Camille Tawil

This book is an exhaustively detailed account of Al-Qaeda, from its origins in Afghanistan in the late 1980s into the post-9/11 "War on Terror". Osama bin Laden plays a surprisingly small role in the book; most of it centers on Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former leader of the Egypt-based group known as EIJ (and, according to some news reports, bin Laden's successor as head of Al-Qaeda.) In their early days, Al-Qaeda stood out among radical Islamic groups because they had a global agenda, whereas most groups were strictly interested in overthrowing the government of their home country.

The story is an interesting one, but the author gets excessively bogged down in detail, and getting all the way through the book was a chore. It's very dense and very dry, with lots of unnecessary details about minor squabbles within and between the various groups. Every page has at least 2-3 footnotes, with more information on the background of the hundreds of people named in the book. For someone who is serious about learning more about Islamic terrorist groups, I would definitely recommend this book, but it is not an easy one to follow.… (más)

Just as I was nearing the end of this dense, detailed, sometimes exhausting look into the origins of and relationships between the various Middle Eastern terrorist groups that influenced Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. Worst timing ever, right? For the author, I mean. Except the book doesn't get into huge detail about bin Laden himself; the bulk of the detail is about Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, because he is a prolific writer in Arabic so much more about him is known. And now as I write this, Zawahiri was just announced as the new titular leader of Al Qaeda (which is maybe a little like being called "The leader of Communism" or "The captain of soccer" but whatever). So, best timing ever!

And great news for America, if author Camille Tawil is to be believed. Ayman al-Zawahiri is the most petty, small-minded, political jerk in jihadidom. He consistently used his power as head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1980s to assassinate, sermonize against and in every way he could bully, slight and take down rival islamic radicals. Every attack Zawahiri directed that Tawil describes in this book was against other terrorists who crossed his path (except an imperious and sociopathic murder of two Sudanese youth, which got him expelled from the country). Tawil describes bin Laden as succeeding to get Zawahiri to focus on the "long objective" of striking the United States, and giving up on the "short objectives" of smiting his enemies. Without bin Laden's ambition and influence, Zawahiri is likely to use Al Qaeda's networks and resources to settle now 15 years' of postponed grudges he accumulated while Bin Laden was in power. That...sounds pretty terrific, actually!

It's a fairly dry book, and only about 10 percent of it is about bin laden and the al qaeda network, with another 10 percent about zawahiri. The rest is an incredibly meticulous litany of long-dead jihadis from the Sadat era in Egypt and the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. This book will make you smarter, but it's a slog at times to read. Still the details are so useful in this current news cycle I give it four stars for its currency.… (más)

While reading “Brothers in Arms” I was reminded of the baseball adage “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” There are dozens of players and teams that are Arab terrorist affiliates. While the US (at least publicly) has focused the war on terror on al-Qa’ida, it would appear that these players, even those that have had a more nationalistic agenda, have lit up the radar since 9/11. What is also eye opening about the book is how small these groups are and how (relatively) unsuccessful they have been in their stated aims. With the recent death of bin Laden and the efforts to democratize the Middle East, these groups now appear marginalized. Camille Tawil writes a concise history of the militant Islamists of Egypt, Algeria, and Libya since the late 1980s. With the 9/11 attack al-Qa’ida may have won a battle but America’s response has eliminated thousands of terrorists — whether or not they supported bin Laden’s jihad against the West. While Islamic militancy remains a force to be addressed, maybe there is hope that moderate voices will prevail. This book brought me a better understanding of what we are facing in our world today. A tough read, but worth it.… (más)