Blowback

In 1954, the CIA coined a word for the unintended, delayed damage of its own covert operations: blowback.

Seventy years later, the damage is still arriving. Blowback is a documented history of how American foreign policy helped feed the rise of the groups and attacks that shaped modern terrorism, from the 1953 coup in Iran to the American-funded Afghan jihad, the troops in Saudi Arabia, the invasion of Iraq, and the rise of ISIS.

Built on declassified records, official commission reports, court evidence, and the attackers' own words, this book follows the trail case by case and tests each one against three questions: Did American policy help create the conditions? Did the perpetrators name it as a reason? Were officials warned in advance?

• Twelve chapters, from Iran in 1953 to the fall of Mosul and beyond
• A full chapter that argues against the thesis, with the strongest objections stated fairly
• A case-by-case scorecard rating how strong each link really is
• A timeline, a glossary, and a bibliography of primary sources

• How the CIA's covert war in Afghanistan built the networks al-Qaeda later used
• What bin Laden's own declarations named as grievances
• What intelligence agencies warned before the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• What drones, proxies, and interventions in Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Syria really produced
• Where the blowback argument fails, and which terrorism has nothing to do with U.S. policy

Explaining a crime is not excusing it. It is the first step toward not repeating it.

For readers of history, politics, international relations, and security studies, and for anyone who wants to understand how the war on terror got here.