A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb

by Kumar, Amitava

• ISBN13: 9780822345787
• ISBN10: 0822345781
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-20
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Part reportage and part protest,A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bombis an inquiry into the cultural logic and global repercussions of the war on terror. At its center are two men convicted in U.S. courts on terrorism-related charges: Hemant Lakhani, a seventy-year-old tried for attempting to sell a fake missile to an FBI informant, and Shahawar Matin Siraj, who was baited by the New York Police Department into a conspiracy to bomb a subway. Lakhani and Siraj were caught through questionable sting operations involving paid informants; both men received lengthy jail sentences. Their convictions were celebrated as major victories in the war on terror. In Kumarrs"s riveting account of their cases, Lakhani and Siraj emerge as epic bunglers, and the U.S. government as the creator of terror suspects to prosecute. Kumar analyzed the trial transcripts and media coverage, and he interviewed Lakhani, Siraj, their families, and their lawyers. Juxtaposing such stories of entrapment in the United States with narratives from India, another site of multiple terror attacks and state crackdowns, Kumar explores the harrowing experiences of ordinary people entangled in the war on terror. He also considers the fierce critiques of post-9/11 surveillance and security regimes by artists and writers including Coco Fusco, Paul Shambroom, and Arundhati Roy, as well as soldiers and torture victims.

Author Biography

Amitava Kumar is a journalist and Professor of English at Vassar College, He has written and edited many books, including the novel Nobody Does the Right Thing, also published by Duke University Press; Husband of a Fanatic; and Bombay-London-New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prologue: A Missile in the Living Room	p. 1
Introduction: Have you seen this Man?	p. 13
Lakhani
Birth of a Salesman	p. 33
The Late Career of the Sting Operation	p. 58
The Art of Surveillance	p. 66
The Terror and the Pity	p. 92
Siraj
I have Delivered the Pizza	p. 111
A Collaborator in Kashmir	p. 141
A Night in an Army Camp	p. 151
Tourist-Theorist-Terrorist	p. 162
Epilogue: We are the World	p. 179
Notes	p. 187
Bibliography	p. 199
Index	p. 207
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