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Black flags : the rise of ISIS / by Warrick, Joby.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."When he succeeded his father in 1999, King Abdullah of Jordan released a batch of political prisoners in the hopes of smoothing his transition to power. Little did he know that among those released was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man who would go on to become a terrorist mastermind too dangerous even for al-Qaeda and give rise to an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. Zarqawi began by directing hotel bombings and assassinations in Jordan from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the American invasion of that country in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By identifying him as the link between Saddam and bin Laden, the CIA inadvertently created a monster. Like-minded radicals saw him as a hero resisting the infidel occupiers and rallied to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings continued for years until Jordanian intelligence provided the Americans with the crucial intelligence needed to eliminate Zarqawi in a 2006 airstrike. But his movement endured, first called al-Qaeda in Iraq, then renamed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, seeking refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. And as the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of a sweeping, ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate. Drawing on unique access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Joby Warrick weaves together heart-pounding, moment-by-moment operational details with overarching historical perspectives to reveal the long trajectory of today's most dangerous Islamic extremist threat"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: IS (Organization); Islamic fundamentalism.; Terrorism; Terrorism; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The terrorist factory : ISIS, the Yazidi genocide, and exporting terror / by Desbois, Patrick,author.; Nastasie, Costel,author.; Logan, Lara,writer of foreword.; Temchin, Shelley,translator.; translation of:Desbois, Patrick.Fabrique des terroristes.English.;
With testimony drawn from more than 200 interviews with Yazidi survivors--girls, women, boys, and men--recorded during 11 investigative trips to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and know from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God." Their fighters are paid with sex, money, and the power of life and death over captives. Their promised paradise is here and now, not after death. Men who didn't swear allegiance were executed. Women became slaves for sex or reproduction, and their offspring may still serve the cause. In mobile training camps, the captured children were drugged, indoctrinated, and taught to shoot Kalashnikovs, plant explosives, and handle suicide vests. They are the intended products of the terrorist factory. In this taut, disturbing account, the authors document a utilitarian genocide that still holds an implicit threat to other counties, including those in the West.
Subjects: IS (Organization); Genocide; Yezidis;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Tom Clancy's Op-center [sound recording] : scorched earth / by Galdorisi, George,1948-author.; Berkrot, Peter,narrator.; Clancy, Tom,1947-2013,creator.; Pieczenik, Steve R.,creator.; Macmillan Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Peter Berkrot."ISIS reigns supreme in huge swathes of Iraq and Syria and poses a threat to stability in the Middle East. When an American airstrike kills the ISIS leader's only son, he vows revenge. He discovers that a U.S. Navy admiral, now on duty in the Pentagon, led the strike. The ISIS leader has him kidnapped by American home-grown ISIS sympathizers. Their orders: smuggle him out of the United States and bring him to Mosul for execution.When the normal levers of U.S. domestic security can't move quickly enough to locate the hostage, the President calls on the National Crisis Management Center-Op-Center to find the admiral and rescue him. But as the crisis drags on and it appears the admiral is hidden in a cargo shipment, already on a flight out of the country en route to Mosul, his son, a Navy SEAL, embarks on a lone-wolf mission to rescue his father. Op-Center must muster both its domestic strike force, an elite component of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group Hostage Rescue Team, as well as its international intervention force built around a seasoned squad operating out of the secretive unit that captured Osama bin Laden: the Joint Special Operations Command. As in previous crises, Op-Center's group of twenty- and thirty-something operatives, its "Geek Tank," uses data collation programs, anticipatory intelligence algorithms, and outright hacking to stay one step ahead of a ruthless enemy"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Thrillers (Fiction); IS (Organization); Kidnapping;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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American girls : one woman's journey into the Islamic state and her sister's fight to bring her home / by Roy, Jessica,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The Sally sisters, raised in a rural Jehovah's Witness community in Arkansas, spent their teens and twenties moving between cities and towns in the South and Midwest, working difficult and poorly-paid jobs and falling in and out of relationships. Caught in an eternal sibling rivalry-where Lori, younger by a year, protected bold, outgoing, reckless Sam-the two women eventually married a pair of brothers and settled down in Elkhart, Indiana, just around the corner from each other. And it was there that their lives totally and violently diverged. Today, Sam is in federal custody, where she will remain for the next six years after pleading guilty to Financing Terrorism. In July of 2018, she and her children were plucked from a Kurdish refugee camp in Syria, where she landed after spending two years in Raqqa, shielding her children from airstrikes as her husband fought for ISIS. Sam's oldest son appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos, and she participated in ISIS's practice of enslaving Yazidi women and children. Sam says her husband coerced her to move to Raqqa, but Lori-who quit her job and worked tirelessly to get Sam out of Syria-isn't so sure. American Girls combines an in-depth examination of Sam and Lori's lives with on-the-ground reporting from Syria and Iraq, providing readers with a rare glimpse into the world of American women who join ISIS. Interweaving deeply reported narrative drama with expert analysis, the book explores how the structures of subjugation and abuse experienced at home by women in the U.S. like Sam and Lori are the same structures that enable the rise of patriarchal societies like ISIS. Fascinating, resonant, and moving, American Girls is an unforgettable journey -from small-town Arkansas to Raqqa, from domestic abuse to a militant terrorist organization-all through the story of two close, complicated sisters"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; IS (Organization); Radicalization; Terrorist organizations; Women radicals;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The prisoner / by Berenson, Alex,author.;
"To unmask a CIA mole, John Wells must resume his old undercover identity as an al Qaeda jihadi--and hope he can survive it--in the new cutting-edge novel from the #1 bestselling author. It is the most dangerous mission of John Wells's career. Evidence is mounting that someone high up in the CIA is doing the unthinkable--passing messages to ISIS, alerting them to planned operations. Finding out the mole's identity without alerting him, however, will be very hard, and to accomplish it, Wells will have to do something he thought he'd left behind forever. He will have to reassume his former identity as an al Qaeda jihadi, get captured, and go undercover to befriend an ISIS prisoner in a secret Bulgarian prison. Many years before, Wells was the only American agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda, but times have changed drastically. The terrorist organizations have multiplied: gotten bigger, crueler, more ambitious and powerful. Wells knows it may well be his death sentence. But there is no one else"--
