Devil's Game

The most clear and engaging history of the deadly historic partnership between Western powers and political Islam.―SalonDevil''s Game is the first comprehensive account of America''s misguided efforts stretching across decades to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA Pentagon and foreign service officials Robert Dreyfuss follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists to longstanding ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the landscape thundering against freedom of thought science women''s rights secularism―and their former patron. Chronicling a history of double-dealing cynical exploitation and humiliating embarrassment that continues to this day Devil''s Game reveals a pattern that far from furthering democracy or security ensures a future of blunders and blowback.