A riveting panoramic look at homegrown Islamist terrorism from 9 11 to the present Since 9 11
more than three hundred Americans born and raised in Minnesota Alabama New Jersey and
elsewhere have been indicted or convicted of terrorism charges. Some have taken the fight
abroad: an American was among those who planned the attacks in Mumbai and more than eighty
U.S. citizens have been charged with ISIS-related crimes. Others have acted on American soil
as with the attacks at Fort Hood the Boston Marathon and in San Bernardino. What motivates
them how are they trained and what do we sacrifice in our efforts to track them? Paced like a
detective story United States of Jihad tells the entwined stories of the key actors on the
American front. Among the perpetrators are Anwar al-Awlaki the New Mexico-born radical cleric
who became the first American citizen killed by a CIA drone and who mentored the Charlie Hebdo
shooters Samir Khan whose Inspire webzine has rallied terrorists around the world including
the Tsarnaev brothers and Omar Hammami an Alabama native and hip hop fan who became a fixture
in al Shabaab s propaganda videos until fatally displeasing his superiors. Drawing on his
extensive network of intelligence contacts from the National Counterterrorism Center and the
FBI to the NYPD Peter Bergen also offers an inside look at the controversial tactics of the
agencies tracking potential terrorists from infiltrating mosques to massive surveillance at
the bias experienced by innocent observant Muslims at the hands of law enforcement at the
critics and defenders of U.S. policies on terrorism and at how social media has revolutionized
terrorism. Lucid and rigorously researched United States of Jihad is an essential new analysis
of the Americans who have embraced militant Islam both here and abroad. Washington Post
Notable Non-Fiction Books in 2016
