Iamwhomiam wrote:Could be nothing more than a 'retired' cia station chief trying to get publicity for his book.
It could be that simple.
except he's not , as Burnt Hill just demonstrated
also see this , it is the link from the article I mentioned , all the links are on the Chechen thread
http://www.majorhistory.com/interview-brian-glyn-williams.php
Brian Glyn Williams is trying to carve out a niche for himself. As a historian of the War on Terrorism his work straddles the line between history and journalism. As he is quick to point out, history isn’t merely a study of the past, it’s a methodology that Williams adheres to deliberately. “Much of the War on Terror has been chronicled by journalists and political scientists. But historians have been reticent to produce a single narrative.” Williams is poised to give us that single narrative stretching from the years before 9/11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and into the drone campaigns that mark today’s campaign.
Professor Brian Glyn Williams was born and raised in Wales. His interest in history came from what he saw around him, a Great Britain full of history but full of stories told through a foreign experience. “History is written by the victors and the English version of Welsh history predominated. We were the barbarians and they civilized us.” It was that unique perspective that made him look beyond Britain and to the history of the Huns, then Islam, and finally on the Turks. He received his PhD in Middle Eastern and Islamic Central Asian History from the University of Wisconsin. He’s currently a Professor of Islamic History at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
His work has taken him to London to consult with Scotland Yard and to Afghanistan to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Williams was tasked with helping law enforcement and intelligence agencies understand the motivations and behaviors of suicide bombers. He is of the mind that while Islam is a subtext for much of the violence and terrorism in the region, it’s not the sole explanation. His findings about suicide bombings in Afghanistan were informed by his understanding of tribal identities as much as fervor for the Jihadist movement. He came to these conclusions after being sent to Afghanistan by the CIA to perform firsthand research on these types of attacks. This type of fieldwork is unusual for most academics but especially for historians, who are content to let some time pass before trying to understand it’s role in the narrative.
But Williams is very aware of how different his work is. “It’s sexier to work on these kinds of topics, drones, terrorism. I spent years translating Russian documents in an archive. I said I’d never do that again.” When he began his professional life, very few people cared about Islamic history or the Middle East. But 9/11 changed all that and the job offers came quickly for historians willing to do it. Williams has been published and interviewed for numerous outlets and news agencies.
His work is cutting edge, forcing him to look at the histories of the transnational jihadist movement that caught the world’s attention on September 11, 2001. He follows news of jihadist movements from the Caucasus, Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa, and throughout the Middle East with a zealotry that allows him to discuss at length each region. His opinions are blunt but revealing and not formulated to appeal to those that like equivocations in their academic discourse. Pakistan is playing a double game. The Arab Spring is a disaster for groups like Al Qaeda. Drones are an effective tool in fighting the War on Terror. Williams doesn’t mince his words when discussing things he is clearly very knowledgeable about.
It’s the question of drones and targeted killings that has attracted his attention recently. His next book, Predators: The CIA’s Drone War on Al Qaeda, will focus on the entire history of the drone programs and where this technology is headed. Following that, Williams is working on a history of the entire War on Terror. It seems that the War on Terror and maelstroms in the Middle East will continue to serve as a useful research area for academics. But they’ll have to get in line; Williams is the first one there.
