by Daniel Benjamin, Steven Simons
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Product Description
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon began working on this book shortly after leaving the National Security Council, where, as director and senior director for counterterrorism, they watched the rise of al-Qaeda and helped coordinate America’s fight against Usama bin Laden and his organization. They warned in articles and interviews about the appearance of a new breed of terrorists who were determined to kill on the grand scale. More than a year before September 11, 2001, they began writing The Age of Sacred Terror to sound the alarm for a nation that had not recognized the gravest threat of our time.
One of their book’s original goals has remained: to provide the insights to understand an enemy unlike any seen in living memory—one with an extraordinary ability to detect weakness and exploit it, one with a determination to inflict catastrophic damage, one that will not be deterred. But after September 11, a second, equally crucial goal was added: to understand how America let its defenses down, how warnings went unheeded, and how key parts of the government failed at vital tasks. The Age of Sacred Terror also describes the road ahead, where the terrorists will look to draw strength, and what the United States must do, at home and abroad, to stop them. For a year after the attacks that redefined terrorism and devastated the public’s sense of security, America has been searching for answers about those responsible for one of the darkest days in our history and explanations for the glaring gaps in our defenses. The Age of Sacred Terror provides both, with unique authority. It is the book that Americans must read to understand the foremost challenge we face.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Amazing Breath; Amazing Detail; Limited Perspective, 2007-07-24
This book, by two top Clinton administration directors at the National Security Council's counterterrorism desk, is an excellent work on the rise of radical Islam and America's response. It contains sustantial details about Islamic terrorism in the 1990s and the corresponding responses from their administration. It is not an introduction to the matter. While it is not deeply analytical, it also assumes some knowledge on the part of the reader, which one would better find in The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis.
The book contains serious merits which broaden its appeal. The authors simultaneously recognize the distinction between mainstream Islam and the radicalized Islam of the terrorists, and yet also the fact that they are indeed radical Muslims while a firm devotion to their interpretation of Shari'a and not poverty-stricken revolutionaries or misunderstood intellectuals.
At the same time, the authors fall into a series of traps.
For one, they are more sympathetic to Bill Clinton and hostile to the Bush administration without presenting substantial reason. On the one hand, this is both innevitable and excusable; they were Clinton administration insiders privy to the presented logic and extended internal debate, whereas they are forced to the Bush team from the outside (they even admit as much). At the same time, however, they operate on what seems a consistent double standard. The soil samble from al-Shifa is determined a legitimate cause for 1998 missile strikes, but biological contaminants in Iraq are simply passed over. This bias obscrues their most important argument against the Iraq war- that because the Iraq war has and will involved a continued guerilla war against an insurgency that will attract new members and will never be wiped out, it makes the country into a training ground where young terrorists can hone their skills.
The authors also draw on the Cold War-era moral equivalency mindset when making an extended literary sidetrip into Christian fundamentalism and Jewish terrorism. It is almost a token attempt to appeal to more 'open-minded' and 'level-headed' readers taken aback with their pragmatic take on terror and the clarity of its status as a global enemy. While some of the Jewish points are valid, it is virtually irrelevant as an addative to their overall argument; and talk about Timothy McVey and the Christian Identity movement is laughable. The Christian Identity movement is a white supremacy movement founded on anti-Semitism far more removed from Christian orthodoxy than Islamic radicals are from their mainstream. This divergence from the narrative greatly detracted from the overall cogency of the book.
Third, the authors seem convinced- and convinced that no reason needs be given- that international terrorism conducted by Islamic radicals is the most pressing foreign policy threat facing the United States in the early twentieth century. Perhaps a symptom of a limited, terror-oriented perspective or perhaps due to a antipathy toward the Bush administration, the authors repeatedly decry that Bush administration's campaign and first-year emphasis on the rise of communist China and the shift from the Clintonian view of China as a 'strategic partner' to a 'strategic competitor.'
This is likely the chief pitfall of the work: the failure to recognize that the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, however important, is at least matched by the rizing hegemony of China, first in East Asia, and then in the global South.
