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Frontline: Hunting Bin Laden
The PBS series about the man many believe is responsible for the recent attacks as well as many others. This series includes interviews with various people involved in the search for him. While the series does, at some points, tend to paint Bin Laden in a sympathetic light, it is very informative and provides an excellent background on the central figure in the anti-American terrorist movement.
Bernard Lewis: Islam
Historian Bernard Lewis's definitive text on the relations between the West and the Islamic world. It is out of print, but it may be found in local libraries. Lewis draws on this book in a lengthy piece for The Atlantic Monthly, entitled "The Roots of Muslim Rage."
The Clash of Civilizations
This classic work by Samuel Huntington, a professor at Harvard and director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies there, details the coming battles between West and East. Huntington predicts that these battles will not be fought over tangible goods such as land, oil, or money, but rather will be outgrowths of conflicts between Western and non-Western and modern and non-modern states. Professor Huntington's book is available in many stores.
Bernard Lewis: What Went Wrong?
In this Atlantic Monthly article based on his 2001 book What Went Wrong?, Bernard Lewis, a Princeton professor and prominent authority on the Middle East, presents a history of how the Islamic world has reacted to Western achievement. Although the book was written before the events of September 11, Lewis puts into historical context the events that led to the spread of fundamentalism and support for terrorism in the Islamic community.
The Gilmore Commission
RAND's "Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction" was chaired by Empower America Board Member and Virginia Governor James Gilmore. The commission assessed the readiness of our government to respond to instances of terrorism on American soil.
Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism
This 1997 book by Benjamin Netanyahu was prescient in its predictions and provides answers to many of our questions such as "What do we do now?" Netanyahu is the former Prime Minister of Israel and, having founded a center to research terrorism in the 1970's, is an expert in the field of study about terrorism.
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
Since 1993, journalist Steven Emerson has been working fulltime to uncover terrorist networks in the United States. Despite an assassination attempt by a South African Islamist death squad, Emerson continued his efforts to track international terrorist groups, including Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, in the United States. American Jihad is an accumulation of almost a decade of research and scholarship.
Who is the Enemy? by Daniel Pipes
The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America
Although the war in Afghanistan is coming to a close, the war against terrorism will continue. In these articles for Commentary, Daniel Pipes, an expert on the Middle East, identifies militant Islam, or Islamism, as the enemy behind the terrorist attacks and gives an account of the history and present status of Islamism in the United States. Pipes compares America's current fight against militant Islam with past battles with fascism and communism.
Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America
This 1999 book by Yossef Bodansky, a terrorism expert, is more than just a biography on Osama bin Laden. It is also an account of the development and rise of a global terrorist network. Bin Laden includes startling details about bin Laden's pursuit of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
Ten Days in September
In this eight-part series, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, journalists for the Washington Post, give readers a behind-the-scenes look into the Bush administration during the first ten days after September 11. From President Bush's first knowledge of a terrorist attack to his historic speech before a joint session of Congress, "Ten Days in September" details the administration's reaction and response to the terrorist attacks. Using interviews with the key principals and extensive notes of the events, Woodward and Balz explain how the President and his advisors discussed and decided on a strategy to punish terrorists abroad and protect Americans at home.
