Rating: 
Summary: Ok, so what is to be done?
Review: This is a difficult book to read. Like other reporters on confusing issues that cannot be ignored, we are treated to something of a buffet of facts with limited organizing principle. For example, the dust jacket attempts to raise the celebrity of Mr. Emerson by noting his 1997 comment that "If anything, the threat [of a World Trade Center attack] is greater now than before. The infrastructure now exists to carry off twenty simultaneous World TradeCenter-type [truck] bombings across the United States".The quote displays the strengths and weaknesses of the book. Mr. Emerson is correct that something is incredibly wrong, but the danger is as mysterious as ever. The American terrorist network has proven to support a continuous wave of equivalent bombings in Israel, not the United States. Rather than pulling off 20 simultaneous US truck bombings, the infrastructure pulled on a single attack that was 100 times worse than the 1991 truck bomb. Emerson really never gets down to the fundamentals of terrorizing populations. Instead, he adopts the familiar 'reporters' perspective to organize his comments. The first two chapters are autobiographical. He simply explains how he got 'hooked' on tailing the Jihad. The justifications are not really satisfying, since his initial motivation seemed careerist rather than principled. The fuming Muslim Jihadis seemed a good candidate for a long term writing job. But, the autobiographic theme is then blended into the 'eye witness reporter' perspective. The internal self-inspection falls away and Mr. Emerson reports on his adventures while interviewing various mullahs and warlords who he is convinced will kill him if they only knew what he was up to. The story is somewhat surreal and diffused. The terrorists seem to suffer from an odd bi-polar disorder, being a courteous host in public, but dwelling in the sewers of murder when out of our author's sight. Perhaps knowing he has to deliver some sort of criminal conviction if he wanted to satisfy the reader, we are then told a detailed story of a terrorist recruiter, then of a terrorist trainee. Unfortunately, Mr. Emerson has to acknowledge that both are only 'linked' to terror organizations. Mr. Emerson cannot accuse either of specific crimes. And, there in lies the real pain for the reader. We are left hanging. What is to be done? Change US laws? Go to war? Close the borders? Start a civil defense program? Or, ignore it because it's just a bad dream that will go away... Based on my own reading between the lines, Osama Bin Laden's bombing of the World Trade Towers is the aberration that threatens to spoil the party. The US is the training ground and a major funding source for Islamofascist operations everywhere else! Hamas is probably just as interested in taking down Bin Laden as Bush. The guy is screwing up a sweet deal with an American bureaucracy whose only real interest is preserving the status-quo. Unfortunately, this is a message unlikely to cause many Americans to awaken with any sense of purpose. Rather than trot out the 'usual suspects' and the traditional plot line, I would rather Emerson had taken the next step and outlined the bigger picture. Maybe this was not his purpose. Maybe he just wanted to cause his reader to think. Maybe his publisher just wanted to take advantage of huge wave of fear caused by the World Trade Center. As a country, we are losing the war. It isn't lost, but the real problem is our inability to define the threat. Americans continue to define security in terms of very expensive mobility and weapons systems. The World Trade Center attack cost only a few hundred thousand to mount. The American response has be to divert billions to massive technological control systems and more billions to transport a conventional army (control system) to the middle east. We have been pouring billions down a rat hole over the so-call 'war on drugs'. Are Americans doomed to pour the last billions down the drain on a misguided 'war on terror'? It would be helpful if Emerson had addressed the American 'way' in terms of dealing with what should really be called 'NetWar'. What should the response be to network terrorists who are infrastructure parasites rather than competitors? What is the cost? Who should manage the effort? Mr. Emerson gets high marks for laying the ground work, but he failed to lay out the battle lines in understandable terms.
Rating: 
Summary: Clear and important information on a vital subject
Review: This is an important book. What Mr. Emerson says is alarming without being alarmist. There are people who sympathize with the aims of Islamist radicals living in our country. The author explains which of these organizations are already HERE and working in this country. I had no idea that they held conferences in places as seemingly unlikely as Omaha! In this book we learn that there are many innocent sounding charities that are really front organizations doing fund raising for these groups. This is being confirmed in daily newspaper articles about this very subject. Mr. Emerson documents what the leaders of these organizations have said and what they have stated their goals to be. These goals are different than what their public relations people say on their behalf on the various talk shows. While the book isn't very long, it does contain some very strong stuff. We don't need to change America into a police state, but we do need heighten our awareness several levels. This book can help us know more about the threat and what we need to be aware of. Please read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking revelations of the enemy now amongst us.
