Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Book Description

Memory of historical trauma has a unique power to generate works of art. This book analyzes the relation of public memory to history, forgetting, and selective memory in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York—three late-twentieth-century cities that have confronted major social or political traumas. Berlin experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall and the city’s reemergence as the German capital; Buenos Aires lived through the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s and their legacy of state terror and disappearances; and New York City faces a set of public memory issues concerning the symbolic value of Times Square as threatened public space and the daunting task of commemorating and rebuilding after the attack on the World Trade Center.

Focusing on the issue of monumentalization in divergent artistic and media practices, the book demonstrates that the transformation of spatial and temporal experience by memory politics is a major cultural effect of globalization.

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Posing Techniques for Photographers and Models
Cheyenne
Manufacturer: Amphoto
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Reference | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | How-to | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Equipment | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0817455442

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Posing Techniques for Photographers and Models
Cheyenne
Manufacturer: Amphoto
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM7H1Y

Customer Reviews:

Think Persian is a book about an extrordinary cat.......1999-05-17

Cricket the cat is a humourous, sophisticated and sometimes ironic cat who having lived the life of most cats, is contented to just sit and tell us about it.

Superbly illustrated satire of a cat's view of people........1997-09-09

Got a new copy at a used book sale and read it in one brief sitting. I strongly suggest that it is a must to own this if you are an adult cat lover. The line drawings are delightful and very well done. I wish it could be reprinted as its content is timeless. People may well have imagined a cat thinks as the author believes they do

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Think Persian

Manufacturer: Saturday Shop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HEO8EI

Book Description

This collection of popular newspaper and magazine columns by Vernon Schmid is gleaned from hundreds of published pieces over the years in newspapers and magazines. His work regularly reaches tens of thousands readers. A prize-winning poet and newspaper editor, he is also a novelist and playwright. Filled with humor, wit and wisdom, these pieces offer insight into the always odd and illuminating activities of humanity, albeit from a unusual point of view. Whether a rancher, farmer, stable owner, racehorse aficionado, or casual reader, these columns will tickle your funny bone and sometimes bring a tear to your eye.

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More Houlihans and Horse Sense
Vernon Schmid
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cats, Dogs & Animals | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Essays | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0595469094

Book Description

In this gathering of columns and articles, Vernon Schmid touches, provokes, gouges, tickles, and challenges his readers. A United Methodist pastor, and author of Watie's Wolves (iUniverse, 2007), he has been a horse trainer, ranch hand, wrangler, Rocky Mountain trail guide, radio announcer, country, rock-a-billy, folksinger and educator. His first novel, Seven Days of the Dog, was a Heekin Group Fiction Finalist and his collection of poetry, Hog Killers and Other Poems was a Northwoods Poetry Prize winner. A member of the Western Writers of America, his popular magazine column "Horse Sense" appears monthly in the National Foundation Quarter Horse Journal with readers in the all 50 states and 24 foreign countries.

Book Description

Coinciding with his trial on charges of first degree murder, this is a timely perspective on the reclusive, eccentric record producer. Phil Spector changed the way pop records were produced by creating the Wall of Sound effect, which featured soaring orchestration and multilayered vocals. Spector worked with some of the biggest names in the pop and rock business - the Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, The Ramones, and the Ronettes. The book draws from a compilation of interviews over many years with people who had close interaction with Spector: friends, business associates, and romantic interests. It also includes recent interviews with the people who know Spector best: ex-wife Ronnie Spector, close friend Doc Pomus, cowriter Ellie Greenwich, session singer Darlene Love, engineer Larry Levine, rock 'n' roll historian Michael Oaks, and many more.

Customer Reviews:

Skip This One!.......2005-02-05

Awful. Reads as if it was written in a hurry. Skips over a lot of classic musicmaking in the early '60s to concentrate on Spector's sessions with The Beatles and the murder of Lana Clarkson. Obviously written to cash in on the scandal. Mark Ribowsky's "He's A Rebel" and Richard Williams's "Out Of His Head" aren't flawless, but they are much better than this turkey.

