Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations

Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations. Aaron Mannes. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. In cooperation with//NSA Press. 373 pages; index; $29.95.

This outstanding guide to terrorist organizations is both an excellent textbook for students of the Middle East

While there have been many books written on Middle Eastern terrorism and its actors, Aaron Mannes' work is by far the best. It is a compact, comprehensive guide on the subject.

When one first gets into the book, the reader may find its "bites" of information repetitive; however, when the reader takes time to comprehensively digest the unique parallel layout on each terrorist organization, the repetition makes sense. It is the networking of information on each organization or event that makes this book so effective as a reference guide.

I was struck by the complete but succinct descriptions of each organization: its history, ideology, leadership, organization, financing and linkages and most important, the chronology of major events and attacks of each. Because we view such terrorism as spider webs of lethal elements-all related-it struck me that this is not unlike an entomology text on poisonous insects-except this particular text connects the dots, the ideologies and the alliances as they now exist and have evolved.

This book is all the more valuable given the turmoil over Arafat's death and the new Bush administration's potential reengagement in the Middle East peace process.

Profiles in Terror is a keeper as a reference, a study or a guide since we are engaged in the global war on terrorism as a nation.