The Terrorist Factory
ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide, and Exporting Terror
Father Patrick Desbois, Costel Nastasie, Lara Logan
- 272 Pages
- July 3, 2018
- ISBN: 9781628729467
- Imprint: Arcade Publishing
- Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.25in x 0in
Description
A riveting, behind-the-scenes look of the Yazidi genocide and the terrorist threat it holds for the West, based on the investigation by Father Patrick Desbois, Costel Nastasie, and their team at Yahad–In Unum, as first shown on 60 Minutes.
With testimony drawn from more than 200 interviews with Yazidi survivors—girls, women, boys, and men—recorded during 11 investigative trips to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes
The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and know from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God." Their fighters are paid with sex, money, and the power of life and death over captives. Their promised paradise is here and now, not after death.
With testimony drawn from more than 200 interviews with Yazidi survivors—girls, women, boys, and men—recorded during 11 investigative trips to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes
The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and know from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God." Their fighters are paid with sex, money, and the power of life and death over captives. Their promised paradise is here and now, not after death.
Men who didn't swear allegiance were executed. Women became slaves for sex or reproduction, and their offspring may still serve the cause. In mobile training camps, the captured children were drugged, indoctrinated, and taught to shoot Kalashnikovs, plant explosives, and handle suicide vests. They are the intended products of the terrorist factory. In this taut, disturbing account, the authors document a utilitarian genocide that still holds an implicit threat to other counties, including those in the West.
Authors
Father Patrick Desbois is president of Yahad–In Unum and is the Braman Endowed Professor of the Practice of the Forensic Study of the Holocaust at Georgetown University. He is the author of The Holocaust by Bullets, winner of the 2008 National Jewish Book Award, and has received numerous honors for his groundbreaking work on the Holocaust and other genocides, including the Humanitarian Award from the US Holocaust Museum, the Lantos Human Rights Prize, and the Légion d'Honneur. He resides in Washington, DC, and Paris, France.
Costel Nastasie is the founder and president of Roma Dignity and has conducted research in association with Yahad in Unum on the deportation and genocide of the Roma. He now coordinates investigations in the Middle East. Originally from Romania, he now lives in Brussels.
Costel Nastasie is the founder and president of Roma Dignity and has conducted research in association with Yahad in Unum on the deportation and genocide of the Roma. He now coordinates investigations in the Middle East. Originally from Romania, he now lives in Brussels.
Reviews
“Haunting and harrowing . . . The survivors’ voices captured here bear witness to humanity’s collective failure to abolish genocide.”—Publishers Weekly
"What makes this book so powerful are the details—meticulously gathered in person by Father Patrick Desbois and his chief investigator, Costel Nastasie. They are a formidable team with no equal in this field and, perhaps more importantly, no agenda. Through their extraordinary commitment, experience, and precise investigative techniques, they offer us all a rare opportunity to go inside the minds and the machinery of ISIS, whose extremist ideology still threatens us all. The insight they offer is unique—and terrifying. If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes
“Father Desbois has dedicated his life to trying to provide a measure of justice for genocide survivors and victims, refusing to allow the grim past to be denied or forgotten. When ISIS’s genocide against the Yazidi began, Desbois sprang to action, courageously traveling to Iraq to gather searing evidence of ISIS’s horrors in real time. In so doing, he made ISIS survivors feels less alone, and he pressured the world to save those still being brutalized. The Terrorist Factory draws on a lifetime of Desbois’s forensic, historical, and sociological wisdom in order to illuminate ISIS’s depravity. It is a powerful, searing account that elevates the voices of ISIS's victims and reminds us why it is so urgent both to confront this murderous ideology and to support those who have endured it.”—Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the United Nations
"A courageous denunciation that . . . places the international agencies squarely in front of their responsibilities."—Actualité Juive
“The Holy Father encourages the members of Yahad-In Unum to continue their struggle for the just recognition of the violence suffered by so many men and women belonging to different communities.”—Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on behalf of Pope Francis
“I salute the importance and seriousness of the highly documented work you and your association are doing to highlight the gravity of the tragedy of the Yazidi genocide.”—President Emmanuel Macron of France
“We have an obligation to follow the path of Father Desbois.”—Representative Jamie Raskin
"What makes this book so powerful are the details—meticulously gathered in person by Father Patrick Desbois and his chief investigator, Costel Nastasie. They are a formidable team with no equal in this field and, perhaps more importantly, no agenda. Through their extraordinary commitment, experience, and precise investigative techniques, they offer us all a rare opportunity to go inside the minds and the machinery of ISIS, whose extremist ideology still threatens us all. The insight they offer is unique—and terrifying. If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes
“Father Desbois has dedicated his life to trying to provide a measure of justice for genocide survivors and victims, refusing to allow the grim past to be denied or forgotten. When ISIS’s genocide against the Yazidi began, Desbois sprang to action, courageously traveling to Iraq to gather searing evidence of ISIS’s horrors in real time. In so doing, he made ISIS survivors feels less alone, and he pressured the world to save those still being brutalized. The Terrorist Factory draws on a lifetime of Desbois’s forensic, historical, and sociological wisdom in order to illuminate ISIS’s depravity. It is a powerful, searing account that elevates the voices of ISIS's victims and reminds us why it is so urgent both to confront this murderous ideology and to support those who have endured it.”—Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the United Nations
"A courageous denunciation that . . . places the international agencies squarely in front of their responsibilities."—Actualité Juive
“The Holy Father encourages the members of Yahad-In Unum to continue their struggle for the just recognition of the violence suffered by so many men and women belonging to different communities.”—Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on behalf of Pope Francis
“I salute the importance and seriousness of the highly documented work you and your association are doing to highlight the gravity of the tragedy of the Yazidi genocide.”—President Emmanuel Macron of France
“We have an obligation to follow the path of Father Desbois.”—Representative Jamie Raskin