several of those indicted for the bombings, statements by U.S. government officials condemning bin Laden and his organization for those attacks, and a United Nations resolution calling for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to turn bin Laden over for trial.