TERRORIST HUNTER: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America

The author of this gripping account, whose identity, for obvious reasons, must remain secret, has some shocking revelations to make regarding innocuous-sounding Islamic groups that she says serve as fronts for Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad and even al-Qaeda; about FBI ineptitude in investigating these groups; and perhaps worst, about government suspicion of those, like herself, who are investigating this network. Some will dismiss as paranoid her claim that there is a Saudi-funded movement to gain "Muslim world domination," yet readers will follow along in fearful fascination as she slowly assembles the puzzle pieces of a complex, interlocking group of organizations and traces their links to terrorist groups and, ultimately, to a "Saudi connection." The author, a researcher at an unnamed research institute in New York City that focuses on the Middle East, has, through her work, become perhaps the leading authority on how these front organizations operate in the U.S.—government agencies come to her for information. Readers will share her nervousness as she attends a Muslim conference with a tape recorder attached to her eight-month-pregnant stomach under her burka or dives into a garbage-filled Dumpster in search of documents. Her personal story is equally dramatic: as a child, she and her Jewish family escaped imprisonment in Iraq after the regime executed her father as a spy for Israel. With her evidence of how reputedly moderate Islamic leaders speak in support of jihad, she will undoubtedly be accused of feeding anti-Muslim fears. Readers will have to absorb her tale and judge for themselves whether her evidence is credible; this should be headed for bestseller lists. (May 6)