Those Who Choose The Sword: Deciphering Modern Terrorism

***** Those Who Choose the Sword: Deciphering Modern Terrorism. By Brett McCrea; published by Infinity Publishing, www.infinitypublishing.com (Web); 198 pages; $15.95.

Brett McCrea describes his fascination with terrorism as beginning in college, where he studied the radical leftist groups that flared in the 1970s before fading in the shadow of a diminishing Soviet Union. The West’s view of the Middle East focused on Palestine, and awareness of Islamic extremism remained incomplete. He pursued this interest from academia to a counterterrorism career as an intelligence analyst, and he shares some of his conclusions in Those Who Choose the Sword.

The book has flaws. The writing is choppy in spots and the graphic presentation is off putting. For example, the layout is odd, with wide jumps between some words. Reading the book is a lot like running downhill: building speed, stumbling, leaping, and then the wobbly, rapid deceleration at the end.

Yet it would be a shame if these problems deterred the reader. Through much of the book, specifically the chapters covering terrorist recruiting, training, intelligence, finance, logistics, and operations, the minor annoyances have less impact than the substantive discussions McCrea offers.

Many of the chapters open with an exercise in which the reader is asked to consider everyday concepts as metaphors for specific terrorist activities. These exercises are, in some cases, quite valuable. For instance, McCrea compares terrorist procurement processes to legitimate business supply chains, with the same challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. In another exercise, terrorist intelligence gathering before an attack is compared with the research a consumer conducts before making a purchase. McCrea’s point: there is an amazing amount of open-source data available on any subject.

McCrea examines current and historical terrorist strategies and tactics, with an emphasis on al Qaeda and its current war against the West. McCrea adroitly brings much of the al Qaeda/Osama Bin Laden clutter into a basic, cohesive, and understandable explanation.

The book is reasonably well-researched, but a good bit of it seems to come from between McCrea’s ears. There is no index, but at 175 pages, it’s a quick read. It’s not intended to be used as a reference book; it’s almost a position paper. It’s a book aimed at offering a new way of thinking about terrorists, and one that will likely prove worthwhile to any modern security professional.

Reviewer: Derek Knights, CPP, PCI, is director of investigative services for Sun Life Financial in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a subcommitteee member of the ASIS Physical Security Council.