Black Flags Book Summary - Black Flags Book explained in key points

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Black Flags summary

Name: Black Flags
Rating: 4.2 (40 reviews)
Author: Joby Warrick

Joby Warrick

The Rise of ISIS

4.2 (40 ratings)

17 mins

Table of Contents

Black Flags
summarized in 7 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Uncover the roots of ISIS, the world’s most brutal terrorist organization.

The Middle East has been the site of lingering, complex conflicts for decades, but ISIS has presented the world with a new kind of evil that even al-Qaeda considers too extreme.

How, then, did such a group come into existence?

The ideology that would eventually give birth to ISIS is Salafi Jihadism, a fundamentalist ideology espoused by extremists professing to speak for all Muslims. Although the roots of this ideology can be traced back to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement of the 1950s, the political repression and imprisonment meted out to its followers over subsequent decades means that today’s jihadis bear little resemblance to their moderate predecessors. In the 1950s, many sought change via democratic means, but the insurgents of today operate only by the sword.

These blinks will explain why this disturbing change occurred.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how one man’s imprisonment led to the birth of the world’s most-feared terrorist group;
why the US-led invasion of Iraq caused an increase in terrorism; and
how the Syrian Civil War was the final piece of the puzzle allowing for the founding of ISIS.

ISIS can be traced back to the release of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from a Jordanian prison in 1999.

Have you heard the name Zarqawi? This al-Qaeda leader shaped the course of recent history.

He was born in 1966 in the city of Zarqa, Jordan, earning him the name “al-Zarqawi,” or “the one from Zarqa.” The vicious terrorist network that he went on to lead would eventually form the basis of ISIS, after a complicated journey that begins in the mid-1990s. Here’s the story:

Earlier in that decade, Zarqawi went to Afghanistan to join the “holy war” against the pro-Moscow government installed by the Soviet Union. Following his return to Jordan, he was arrested on March 29, 1994 and locked up in al-Jafr prison with 12 other men, all of whom had been found in possession of illegal weapons that they intended to use in a terrorist attack on an Israeli outpost. They had planned to avenge the killing of 20 Muslims by a Jewish extremist on February 25 that year.

However, prison did little to weaken Zarqawi’s resolve or that of his fellow Islamist inmates. Rather than spending their time in jail with the common criminals, the group pored over the Koran, hardening their hatred for those they saw as enemies of Allah – namely the United States and Israel.

Then, in 1999, King Abdullah II of Jordan released Zarqawi – at that time the most dangerous inmate in al-Jafr – along with many of his associates. King Hussein had passed away and his son, Abdullah, was hellbent on repairing the damaged relations between the kingdom and various political factions.

It was high time to pacify the Islamists, and he offered a gift: the release of 16 Muslim Brotherhood members from prison. Little did the king know that, while in prison, Zarqawi had become a father figure to those around him. Upon his release, this leadership paid dividends as Zarqawi found himself surrounded by a group of loyal followers who would unquestioningly obey his every word.

Following his release from prison, Zarqawi formed a series of terrorist training camps.

Just six months after his release, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi walked into the departures terminal of Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport, where he was immediately confronted by Jordanian intelligence officers.

When Zarqawi told them he was simply on his way to raise honeybees in the mountains of Pakistan, the lie was obvious, but the officers had nothing on him and had to let him go. In actuality, he was retreating to Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda would put him in charge of a terrorist training camp.

As Iraq descended into chaos, Zarqawi capitalized on the opportunity.

In 2003, with the US invasion of Iraq well underway, there was still no proof of the threat that had launched the war. After months of searching, no weapons of mass destruction had been found, and America couldn’t show any connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda terrorists.

Despite this, President Bush declared victory in May 2003, just two months after the war began. However, while the United States appeared confident in its success, America couldn’t even maintain security in Iraq itself.

Zarqawi allied with al-Qaeda in Iraq despite differences of opinion.

In January 2004, Zarqawi sat down to write a letter to Osama bin Laden, asking for a favor. Zarqawi’s organization had been expanding and had already planned major attacks in Iraq, but if it could secure the resources and formal support of al-Qaeda, it could do much more damage.

Zarqawi hoped that bin Laden would jump at the opportunity, but instead, the leader was again reluctant. Zarqawi’s brutal slaying of Arabs and innocent bystanders went too far for the al-Qaeda founder.

Zarqawi’s barbarism crossed a line, leading to his assassination.

On January 30, 2005, Iraq elected a National Assembly for the first time in history. Zarqawi naturally denounced the election as collaboration with America and decried all the participants as sinners.

He went out of his way to sabotage the polls. Zarqawi’s men carried out a number of attacks, specifically on Sunni political candidates and polling stations in Sunni districts, killing at least 44 people. In the end, Zarqawi got what he wanted; the Sunnis were too terrified to vote, and the election was invalidated.

As Syria imploded in 2011, Zarqawi’s weakened terrorist organization found a new home.

Initially, it seemed like Syria would be immune to the agitation of the Arab Spring revolutions that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2010. But in 2011, that fantasy vaporized as calamity erupted in Syria.

The country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, refused to heed calls for reform and instead opted for violent retaliation, shooting peaceful protesters. Assad showed no intention of stepping down and instead allowed a full blown civil war to break out; chaos was inevitable and, one by one, the security institutions of the Syrian state began to fall.

The jihadist organization grew into a fully fledged army and, in 2013, Islamic State became official.

In 2012, as the Syrian civil war continued to escalate, thousands of religious Muslims from the Sunni Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and North Africa put their bodies on the line for the jihadists who were resisting the Syrian tyrant, Assad. Huge numbers of sympathetic Arabs donated money as well as supplies and, in secrecy, Arab governments donated weapons to the cause.

Meanwhile, ISI was growing in size. Empowered by the steady stream of money and weapons, not just Arab Muslims, but radicalized Muslims from across the world entered Syria from Turkey to join ISI and their Syrian offshoot. Thousands of young Muslim men were even making the journey from Western Europe.

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What is Black Flags about?

Black Flags (2015) tells the origin story of the infamous terror organization known as the Islamic State or ISIS. These blinks detail a history that begins with a fledgling insurgency in Iraq following the US invasion in 2003 and ends with one of the most powerful and frightening terrorist groups of all time.

Who should read Black Flags?

Anyone wondering how ISIS came into existence
Students of geography, politics and history
People interested in the Middle East

About the Author

Joby Warrick is a long-time reporter for the Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. His other titles include The Triple Agent.

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