Summary and Analysis of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS: Based on the Book by Joby Warrick
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Summary and Analysis of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS: Based on the Book by Joby Warrick
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This short summary and analysis of Black Flags includes:
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About Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick:
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Joby Warrick has written an authoritative account of the origins and rapid ascent of the largest global terrorist organization today: the Islamic State.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with US and Middle Eastern intelligence officials, as well as two decades of experience covering global terrorism, Warrick presents portraits of the group’s leadership, including the “godfather” of ISIS, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and of its current leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Warrick explains the historical context and the sectarian struggles behind the rise of the Islamic State, the missteps by US intelligence that aided it, and the heroic work by intelligence and military officials that have fought against it. His work explains the appeal of ISIS and the threat it poses to the Middle East and global peace.
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504044820 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Worth Books |
| Publication date: | 03/14/2017 |
| Series: | Smart Summaries |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 30 |
| Sales rank: | 580,884 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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Summary and Analysis of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
Based on the Book by Joby Warrick
By Worth Books
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 2017 Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-4482-0
CHAPTER 1
Summary
Prologue
Amman, Jordan, February 3, 2015
Black Flags opens with the February 2015 execution of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her botched part in a terrorist attack a decade earlier. The attack had been ordered by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then leader of al- Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner of the Islamic State. ISIS in Syria had just executed a Jordanian pilot who had flown bombing missions over their territory, and Jordan's King Abdullah ordered Rishawi's death in retaliation.
At the time, King Abdullah was in Washington, pleading with President Barack Obama for more weapons to fight ISIS, which was already making spectacular battlefield gains. But the White House, disheartened by years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, refused to comply.
Book I: The Rise of Zarqawi
1. "What kind of person can command with only his eyes?"
Zarqawi began his ascent to notoriety as a drunkard and common thug well known to police in his native Jordan. A period of fighting in Afghanistan and a couple of jail terms converted him into a battle-hardened religious fanatic and a leader famed for his raw courage. Imprisoned again at the al-Jafr maximum-security facility in Jordan, he controlled his followers with iron discipline. Despite his ruthless and violent character, Zarqawi displayed an almost motherly concern for his followers when they were sick or injured. Likewise, he was very attached to his mother and two sisters, to whom he wrote affectionate letters.
Within this prison cult, Zarqawi was second-in-command to Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, an Islamic cleric renowned for inflammatory writings that reviled corrupting Western influences on the Islamic faith and justified the murder of all non-Muslims.
2. "Here was a real leader"
King Abdullah II, a career military officer, assumed the throne of Jordan after his father Hussein's death in 1999, and was immediately faced with the problem of balancing the political aspirations of moderate Islamists with the suppression of more radical factions. Following a tradition, he agreed to the release of more than 2,500 nonviolent political prisoners, only to become aware afterwards that one of them was Zarqawi. Hours after his release, after a brief visit to his family, Zarqawi took the unexpected step of returning to the prison to care for the men he had left behind. Apart from his physical courage and violent rages, Zarqawi clearly had a fanatical devotion to his men.
3. "A problem like that always comes back"
Six months after his release, Zarqawi prepared to leave Jordan for Pakistan, ostensibly to start a new business as a honey merchant. The Mukhabarat, the Jordanian secret police, had been tracking him since he was set free, for he was a familiar figure: Zarqawi had spent a lifetime in and out of jail. As a young man, his family steered him toward religion in an attempt to halt his criminal activities — and he became a zealous Muslim. Along with other Jordanian nationals, he volunteered to fight alongside the mujahideen in Afghanistan, where he earned a reputation for reckless bravery on the battlefield, and as a sincere, but tormented, acolyte. He had, it seemed, a sinful past that could only be absolved by martyrdom.
