American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us

by Steven Emerson

Book Overview

Leading the second wave of post 9/11 terrorist books, American Jihad reveals that America is rampant with Islamic terrorist networks and sleeper cells and Emerson, the expert on them, explains just... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743233247
• ISBN13: 9780743233248
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A MUST READ!!!!!

What an eye opener. Should be training material for the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, and what about every member of the US Congress? Ignorance is NOT bliss and so shall we pay for it. A time bomb is ticking.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor-Your Jihad

What could be more American, more rousingly patriotic than a political convention held smack in the middle of Kansas City, USA? You know, the kind where you can stroll amongst the various booths in the lobby, then excitedly bounce up and down in your seat cheering the inspirational speakers. And maybe afterwards meet up with fellow activists and plot strategy at, say, a nearby Ramada Inn. Oh yes, forgot to mention, this was an Hamas convention, focusing on future "crusader-Zionist-infidel conspiracy" targets around the world , with discussion groups devoted to "car-bomb lessons," "how to handle improvised explosives" and the "interrogation and execution of collaborators." Yes, all true in the suicidal pre-9/11, bendy-border, got-my-visa-in-a-Cracker-Jack-box America, as meticulously and courageously detailed by Steven Emerson. While reading Emerson you keep wanting to smack the heel of your hand to the middle of your forehead-Nuuh! What UNBELIEVABLE dangers were allowed to grow up around us! The book's cover shows a map of America, pinpointing communities that unwittingly hosted terrorist headquarters, conventions, conferences, rallies, training camps, internet servers, money-laundering businesses, `charitable' groups and, yes, God strike me dead, `summer retreats for adults and children.' Besides Kansas City, what communities? Well, just a few out-of-the-way places, like: New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; San Francisco; Philadelphia; San Diego; Dallas; Boston; Cleveland; Detroit; Denver; Seattle; Oklahoma City; Laurel and Potomac, Maryland; Brooklyn, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Florida; Sacramento, Santa Clara and Anaheim, California; Tucson, Arizona; Bridgeview, Illinois; Herndon, Springfield and Falls Church, Virginia; Arlington and Richardson, Texas; Plainfield, Indiana; Oxford, Mississippi; and Manhattan, Kansas. Emerson's investigation into all this began on Christmas Day, 1992, when he was drawn into the Oklahoma City Convention Center by a buzz of activity involving men wearing traditional Middle Eastern attire, and then noticed books and videos on sale "preaching Islamic jihad." Gaining further admittance as a `recent convert,' he heard speaker after speaker "preach violence," while the audience chanted `kill the Jews!' and `Destroy the West!' Hmm. Since this was nine years before the 9/11 attack we might wonder exactly where were our half-dozen or so biggest mega-million-dollar national security and law-enforcement agencies, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation? At this point it is hard to avoid the Dave Barry line: "I'm not making this up." While observing a Muslim conference in Detroit in December 1993, Emerson tells how, "After five days of listening to speakers urging Muslims to wage jihad," he was startled to see introduced as a guest speaker a senior FBI agent from the Detroit office, who then delivered some perfunctory remarks that were g

Terror Is Not Invincible

In his function as a staff reporter for CNN, Steven Emerson stumbled upon frightening voices emanating from the midst of the Religion of Peace: conferences celebrating terror and promoting books on "How to Kill the Infidel", sale of videos showing the torture by Palestinians of suspected 'collaborators' and terrorists boasting of their kills. And all this is taking place here, in the United States. The fruits of his investigation gradually grew into a clearinghouse of terror data, and culminated in an acclaimed PBS documentary titled "Jihad in America" that won the George Polk award. This book is a continuation of the theme. Naturally, such blatant practice of freedom of expression could not be allowed to go unpunished, and it was not long before violence and death threats forced the author into hiding. Some of the most grotesque institutions of terror have established themselves and operate out of America, publically proclaiming peace but perpetrating hate, destruction, and jihad in private. The groups that operate under such saccharine banners as 'literacy groups' or 'youth associations' engage in organized crime, money laundering, sham marriages, and immigration fraud. Many pro-Islamic institutions in the U.S. are actually funded directly by Saudi Arabia. The book recalls the exasperation of federal agencies who were not permitted to investigate these groups, their hands so tied that they couldn't attend terror conferences or even examine publically available data. Individual agents were actually prosecuted for attempting to investigate them. It is a testament to the professionalism and tenacity of the FBI that it nonetheless was able to prevent many attacks, among which the Day of Terror in New York City, the attempted bombing of American airliners, and the assassination of the Pope. Some of the schemes and people mentioned in this book were highlighted in the highly recommended Frontline documentary about John O'Neill. The terror networks are not invincible, and current events show that the tide is turning. Our investigation and prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing is awe-inspiring, but law enforcement must be permitted to be proactive. Emerson describes a Hamas leader who is also a tenured professor at the University of South Florida. Al-Arian was in fact finally arrested a few weeks ago, a full year after the publication of this book. The web of Islamic terror spreading through mosques is far-reaching, and Emerson acknowledges that he can touch only on a small part of it in this book. What becomes clear is that the organizations of terror are interconnected, and that it is pointless to distinguish between groups who only want to kill Americans, or just Jews, or only Hindus. Islamists suffer from what Emerson calls 'an extreme form of mission creep': everyone is a target. We relaxed our stance in the 90s in the hope that only Israel was the target of terror. We know now that Islamism has the entire free world in it

