STATE OF JIHAD
October 1, 2006 -- EDITOR'S NOTE: New York Post

QUESTION: What has changed about "Future Jihad" since the book first appeared?
Answer: Between November 2005 and November 2006, very important developments have been taking place on the international jihadi battlefields.
Iraq has a new government that is committed to facing off with the jihadists. In response, the jihadists tried to inflame sectarian violence. And meanwhile, the debate about U.S. involvement in Iraq continues here at home.
As I wrote in "Future Jihad," al Qaeda and the jihadists wanted to establish a Taliban-like emirate in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, but they failed, while the United States and their Iraqi allies are building the country's army bit by bit.
In terms of the global war on terror, I am still concerned about "Mutant Jihad," which is the capacity of the jihadists to mutate into other forms and groups. I am gratified to see that both U.S. and European counterterrorism strategies are incorporating this new reality.
A few weeks ago Americans got a taste of the new type of jihadist: Adam Gadahn, the new spokesperson for al Qaeda in the U.S. His statements and those of Ayman al-Zawahiri before him show that the jihadists want to penetrate the West - the U.S in particular - with cells that are born inside the country. Al Qaeda wants to place jihadists deep inside the defense and security apparatus in order to trigger direct threats against national security.

In light of the recent arrests of terrorists on both sides of the Atlantic, the book reviewed here has assumed an important immediacy.

Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America, footnoted and indexed, is a riveting read. In its “Introduction,” Dr. Phares begins with a short and emotional description of the events of 9/11 and refers to the day as “The Pearl Harbor of Terrorism.” Having analyzed the jihad phenomenon for twenty-five years prior to 9/11, Dr. Walid Phares, an expert on the Middle East and a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, seeks to answer ten questions:

by: Julia A. Seymour, March 21, 2006

When the airliners took down the World Trade Center towers, Americans struggled to find answers. They found some, but a discernible haze over the minds and eyes of Americans existed in those post 9/11 days. The truth many failed to realize was that the jihadists were already here. They were in our towers; the ivory ones.

The cloud of confusion in the minds of a majority of Americans, including those in government, had been created by the academic community since the 1970s, according to Walid Phares. He has taught at Florida International University, University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University in addition to lecturing at others.

Phares’ book, Future Jihad, examines the historical context of jihad, the groups of radical Islamists that seek to establish a caliphate, as well as the reasons America was unprepared and left in confusion by the attacks on September 11, 2001. Phares is a terrorism and Mid-East expert for MSNBC/NBC as well as a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington D.C.