Al-Qa’ida’s doctrine for insurgency : a practical course for guerrilla war PDF
Preview Al-Qa’ida’s doctrine for insurgency : a practical course for guerrilla war
AL-QA'IDA'S DOCTRINE FOR INSURGENCY RELATED TITLES FROM POTOMAC BOOKS Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent —Mike German Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, Revised Edition — Michael Scheuer War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare —Robert Taber AL-QA'IDA'S DOCTRINE FOR INSURGENCY 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Muqrin's A Practical Course for Guerrilla War T A ranslated and nalyzed by NORMAN CIGAR F J L orew ord by ulian ew is Potomac Books, Inc. Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2009 by Norman Cigar. Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written per mission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Muqrin, Abd al-Aziz, 1973-2004 Al-Qaida’s doctrine for insurgency : a practical course for guerrilla war / trans lated and Analyzed by Norman Cigar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59797-252-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-59797-253-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Guerrilla warfare—Saudi Arabia. 2. Qaida (Organization)—Handbooks, manu als, etc. I. Cigar, Norman L. II. Title. III. Title: Practical course for guerrilla war. U255.S38M87 2008 355.4’25—dc22 2008043561 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39-48 Standard. Potomac Books, Inc. 22841 Quicksilver Drive Dulles, Virginia 20166 First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dedicated to my mother, Amalia, and the memory of my father, Slavko. CONTENTS Foreword by Julian Lewis ix Preface xv Part 1: Overview and Analysis 1 Part 2: Translation of A Practical Course for Guerrilla War, by ’Abd Al-’Aziz Al-Muqrin 83 Selected Bibliography 181 Index 189 About the Author 193 FOREWORD One of the most striking ideas in the military chapter of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, written in 1516, is its emphasis on targeted assassination. Once a war is declared, Utopians “promise great rewards to such as shall kill the prince, and lesser in proportion to such as shall kill . . . those on whom, next to the prince himself, they cast the chief balance of the war.” Even in the heat of battle, shock troops “single out the general of their enemies, set on him either openly or by ambuscade, pursue him everywhere . . . so that unless he secures himself by flight, they seldom fail at last to kill or to take him prisoner.” Thus, a technique regarded in this day and age as symptomatic of terrorism was advocated almost five hundred years ago as an entirely ethical course of action. One does not need to be a moral relativist to understand the logic of insurgents who— believing that God is on their side—view Western codes of warfare as murderous and illegitimate, and terrorist techniques as sanctified and just. This book is not about morality but about efficacy. Norman Cigar has applied his encyclopaedic knowledge of military doctrine and Middle Eastern politics to select and preserve what is in effect the field manual of Al- Qa’ida in Saudi Arabia. It will be of consuming interest, not only to scholars and analysts, but also to those in government involved with the consequences of militancy in parts of the Islamic world. Whilst there is a vast body of work commenting on developments both before and after September 2001, much less attention has been paid to what the militants actually reveal about their own methods. Their exploitation of the Internet as a means of communication and training offers their adversaries a window on their world. One of the virtues—if such a term may be applied in this deadly context—of ’Abd Al-’Aziz Al-Muqrin’s Guerrilla War is its utilitarian focus. Only occasionally does ritual obeisance to Al-Muqrin’s perceived Holy Cause surface in his text. The practi cal actions he details and recommends could be transplanted, for the most part, into the context of any other revolutionary movement on the extreme left or extreme right. Extreme political movements—even those which appear directly to contradict one ix
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