Global Terror: Unearthing the Support Networks That Allow Terrorism to Survive and Succeed

Praise for Gunaratna'sInside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror:"The most comprehensive study ever done on Al Qaeda."-CBSNews.com"An alarming, but important book on Al Qaeda."-Wolf Blitzer, CNN"Excellent. . . . Gunaratna has taken a great deal of information from around the world to create a comprehensive examination of the terrorist network."-Peter Bergen,Washington PostToday, most major terrorist groups operate internationally with relative ease. They build support in one theatre, train in a second, and conduct their military operations in a third. Instead of resisting globalization, they are harnessing its forces.This book examines the external military, political and economic support for terrorist groups, focusing on the nature, quality and extent of assistance provided by Irish, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Kurdish, and Kashmiri diaspora and migrant communities to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK), and various Kashmiri factions.Rohan Gunaratna argues that host countries, especially liberal democracies, provide a healthy environment for terrorist front groups where-under the guise of conducting social, cultural, economic, political and religious activities-terrorist front organizations accumulate political-economic influence. He examines how they mobilize human rights and humanitarian organizations on their behalf, infiltrate non-government organizations, and manipulate their co-ethnic and co-religious diasporic communities. The resilience of nationalist, separatist and irredentist campaigns relies heavily on the efforts of supporters in diasporic communities, and the author recommends possible initiatives to monitor and disrupt transnational support for international terrorism.