Inside the Resistance

Zaki Chehab
November 2005     ISBN: 1560257466

When members of the Iraqi resistance first told their story to the world, they told it to Zaki Chehab, a tenacious and celebrated Middle East journalist. In Inside the Resistance, Chehab is able to show how the resistance fighters really view the elections, the Iranians, Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda, and their new American occupiers. Alternating between the perspectives of a local insider and an international observer, he takes us through the critical moments in post-occupation Iraq, such as the bombing of the UN headquarters, the Najaf uprising, and the battle for Fallujah.

Chehab maps out the regional networks of arms, soldiers, and ideology feeding into Iraq. He offers a startling portrait of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, based on interviews with his closest comrades, and provides astonishing behind-the-scenes snapshots of many of the key players in post-Saddam Iraq, including Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, and the mercurial and always controversial Ahmed Chalabi, a political chameleon who, Chehab says, would give "Machiavelli a run for his pasta." This book makes clear that no one is better placed than Chehab to explain the intricacies of the battle for Iraq and convey the reality of life on the front line.

"A remarkable and important account of life inside the Iraqi insurgency. Chehab proves that for a truly holistic account, the book still outstrips even best of the bloggers."

--Jon Snow, The Guardian, Books of the Year, 2005

Zaki Chehab is one of the Arab world's leading journalists. He is political editor of the London-based Al Hayat and of the Arabic TV channel LBC. For over twenty-five years he has covered Middle Eastern conflicts as a commentator for the Arab and Western media, including CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.