My Jihad

From Publishers Weekly
Collins, a former mujahid and Phoenix-based FBI informant, has recently been in the news for allegedly having warned the FBI to no avail about one of the September 11 hijackers. Here he focuses mostly on his experiences fighting along with an associate of Bin Laden's in Chechnya, as well as his bitter misadventures with the FBI. (Subtitle notwithstanding, he worked primarily for the FBI but did some joint missions with the CIA.) Collins, 28, converted to Islam while serving time as a teenager in a California prison for attempted robbery. After his release, he decided to make jihad in Bosnia in the early 1990s, and thus began an odyssey with the mujahideen that took him to training camps in Kashmir and Afghanistan and to the front lines in Chechnya. He became disillusioned, however, when some extremist factions began terrorizing civilians, and decided he could best preserve the sanctity of jihad by helping Americans rout the true terrorists. But his FBI gig wasn't much more fulfilling; Collins scathingly critiques what he casts as the Bureau's willful ignorance (they didn't understand, for instance, that mosques were the wrong places to look for extremists), their self-defeating rules (he was not allowed to go undercover to a camp actually run by Bin Laden himself) and their general bureaucratic bumbling. The book doesn't offer much historical or political background, but Collins is a vivid raconteur and his accounts of illegal border-crossings in lawless Afghanistan and Dagestan are as gripping as the descriptions of actual battles. His firsthand view of the FBI, though clearly one-sided, should interest readers as well.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Review
The Washington Post [A] blood-soaked account of training in Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.


Book Description
He was a brawny, blue-eyed, Irish-American religious convert who became a holy warrior in the name of Islam -- until the holy war began to change. Aukai Collins grew up hard: abandoned, surviving in the streets and running with thugs. While serving time, he converted to Islam, and went to fight with the Muslims who were targeted for genocide in Chechnya and Bosnia. This led him to Usama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. As terrorist attacks on civilians around the world intensified, Aukai was asked to lead a mission that included hostage taking and the killing of civilians -- something he would not do. Disillusioned by those who used Islam for their own ends or to attack innocents, Aukai offered his services to the FBI and CIA as a counter-terrorist operative, even getting close to one of the leaders of the September 11 attacks. Yet his greatest strength -- providing insight into the problems surrounding the U.S. government's fight against something it doesn't understand -- was ignored by inept members of the American intelligence community. My Jihad is an insider's story about the greatest threat to world peace and stability in modern times, told by an unforgettable true-life warrior who has walked the walk, fought the fights, and lived to tell about it.


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He has been described as a "beefy-linebacker, All-American, blue-eyed, Irish-American mujahid holy warrior" who has led a life of faith, danger, and espionage in some of the most perilous war zones on the face of the Earth. It all started when a fellow worshiper in his San Diego mosque suggested that he go to Bosnia to stop the Serb-sponsored genocide that was taking place there. This eventually led him to Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, where he trained with the most aggressive and terrifying mujahadeen in the world. But when a commander asked him to raid a town in Kashmir that would include hostage taking and the killing of civilians, his life took another turn. As he was fighting jihad in Chechnya, terrorist attacks across the world shocked him and he became disillusioned by the way some were using Islam to further their own ends or to attack innocents. He was recruited by the U.S. government as an undercover operative in the fight against terrorism. His callous treatment by inept members of the law enforcement and intelligence community provides insight into why the U.S. government can't fight against something it doesn't understand. The FBI and CIA have now spent millions of dollars to understand the events that led up to September 11, even as the information was theirs for the taking. Aukai not only became familiar with one of the leaders of the attack on America, he also became acquainted with one of the hijackers and was invited to return to Osama bin Laden's training camps. My Jihad is the personal story about the biggest threat to world peace and stability in our generation, as told by an insider.


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Collins is an angry man. He grew up in America and suffered from neglect from addicted parents. While in juvenile lock-up, he was converted to Islam and re-entered the world searching to find ways to fight for Moslems and fight his jihad. He is a devout Moslem who also loves guns and warriors. (As I read his story, I was reminded of the more famous American Taliban, John Walker Lind�believe me, Aukai Collins is no John Walker Lindh, a suburban kid, idealistic, scholarly.) Collins is an angry kid from the streets, a gangster, really, who found a way to channel his anger in jihad. His great desire to fight for Islam took him to training camps in Osama bin Laden's Afghanistan, and it took him to fight in Chechnya. He speaks Arabic, lost a leg, has a wife in Arizona and some children with her; he also fell in love with a woman in Chechnya who had his child, but who was lost to him. After 9/11, is Aukai Collins a man the FBI and the CIA could use to gain intelligence for them? He volunteered his services and much of this book details the work he prepared to do but was thwarted in carrying out�by his account because of the idiocy of the bureaucrats. It does make a riveting story. If his tale is accurate, it's scary to think we are putting our trust in such bumbling institutions. This is a rough account, filled with violent deeds and indeed violent thoughts. However, it is fascinating in its own way, and offers readers some idea of how a religious fanatic evolves. KLIATT Codes: A�Recommended for advanced students and adults. 2002, Pocket Books, 352p. illus. index.,


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