Jason Burke | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 |
Occupation | Journalist, author |
Nationality | British |
Genre | non-fiction |
Notable works | Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror On the Road to Kandahar |
Jason Burke (born 1970) is a British journalist and the author of several non-fiction books. A correspondent covering Africa for The Guardian , he is currently based in Johannesburg, having previously been based in New Delhi as the same paper's South Asia correspondent. [1] In his years of journalism, Burke has addressed a wide range of topics including politics, social affairs and culture in Europe and the Middle East. [1] [2] He has written extensively on Islamic extremism and, among numerous other conflicts, covered the wars of 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq, the latter of which he described as "entirely justifiable from a humanitarian perspective". [3]
In 2003, Burke wrote Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror , which was later updated and republished as Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam. Noam Chomsky described it as the "best book there is" on Al-Qaeda. [4] He was interviewed in the 2004 BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares . In 2006, he wrote On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World .
Burke attended Oxford University. For four years, he held a position as an investigative reporter at the Sunday Times . [5] He relocated to Pakistan in 1998 to cover events there and in Afghanistan. During this period, he also travelled to Baghdad and Basra. Around 2000, he was hired by The Observer to serve as its chief foreign correspondent. [5] Since then, he has become the South Asia correspondent for The Guardian, The Observer's sister publication, as well. As of 2010, he is based in New Delhi.
Prior to his assignment to New Delhi, Burke was based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Paris, [1] [5] but his work has taken him to many locations. According to a book review in 2006 in The Daily Telegraph , Burke "is one of the journalistic band of brothers whose job is to get to the trouble spots ahead of the TV crews and show the electronic media what it is all about". [6] His travels have included Gaza, Kurdistan, Thailand, Algeria, and Jordan, among others. [5] [6] Burke also wrote "On the Road to Kandahar", and more recently the critically acclaimed "9/11 Wars" released in October 2011 which he discusses in detail in issue 5 of Umbrella Magazine. [7]
According to an article in Asharq Al-Awsat in 2009, Burke was the "first journalist to conduct an interview with President Pervez Musharraf after he seized power in Pakistan in October 1999" and "the first western journalist to enter the Afghan city of Khost during the US war in Afghanistan". [5]
Al-Qaeda, officially known as Qaedat al-Jihad, is a multinational militant Sunni Islamic extremist network composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but may also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings, the September 11 attacks, and the 2002 Bali bombings; it has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, India, and various other countries.
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri was an Egyptian-born terrorist, and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death.
Saif al-Adel is a former Egyptian colonel, explosives expert, and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda who is still at large. Adel is under indictment by the United States for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya.
Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror is a 2003 book by Jason Burke about the history and goals of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and a loose amalgam of related groups. Using first-hand descriptions of terrorist camps, Burke attempts to illustrate that the west's misunderstanding of the diversity of modern Islamic militancy undermines the response to terrorism. The author asserts that the United States' focus on Al-Qaida is ultimately a waste of time, saying that the west must instead "win the hearts and minds" of the Islamic world to effectively counter terrorism.
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The American invastion of Afgahaistan started in 2001 and ended in 2021. It started because of the 9/11 attacks conducted by Al-Qaeda.
Hamza bin Osama bin Mohammed bin 'Awad bin Laden, better known as Hamza bin Laden, was a Saudi Arabian-born member of Al-Qaeda. He was a son of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and, following his father's death in 2011, he was described as an emerging leader within the group.
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On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World is a 2007 nonfiction book written by Jason Burke, chief foreign correspondent of The Observer, based on his experiences living and traveling in various Islamic countries around the world. Much of the book is based in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Souad Mekhennet is a German journalist and author who has written or worked for The New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast and German television channel ZDF.
Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri and Hashim al-Makki, is a journalist who in the 1980s fought as an Islamic jihad volunteer during the Soviet–Afghan War. He is reported to have been an al-Qaeda advisor and taught at the Al Farouq training camp in the 1990s. He served as a bureau chief in Afghanistan for Al Jazeera from 1998–2001, before leaving for Iran.
The Majalla, often directly transliterated as Al Majalla is a Saudi-owned, London-based political news journal published in Arabic, English and Persian. The magazine's headquarters in Saudi Arabia is in Jeddah.
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Mohammed Atef was the military chief of al-Qaeda, and was considered one of Osama bin Laden's two deputies, the other being Ayman Al Zawahiri, although Atef's role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years. He was killed in a US airstrike in November 2001.
The following is an outline of the series of events that led up the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).