The Terror Factory

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory shows how the FBI has - under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11 - built a network of informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create phony terrorist plots so the bureau can claim victory in the War on Terror. Now Aaronson reveals in detail how the FBI transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency into a proactive counterterrorism unit, and how so-called terror consultants have made fortunes by exaggerating the threat of Islamic terror in the US.

Is the FBI investigating domestic terror plots--or instigating them?

A riveting, behind-the-scenes look of the Yazidi genocide and the terrorist threat it holds for the West, based on the investigation by Father Patrick Desbois, Costel Nastasie, and their team at Yahad–In Unum, as first shown on 60 Minutes. With testimony drawn from more than 200 interviews with Yazidi survivors—girls, women, boys, and men—recorded during 11 investigative trips to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. "If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and know from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God." Their fighters are paid with sex, money, and the power of life and death over captives. Their promised paradise is here and now, not after death. Men who didn't swear allegiance were executed. Women became slaves for sex or reproduction, and their offspring may still serve the cause. In mobile training camps, the captured children were drugged, indoctrinated, and taught to shoot Kalashnikovs, plant explosives, and handle suicide vests. They are the intended products of the terrorist factory. In this taut, disturbing account, the authors document a utilitarian genocide that still holds an implicit threat to other counties, including those in the West.

James Bamford has been the preeminent expert on the National Security Agency since his reporting revealed the agency’s existence in the 1980s. Now Bamford describes the transformation of the NSA since 9/11, as the agency increasingly turns its high-tech ears on the American public. The Shadow Factory reconstructs how the NSA missed a chance to thwart the 9/11 hijackers and details how this mistake has led to a heightening of domestic surveillance. In disturbing detail, Bamford describes exactly how every American’s data is being mined and what is being done with it. Any reader who thinks America’s liberties are being protected by Congress will be shocked and appalled at what is revealed here.

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory was the first book to expose how the FBI, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism, built a network of more than 15,000 informants after 9/11 whose primary purpose was to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau could then claim it was winning the war on terror. This tenth anniversary edition of The Terror Factory will focus on the activities of the FBI over the past decade, including how the Justice Department has prosecuted hundreds of defendants on international terrorism charges that emerged from FBI stings. In many of these stings, the informants or undercover agents provided all the money and weapons for the terrorist plots, and sometimes even the ideas -- raising significant questions about whether any of these people would have committed the crimes were it not for the FBI's encouragement. The book will also examine how the FBI is assigning informants to infiltrate right-wing groups, and how the calls for new right-wing anti-terrorism laws would give the Bureau even more power.

What if your own government deliberately creates terrorists? What if their short-term aims – deposing regimes that no longer serve Western interests, justifying invasions of sovereign nations, and expanding the security state at home – have long-term consequences for us all? What if most of the horrific bombings, stabbings and vehicle attacks of recent years are connected – indirectly and sometimes directly – to British, French and American intelligence? These and other hard-hitting questions are posed by T. J. Coles in this disturbing survey of secret political manoeuvrings and covert manipulation. Welcome to the world of manufactured terrorism… Backed by a wealth of documentation, including court records, parliamentary inquiries and little-known but official publications, the author exposes the role of the deep state in brutal acts of terror. Exploring Operation Gladio, Northern Irish terror and, predominantly, Islamic jihad, he argues that intelligence agencies, the military and governments employ six key methods to manufacture terrorism: 1/ Blowback: attacking other countries and provoking violent responses. 2/ Proxies: creating terrorists (including al-Qaeda) and using them against enemies. 3/ Provocateurs: provoking individuals from minorities into committing terrorist acts. 4/ Green-lighting: allowing terrorists to commit attacks in order to justify specific policies. 5/ False-flags: committing terrorism and blaming it on designated enemies. 6/ Simulations: holding drills and exercises as covers for apparent terrorist acts. Contrary to claims that terrorism is caused by people who simply ‘hate our way of life’ – and in contrast to the simplistic narrative of conspiracy websites and talk-shows – Coles argues that each case of terrorism needs to be evaluated separately. Manufacturing Terrorism presents a complex picture that distinguishes between cases of blowback, proxies, false-flags, simulations, etc. It offers an indispensable briefing to help readers make sense of our chaotic and dangerous world.

Richard Clarke has been one of America's foremost experts on counterterrorism measures for more than two decades. He has served under four presidents from both parties, beginning in Ronald Reagan's State Department becoming America's first Counter-terrorism Czar under Bill Clinton and remaining for the first two years of George W. Bush's administration. He has seen every piece of intelligence on Al-Qaeda from the beginning; he was in the Situation Room on September 11th and he knows exactly what has taken place under the United State's new Department of Homeland Security. Through gripping, thriller-like scenes, he tells the full story for the first time and explains what the Bush Administration are doing.

Why is the Middle East a crisis factory, and how can it be fixed? What does the future look like for its 500 million people? And what role should the West play? Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed Gatnash tell the story of the modern Middle East as a series of broken promises. They chart the entrenchment of tyranny, terrorism and foreign intervention, showing how these systems of oppression simultaneously feed off and battle each other. Exploring demographic, economic and social trends, the authors paint a picture of the region’s prospects that is alarming yet hopeful. Finally, they present ambitious and thoughtful ideas that reject both aggressive military intervention and cynical deals with dictators. This book, written by two children of the region, is about the failures of history, and the reasons for hope. The Middle East Crisis Factory offers a bold vision for those seeking peace and democracy in the Middle East.

There is a hidden country within the United States. It was formed from the astonishing number of secrets held by the government and the growing ranks of secret-keepers given charge over them. The government secrecy industry speaks in a private language of codes and acronyms, and follows an arcane set of rules and customs designed to perpetuate itself, repel penetration, and deflect oversight. It justifies itself with the assertion that the American values worth preserving are often best sustained by subterfuge and deception. Deep State, written by two of the country's most respected national security journalists, disassembles the secrecy apparatus of the United States and examines real-world trends that ought to trouble everyone from the most aggressive hawk to the fiercest civil libertarian. The book: - Provides the fullest account to date of the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program first spun up in the dark days after 9/11. - Examines President Obama's attempt to reconcile his instincts as a liberal with the realities of executive power, and his use of the state secrets doctrine. - Exposes how the public’s ubiquitous access to information has been the secrecy industry's toughest opponent to date, and provides a full account of how WikiLeaks and other “sunlight” organizations are changing the government's approach to handling sensitive information, for better and worse. - Explains how the increased exposure of secrets affects everything from Congressional budgets to Area 51, from SEAL Team Six and Delta Force to the FBI, CIA, and NSA. - Assesses whether the formal and informal mechanisms put in place to protect citizens from abuses by the American deep state work, and how they might be reformed.

Deborah Levenson-Estrada provides the first comprehensive analysis of how urban labor unions took shape in Guatemala under conditions of state terrorism. In Trade Unionists against Terror, she explores how workers made sense of their struggle for rights in the face of death squads and other forms of violent opposition from the state. Levenson-Estrada focuses especially on the case of 400 workers at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Guatemala City, who, in order to protect their union, successfully occupied the factory for over a year beginning in 1984 while the country was under a state of siege. According to Levenson-Estrada, religion provided the language of resistance, and workers who were engaged in what seemed to be a dead-end battle constructed an identity for themselves as powerful agents of change. Based on oral histories as well as documentary sources, Trade Unionists against Terror also illuminates complex relationships between urban popular culture, gender, family, and workplace activism in Guatemala.