The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and the Battle for Arabia

(Paperback)

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Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in an unforgiving corner of Arabia, the US and al-Qaeda are fighting a clandestine war of drones and suicide bombers. The battles began in 2006, when twenty-three men tunnelled out of a maximum-security prison in Yemens capital to their freedom. Later they were joined by a dozen men released from Guantnamo Bay. Together, they formed the core of al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula and now they and their recruits stand ready to hijack the Arab Spring, from the streets of Syria to hotspots much closer to home. In The Last Refuge, al-Qaeda scholar Gregory D. Johnsen charts the rise, the fall, and the ultimate resurrection of al-Qaeda in Yemen given new life through a combustion of civil wars, Afghan refugees, and Muhammads prophetic teachings. Johnsen brings us inside al-Qaedas training camps and safe houses as the terrorists plot poison attacks and debate how to bring down a plane on Christmas Day. Based on years of on-the-ground interviews and never-before-translated al-Qaeda battle notes, he delivers a riveting and incisive investigation of the state of the Middle East.

Reviews

Gregory Johnsen has written the best new book on al Qaeda in 2012 and the best book on Yemen in years A great read; Johnsen is a very good storyteller.

Author Bio

Gregory Johnson is a scholar at Princeton University, a former Fulbright fellow, and a regular contributor to The Independent, Newsweek, and other publications. He has consulted to the UK government and US senate - even Yemeni tribal shaykhs - and is interviewed frequently by the BBC, CNN, and many others. This is his first book.