He's off deep end..........2004-05-15

May 14, 2004>--he & his Chauffer--were arrested,booked..for disturbance at his mock castle Out on bail,alleged muder,--this case has a parralel to.."who Killed Kurt Cobain"..see "Love & Death"..another expose-of what appears be grunge underworld of R&B..laying down strange tracks...

Customer Reviews:

on one essay in this volume.......2003-12-05

In "'Doing Looks': Women, Appearance and Mental Health," Liz Frost addresses the troubled relationship between feminism and physical appearance, explores the possibilities of pleasure and power a woman might (or might not) harness by lavishing attention on her own attractiveness, and deplores the lack of discursive space for a woman to articulate her appreciation of her appearance. Instead of reading that attention-which she calls "doing looks"-as vanity or as the coerced obedience to misogynistic patriarchy, both models that induce shame and guilt and cast the woman in the role of passive consumer, Frost emphasizes the potential satisfaction of a woman's active involvement with her appearance. She contrasts second-wave feminism's criticism that "doing looks" signals conformity with mandated gender roles against psychiatric discourse that celebrates meeting those norms as a gauge of mental health and a means to repairing the fragmented relationship with the self. Her argument relies, perhaps too heavily, on an optimistic desire to locate agency and self-respect in the act of assimilating to cultural norms, as when she counters de Beauvoir and Mulvey by speculating "Could the internalized other of this version of gendered subjectivity perhaps be instead [of the beauty-fashion complex] the introjected loving parent, adoring boyfriend, benevolent woman friend or friendly mirror telling me I look great, and hence offering a considerable degree of narcissistic pleasure?"

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The Hollywood TV Producer His Work and His Audience
Muriel G. Cantor
Manufacturer: Basic Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books | Dance | General | Reference | Theater
General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0465030378

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The Hollywood TV Producer: His Work and His Audience (Classics in Communication and Mass Culture)
Muriel G. Cantor
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Direction & Production | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Communication | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0887381650

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The Hollywood TV Producer: His Work and His Audience
Muriel G. Cantor
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LC6IPS

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Hollywood Tv Producer: His Work and His Audience
Muriel G. Canton
Manufacturer: BASIC BOOKS, INC., PUBLISHERS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKNQ0W

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The Hollywood TV producer; his work and his audience [by] Muriel G. Cantor
Muriel G. Cantor
Manufacturer: New York, Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VZRGTM

Customer Reviews:

Canadians Tackle Strategy.......2001-04-20

This book is a collection of seventeen essays written by officers in the War Studies program at Canada's senior professional military educational institution. The essays are organized into three broad sections: The Evolution of Military Strategy and Doctrine(6 essays); Unconventional Warfare(5 essays); Conflict in the Twenty-first Century(6 essays). The editor's overarching purpose for the collection is to provide a source for post Cold-War military professionals who lack combat experience to learn vicariously. All the essays are persuasive in intent and tend to be more analytical in style than narrative, many deal with U.S. military doctrine, strategy, and operations. The book is a nod to Liddell Hart's comment on peacetime militaries that "in a literal sense the profession of arms is not a profession at all, but merely `casual employment'." A good source for fellow students seeking oposing views and independent ideas.

Great literature, great authors........1999-06-04

The english world is divided into two parts, those who have read the changing face of war, and those who have not read the changing face of war. This book is a great testament to what great military minds can accomplish when they set their minds to it. I enjoyed this book greatly and would love to read more from these authors, especially Robert Poirier. Robert Poirier's section on Seeckt and the Reichwehr was incredible, I couldn't put the book down for a second. It inspired me as well as taught me many things, this book is a great piece of literature.

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Required Reading

Wake up America!

Understanding our opponents

Confused Analysis, Unclear Message

To See Ourselves as Others See Us.

Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, Revised Edition
Michael Scheuer
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1574889672

Book Description

This seminal work on modern terrorism is the one book to read in order to truly understand the reasons why radical Muslims such as Osama bin Laden and his followers have declared war on America and the West. In order to win the war against terrorism, argues Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIAâ€™s Bin Laden Unit, we must first stop dismissing militant Muslims as "extremists" or "religious fanatics." Formulating a successful military strategy requires that we see the enemy as they perceive themselveâ€”highly trained and motivated soldiers who believe their cause is righteous.

