Last week the Washington Examiner published an op-ed I wrote with Nir Boms about the need for rule of law in the Middle East. A few quick notes.

The piece started by describing the plight of Ahmad al-Baghdadi, a Kuwaiti professor and writer who had run afoul of the regime for criticizing the Islamic education in Kuwait's schools. Since then, MEMRI ran an article on al-Baghdadi's travails. He announced that he has given up writing.

Also, the article mentioned a group of Bulgarian nurses Libya's Gaddafi has sentenced to death and is blaming for an AIDS epidemic in Libya. The epidemic was caused by poor hygiene at the hospital. Space limitations prevented me from mentioning that Gaddafi is using the nurses to blackmail Bulgaria. That oil-rich Libya is blackmailing impoverished (but developing) Bulgaria is a dwspicable irony.

In its January 2005 edition Army Magazine, which is published by the Association of the United States Army published the following review of Profiles in Terror. I am deeply moved that that the real heroes find my modest contribution helpful.


Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations
Lt. Gen. Theodore G. Stroup Jr., USA Ret.

Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations. Aaron Mannes. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. In cooperation with JINSA Press. 373 pages; index; $29.95.

This outstanding guide to terrorist organizations is both an excellent textbook for students of the Middle East and a great reference for experts in policy, research or programs on Middle Eastern terrorism.

While there have been many books written on Middle Eastern terrorism and its actors, Aaron Mannes' work is by far the best. It is a compact, comprehensive guide on the subject.

When one first gets into the book, the reader may find its "bites" of information repetitive; however, when the reader takes time to comprehensively digest the unique parallel layout on each terrorist organization, the repetition makes sense. It is the networking of information on each organization or event that makes this book so effective as a reference guide.

I was struck by the complete but succinct descriptions of each organization: its history, ideology, leadership, organization, financing and linkages and most important, the chronology of major events and attacks of each. Because we view such terrorism as spider webs of lethal elements-all related-it struck me that this is not unlike an entomology text on poisonous insects-except this particular text connects the dots, the ideologies and the alliances as they now exist and have evolved.

This book is all the more valuable given the turmoil over Arafat's death and the new Bush administration's potential reengagement in the Middle East peace process.

Profiles in Terror is a keeper as a reference, a study or a guide since we are engaged in the global war on terrorism as a nation.

Copyright Association of the United States Army Jan 2005