Review: This remarkable book is an absolute 'must read'. The author reveals through his exhaustive investigations, how Islamic terrorists living in the West, (primarily in the USA), have used our open society, freedom of speech and civil liberties to create and coordinate an Islamic Worldwide terrorist network intent upon Worldwide domination and Islamic expansion. The writer exposes the ease in which these many Islamic terrorist groups have been successful in the US by exploiting the freedom enshrined in the US Constitution. Just as disturbing are the revelations of the casualness and seeming impotence of the security services in dealing with the threats. It is surprising & alarming to learn that the national security establishment was completely unaware of things to come. Calls for Jihad against Israel and the West, from within the US soil itself during the 1980's going completely unnoticed. The book reads like a novel, but it's reality and immediacy will at times take your breath away. Having read this book, one can be left in no doubt that, if not apprehended, these Islamic terrorists living amongst us in the US and many other locations within the International community, will clearly pursue their destructive agenda of which the September 11 2001 atrocities were only the forerunners of many attacks yet to come. The writer reveals that when presenting his own considerable evidence of terrorist activities within the US in November 1994, he was amazed at how prominent mainstream elements of the media downplayed or ridiculed him. Accusations of 'racism' and 'crusader' were directed at him amongst the death threats from Islamic entities. Many sections of this book will shock you. One such case is how the author was personally able to purchase a number of videos readily on display at a Yemeni grocery store in Brooklyn. Videos which revealed in detail the torture until confession of alleged Palestinian 'collaborators' with Israel. Victims who were tortured and upon confession executed. One can but commend the author's extensive research and the highly readable manner in which he has presented it here. Hopefully, the revelations within this book have now been taken seriously by the security services of the Western World, especially as war with Iraq appears imminent. I also highly recommend three other books for those interested in this topic. "Age Of Sacred Terror" by Daniel Benjamin, Steven Simon , "Jihad; The Everlasting Hatred" by Hal Lindsey, "Why Terrorism Works" by Alan Dershowitz & "The High Cost Of Peace" by Yossef Bodansky. Thank you for your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a hollywood movie
Review: This would be a good fiction novel, but in reality Emerson does not seem very well informed about Terrorism in the US. He mis-aligns groups and presents the subject with a strong opinionated overtone. His good would make a good movie though.
Rating:
Summary: A Warning to America
Review: Too bad Steven Emerson was ignored before 9-11. His book exposes the terrorists among us and shows that we seem not to even be interested. Emerson lists a number of incidents that were news items in the past decade and a little more. Surprisingly many were not mentioned as more than just a news item. Emerson goes behind the scenes, so to speak, and exposes that we did not learn the truth about them. Emerson risked his life visiting meetings and attempting to follow-up on leads to get him the information for this book. But in the end, do we really care? We should, and Emerson tells us why.
Rating:
Summary: A Brave Book
Review: Under the threat of death from the very militants he was investigating, Emerson produced this book of chilling insights. Emerson traces the convergence of the various terrorist groups to the year 1989 and proceeds with a detailed history of their growth from there. Among Emerson's colleagues is the liberal Muslim, Khalid Duran, who wrote a book about fostering understanding between religions. Duran has also been subject to death threats from militant conservative Islamist organizations. Especially disturbing are Emerson's observations on how the militant groups hide under the cover of "charitable organizations" which are exempt from scrutiny. And the way the militants deny their activities even as they are caught red-handed is maddening. This is an extremely important book. We ignore it at our peril. The very existence of the United States is in danger unless we pay attention to the militant Islamist threat.
Rating:
Summary: Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor-Your Jihad
Review: What could be more American, more rousingly patriotic than a political convention held smack in the middle of Kansas City, USA? You know, the kind where you can stroll amongst the various booths in the lobby, then excitedly bounce up and down in your seat cheering the inspirational speakers. And maybe afterwards meet up with fellow activists and plot strategy at, say, a nearby Ramada Inn. Oh yes, forgot to mention, this was an Hamas convention, focusing on future "crusader-Zionist-infidel conspiracy" targets around the world , with discussion groups devoted to "car-bomb lessons," "how to handle improvised explosives" and the "interrogation and execution of collaborators."
Yes, all true in the suicidal pre-9/11, bendy-border, got-my-visa-in-a-Cracker-Jack-box America, as meticulously and courageously detailed by Steven Emerson.
While reading Emerson you keep wanting to smack the heel of your hand to the middle of your forehead-Nuuh! What UNBELIEVABLE dangers were allowed to grow up around us! The book's cover shows a map of America, pinpointing communities that unwittingly hosted terrorist headquarters, conventions, conferences, rallies, training camps, internet servers, money-laundering businesses, `charitable' groups and, yes, God strike me dead, `summer retreats for adults and children.'