This revised paperback edition provides a more extensive study of Osama bin Laden and the sources of his thought. Scheuer has added a good deal of bin Ladenâ€™s words, focusing on those issues that have been most misunderstood or ignored and therefore are most in need of exposition. These include bin Ladenâ€™s personality; his early years as a nonviolent Saudi dissident and reformer; the causes motivating al Qaeda and its allies, especially their perception that U.S. foreign policy threatens Islamâ€™s survival; bin Ladenâ€™s long history of interest in and support for the Palestinian cause against Israel; his evolutionary growth as an Islamic hero and leader between 1996 and 2001; and the profound impact the Afghan-Soviet War had and continues to have on bin Laden, al Qaeda, and worldwide Sunni Islamic militancy. Only by understanding these words can the West appreciate the threat it faces and formulate a strategy to defeat it.

Customer Reviews:

Required Reading.......2007-10-10

A phenomenal perspective and one every citizen of the US should read (especially the idiots in the Bush Administration).

Wake up America!.......2007-09-02

Fabulous book, well written, eye opening. Every Christian in America needs to read this Scheuer book. The future is frightening, and Scheuer explains why in no uncertain terms.

Understanding our opponents.......2007-07-03

Mr. Scheuer has rendered an invaluable service by writing this book. We have to understand what motivates al Queda in order to find a way to make peace with them... I'm three quarters of the way through the book and I wish there was some way to make every member of Congress and the Administration to read it. Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, you cannot help but learn some of the backstory that we in the West don't know about "radical" Islam and why our efforts there may be doomed to failure. My thanks to the soldier who recommended it to me.

Confused Analysis, Unclear Message.......2007-02-02

While I did not read this book, I did attend a 1 1/2 hour lecture given by Scheuer at a local college. I found myself agreeing with the some of his conclusions, but found that he arrived at most of them for all the wrong reasons. I will give here a brief critique of his lecture.

1. Scheuer believes that militant Islam's grievances are valid (to some unspecified extent) and should be addressed. He suggested that the problems with Islamism stem in part from the Arab-Israeli conflict, but then, confusingly, explained that Islamic terror is a global phenomenon [true], citing as an example the Muslim terrorism against Thai Buddhists and the military coup there which recently transpired. Scheuer thinks the "clash of civilizations" would be mitigated if we ceased all support for Israel. Curiously, he thinks it would be desirable to let Israel pursue the harsh measures required to defeat terror without US intervention. But this is odd, coming from a man who thinks US support for Israel is one of the roots of the problem. Does he believe that US restraint of Israel is the problem, or does he think that US involvement with Israel, largely supportive, is the problem? In the lecture, Scheuer stated that America pussyfoots by trying to win "hearts and minds", and openly stated that militant Islam will require the same unambiguously decisive defeat that America inflicted on the Japanese. I don't entirely disagree with that conclusion, but then Scheuer criticizes Israel for being too harsh in its war against Hizballah. Scheuer accuses Israel of barbarously leveling buildings but ignores the thousands of Hizballah rockets that killed hundreds of Israelis. In other words, does Scheuer think that America was justified to exhort Israel to use "proportionate force" when dealing with Hizballah, or does he think Israel should have employed the same overwhelming force that he recommends the US employ in Iraq? Does he think that only the US is entitled to employ overwhelming force and that Israel alone should be prevented from doing so? Which is it?

2. Scheuer repeatedly made the analogy that Bin Laden is a modern incarnation of the Civil War's Stonewall Jackson. I find this fawning comparison to be ahistorical, morally equivalent, and almost offensive. Jackson was not a murderer. Jackson wore a uniform and actually led his men in battle. Jackson was simply a brilliant military commander, like many before and after him. Scheuer's analogy reminds me of a similar one by Yassir Arafat, who stated, "I am like George Washington". Patton was a brilliant tactical commander -- was he like Bin Laden, too?

