Nine Lives- 'my time as MI6'S top spy inside Al-Qeada. Wriiten by Aiden Dean.- A book review written by Liam Miles.

After having previously read ‘Terrorist Hunter’ written by Tamer Elnoury, it left me feeling even more intrigued as to what defines terrorism in a modern global political era, how can terrorism be even possibly defeated, and what factors attracts individuals to wage war on the West? These questions were answered by Aimen Dean, who has now written a book titled – ‘Nine lives. The book goes into fascinating detail about Aimen’s story having signed up to wage Jihad in the 1980s in Bosnia, with the original intentions of liberating Bosnian Muslims, who were being persecuted by the Serbs in a mass genocide. Aimen as a young boy fell under the spell of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. He declared an oath of allegiance and loyalty to Bin Laden; however, he soon came to realise that Al-Qaeda was not about liberation and freeing persecuted Muslims, it was however about waging war against the United States and encouraging as well as plotting the murder of innocent civilians. He eventually wanted out, he was arrested and detained in France, where an intelligence led coalition with France and the UK interrogated Aimen. He told them everything they wanted to know with no hesitation. This led them to realise that Aimen could become a vital asset to the war on terror. This was the beginning of his journey as a double agent working for M16, and eventually Aimen would thwart one of the biggest plots the world had ever seen….

Nine lives first talks about in depth the original motives as to why Muslims around the world waged Jihad. The idea of liberation, mainly from Soviet occupation. The idea of waging a jihad was respectable and almost like a national service amongst Muslim communities, this was before the radical, blood thirsty terror groups came into play. This fundamental understanding is paramount for anyone who wishes to understand why these groups emerged and how they capitalised on people’s fear. Al-Qaeda and indeed ISIS, reminds me a lot of the Nazis during the second world war. This is in the way they capitalised on peoples fears and exposed vulnerabilities. They would target young men who had no other means of making money, even men who were sexually frustrated, and they would be offered a ‘way out’, an idealistic alternative for these young, impressionable men. This Is just what the Nazis did to drum up support in the masses. Religious and political indoctrination was the key to recruitment.

Even more importantly from the perspective of intelligence agencies and academics, is that Aimen Dean perfectly illustrates the inside of an Al-Qaeda training camp. I would say, it’s the infinitesimal pieces of information which can be collaborated into one which gives us the bigger picture. These details can include day to day life and structure, hierarchy, relationships formed, conflicts, disagreements and ethical values. These are all vital pieces of information which simply cannot be ascertained through any other means of intelligence gathering. The book depicts these details in a censored manner, but untold details would have been stored after interviews.

I would also say that Nine lives, improves our understanding of counter terrorism from the West’s perspective, we can look over flaws which have been made in the past and the transgressing political change within terror groups, both now and in the future. This can make us more prepared for the future. In terms of considering ways to ‘win the war on terror’, Aimen brings home the fact that, before we can even contemplate winning the ‘war’, we must understand and immerse ourselves into the ideology. This Is an ideological war and, in my opinion, a war of hearts and minds. We need to consider what is appealing and attractive about joining ISIS or Al-Qaeda, or indeed any group committed to dismantling political systems. Just to list a few, there are monetary incentives, some believe it is their religious calling, ISIS target young men who are sexually frustrated and offer them- an unlimited amount of ‘sex slaves’, who are predominantly from minority groups such as Kurds and Yazidis who have been captured. The fundamental crux of this ideology is partly refusing to accept any man-made laws, and therefore the word of ‘god’ is paramount and is only what some fighters will listen too. We need to understand these factors in much greater depth, for us to actively confront it.

I do have a rendering question however,

Will radical Islam kill itself off over time through Sectarian conflict and violence, or will there be even more hatred of the west fuelled by Americas involvement in the Middle East?

  A battle of Hegemonic wills.

I would also like to question, what can we offer to future generations which is more appealing than waging war/jihad?

These are questions which I believe we need to start thinking about from every perspective, a political, religious, social and economic factor.

For us in the West though, I feel we need to acknowledge that concealed colonialism is still very much among us. Our perspective of the Middle East through Orientalist discourses shows this Hegemonic power that we implement through concealed colonialism. For example, in my opinion, I don’t believe it was justified to invade Iraq in 2003. There was no evidence that Iraq was concealing WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). From the very start, we should have identified the terrorists as a group of minority radicals, as opposed to a full fighting force rampaging over the Middle East. However now, terrorism has been escalated through this Hegemony and now we are facing a conflict bigger than ourselves, a conflict of ideology and aiming to win a war of hearts and minds.