Subjects: Spy fiction.; Thrillers (Fiction); Wells, John (Fictitious character); United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Intelligence officers; Undercover operations;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
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I was told to come alone : my journey behind the lines of jihad / by Mekhennet, Souad,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The journalist who broke the "Jihadi John" story draws on her personal experience to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West and explain the rise of Islamic radicalism Souad Mekhennet has lived her entire life between worlds. The daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father, she was born and educated in Germany and has worked for several American newspapers. Since the 9/11 attacks she has reported stories among the most dangerous members of her religion; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. In this compelling and evocative book, Mekhennet seeks to answer the question, "What is in the minds of these young jihadists, and how can we understand and defuse it?" She has unique and exclusive access into the world of jihad and sometimes her reporting has put her life in danger. We accompany her from Germany to the heart of the Muslim world -- from the Middle East to North Africa, from Sunni Pakistan to Shia Iran, and the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John," and then in Paris and Brussels, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Too often we find ourselves unable to see the human stories behind the headlines, and so Mekhennet - with a foot in many different camps - is the ideal guide to take us where no Western reporter can go. Her story is a journey that changes her life and will have a deep impact on us as well"--
Subjects: Mekhennet, Souad.; Emwazi, Mohammed, -2015.; IS (Organization); Jihad.; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The way of the strangers : encounters with the Islamic State / by Wood, Graeme,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-305) and index.The definitive book on the distinctive history and psychology of ISIS, based on Wood's unprecedented access to the Islamic State's own recruiters and supporters, and his extensive time reporting throughout the region. Based on interviews with Islamic State members and supporters, Wood delivers a fast-paced, riveting narrative about what the Islamic State wants and how it plans to get it. The true story of the on-the-ground reality of the wealthiest, most infamous jihadist group in our world today. A deep dive into the heart of the Islamic State's apocalyptic worldview, this is a bracing look at this terrorist cult from the people who belong to it, promote it and recruit for it.
Subjects: IS (Organization); Terrorists; Terrorists; Terrorism; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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American mother / by McCann, Colum,1965-author.; Foley, Diane,author.;
The English language has no specific word for the parent that has lost a child. There exist words for orphan, widow and widower, but there is no word that captures and conveys this tragic type of loss. It has been eleven years since Diane Foley's son, the American journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in northern Syria, and nearly ten since that day in August 2014 when she would learn that he had been murdered by ISIS in a public beheading that would ricochet in video around the world. A whole decade. Time rushes past. And yet, for Diane, that moment is unending. In American Mother, legendary author Colum McCann tells Diane's story as she recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son's kidnapping and torture. A testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage, American Mother takes us inside one woman's extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep her son's memory alive.
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Foley, Diane; Foley, James, 1973-2014,; Foley, James, 1973-2014.; IS (Organization); Grief.; Hostages; Journalists; Kidnapping victims; Mothers and sons; Mothers of war casualties; Political kidnapping; Terrorists; Victims of terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Red line : the unraveling of Syria and America's race to destroy the most dangerous arsenal in the world / by Warrick, Joby,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Black Flags, the harrowing story of America's mission in Syria: to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons and defeat ISIS--only to lose control of both In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. Concerned that Assad might resort to chemical weapons, President Obama warned that any such use would cross "a red line," warranting an American military response. When a year later Assad bombed the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds, Obama was torn between living up to America's word and becoming mired in another unpopular Middle Eastern war. So when Russia offered to store Syria's chemical weapons, Obama leaped at the out. So begins a race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the middle of Syria's civil war. Told in harrowing detail, the effort is a tactical triumph for the Americans, but soon Russia's long game becomes clear: it has UN cover to assist a close ally, Assad. As the Russians block attempts to check for chemical weapons that might have been missed, American realizes that ISIS seeks to secure them for itself. Red Line is a classic Joby Warrick true-life thriller: a character-driven narrative with a cast of heroes and villains, including weapons hunters, politicians, commandos, diplomats, and spies. Through original reporting and eyewitness accounts from direct participants, Joby Warrick reveals how a well-intentioned effort to save Syrian lives touched off a chain of events that would rescue a dictator, sustain a terrorist movement, unleash torrents of refugees, humiliate two U.S. presidents, and empower Russia and Iran"--
Subjects: IS (Organization); Chemical weapons disposal; Chemical weapons; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The beekeeper : rescuing the stolen women of Iraq / by Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā,1965-author,translator.; Weiss, Max,1977-translator.; translation of:Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā,1965-Fi Suq Al-sabaya by Almutawassit.English.;
"Since 2014, Daesh (ISIS) has been brutalizing the Yazidi people of northern Iraq: sowing destruction, killing those who won't convert to Islam, and enslaving young girls and women. The Beekeeper, by the acclaimed poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail, tells the harrowing stories of several women who managed to escape the clutches of Daesh. Mikhail extensively interviews these women--who've lost their families and loved ones, who've been repeatedly sold, raped, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons--and as their tales unfold, an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain, along with a wide network of transporters, helpers, and former cigarette smugglers, to bring these women, one by one, through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, back into safety. In the face of inhuman suffering, this powerful work of nonfiction offers a counterpoint to Daesh's genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk their lives to save those of others"--
Subjects: Biographies.; IS (Organization); Women; Yezidis;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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