Bleedback

Written by an insider and saturated in realism, Bleedback immerses the reader in the conflicts of the war on terror. But this thought-provoking exploration of a post-Osama world is also lit by compassion, forgiveness, and redemption. November 2011. Osama bin Laden is dead, while a resurgent right-wing in the US plots to subvert Osama's foreign policy agenda. A leader of the Iranian Revolution now exiled in America, Ayatollah Rastani, has tried to stay out of politics to keep his family safe. But recent events have had seismic consequences for his native region, and a shattered community now looks to Rastani for spiritual and political leadership: while he risk everything to support his people? Circling Rastani for very different reasons are two men whose worlds have also been thrown into turmoil. Former Al Qa'ida strategist Atamar Anagul is lured back from seclusion to mastermind attacks from war-torn Iraq to the streets of London. But when Rastani emerges as a target for assassination for sectarian reasons that Atamar rejects, his certainties begin to unravel. Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Kozhevnikov is on a mission to infiltrate the Chester Brampton Group, a private US company with a very lucrative interest in prolonging conflict in the region. Retsina's rising profile seems like a perfect opportunity for Chester Brampton to draw Iran into their theatre of operations...and Kozhevnikov will be powerless to stop them without help from the unlikeliest of quarters. The author created the only community programme known to have prevented a terrorist attack in Britain. Professor G. Griffith-Dickson of King's College, London is the founder and Director of Lokahi, which tackles religious and political conflict.