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American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent by Kevin Maurer, Tamer Elnoury
sgtbriggs's review
funny
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This book is fascinating and gives an interesting insight into the war on terror, specifically the espionage and undercover aspects of it. Very interesting, well written and informative.
jusder's review against another edition
5.0
Read the book in two days off that says anything. It definitely shared a view of and after 9/11 that I hadn't read about before. The last paragraph of the epilogue was "America is everyone". I couldn't agree more.
rynb's review against another edition
5.0
The only reason I decided to check this out of the library was because I saw that Sam Esmail and Rami Malek were attached to direct and star in the movie adaptations. I generally avoid "war on terror" related books and movies because I find them jingoistic and designed to make people paranoid about Muslims so they'll go along with giving up civil liberties, but I figured with an Egyptian American Muslim director, whose work I'm a huge fan of, was involved in making the film version, it was worth giving the book a shot. I'm glad I did.
The book reads like a crime thriller, and since I wasn't familiar with the case the book is about, it was a page turner that kept me engaged waiting to see what happened next.
The book reads like a crime thriller, and since I wasn't familiar with the case the book is about, it was a page turner that kept me engaged waiting to see what happened next.
coolhand773's review
3.0
Not as interesting as I expected. Oftentimes, it felt that Elnoury was drawing out conversations or situations just to fill space, as they didn't add to the narrative.
I was glad to learn about Agent Elnoury and engage from his perspective, but this could've been a much shorter book without losing any impact.
I was glad to learn about Agent Elnoury and engage from his perspective, but this could've been a much shorter book without losing any impact.
nietzschesghost's review
4.0
I am extremely interested by terrorism and wanted to use my legal background to become a part of the counter-terrorism operation in the UK, before unfortunately falling ill. I believe we have some incredible individuals that are willing to put themselves in danger to protect their mother country and the author is just one of those doing so in America.
Tamer Elnoury (a pseudonym) poses as an affluent Al-Qaeda sympathiser and is in a race against time to gain the terrorists' trust in order to bring them down. In the aftermath of 9/11, long-time undercover agent Elnoury joined an elite counter-terrorism unit. Its mission? To infiltrate terror cells, gain detailed knowledge of their networks and bring them successfully to justice.
"Terrorist Hunter" is a detailed look into US government implementations after the atrocity of 9/11, in order to infiltrate terror cells with the aim of stopping another similar tragedy from happening. People don't realise how difficult this job must be both physically and mentally. Guys like Elnoury put their lives in peril for the good of their country, it really is incredible. Luckily, nothing as horrendous as 9/11 has happened recently but whether that is down to these infiltration operations or just chance, it's impossible to say.
This is an engaging read that I got through pretty quickly. It discusses some points that feed into the overall story such as the view of Islam and the strain of being an undercover agent, to name but a few. If you are interested in the use of government agents in undercover operations or how we try to protect a country's citizens from terrorists then this is not a book to be missed, in my opinion.
Many thanks to Corgi for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Tamer Elnoury (a pseudonym) poses as an affluent Al-Qaeda sympathiser and is in a race against time to gain the terrorists' trust in order to bring them down. In the aftermath of 9/11, long-time undercover agent Elnoury joined an elite counter-terrorism unit. Its mission? To infiltrate terror cells, gain detailed knowledge of their networks and bring them successfully to justice.
"Terrorist Hunter" is a detailed look into US government implementations after the atrocity of 9/11, in order to infiltrate terror cells with the aim of stopping another similar tragedy from happening. People don't realise how difficult this job must be both physically and mentally. Guys like Elnoury put their lives in peril for the good of their country, it really is incredible. Luckily, nothing as horrendous as 9/11 has happened recently but whether that is down to these infiltration operations or just chance, it's impossible to say.
This is an engaging read that I got through pretty quickly. It discusses some points that feed into the overall story such as the view of Islam and the strain of being an undercover agent, to name but a few. If you are interested in the use of government agents in undercover operations or how we try to protect a country's citizens from terrorists then this is not a book to be missed, in my opinion.