A Brave Book

Under the threat of death from the very militants he was investigating, Emerson produced this book of chilling insights. Emerson traces the convergence of the various terrorist groups to the year 1989 and proceeds with a detailed history of their growth from there. Among Emerson's colleagues is the liberal Muslim, Khalid Duran, who wrote a book about fostering understanding between religions. Duran has also been subject to death threats from militant conservative Islamist organizations.Especially disturbing are Emerson's observations on how the militant groups hide under the cover of "charitable organizations" which are exempt from scrutiny. And the way the militants deny their activities even as they are caught red-handed is maddening. This is an extremely important book. We ignore it at our peril. The very existence of the United States is in danger unless we pay attention to the militant Islamist threat.

Swiss cheese

Radical Islamic forces have many times threatened Steven Emerson's life. From their point of view, he knows too much. His Investigative Project has logged more than 6,000 hours of video and audio tapes, and its library is probably the world's most comprehensive on radical Islam. Emerson has thus for years lived in hiding, emerging only for talks and meetings to impart what he knows. In this book, he reveals an American intelligence system so full of holes that it resembles finely aged Swiss cheese. Readers get a solid, albeit unpleasant, taste. Emerson reveals the vision of a globe dominated by Islam prevalent among radical Islamic forces everywhere for the last two decades. Emerson's chatty account backs up this seeming scare mongering with enough facts about radical Islam's worldwide network to curdle one's blood. These forces have for 12 years achieved a new level of coordination, owing to their exploitation of civil liberties in the U.S. "None of these groups was ever able to coordinate its worldwide efforts with the others until they came to the United States," Emerson writes. They use freedoms of speech and assembly with little oversight from the FBI, CIA, Immigration and Naturalization Service or any number of other U.S. agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administration, and so on. Let us hope that free world leaders are listening.Emerson opens his first-person account with details on how he was drawn to pursue and document radical Islam. In 1992, as a reporter for CNN, he was covering an Oklahoma City press conference at which of former Iran-contra special prosecutor Lawrence Welsh released a statement from President Bush (le pere), pardoning former Secretary of State Casper Weinberger. He was bored.On December 25, Emerson passed some men in Arab robes clustered outside the Oklahoma City Convention Center. The Muslim Arab Youth Association meeting inside featured a "bazaar of vendors hawking all kinds of radical material," books preaching Islamic jihad, calling for the extermination of Christians and Jews, even coloring books instructing children 'How to Kill the Infidel'--and speakers from Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood (founded in Egypt in 1920s), Palestinian Islamic Jihad, among others. A Detroit FBI agent fielded questions from "a visibly hostile audience" cheekily asking for "advice on how to ship weapons overseas." Emerson's call to FBI headquarters produced the astounding revelation that the FBI could and would do little to monitor these groups.Although a print journalist, Emerson after the February 26 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center pitched to the U.S. Public Broadcasting System a story on the recruitment and training of radical Islamic warriors inside America. The resulting hour-long program, Jihad in America, aired on November 21, 1994 and is available free on the Internet. In a Brooklyn, N.Y. Yemeni grocery store, Emerson found and bought 20 copies of videos promoting paramilitary