"He is probably the first to spell out a doctrine for a decentralised global jihad," said Brynjar Lia, a counterterrorism researcher at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, who is writing a book on Nasar.

"In my humble opinion, he is the best theoretician among the jihadi ideologues and strategists out there. Nobody is as systematic and comprehensive in their analysis as he is. His brutal honesty and self-criticism is unique in jihadi circles."

Revealed: the mastermind behind al-Qaeda's plan to wage global jihad

There can be little doubt that Abu Mus‘ab al-Suri has played an important role in international jihadist terrorism, if not as an active operative, then at least in terms of providing practical training, and preparing jihadist terrorists with the theoretical and intellectual foundation for their violent campaigns. The centrality of al-Suri in the jihadist movement in recent years highlights the importance of uncovering his biography: where does he come from, what is his political and ideological background, how did he become involved in al-Qaida, what are his contributions to and role in the jihadist movement over the past decade, and what can his life-story tell us about al-Qaida and global jihadism today?

The following paper will shed light on Abu Mus‘ab al-Suri’s biography and give a brief glimpse into his most recent writings.

The al-Qaida Strategist Abu Mus‘ab al-Suri: A Profile

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It's not my preferred way to go, but were I to die chasing a shirtless thug in a French action movie, I'd want to do it with all my might, like the anonymous goons in ``District B13." When a body plummets down a stairwell or is hurled against a slot machine, it does so with conviction. Like its stunt work, the movie is both ridiculously hyperactive and a muscular feat of absolute confidence. I don't expect to have a more adrenalizing time at the movies this summer.

District B-13 (Banlieue 13) Movie Review | The Boston Globe

At the whirling-dervish center of the French action film "District B13" is a fighting discipline known as parkour. I'm pretty sure that's French for "somersaulting over balconies while drop-kicking the gangsters who kidnapped your sister and turned her into a junkie." However it translates, parkour isn't par-for-the-course movie mayhem, but a gorgeously choreographed gymnastics of pain that elevates "District B13" over the impossible missions and last stands of the season.

If you happened to visit IMDB, you might notice that the aforementioned sister-turned-junkie (Dany Verissimo) has also appeared in such notable French cinema as:

* Une nuit au bordel, alongside such accomplished stars as Monika Sweetheart;
* Ally et xperiment, with Tiffany Hopkins;
* French Beauty, with Sebastian Barrio;
* So Long Mister Monore, with Titof; and
* an episode of Les Tropiques de l'amour, with Rita Faltoyano and Monica Sweet.

Wikipedia offers some background.

District B13 - Review - Movies - New York Times

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The great French director Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge) is said to have bristled at the suggestion that his 1969 adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s novel about a band of French Resistance fighters during World War II presented its characters in much the same light as the wily con men and hoods who populated Melville’s better-known gangster films. Helping to cement the connection, no doubt, was the presence of stars Lino Ventura (as the brave civil engineer Philippe Gerbier) and Paul Meurisse (as organization head Luc Jardie), who just three years earlier had played the escaped con and the commissaire hot on his trail in the diabolical cat-and-mouse game of Melville’s Le Deuxième Soufflé. Yet I can think of no higher praise for Army of Shadows than to say that it approaches its pulse-quickening tale of life in the underground in the same exacting way Melville rendered so many stories of life in the underworld. As with the ascetic criminals he couldn’t resist mythologizing, Melville — who, like Kessel, had been a member of the Resistance himself — sees the brave rebels as steely men of action (and women, hence the unforgettable Simone Signoret as the resourceful Mathilde), operating outside the law and according to their own strict codes, never allowing emotion to cloud their judgment. The result is a brilliant and relentless thriller, painted in Melville’s trademark shades of charcoal and midnight blue, marked by daring escapes, unimaginable moments of self-sacrifice and unconscionable acts of betrayal. At its center rests the granite-featured Ventura, his final meeting with a once-trusted compatriot on a Paris street a chilling reminder that, in wartime, even mercy is brutal. Presented in a new 35 mm print, the film is being released in the U.S. for the first time thanks to the invaluable Rialto Pictures.

Army of Shadows | LA Weekly

Haneke pushes past simply representing violence to explore our mediated relationship to it through the televised images of real-life horror that permeate our everyday lives

Michael Haneke | LA Weekly

In Terrorist, a novel whose title will either roll eyes or raise eyebrows, John Updike seeks to crack open one of the hardest shells available to the New England writer: the mind of the young, angry, resentful Muslim.

This quote cropped up in Gabriel García Márquez ["Disbelief is more resistant than faith because it is sustained by the senses." ]

The Spider and the Wasp: John Updike and his Terrorist | LA Weekly

The guy is like an amphetamine-dosed amalgamation of Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman and real-life futurist Faith Popcorn. He’s five seconds ahead of everyone else, and he rides the twisted weirdness of the world as if it’s the perfect wave.

It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World: Selling tomorrow in The Futurist | LA Weekly