Al-Qaeda

PENGUIN BOOKS

AL-QAEDA

‘This young, impassioned journalist has made an important
contribution to the growing literature on al-Qaeda’
Washington Post

‘Based on careful on-the-ground investigation and penetrating
inquiry, this fine study, the most illuminating I know, gives
remarkable insight into Islamic militancy, its root causes, its
evolution and likely future. It is essential reading for anyone who
hopes to understand the “network of networks” loosely termed
Al-Qaeda, and its complex interactions both with the West and
with the societies it intends to reshape. Burke’s achievements are
of particular importance for those who hope not only to
understand but also to seek constructive initiatives to
developments that are sure to cast a long shadow over the
years to come’ Noam Chomsky

‘This book is an eye-opener’
Literary Review

‘A book which vastly increases our understanding of the
al-Qaeda phenomenon. Burke writes with admirable lucidity
and the benefit of his frontline reporting and deep research’
Peter Bergen, author of
Holy War, Inc.

‘Fascinating… packed with totally new material’
Gilles Kepel, author of
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam

‘Jason Burke has finally got al-Qaeda right. He has broken the
myth of al-Qaeda as some sort of highly organized and rigidly
centralized jihadist version of the old Comintern, and in the
process laid out the true nature of an increasingly diverse, even
more dangerous islamist menace.
Al-Qaeda
should be required
reading for those charged with protecting the US homeland,
but who seem to have little notion of the nature of their
adversary’ Milt Bearden, former CIA official and co-author of
The Main Enemy

‘Alarmingly, the most accurate information about Islamic
extremism is coming not from governments nor intelligence
agencies, but from specialist journalists and scholars…To
that list should be added Jason Burke. The most reliable and
perceptive guide to the rise of militant Islam yet published…
full of new and important information, much of it gathered
on the ground. His obvious knowledge of, and affection for,
the people of the region gives his grim message a credibility
lacking in the ranting of so many other commentators on
“Islamic terror”’ William Dalrymple,
Observer

‘Jason Burke has undertaken an impressive amount of both
desk and field research to challenge the myth of al-Qaeda as
a monolith orchestrating terrorist activity worldwide’
Peter Marsden, author of
The Taliban: War and Religion
in Afghanistan

‘
Al-Qaeda
stands out as a beacon of reasoned critical
scholarship; a must-read for anybody with a genuine interest in
an organization that has become a metaphor for the evil of our
times… Burke’s book might even help us understand why the
war on terror risks making things worse’
Australian Age

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Burke is the prize-winning Chief Reporter for the London
Observer
. He has covered the Middle East and southwest Asia for a decade, and saw many of the key events described in this book at first hand. He is also the author of
On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through conflict in the Islamic world
, published by Penguin.

JASON BURKE

Al-Qaeda

The True Story of Radical Islam

Third Edition

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England

www.penguin.com

First published as
Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror
by I. B. Tauris 2003
This revised edition first published by Penguin Books 2004
Reissued in Penguin Books with further amendments 2007

1

Copyright © Jason Burke, 2003, 2004, 2007
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States ofAmerica, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way oftrade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

EISBN: 978–0–141–90132–9

In the memory of
Samuel Burke and Sidney Marks.

In the memory of victims of terrorism
and victims of the war on terrorism.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Maps

Introduction

1 What is al-Qaeda?

2 11 September, Terror and Islam

3 Radicals

4 Mujahideen

5 Heroes

6 Militants

7 Terror

8 Seekers

9 Home

10 Flight

11 Struggle

12 Global Jihad

13 The Millennium Plot

14 The Holy War Foundation

15 11 September

16 The War on Terror

17 Iraq and London

Conclusion

Notes

Glossary

Militants and Radical Ideologues

Select Bibliography

Index

List of Illustrations

Photographic acknowledgements are given in parentheses.

1. Osama bin Laden (
Reuters/Corbis
)

2. Ayman al-Zawahiri with bin Laden (
Reuters/Corbis
)

3. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (
Reuters/Corbis
)

4. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (
PETRA/Reuters/Corbis
)

5. Ramzi Yousef (
Markowitz Jeffrey/Corbis
)

6. Ahmed Ressam (
Corbis
)

7. Mohammed Atta (
Corbis
)

8. Imam Samudra (
Reuters/Corbis
)

9. Taliban fighter with demolished remains of Bamiyan Buddha (
Reuters/Corbis
)

10. Al-Qaeda training video still (
Reuters/Corbis
)

11. 1993 World Trade Center attack (
Reuters/Corbis
)

12. 1994 GIA aeroplane hijack (
Orban/Corbis
)

13. Indian police carrying Hizbul Majuhideen car-bomb victim, Srinagar, 2000 (
Reuters/Corbis
)

14. Anti-Russian Chechen fighters praying in Grozny, 1999 (
Reuters/Corbis
)

15. Nairobi embassy bombing, 1998 (
Corbis
)

16. USS
Cole
bombing, 2000 (
Reuters/Corbis
)

17. 11 September 2001 (
Seth Cohen/Bettmann/Corbis
)

18. Anti-Taliban fighters watching US bombing of Tora Bora, 2001 (
Reuters/Corbis
)

19. Wrecked al-Qaeda training camp, 2001 (
Reuters/Corbis
)

20. British troops in Afghanistan (
Kate Brooks/Corbis
)