Afrah Jamal

Published in Daily Times (Pakistan) / 27 April 2013 Author : Shaukat Qadir Reviewed by : Afrah Jamal Book Cover Courtesy: Link The insider account by a former SEAL later used to prop up the raid sequence of ‘Zero Dark Thirty fills in the dramatic details but a change in vantage point zooms in on the Pakistani equation. In less than a 100 pages, the author proceeds to tie up loose ends leftover from the reams of official spin surrounding the events of May 1 2011. He is a retired infantry Brigadier from Pakistan Army who uses his unprecedented access to the corridors of military power to launch an independent inquiry into the incident. His research takes in isolated facts, hidden motives and shadowy agendas to create an alternate timeline of events. They correspond with the main outlines of the sanctioned version but differ in the approach. The resultant document builds an appealing profile that demands a second look at the so called ‘mansion’ in Abbottabad and the dead man w...

Published in Daily Times / Dec 15, 2012 Published Under the Title : First Rule of Jihad Club Thank you Gulmina for the Review copy Authors : Gulmina Bilal Ahmad, Dr. Anika Ahmed, Yahya Ahmad, Zulfiqar Haider, Hamza Khan Swati & a friend who wants to remain anonymous Reviewed by : Afrah Jamal (The Print Ed has an error - hope they fix it in the online Ed, first para 3rd line that now says 'jihadists are willing' throws my sentence off balance. The 2nd Para has a misprint. not tnatives , natives!) Unlike the first, second, third rule of fight club (you do not talk about fight club) – retired jihadists willing to open up about their past lives do exist. A dedicated group of researchers bent on tracing the path to radicalization needed no divining rod to identify people who have dabbled in jihad at some point in their lives. This compilation of ‘confessions’ features interviews with fifteen former terrorists hiding out in the open and not as one would think, s...

First Published by Daily Times / Oct 06, 2012 Authors: Mark Owen & Kevin Maurer Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Published under the Title: Signed, SEAL(ed) and Delivered The men who paid Pakistan a hurried visit in the dead of the night typically do not leave calling cards. Or talk shop with strangers. And they are expected to shun the limelight. One broke the commandment recently. As a member of the SEAL Team 6 — Naval Special Warfare Development Group or DEVGRU, Mark Owen (not his real name) had been in the downed ‘helo’ (helicopter) — the one Pakistanis discovered lying in their backyard. His book provides a valuable timeline of events leading up to ‘Operation Neptune Spear’ in Abbottabad (or ‘Abababa’ as they insist on calling it), cutting through the official haze. With 13 consecutive combat deployments to his credit, the author paints a group portrait of America’s finest that had been handpicked for the job in an attempt to overturn the media-created hype. He calmly re...