WASHINGTON -- A new book by a senior CIA analyst who headed the agency's task force on Osama bin Laden sharply attacks the Bush administration's approach to Islamic terrorists, sternly criticizes the decision to invade Iraq, and chides officials for trying to create a Western-style democracy in Afghanistan.
The author, who writes under the name Anonymous, argues that it is not dislike of freedom, democracy, and Western culture that led bin Laden to wage war against America, but rather his disdain for US policies and actions in the Muslim world, particularly America's relationship with Israel.
Senior US leaders, the book argues, mistakenly urge Americans to believe that the Islamic world is offended by the nation's philosophical emphasis on personal rights and liberties and "that Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than for what we do."
The threat "arises not from Muslims being offended by what America is, but rather from their plausible perception that the things they most love and value -- God, Islam, their brethren, and Muslim lands -- are being attacked by America," he writes in "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror."
The book contends that bin Laden has rallied support among Muslims by convincing them that Islam is under attack from the United States and that it is their responsibility to defend their faith: "Once Islam is attacked, each Muslim knows his personal duty is to fight."
The author's solution to the problem and forecast for the future are grim, based partly on his view that training camps have turned out, not thousands of terrorists, but perhaps "a hundred thousand or more insurgents."
The book's author is a 22-year veteran of the CIA who occupies a senior position in counterterrorism. He did not publish the book under his name because of his role at the agency and has asked news organizations not to disclose his name for security reasons.
He served as chief of the bin Laden station from 1996 to 1999, a time, he complains, when senior leaders "downplayed intelligence" and "ignored repeated warnings" about the dangers approaching from Islamic terrorists.
US intelligence officials are not pleased with the tone and
conclusions of the book and have watched with surprise as sales have
risen. On Friday, it was the 13th-best seller at
The CIA reviewed the book before publication and found that it did not contain classified information. "That does not mean we are happy with it," a senior intelligence official said. "We would prefer officers keep their personal views personal, but we are not in position to prevent him from expressing his personal views in writing done on his own time."
The author calls the Iraq war "an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantages."
Oil, the author contends, is at the core of US interests in Muslim countries.
The Bush administration's policy on Afghanistan is described as a failure because it hinges on producing a Western-style democracy with religious tolerance and women's rights, all of which he characterizes as an "anathema to Afghan political and tribal culture."
"We are succeeding only in fooling ourselves" in Afghanistan, he argues. The current insurgency by the Taliban "gradually will increase in intensity, lethality, and popular support and ultimately force Washington to massively escalate its military presence or evacuate," he writes.
In a broader critique, he said, "US leaders refuse to accept the obvious: We are fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency, not criminality or terrorism, and our policy and procedures have failed to make more than a modest dent in enemy forces."