Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror 1801-1805

Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, Thomas Jefferson, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, launched America's first war on foreign soil-a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.

For nearly two hundred years, the Barbary pirates had haunted the Mediterranean, enslaving tens of thousands of Europeans and extorting millions of doll...