The Siege of Mecca

I'm halfway through The Siege of Mecca, by Yaroslav Trofimov. Its a fast read that contains some trite opinions and generalizations regarding terrorism, al Qaida and Islam in general. However, I'm finding it very helpful in the context of my own (major) misperceptions around the seizure of the Grand Mosque by a large group of Saudi militants in 1979. Seems we've blamed the Iranians for a number of things since the Embassy seizure (In 2002 I had a DoD civilian pop out of his seat during a presentation I was giving to tell me I was wrong about Halabja, that it was actually the Iranians who'd gassed the place).

Cheers,

I read a pretty good explanation of that but now I can't for the life of me remember where. Maybe Fawaz Gerges' Journey of the Jihadist.