The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan-And How It Threatens America

Zahid Hussain

Nov 2010 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

A deeply reported account of the war against Islamic extremists in Pakistan and battles being fought in the remote tribal regions.

The war in Afghanistan has raged on longer than any war in US history, and far from suppressing the insurgency being waged by radical Islamic militants, it has led to stronger alli­ances among al Qaeda, the Taliban, and a host of once-autonomous militant groups and has inspired a flood of new recruits. In addition to reclaiming control of substantial territory in Afghanistan, the militants have now taken the fight deep within Pakistan—threatening to totally destabilize that nuclear-armed state—and are launching attacks on the US homeland. Why has the insurgency been so irrepressible? Is this a war that can be won? Can we expect a wave of attacks within the United States more sophisticated than the attempted bombing in Times Square?

Nothing can be understood about the prospects for the war and the threat to the US homeland without understanding how Pakistan has become the epicenter of the insurgency and why the rise of militant groups there has escalated out of control despite major offensives by the Pakistani military and an intensive secret US Predator drone war against them.

Based on extensive reporting inside Pakistan’s dangerous lawless regions and exclusive interviews with militant leaders as well as high-level military and intelligence sources, Zahid Hussain, one of the most respected reporters working out of Pakistan, chronicles how and why the Islamic extremist groups based in Pakistan’s remote tribal territories have greatly increased their power since the start of the war and unleashed a reign of terror on US forces in Afghanistan and on both the military and civilian population within Pakistan.

He is the first to reveal how a loose constellation of tribal groups has now come together to form a distinctive Pakistani Taliban, working closely with al Qaeda and the Afghani Taliban to launch increas­ingly sophisticated and deadly attacks on both sides of the Af-Pak border. He discloses how they draw support and a steady flood of recruits from deeply entrenched support networks in major Pakistani cities, and how they have recruited would-be US attackers, including Faisal Shahzad and Adnan Shukrijumah, accused of plotting to bomb the New York City subway. He is also the first to chronicle in detail the still unacknowledged US war carried out in Pakistan by remote Predator drones, and, reporting from the scenes of a number of drone missile strikes and interviewing a number of attempted suicide bombers, he reveals the shocking extent of anti-Americanism the strikes have stoked in Pakistan, across the range of the population, due to civilian deaths, driving a new breed of highly educated, professional, and middle-class Pakistanis into the militant groups.

His gripping and revelatory account is an urgent wake-up call about the blowback effects of the US war in Afghanistan and the drone campaign in Pakistan, about how volatile the situation in the Af-Pak region has become, and about the deeply troubling limitations of the current military strategy in ever gaining decisive ground against the insurgents.

Ratings and reviews

I always read books authored by journalists in anticipation of interesting insights, quotes, and anecdotes that would enhance my understanding of a particular subject through first-hand accounts of the author. This particular book is a great disappointment in that respect. Zahid Hussain, a journalist by profession, has unsuccessfully pretended to be a researcher. The book is bland, uninteresting, superficial, and even erroneous at places. It is a roller-coaster ride in the political history of militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. It is such a quick-paced version of events that at times the author also seems to have lost grip of reality. There are some factual errors in the book. The biggest of them all is on p. 43 of the book that Jinnah founded the Muslim League, which is a blunder one doesn't even expect a 5th-grader to commit. Once again, on p. 53, the author refers to the Hudood Laws as Islamic Penal Code, while nothing like that exists in Pakistani laws. Page 60 of the book is one of the most confused pages. The author talks about "strategic depth" and doesn't bother to explain it for the reader. On the same page, he then jumps to the post 9/11 developments in FATA without even mentioning the 9/11 (by far the most important turning point in the history of militancy in Pakistan or across the world). On p. 78, he refers to tribal jirga as military council, while it actually is a tribal council. There are some others as well, but those are the ones I could record with references. In addition to the mistakes, the book has no direction or insight. You can learn a lot more about the militancy in Pakistan by reading a good four-page article rather than this book.

Review; well written history of the often unknown conflicts that occur between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Western Governments. With in depth telling of how the Pakistani Government has long been an antagonist of Afghanistan politics and the major supplier of islamic fundamentalist onto Afghan soil. Supplying along with the US fighters and military armaments to fight the Soviets. Then later allowing the same fundamentalist to fight against the American presence as well. It shows the often contradictory policy that the US has shown in supporting both countries when it met its own needs in this region. It also reveals that Pakistan and its Islamic influence on its political stance, throughout the years should serve as a warning to the US government and it's western allies that as we often point to Iran, Syria and Afghanistan as being Islamic Fundamentalist run States. Yet as we continue to pour millions of dollars in financial and military aid packages into Pakistan. We should also add a stipulation that for this aid to continue. Pakistan would be required to provide the US with better intelligence access, and hold them more accountable for their actions. So we can broker a stronger more honest relationship to avert a complete collapse of its government and thus allowing it to give rise to another Islamic Fundamentalist state . In being so that Pakistan is a country that already has Nuclear weapons and the capabilities of using them, or worst case scenario allowing them to fall into the hands of one of the many Islamic fundamentalist groups that are operating in Pakistan. Both have failed miserably in fighting these terrorists cells, for fear of inflaming, the Pakistani people to whom there trust in the Government as well as there Anti-American sentiments make them even more sympathetic to the Islamic fundamentalists. Secondly it's failure to crack down on the many years of corruption by the ISI and the military that often sympathizes and supplies them with the intel to continue to carry out their suicide missions, target assassinations and daily forays across the Afghan border to carry out military strikes against US and Coalition Forces. America and its western allies need to prepare and gather more high level Intelligence for when those relations breakdown. And the nuclear scenario becomes a reality. In Conclusion "There t s have been two major fundamental flaws in the approach to the war against the Islamic Extremist in the region. One has been the failure to understand that this is so largely a Pashtun war, and that the Pashtuns in Pakistan would be so strongly allied with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. This is not a war solely in Afghanistan, but it is a war in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan. The failure to approach the severity of the threat posed by the Pakistani militant groups has been a failure not only of the United States but of the Musharaf government as well. The second fundamental flaw has been the failure to appreciate that combating the militant threat required something far more than a military campaign. It required-and still does-a comprehensive social and political plan, as well as strong political leadership. Which it shows that both have been poorly lacking."

About the author

Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and writer, a senior editor with Newsline and a correspondent for The Times of London, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. He has also covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for several other international publications, including the Associated Press (AP) and The Economist. His book Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle With Militant Islam has won widespread acclaim as a seminal text on the subject. He lives in Pakistan.