3. Indeed, it seems that Scheuer ignores 1300 years of history. His analysis of global Islamic militancy starts, more or less, with Khomeini. While a case can be made (a difficult one) that Khomeini initiated a total change in the Islamic weltanschauung, this contention would require significant bolstering on Scheuer's part, given that Islamic conflict with the West hearkens back almost to its inception, and has been waged almost without respite ever since. It can be argued that our clash with Islam represents a discontinuous break from, say, the Ottoman clashes with Russia and Austria, or the Moor's conquest of Spain, or the Saracen invasion of Sicily, and so on -- but he does not provide that argument. Indeed, Scheuer's historiography, while glib and seductive, is rather amateurish and spotty. It doesn't seem to go further than his recommendation that America resuscitate the spirit of General Sherman -- a recommendation that, while not without its merits, is founded on a rather superficial historical comparison.

4. Scheuer's explanation for why (he assumes?) Bin Laden is alive was utterly unconvincing. "We would know if he was dead," he stated. When asked why Bin Laden has not seized the rich propaganda opportunity to taunt the West by making new video appearances, Scheuer asserted - incredibly - that Bin Laden does not desire to taunt the West. He contends, therefore, that Bin Laden does not relish propaganda opportunities. His is certainly an interesting theory, but not convincing in my view.

5. Scheuer characterized the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as "infantile". Scheuer fails to mention if there are any other conflicts around the world, or in history, that he regards as infantile. He apparently feels that calling the conflict "infantile" is helpful. Scheuer suffers from the disease of moral equivalency here, treating both sides as equally responsible for the conflict. Any recognition of Israel's peace overtures at the Camp David accords and at Oslo was absent.

6. Scheuer stated that no nation, including the US, has a "right" to exist. He did not explain this comment in greater detail, but by implication, he therefore believes that the last victor in a struggle is by definition, legitimate -- that is, that might makes right.

7. Scheuer dredges up the favorite bogeyman of the Left and of America-Last conservatives -- Neocons! He stated (and I quote) that "Neoconservatives manufactured the Islamic Caliphate." Given that the caliphate first appeared during 7-8th century Islamic conquest, I find his assertion hard to swallow. Love Neocons or hate them, it is hard to take Scheuer seriously when he makes comments so obviously absurd. In general, Scheuer claims that many of our current problems with Islamic militancy is our fault. He derides US foreign policy for supporting dictators, like Mubarak, but did not adequately address the alternative, in this case the Muslim Brotherhood. If not Mubarak, then what? Scheuer apparently believes that Muslims are justified in rioting around the world because of cartoons in a Danish newspaper. It is not clear how Scheuer would attack these difficulties -- should we stop publishing cartoons? Should there be censorship? Should we bow and scrape whenever Muslims are offended?

8. Scheuer neglects to mention that the US rescued Muslims in Kosovo, saved Shia and Kurds in Iraq, and helped Bin Laden's own Mujaheddin repulse the Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, and yet, somehow, asserts that we are still responsible for the (valid?) negative perception of the US among Muslims. He feels that terror will decrease if we take steps to make us more popular with terrorists.

9. Scheuer resigned from the CIA to protest the Bush Administration's handling of the War on Terror, or rather, its mishandling at the hands of the dreaded Neocons. But Scheuer does not explain why he opted not to resign under Clinton, who did not act to kill Bin Laden when he had the chance. Scheuer himself harshly condemns Clinton for that decision, but fails to explain why Clinton's errors did not merit a resignation but Bush's alleged errors do. This leads the listener to wonder if his resignation wasn't motivated by some mysterious personal reason. More to the point, if Scheuer has so much vitriol for the alleged mismanagement of the War on Terror by Neoconservatives, why does he also berate the Clinton administration for mismanagement -- an administration which did not contain Neoconservatives?

10. Scheuer derides the media's hand wringing and "whining" about the war, yet he himself, as the CBS "Terrorism Expert", seems part of the problem. I have not seen him forcefully take his own network to task (let alone the media as a whole) for glorifying failure, ignoring successes, and furthering its own demonstrably Leftist bias.

