Dining With Terrorists - Softcover

Rees, Phil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330438468 ISBN 13: 9780330438469

Publisher: Picador, 2005

Synopsis

terrorist: n a person or group that refuses to accept American dollars and challenges the United States’ right to attack its territory When George W. Bush screamed ‘You’re either with us or you’re against us’ in the war on terror’ he eradicated the right of anyone to question his logic or challenge his new list of ‘terrorist’ organisations. These included as diverse candidates as Colombian coca farmers, Basque separatists and Kashmiri independence fighters. Lazily bandied around, the emotive, political and inflammatory word 'terrorism' has accompanied everything from ecology, narcotics to nuclear weapons. But one would do well to recall George Orwell and ‘new speak’ and to treat the headlines, the spin and the political justifications with the objectivity they deserve. By infiltrating the most inaccessible political resistance groups over the past 25 years, Phil Rees has sought to understand what motivates the ‘terrorist’ or ‘freedom fighter’ and to balance this against the context of the current world events and the sweeping power of US military might. Through the sharing of refreshment and discussion with 'terrorists' in such diverse countries as Colombia, Algeria, Kosovo, UK, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Lebanon, France, Cambodia and Ireland, Rees was able to pierce the headlines, the propaganda and the official government line to discover the human story behind the faceless, hooded caricature. As entertaining and intriguing as it is polemic and timely, this is the only book that challenges our preconceptions of just what the word terrorist actually means and how dangerous a weapon it is.

About this title

About the Author

An award-winning journalist, Phil Rees has worked on 'Correspondent' and 'Newsnight' for the BBC and written for The Independent, Guardian and The News Statesman. Over 20 years he has made more than 30 documentaries and has won a dozen international awards. He lives in London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330438468
• ISBN 13: 9780330438469
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368