In The Shadow Of Swords

Following the Bali bombings, Australia suddenly found itself in the middle of the war of terror that gripped the world. Worse still, it was a war with an enemy we never knew we had an enemy were still struggling to identify and understand.

Prominent ABC journalist Sally Neighbour follows the trail of Islamic terrorists, from their origins in the mosques and religious schools of Indonesia, to their training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan; looking at how their alliance with Osama bin Ladens Al Qaeda network transformed them from a band of angry fanatics into a world-class terrorist group with hundreds of operatives across South-east Asia.

In the Shadow of Swords will explain the backgrounds and motivations of these operatives whose faces are now so well known to Australians, but whose thinking remains a mystery.

Documenting how Australia became caught up in the war on terrorism, Neighbour looks at how despite the best of intentions Australia's foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor helped make it a target. In the inimitable style that has assured her a place as one of Australias finest journalists, Neighbour also examines how easily these terrorist operatives have been able to penetrate Australia. In the Shadow of Swords also documents the failings of intelligence agencies in detecting and recognising the danger, and details the events since the Bali bombing the arrests, the trials and the ongoing efforts to track down the hundreds of terrorists still at large, revealing how far we are still from winning the war.