That said, however, I found this to be an excellent work filled with detail about both figures and operations within terror cells and the Clinton administration. It raises the bar for debate and leaves me looking forward to learning more about this existential threat.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 Destroying the Kingdom of Man to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth., 2007-06-26
The central theme of this book is that Americans continue to underestimate the danger from Muslim terrorists. We couldn't conceive of a day like 9/11, and therefore it appeared a remote possibility. To the extent that we fail to understand this enemy's resolve, and the uncompromising hatred which it bears for us, we will enable them to continue to strike us. Steven Simon was Senior Director for the National Security Council's Directorate of Transnational Threats, and Daniel Benjamin was Director for Counterterrorism in the Clinton administration. It is stunning what they knew then and it is most remarkable what they have learned since then.
The book starts with a summary of recent terrorist acts committed against American interests in the name of Allah, and then goes back to the earliest of the Muslim fundamentalists. They show the cyclical nature of terrorism, and how Islam has metastasized over the last 700 years since Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyya and his Kharijites introduced terror as a core concept within Islam. We learn of the contributions of Muhammad ibn Abdel al Wahhab, of Rashid Rida, and of Hasan al Banna and Sayyad Qutb. But that's just the first 94 pages since this isn't a history; it's an analysis of contemporary events. Accordingly, the focus is on the present incarnation of the Muslim nightmare, Usama bin Laden. Throughout this historical narrative we learn that both the subculture of terrorism and the broader Muslim culture are strongly connected, so that the basis for terrorist violence is well established and legally unassailable.
And this isn't the turgid prose of academic research, of ancient history, or of political wonkism. The writing is positively entertaining: "The Jordan Rift Valley, a deep and unstable fissure in the earth's crust, provides a metaphor for the country through which it runs. The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan straddles political fault lines ... and if any of these divisions widen, it could bring down the palace roof." And later: "Yousef and Kansi were anomalies; they fit no part of the accepted taxonomy of terror, with its two great phyla, the soldiers of national liberation groups, and the agents of state sponsors."
And Americans still don't get it. Terrorism is now parodied on stage, and has become the staple of movie plots. The more we treat Muslim terrorism as a peripheral problem, the more we believe that we've broken the back of the problem, or turned the corner, the more vulnerable we become. They hate us; they're still out there; and they have the means. They don't want to negotiate; they don't want to influence our actions; they want to annihilate us.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Good but ..., 2006-11-24
The book is easy to read and clearly explain the historical progress of radical Islam.
My only problem is the authors are not quoting primary resources of radical Muslim thinkers but quoting others who wrote about these thinkers.
In page 46 Ali is described as Muhammad's son-in-law and nephew. That is a huge mistake as Muhammad have no brothers or sisters and Ali is his cousin.
Such mistake which is repeated in the reprint of the book in the paperback edition make me think, what else is not accurate in the book?
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Primer on GWOT, 2006-03-26
Though slightly dated-it was published in the interim between 9/11 and the Iraq War-this book by two U.S. government anti-terrorism officials is an excellent description of what is commonly referred to as the Global War on Terror. From the mechanics of the attacks on September 11, to the ideology of the terrorists themselves, to our government's response to Islamism, this well rounded book is an excellent resource for those looking for a window into a very complicated subject.
Most interesting in comparing this book first published in hardcover in October 2002, with events since then. Benjamin and Simon lay out a reasonable description of why 9/11 happened, as well as certain measures we can take to overcome the enemy. The large leap the Bush administration has taken away from these reasonable steps is striking--and disturbing.
I highly recommend this book.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
GREAT SUBJECT, QUALIFIED AUTHORS.... BUT POORLY ORGANIZED AND WRITTEN, 2005-12-16
I read the preceding reviews and wonder: is it me?... Perhaps, but I found this book disappointing. While containing good material, I have to say that the book is poorly written and unorganized. Perhaps that's the fault of the editor, for the authors are obviously qualified by their experience to speak on the issue of terrorism. I've read several books on this subject, and understand it well enough to fill in the blanks. By the same token, however, having to do so was a bit of a frustration.
The chapter fields of Jihad is a fairly good overview of the countries involved in birthing and spreading jihadist Islam, however - overall the book is wordy and cumbersome. I think a hallmark of a good author is that he/she uses few words and uses them well. That is not the case here. I guess I expected more: well-qualified authors, great subject matter, interesting title...but overall (to me) a disappointing read.
I would not recommend this book. Save your money and invest it in "The Cell" or "The New Jackals" instead. Both are impressive and engaging accounts of terrorism in action.
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