The Spiders of Allah PDF
Preview The Spiders of Allah
About the Book Whether it’s Shia death squads roaming the lawless streets of Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam or hardcore Zionist settlers still fighting ancient Biblical battles in the hills of the West Bank, the bloodshed perpetrated in the name of religion today is nowhere more obvious than in the Middle East. Dodging bullets, dogma and certainty, James Hider travels around the region witnessing what he calls the ‘crack cocaine of fanatical fundamentalism’. From Israel to Gaza, to Iraq and then back to Jerusalem, his journey takes him to the very heart of today’s holy wars. There he meets terrorists and their victims, soldiers and clerics, ordinary people and extraordinary people. And the question at the back of his mind is: how can people not only believe in all this madness, but die and kill for it too? About the Author James Hider is The Times Middle East Bureau Chief, currently based in Jerusalem. This is his first book. www.rbooks.co.uk This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781407041148 www.randomhouse.co.uk TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS 61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA A Random House Group Company www.rbooks.co.uk THE SPIDERS OF ALLAH A BLACK SWAN BOOK: 9780552775496 First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Doubleday an imprint of Transworld Publishers Black Swan edition published 2010 Copyright © James Hider 2009 James Hider has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. This book is substantially a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some limited cases names of people, places, dates, sequences or the detail of events have been changed solely to protect the privacy of others. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of this book are true. Extract on page 152, reprinted with the permission of The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell. Copyright © 2004 by Stephen Mitchell. All rights reserved. Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Addresses for Random House Group Ltd companies outside the UK can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk The Random House Group Ltd Reg. No. 954009 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 CONTENTS Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction Al-Qaeda Goes to Hollywood Jaffa Road The Transmitter of Hopes and Fears The Mickey Mouse Death Club The Dirt Lot of the Philistines Fallen Idols, Risen Angels Into Iraq Cut Adrift Freedom’s City Bring ’em On The Birth of an Insurgency Translator Wars Learning to Pity the US Proconsul In Babylon’s Halls Tourism under Fire Ancient Feuds A Festival of Blood in Karbala City of Broken Mosques How the Spiders of Allah Defeated the US Marine Corps Two in the Heart, One in the Mind Battlefields of the Soul Death in the Venice of the East Three Summers in Basra Inside the Spider’s Web The Fall of Fallujah Pandora’s Sandbox Bombs, Beheadings and Bullshit Creatures of the Id Why We Fight Epilogue Canaanite Karma For Lulu ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to all my Iraqi friends and colleagues for their great courage and enduring friendship throughout the years of war: I could not have done what I did without them. Special thanks also to Rebecca Strong, my friend and agent, without whose encouragement and guidance this book would probably not have been completed. Thanks also to Doug Young and all the team at Transworld for their instant enthusiasm and continued hard work at each stage.
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