Author: Omar Nasiri
ISBN number: 0 -465-02389-9
This is the story of a spy who spends a lot of his time in the AL QAEDA. He gives a vivid description of the various happenings in his life till date. The book has various references to various Jihadist attacks in world in the last 2 decades.
The book begins with the author as an 8 year old in an average middle class family in Morocco. He loses his hearing in a freak accident and is sent to stay away from his family. He is brought up by Eduard, a caretaker for 5 years at this point; Omar develops a fantasy for guns at this point as he is trained on the various guns by Eduard. When he turns 15 Omar I sent back to Morocco to live with his family there, he in order to make money starts his life as a guide and soon because of the amount of the money involved gets involved in the drug trade. He job is to identify tourists who are vulnerable and get them to buy drugs. Doing this he gradually develops a sense and of how do observe and escape from the clutches of law. Beginning here, Omar then moves to Brussels where he comes in contact with his elder brother Hakim who is a Staunch Muslim his brother gradually causes Omar to get acquainted with the GIA an extremist group. Omar begins by sourcing weapons for the group gradually he realizes that he and his family are being used and decides to tell the French secret service about it. This is where we get introduced to the Giles who is an officer in the secret service. When he is promised a better life and a few perks, Omar turns a spy and continues to associated with the GIA and provide information. When the group gets a doubt on him they send him to Morocco with a car loaded with drugs and contraband substances .They promise him that he will be safe, when he reaches there he realizes that there is no way out. Due to his wit and a lot of luck to by his side he comes back to Brussels. Due to his interaction with the various extremists he develops this urge to also go to the training camps in Afghanistan and get trained there so at one point he helps the secret service to arrest all his aides and with the help of Giles moves to Pakistan with the aim of somehow making it to the camps .The descriptions of the Country are perfect.
After a few attempts he finally finds the right resources that help him to train in the camp. Half the book has his day to day descriptions at the camps. These are very interesting. At a point he mentions that he knows the killing of innocent is not what Jihad is but also says the reason for this is that the Koran is slightly ambiguous and people use this to their advantage to influence the minds of the youth an mislead them. His account of the various happenings in the camps explains the detail to which these terrorists are thought. We learn that they are not just thought to use weapons they are trained in every possible aspect they are also thought to handle interrogations effectively if caught.
Once he finishes his training he is sent to Europe to continue his mission there and also send funds to support the cause. Once back in Europe Omar establishes contact with Giles and gives detailed information .He now begins to crave for a normal life and pleads to be allowed t get married and settle down .But because he is a valuable source of information. The book then leads us through the phase where the secret forces try in vain to make him stay. The book concludes where he finally escapes from the clutches and settles down but he ends on a note saying having done so much there is never a night when he sleeps peacefully for he knows his life is in danger all the time.
The book was written in the wake of the 9 /11 attacks but what is striking about his accounts is that there is no proper description of Osama bin Laden there are a few references like for instance he get a reward from the “sheik” which he later understood was Osama. He says that when the attacks happened he wasn’t surprised at all. After the hijack at Algiers where the mission was unsuccessful because the hijackers dint know to fly the plane, Omar explains that they were quick to learn from their mistakes and that’s why the hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were sent to flying school .
This book is worth a read .For someone like me who thought Jihad meant “blow yourself up “, this book was very interesting.
Monday, August 24
Sunday, August 16
HOW WOULD YOU MOVE MOUNT FUJI?
Author: William Poundstone
ISBN number:0-316-77849-4
This book takes us through the various interviews and the puzzles that are asked in the interviews. These puzzles are used as a filtering measure in these companies to ensure the “not so good candidates” are not hired. This culture of interviewing was followed first in the Silicon Valley and is most effectively used by Microsoft in their recruitment process. Most of these questions do not have a single correct answer. There is no right or wrong, the person is judged by the way he approaches the problem. With the changing technology every minute, It does not make sense to recruit a person who is an expert in some skill, With such puzzles the approach of the individual and problem solving capabilities can be accessed and this proves fruitful.
After advice to interviewers (on how to make the tests fair and meaningful) and interviewees (on how to succeed), the Author takes the latter half of the book to present the solutions to the logic problems presented in the first half,. The author pays particular attention to the methodologies for arriving at the solutions to the puzzles. Some puzzles looked extremely difficult but once I read the answers, I realized they weren’t. There is an underlying method using which all these problems have to be approached..The books calls for one to be prepared for these kinds of the puzzles, which needs out of the box thinking to crack.. Does the sun always rise in the east? This was one example. To me the answer was yes but then the answer said in the South Pole everything is to the north of it and vice versa in the North Pole .I was never able to think on those lines.
I always heard that Microsoft’s recruitment process involved various puzzles, this book outlined 2 things
1) Why these kinds of puzzles are used.
2) How they should be approached.
I wondered from where these companies got these puzzles even that was answered in the book. For someone who wants to have a good read with a lot of thought going into solving puzzles this is a great book.
There are various challenging questions in this book that were solved, to me the best were
1) Why the manhole covers are round rather than square?
2) How would you weigh a jet plane without using scales?
3) Which way should you turn a key to unlock a car door?
4) How do they make M&Ms (the answer was an interesting)
Unluckily most of these are no more used in any interviews because of “overexposure” but at least I know how to approach similar puzzles.
ISBN number:0-316-77849-4
This book takes us through the various interviews and the puzzles that are asked in the interviews. These puzzles are used as a filtering measure in these companies to ensure the “not so good candidates” are not hired. This culture of interviewing was followed first in the Silicon Valley and is most effectively used by Microsoft in their recruitment process. Most of these questions do not have a single correct answer. There is no right or wrong, the person is judged by the way he approaches the problem. With the changing technology every minute, It does not make sense to recruit a person who is an expert in some skill, With such puzzles the approach of the individual and problem solving capabilities can be accessed and this proves fruitful.
After advice to interviewers (on how to make the tests fair and meaningful) and interviewees (on how to succeed), the Author takes the latter half of the book to present the solutions to the logic problems presented in the first half,. The author pays particular attention to the methodologies for arriving at the solutions to the puzzles. Some puzzles looked extremely difficult but once I read the answers, I realized they weren’t. There is an underlying method using which all these problems have to be approached..The books calls for one to be prepared for these kinds of the puzzles, which needs out of the box thinking to crack.. Does the sun always rise in the east? This was one example. To me the answer was yes but then the answer said in the South Pole everything is to the north of it and vice versa in the North Pole .I was never able to think on those lines.
I always heard that Microsoft’s recruitment process involved various puzzles, this book outlined 2 things
1) Why these kinds of puzzles are used.
2) How they should be approached.
I wondered from where these companies got these puzzles even that was answered in the book. For someone who wants to have a good read with a lot of thought going into solving puzzles this is a great book.
There are various challenging questions in this book that were solved, to me the best were
1) Why the manhole covers are round rather than square?
2) How would you weigh a jet plane without using scales?
3) Which way should you turn a key to unlock a car door?
4) How do they make M&Ms (the answer was an interesting)
Unluckily most of these are no more used in any interviews because of “overexposure” but at least I know how to approach similar puzzles.
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