Path of blood

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Path of Blood tells the horrifying true story of the underground army which Osama Bin Laden created in order to attack his number one target: his home country, Saudi Arabia. His aim was to conquer the land of the Two Holy Mosques, the birthplace of Islam and, from there, to re-establish a Muslim Empire that could take on the West and win.

Thomas Small and Jonathan Hacker use new insider evidence to expose the real story behind the Al Qaeda. Far from the image of single-minded holy warriors they presented to the world, the bands of soldiers are shown to be riven by infighting and lack of discipline. Yet the threat they posed was unquestionable. Ill-disciplined or not, these were men who killed with impunity, and who tried to acquire a nuclear bomb.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Saudi government archives, interviews with top intelligence officials in the Middle East and in the West, as well as with captured Al Qaeda militants, and with access to exclusive captured video footage from Al Qaeda cells, Path of Blood tells the full story of the terrorist campaign and the desperate attempt by Saudi Arabia's internal security services to put a stop to it.

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Publishers Weekly Review

Small and Hacker offer a book adaptation of their forthcoming documentary film on the war between al-Qaeda on the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP) and the government of Saudi Arabia. Based on extensive and unprecedented access to records from the Saudi Ministry of the Interior (MOI), seized AQAP photos and documents, Web posts, and interviews with leaders of the Saudi internal security forces, the authors describe in great detail the MOI's three-year fight (2002-2005) to destroy AQAP. Both sides waged a media battle that used Islamic tenets to justify their actions and attempts to win over the Saudi population. The authors also describe the evolution and professionalization of the Saudi security forces as a partner to the U.S and U.K., highlighting the central role of deputy interior minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayef as leader of the security of forces. The American-educated prince balanced religion, cultural understanding, professional police work, and political moderation to gain popular support in his campaign against AQAP. The authors do not have any particular expertise in Middle East affairs or counter-terrorism, and therefore the book is a relatively straightforward account of events with only a little analysis, but it's a solid view of operations that few Americans even know occurred. Agent: Alex Christofi. Photos. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.