Talking to terrorists : a personal journey from the IRA to Al Qaeda

A controversial and important book by BBC reporter and terrorism expert Peter Taylor. Newly updated to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and to include the death of Osama Bin Laden. During his 40-year career, award-winning journalist Peter Taylor has come face-to-face with some of the world's most notorious terrorists. In 1972 he was sent to Northern Ireland to report on `Bloody Sunday' and in the aftermath of 9/11, he focused on Al Qaeda, breaking stories in the period up to the July bombings and the plot to blow up passenger planes mid-Atlantic. In Talking to Terrorists Taylor wrestles with a range of complex questions: What are terrorists like? What motivates them? Should governments talk to them? When does interrogation become torture? In this journey from Northern Ireland's Bogside to the notorious Guantanamo Bay, he uncovers this deadly phenomenon, unavoidably at the centre of our lives. Newly updated to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and in the aftermath of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Talking to Terrorists is controversial, revelatory and an unquestionably important book for our times.