Besides Kansas City, what communities? Well, just a few out-of-the-way places, like: New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; San Francisco; Philadelphia; San Diego; Dallas; Boston; Cleveland; Detroit; Denver; Seattle; Oklahoma City; Laurel and Potomac, Maryland; Brooklyn, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Florida; Sacramento, Santa Clara and Anaheim, California; Tucson, Arizona; Bridgeview, Illinois; Herndon, Springfield and Falls Church, Virginia; Arlington and Richardson, Texas; Plainfield, Indiana; Oxford, Mississippi; and Manhattan, Kansas.
Emerson's investigation into all this began on Christmas Day, 1992, when he was drawn into the Oklahoma City Convention Center by a buzz of activity involving men wearing traditional Middle Eastern attire, and then noticed books and videos on sale "preaching Islamic jihad." Gaining further admittance as a `recent convert,' he heard speaker after speaker "preach violence," while the audience chanted `kill the Jews!' and `Destroy the West!' Hmm.
Since this was nine years before the 9/11 attack we might wonder exactly where were our half-dozen or so biggest mega-million-dollar national security and law-enforcement agencies, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation? At this point it is hard to avoid the Dave Barry line: "I'm not making this up."
While observing a Muslim conference in Detroit in December 1993, Emerson tells how, "After five days of listening to speakers urging Muslims to wage jihad," he was startled to see introduced as a guest speaker a senior FBI agent from the Detroit office, who then delivered some perfunctory remarks that were greeted by hostility and sarcasm. When Emerson later asked FBI officials how this could possibly be, they first denied it, then admitted that the agent had gone there thinking it was `some kind of Rotary club.' (Name couldn't have been Clouseau?)
What could account for such obliviousness, such a narcoleptic lack of urgency?
Not long before 9/11 Emerson attended a security meeting of top government officials, afterward emailing a friend: `We are doomed.' Because the prevailing attitude seemed to be, `We are such good people that nobody would ever want to attack us.' (Not unlike the zippity-do-da fall-of-Baghdad expectations?)
Americans had also become "numbed" by terrorist infiltration methods that take advantage of our very porous system (Emerson, Congressional testimony, 12/01)--which leads to what may be the most chilling development of all.
It is not just that terrorists have penetrated our borders, but that America is being colonized by dozens of unassimilated cultures, to such an extent that foreign terrorists and criminal gangs can immerse themselves in neighborhoods where once suspicious behavior now goes unnoticed.
Meanwhile most of America's political, corporate, media, educational, religious, and creative, e.g. Hollywood, elites have become enthralled with (no doubt some just plain terrified of criticizing) "diversity," "multiculturalism" and mass legal and illegal immigration. Is their now any major politician who does not daily bow down and chant "Our strength is in our diversity!"? Curious, since numerous studies have shown that nations with the greatest diversity are also the most war-torn. Exhibit A: Iraq.
Only the intervention of average voters seems capable of turning these grave security threats around. This of course is made much less likely with a two-party monopoly system that almost never allows popular votes on the issues of lower legal immigration or greater border enforcement--in spite of (or because of ?) decades of opinion polls showing a clear majority of voters strongly favoring both reforms.
Emerson stresses that most Muslim immigrants are decent hard-working people. No doubt, but experts, some of them Muslim, Emerson reports, estimated that 50 to 80 percent of the 1200 Muslim mosques in the US had been taken over by extremists.
Is Emerson alarmist? Although estimating the number of "sleeper cells" and the like needs constant reevaluation, his basic thesis has been all too tragically vindicated. In June of 1997, after considering `the mounting evidence of the strength of al Qaeda and other groups,' he warned in an interview, `get ready for twenty World Trade Center bombings.' Pretty much what happened--only all at once.
After 9/11 we kept hearing "Everything has changed." But has it?
It is somewhat as if violent criminals had invaded, burned and ransacked our homes, butchering members of our family, and we respond by demanding random ID checks from the Avon Lady and mounting gun turrets on the roof--all the while we hop into bed each night continuing to leave our back doors yawning open in the breeze, beckoning to the dark unknown.
Emerson's excellent reporting clearly demonstrates what happens when a nation comes to think of itself as an exception to history and virtually throws open its borders. On the individual corporal level we can imagine what would happen if someone were to cast aside their own protective immune system--so embarrassingly passé, so intolerant!
For all these reasons I strongly recommend Steven Emerson's AMERICAN JIHAD.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading Propaganda.
Review: When Okhlohoma bombing happened Steve Emerson was quick to point his finger at Muslims but later it was found out that it was done by someone else.
These right wing "authors" are unnecessarily dragging US into the Middle east conflict and to get the support for Israel they are labeling the whole muslim community as terrorists.
US needs to take a balanced approach to the Middle Eastern conflict.
Paul Findlay has written a very good book "They dare to speak out" regarding this issue. We interact with muslims at work, they are our neighbours and we find nothing wrong about them.
They allow anyone into their churches and ready to give out their holy book Koran.
The book "American Jihad" is just a bundle of lies and fabrications.
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