11. Scheuer decries President Bush and his alleged Neocon cabal for involving us in Iraq. Certainly, I would not argue his Presidency is free of mistakes. Yet Bush's decision was based on intelligence furnished not only by the CIA, but by the British MI5 and also French intelligence. If the intelligence made available to Bush was flawed, it seems unfair, in the absence of other details, to criticize the White House for its decision to go to war.

Some of Michael Scheuer's recommendations seem correct -- use overwhelming force, cease support for dictators, or jettison Europe, for example. But he appears to arrive at them via a twisted path of factual omissions and contradictions. Scheuer seems to suffer from a type of analytical schizophrenia, or cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, he adopts the rather Leftist positions that we are responsible for Islamic antipathy toward us, that Israel is the problem, that we have inflamed the Muslim world, and that Iraq has created more terrorists. On the other, he regards US military actions as timid. Indeed, Scheuer's lecture left me not only dismayed by his apparently romantic attachment to Bin Laden as an anti-hero, but wondering, simply, whether Scheuer himself contributed to the ineffectiveness of the CIA during his tenure. Until Scheuer can answer these and other questions, I will refrain from spending time and money on his books.

To See Ourselves as Others See Us........2006-03-15

The Scottish poet Robert Burns once said, "Oh would some power the gift give us, To see ourselves as others see us!

And in this day and age, the 'others' that really concern me include Osama bin Laden and the people in al Queda. This book does just that. It quotes bin Laden and associates to see what they are really saying rather than the quick thirty second news bite so favored by the news organizations when they can't find any blood to photograph.

This book takes bin Laden's statements, and in an interesting turn-about compares them with statements of a very similar nature made by Americans related to our revolution. He then goes on to show how bin Laden views the Americans not too differently from the way the American Patriots viewed England in 1776. (Strange how patriot or terrorist may be the same people depending on the eye of the looker.)

All in all, this is a very frightening book. It says that the anger from bin Laden is real, based on actual events, and not an isolated case, but spread throughout the Muslim world. Perhaps all Muslims would not be willing to go to the extremes to crash into the World Trade Center. It is clear however, that there are enough holding these views to provide the ocean in which the 'extremists,' 'religious fanatics,' 'terrorists,' 'guerrillas,' or 'patriots' can swim.

All in all, I rank this book as one of the three 'must reads,' anyone interested in what happens now must read. The other two are 'The 9/11 Commission Report,' and 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order' by Samuel P. Huntington.

There are a lot of reviewers of all three of these books who seem so rabidly angry at President Bush that they reject everything that these books have to say. I really like one review of 'Clash' who asked what a bunch of people living in a backward country like Afghanistan could possibly do to hurt the United States. That was before 9/11.

Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam & the Future of America

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Something to keep in mind
How radical Islam operates
Just a comment on a review
Frightening Assessment
Bin Laden's sycophantic "critic"

Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam & the Future of America
Michael Scheuer
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Islamic | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1574885537

Book Description

All Americans must read this book in order to truly understand the reasons why radical Muslims like Osama bin Laden and his followers have declared war on America and the West. Furthermore, only this book accurately describes the severity of the threat they will continue to pose, with or without bin Ladenâ€™s leadership, to our national security.

To win the war against terrorism, the author argues that we must first stop dismissing militant Muslims as â€œextremistsâ€ or â€œreligious fanatics.â€ Formulating a successful military strategy requires that we must see the enemy as they perceive themselvesâ€”highly trained and motivated soldiers who fervently believe their cause is righteous. The author describes how militants throughout the Islamic world are enraged by what they believe is Western aggression against their people, religion, and culture. Though bin Laden declared war on America years agoâ€”not once but twiceâ€”the author argues that American complacence in the face of such violent threats stems from the increasing secularization and moral relativism of American society and culture. Even if bin Laden is brought to justice, the author warns, the dangers posed by radical Islamic militants will not disappear, and we must be prepared for a protracted war against terrorism. This important book will make a major impact on how America thinks about its enemy and itself.

