Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

Robert Dreyfuss

Henry Holt and Company, Jul 2, 2013 - Political Science - 400 pages

The first complete account of America's most
dangerous foreign policy miscalculation: sixty years of support for Islamic fundamentalism

Devil's Game is the gripping story of America's misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Among all the books about Islam, this is the first comprehensive inquiry into the touchiest issue: How and why did the United States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam?

Backed by extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service officials, Robert Dreyfuss argues that this largely hidden relationship is greatly to blame for the global explosion of terrorism. He follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists to cooperation with Hamas and Saudi Wahhabism. Dreyfuss also uncovers long-standing ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the region, thundering against freedom of thought, science, women's rights, secularism—and their former patron.

Wide-ranging and deeply informed, Devil's Game reveals a history of double-dealing, cynical exploitation, and humiliating embarrassment. What emerges is a pattern that, far from furthering democracy or security, ensures a future of blunders and blowback.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Into Central Asia: 270
• Clash of Civilizations?: 303
• Notes: 343
• Acknowledgments: 369

About the author

Robert Dreyfuss, who covers national security for Rolling Stone, has written extensively on Iraq and the war on terrorism for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Mother Jones. He is the author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. A frequent contributor to NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and many other broadcast outlets, he lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam; American Empire Project
• Author: Robert Dreyfuss
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, 2013
• ISBN: 1466849002, 9781466849006
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / International Relations / General; Political Science / Terrorism