Upon returning home from Afghanistan, Zarqawi joined other veterans in a clandestine group known as Bay'at al-Imam, or the Oath of Allegiance to the Prayer Leader. A plan to attack an Israeli border post was foiled by the Mukhabarat, and Zarqawi was imprisoned. However, when he was freed in the general pardon in 1999, police had no grounds for detaining Zarqawi when he left Jordan for Peshawar, Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
4. "The time for training is over"
Zarqawi had only been in Pakistan for three months when Mukhabarat officials learned of his involvement in the Millennium Plot, a plan to attack six countries, including the United States — which police managed to foil. He crossed the border to Afghanistan, where he was eventually received by aides to Osama bin Laden, who saw in Zarqawi the Jordanian component for al-Qaeda's master plan to destroy Israel. Bin Laden, busy preparing the 9/11 attacks, allowed Zarqawi to set up a training camp for Jordanian jihadists in a remote part of Afghanistan.
When US forces attacked Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, Zarqawi was wounded. He withdrew with his small group of comrades to a remote village in northern Iraq, where a group of Kurds had set up a semi-autonomous state, and imposed a strict version of Sharia law. Zarqawi, by now, harbored a deep hatred of America as well as Israel, and continued to plot to overthrow Jordan's pro-Western government.
5. "I did it for al-Qaeda and for Zarqawi"
In the months after 9/11, with US forces pursuing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, the Bush administration sought grounds for the invasion of Iraq. Despite the pressure from senior officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, CIA analysts insisted there was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, who in fact regularly arrested and tortured Islamic radicals.
However, the October 2002 murder of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan provided the link the administration was seeking. Foley's murder had been ordered by Zarqawi, who was, at the time, hiding in a remote village in northern Iraq. Zarqawi now shot to the top of the FBI wanted list of al-Qaeda operatives, giving him a level of celebrity he had not before enjoyed.
6. "This war is going to happen"
A team of CIA operatives directed by Charles "Sam" Faddis gathered extensive and detailed evidence on the camp Zarqawi had set up in northern Iraq. They advised a surgical airstrike to destroy the operation, which by now had links to over 30 countries. However, the Bush administration, busy preparing the invasion of Iraq, demurred, saying they did not want to distract from it or give Saddam Hussein any warning of what was coming. This fixation on invading Iraq caused the United States to miss its best opportunity to eliminate Zarqawi, who would later be responsible for the loss of many American lives in the decade-long war.
While they ignored Faddis's pleas for an airstrike against Zarqawi, administration officials sought military and tactical support from US allies in the region for the upcoming invasion. Jordan's King Abdullah warned that a war in Iraq would cause a wave of anti-American furor among Arab leaders, including those who despised Saddam. However, Abdullah agreed to provide support for counterterrorism operations, and to accept a battery of Patriot missiles that could be used in the event of a possible Iraqi missile attack on Israel.
7. "Now his fame would extend throughout the Arab world"
Although US officials balked at launching an airstrike on Zarqawi's mountain hideout, they used him to justify the invasion of Iraq. In a speech to the United Nations — that he later admitted publicly was one of the "biggest blunders of his career," — Secretary of State Colin Powell showed Zarqawi's photograph and identified him as al-Qaeda's main operative in Iraq, thus linking him to bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. Zarqawi was presented, along with the famous "weapons of mass destruction," as a reason for invading Iraq. The obscure jihadist instantly became a poster boy for Islamic radicalism, and fighters from around the world joined the movement because of him.
BOOK II: IRAQ
8. "No longer a victory"
After the US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and no weapons of mass destruction were found, Bush administration officials continued, nonetheless, to pressure the CIA to find links between Saddam and al-Qaeda. Nada Bakos, the chief CIA expert on Zarqawi, was sent to Baghdad to interrogate former Iraqi government officials. She found the same intelligence her colleagues had found before the invasion: Former members of the Saddam government asserted they had repressed Islamic militants and that Saddam had nothing to do with Zarqawi or with al- Qaeda.