Customer Reviews:

Something to keep in mind.......2007-02-13

A professor of mine was once discussing the economic motivation for terrorism in a course designed to look at social ills around the world through the lens of economics. He abruptly stopped, half-way through the middle of a sentence, solemnly looked above his reading glasses at the students in the class, and said one of the most interesting things I remember from the class. "I am an academic," he said. "When speaking of these events, I am not making a moral judgment on them. I am simply looking at them through the lens of an individual trying to understand something for the sake of dealing with it. That does not mean that I condone or am complicit in the action, but it does note my character. I am trying to understand it, and that is something very different from simply labeling it."

Often, when I see that people are attacked for books that delve into such topics, it is usually an ad hominem attack meant to discredit them as unpatriotic or complicit with the enemy. Whatever their reasons, the attackers forget that to conquer your enemy, you must understand him. Only then can you fully realize the most effective tactics in dealing with him. Maybe the rest of us can learn a little bit by people like Michael Scheuer.

How radical Islam operates.......2006-04-23

Any studying Islamic terrorism and the current war must understand Bin Laden, his movement, and how radical Islam operates. There's no better place to do this than with the latest revised edition THROUGH OUR ENEMIES' EYES: OSAMA BIN LADEN, RADICAL ISLAM AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA. Here is a treatment which analyzes his ideology, its translation to terrorist activities, and its potential for future conflict. Chapters provide a strong focus on Bin Laden's character traits, various exiles, impact on other nations, and instigation of jihad. A 'must' for any who would understand the roots of Bin Laden's organization and ideas.

Just a comment on a review.......2006-04-20

One review here states:

"The one peeve I have with the author, as with so most of the pseudo-journalists today, is that he consistantly referred to the Muslim god "Allah" as "God." Indeed, most of the time you read or hear an English translation of an Arabic source, "Allah" is usually rendered "God." It has to be pointed out that "Allah" is not the same person as "God." All that has to be pointed out to prove that point is that Allah has no son named Jesus Christ, though I could go on and on about the distinctions. Christians and Muslims do NOT worship the same Being."

Actually, Muslims DO believe they worship the same god as that revered by those they call the 'people of the book' - just that Mohammad's revelations were the last and final word on matters (superceding all others).

The Muslim call to prayer begins "la allah illa Allah", which means EXACTLY, "There is no god but God". I hear it five times a day from a hundred mosques in this city.

Frightening Assessment.......2006-03-18

I titled this review "Frightening Assessment" because if the author is correct, which I tend to agree he is, the war on terror is going to last a lot longer than any of us have imagined, or else end in quick defeat when the liberals completely sell us out to the enemy.

The author makes the point that Osama Bin Laden, while being a charasmatic leader, is not the real problem. The problem is that we, like it or not, are fighting an ideology that presents itself as a religion, and ideology/religion is absolutely devoted to the destruction of Western society. The problem is like the mythical Hydra: cut off one head and two more will spring into its place. In other words, this war will continue long after Bin Laden is roasting in Hell.

With that said, what will ultimately defeat us is not the enemy directly, but our lack of understanding of who the enemy actually is and why they hate us. Until we recognize that we will be severely, possibly fatally, handicapped.

The one peeve I have with the author, as with so most of the pseudo-journalists today, is that he consistantly referred to the Muslim god "Allah" as "God." Indeed, most of the time you read or hear an English translation of an Arabic source, "Allah" is usually rendered "God." It has to be pointed out that "Allah" is not the same person as "God." All that has to be pointed out to prove that point is that Allah has no son named Jesus Christ, though I could go on and on about the distinctions. Christians and Muslims do NOT worship the same Being.

Why do I make that point? That very issue is at the heart of the misunderstanding that this same author so aptly discusses.

Bin Laden's sycophantic "critic".......2006-03-14

As this book is re-released, readers should be well aware that Michael Scheuer is the perfect example of the miserable state of American intelligence services - thankfully, he no longer provides analysis for the CIA, now it's the general public that gets to read his "intelligence". A great example of his extraordinary incompetence was provided on March 12, 2006 when he suggested to Ian Masters on KPFK, Los Angeles, that the attack on Samarra's Golden Mosque was more likely carried out by the Israeli military than by al-Qaida. From this text, as with his most recent pronouncements, it is indeed difficult not to conclude that Scheuer is absolutely besotted with bin Laden.

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