Meet the author of "The Last Warlord", whose character appears in the movie "12 Strong, The True Declassified Story of the Horsesoldiers".
Professor Brian Glyn Williams has both a scholarly background in Afghanistan and “boots on the ground” credentials in this country of the sort that few academics ensconced in the Ivory Towers possess. He has traveled extensively in Afghanistan tracking suicide bombers for the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center and doing PSYOPs (Psychological Operations) for the U.S. Army's secretive Joint Information Operations Warfare Command. He also has Hollywood links and the character from his book the Last Warlord appears in the Afghan-based movie "12 Strong, The True Declassified Story of the Horsesoldiers" (Dr. Williams advised A List actor Chris Hemsworth, Thor in the Avengers series, on the movie set in New Mexico). See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=-Denciie5oA
As for his scholarly credentials, Dr. Williams has a PhD in Central Asian Islamic history and is a full professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (tenure received in 2006, and full professorship 2013) and formerly taught Muslim history at the prestigious University of London. His previous books have been reviewed by the Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal etc., endorsed by former CIA Director General David Petraeus, and one (Predators. The CIA's Drone War on Al Qaeda) was credited by the British rock band Muse in Rolling Stone with inspiring their bestselling, Grammy-winning album "Drones." Previous books have been published by Oxford University Press, Harper Collins, and the military-focused DC-based commercial press Potomac etc. Dr. Williams has testified in terrorism cases at Guantanamo Bay as an expert witness, wrote a manual for the U.S. Army on Afghanistan that was published in a civilian version as Afghanistan Declassified, and recently traveled to the Mosul region in northern Iraq to assist in freeing a Yazidi slave from her ISIS captor.
In addition to his fieldwork in the Islamic world which ranges from Bosnia and Kosovo to the remote tribal zones of Pakistan and the Himalayan warzone of Kashmir, Dr. Williams has trained U.S. Marines deploying to Afghanistan on tribal history and has lectured at Special Operations Command, MacDill Airbase, and U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and worked for the Directorate of National Intelligence on chemical and biological terror threats to the U.S. Professor Williams has also spent time in the Soviet Union and speaks Russian and Turkish.
Dr. Williams gives an hour long power point presentation followed by Q&A then book sales and signing.
Please join us for this informative and exciting program, sponsored by the Hazen Memorial Library Endowment Fund.