A series of bombings in US-occupied Baghdad proved that Zarqawi was still in the country, and was prepared to wage war against American troops. The attacks were also designed to foment violence between Iraq's Sunni Muslims and its Shiite majority. The war in Iraq — that Bush officials claimed had ended with Saddam's quick defeat — had in fact just begun.
9. "So you guys think this is an insurgency?"
The bombings by an emboldened Zarqawi obliged the CIA to tell the White House that Iraq was now in the throes of an "insurgency" — a word US leaders did not want to hear, particularly when the president had just landed on an aircraft carrier to declare "mission accomplished." But the successful attacks, the inability of the US forces to provide basic security, and the decision to fire officials of the former Baathist government all led the populace to increasingly resent the American occupiers, and prompted some to join the growing rebellion. Among them were former officers of Saddam's army, and jihadists from around the Arab world.
Officials in Washington, meanwhile, still refused to acknowledge the growing disaster created by the Iraq invasion, and they continued to ignore CIA intelligence. Gerry Meyer, a CIA station chief who wrote a report on the expanding insurgency, was relieved of his post a few weeks afterwards, and sent back to Washington.
10. "Revolting is exactly what we want"
Ten months after his arrival in Iraq, Zarqawi wrote a detailed letter to Osama bin Laden describing the situation on the ground, and offering to place his forces under al-Qaeda's command — provided they could benefit from the network's financial resources and international support system. Zarqawi also announced that he would soon reveal himself as the leader of the insurgency. Shortly after his letter to bin Laden, Zarqawi launched attacks on Shiite worshippers celebrating a holy day in Baghdad and Karbala, killing 180 civilians, with a total of 700 casualties.
Meanwhile, another leader had arrived in Iraq: General Stanley McChrystal, a hands-on officer who realized early that Zarqawi was winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis. McChrystal saw that US forces had no understanding of what was happening "outside the wire," and, as a result, were becoming victims of an insurgency that now threatened to engulf them.
11. "It would surpass anything al-Qaeda did"
Although Zarqawi did not return to Jordan when his mother died, he continued to plan revenge against his native country's government. Along with his lieutenant, explosives expert Azmi al-Jayousi, Zarqawi made plans to detonate an enormous poison gas bomb in central Amman that would kill up to 80,000 people, including many members of the Mukhabarat, whose headquarters was to be the principal target. Jayousi managed to enter Amman secretly and, using cash, began to buy cars, chemicals, and other elements to be used in the attack. However, the large sums eventually drew the attention of the Mukhabarat. Convinced that a major terrorist attack was in the works, they began a massive manhunt that led to Jayousi's arrest.
Once in custody, Jayousi confessed, and revealed Zarqawi's plans for the now-foiled attack. His videotaped confession was played and replayed on television stations throughout the Arab world. Zarqawi sent out a counter-statement that warned, although the bomb plot had failed, Jordan's troubles were not over. This chilled King Abdullah, who continued to advise the United States that its invasion of Iraq was doomed. The Bush administration, trying to contain the exploding tinderbox in Iraq, did not appreciate his candor.
12. "The sheikh of the slaughterers"
The "terrifying event" that Zarqawi had promised took place not in Jordan, but in Iraq. In May 2004, he kidnapped Nick Berg, an American communications contractor, and personally beheaded him on video. The murder came in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which the world learned Muslim detainees had been tortured and humiliated sexually by US servicemen and women.
The shocking video of Berg's death was viewed on Internet sites around the world. It achieved two goals: It put fear in the hearts of Zarqawi's enemies, and it won support from fellow jihadists. The release was followed a few days later by an announcement: A new organization, "al-Tawhid wal-Jihad" ("Unity and Jihad") had been formed, with Zarqawi — now known as "the sheikh of the slaughterers" — as its leader.
13. "It's hopeless there"
Robert Ford, a career diplomat and one of the US State Department's best Arabists, began his second tour in Iraq in June 2004, and quickly concluded the situation there was "hopeless." The insurgency was operating freely, attacking US forces and fomenting sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites, the latter of which seemed of little concern to the administration. It should have been: Though the White House planned a quick handover of power following the 2005 elections, the Sunnis, under pressure from the foreign jihadists, refused to participate in the vote.