Many thanks to Corgi for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
wherescoco's review
5.0
“Our best defense is inclusion. America is everyone.”
I really enjoyed this! Super immersive listen on audio, and I loved the narrators voice. Fascinating story.
I really enjoyed this! Super immersive listen on audio, and I loved the narrators voice. Fascinating story.
ola_wnka's review
4.5
American Radical is the engaging memoir of undercover FBI agent Tamer Elnoury that reads more like a thriller. Elnoury thwarted the 2013 VIA Rail Canada Terrorism Plot by befriending the Al-Qaeda sponsored terrorists planning the attack. The part of the story I find most interesting is that Tamer Elnoury is still undercover continuing his work even after the publishing of this memoir. The name is a pseudonym and Elnoury has only granted a handful of interviews while in heavy disguise and with voice altering. American Radical provides a glimpse into the very secretive world of terrorism and reveals some of the attacker motivations. The memoir briefly focuses on Elnoury’s time as an undercover cop before describing how Elnoury obtained intelligence by meeting, befriending, and working closely with the VIA Rail terrorists, finishing with Elnoury’s testimony in the court proceedings. Elnoury, a practicing Muslim, describes his undercover work through his essential perspective, which provides cultural and religious context to counterbalance the terrorists’ erroneous beliefs.
caidyn's review
4.0
This review and others can be found on BW Book Reviews.
Admittedly, I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. But, Tamer’s voice shone through in what could have been a very dull book to make it interesting. In short, this is the story of an undercover agent (and Tamer Elnoury is not his real name) who went from busting drug rings as a police officer to being an FBI agent dealing with terrorism. Not only was this book interesting to listen to, I really found it enlightening.
Tamer, as a Muslim, spoke about how hard it was to work with and against radical Islamists since he grew up as a mainstream Muslim who grew up succeeding in the American dream. His beliefs align with the five pillars, that Islam is not a violent religion and that jihad is an internal struggle with God in order to submit. It’s not about harming and killing innocents.
He also showed how hard undercover work is and what it’s like. I think that because of police shows, we have an idea of what that means and entails, yet you don’t really know. It’s hard work. And when you’re confronted with becoming friends and confidants to people who take something so personal to you and weaponize it, that’s not easy.
Finally, I really found it enlightening about how many plots get foiled and how. It’s not just that the country finds out and destroys it (what I’d call an external cause), but also internal. Tamer stated that not all terrorist groups are the same. There are many opinions and they all vie for the same resources.
This book, while about a very serious topic, was fun and interesting. It also had a great message of unity to it. The only way to take away this threat is to understand it, even if we don’t want to. To do that, you have to hear the voices of the mainstream and not block them out. If that’s not a good message, I don’t know what is.
Admittedly, I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. But, Tamer’s voice shone through in what could have been a very dull book to make it interesting. In short, this is the story of an undercover agent (and Tamer Elnoury is not his real name) who went from busting drug rings as a police officer to being an FBI agent dealing with terrorism. Not only was this book interesting to listen to, I really found it enlightening.
Tamer, as a Muslim, spoke about how hard it was to work with and against radical Islamists since he grew up as a mainstream Muslim who grew up succeeding in the American dream. His beliefs align with the five pillars, that Islam is not a violent religion and that jihad is an internal struggle with God in order to submit. It’s not about harming and killing innocents.
He also showed how hard undercover work is and what it’s like. I think that because of police shows, we have an idea of what that means and entails, yet you don’t really know. It’s hard work. And when you’re confronted with becoming friends and confidants to people who take something so personal to you and weaponize it, that’s not easy.
Finally, I really found it enlightening about how many plots get foiled and how. It’s not just that the country finds out and destroys it (what I’d call an external cause), but also internal. Tamer stated that not all terrorist groups are the same. There are many opinions and they all vie for the same resources.
This book, while about a very serious topic, was fun and interesting. It also had a great message of unity to it. The only way to take away this threat is to understand it, even if we don’t want to. To do that, you have to hear the voices of the mainstream and not block them out. If that’s not a good message, I don’t know what is.