Zarqawi, meanwhile, was recruiting suicide bombers. This gave rise to a theological debate as to whether, even in the interest of jihad, a Muslim could take his or her own life. King Abdullah of Jordan responded by gathering Muslim clerics together to issue the "Amman message," which said devout Muslims should eschew fanaticism and terrorism. This edict went largely ignored, and Zarqawi's celebrity received a boost when Osama bin Laden named him the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi responded enthusiastically, and swore to carry out his new leader's first order: to disrupt the upcoming elections.
14. "Are you going to get him?"
The Sunni minority, under threat from the insurgents, declined to take part in the January 2005 elections. Already brutalized by the Shiite majority — which had been marginalized for decades under Saddam — and attacked by US forces for allegedly supporting the insurgents, the Sunnis did not even field candidates. Less than 2% of Sunnis voted in the election, during which 44 people were killed.
Still, the violence of Zarqawi's troops was turning many Sunnis against him. One informant's tip led to the near-capture of Zarqawi by US forces. They did manage to confiscate his laptop, which proved a treasure trove of information. It revealed, for example, that even al-Qaeda was concerned that Zarqawi's brutal slaughter of his captives was alienating the Muslim faithful. It also showed that Zarqawi envisioned himself as the leader of a new caliphate, a Muslim nation that would erase existing national boundaries and restore Islam to its former glory. Lastly, the computer provided valuable information on al-Qaeda in Iraq's hierarchy and structure, allowing US forces to strike major blows against the organization.
15. "This is our 9/11"
Zarqawi's decision to bomb three hotels in his native Jordan backfired. The death of over 60 civilians, many attending a wedding party, prompted widespread outrage and spurred the Jordanian counterintelligence service into actions that would yield crucial information for US forces hunting the terrorist. Zarqawi responded with another major attack in Iraq, this time on an iconic Shiite mosque in Samarra. The blast killed no one, but prompted an explosion of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that bordered on civil war.
16. "Your end is close"
The Jordanians' capture of a Zarqawi operative operating as an Iraqi customs officer provided key intelligence about the terrorist's organization and movements. The news that Zarqawi had a spiritual adviser who visited him weekly led American forces to identify his hideout in Baqubah province, near the Iranian border. An airstrike in June 2006 destroyed the house, and, although Zarqawi initially survived the attack, he died shortly after.
Zarqawi's death was a bittersweet victory for the Americans, including General Stanley McChrystal, who would have preferred to interrogate Iraq's most dangerous terrorist. In Jordan, some of the outrage against him had dissipated; Zarqawi was even hailed as a martyr by jihadists in his hometown of Zarqa. In Iraq, Zarqawi's death did not put an end to the insurgency, but it did embolden many Sunnis to settle scores with the foreign jihadists who had terrorized them. Zarqawi's dream of creating an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq would stay alive.
BOOK III: ISIS
17. "The people want to topple the regime!"
Robert Ford, now US ambassador to Syria, was in Amman when the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings — which toppled governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya — hit the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Rather than make concessions or reforms, Assad took a hard line against the protests, giving his security forces free rein to kill or imprison demonstrators. He ignored the resulting condemnation from the international community and calls from the United States for him to step down. He blamed the unrest first on US meddling, and later on the takfiris — violent, radical Islamists who he said were promoting the uprising. Assad managed to stay in power with the support of the economic elite and the military, despite being under siege from a multitude of forces.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Contents
Context,Overview,
Summary,
Timeline,
Cast of Characters,
Direct Quotes and Analysis,
Trivia,
What's That Word?,
Critical Response,
About Joby Warrick,
For Your Information,
Bibliography,
Copyright,
Related Subjects
Customer Reviews
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