ALUMNUS, AUTHOR TO OUTLINE WAR-ON-TERRORISM VICTORY STRATEGY OCT. 9

From: Media Relations

 October 3, 2006

HARRISONBURG — Counterterrorism scholar and author Mike Tucker, a James Madison University alumnus, will speak at his alma mater Monday, Oct. 9, about a victory strategy for the international war on terrorism.

Tucker will present "The War is in the Mosques: A Strategy for Victory in Iraq and the Global War on Terror" at 6:30 p.m. in the War Memorial Auditorium, Memorial Hall. Admission is free to his presentation, which is part of JMU's Visiting Scholars Program.

Tucker, a former U.S. Marine Corps infantryman with a special operations background, has attached to military units to witness combat in Iraq, Burma and Spain. From September 2005 to April 2006, Tucker was embedded with Marine scouts and snipers and the Iraqi Army in Fallujah and western Iraq. In three earlier tours, Tucker was with U.S. Army light infantry, paratroopers and Special Forces in northern and western Iraq and with Kurdish "peshmerga" freedom fighters and Kurdish Democratic Party military intelligence, aiding in counterintelligence operations against al-Qaida.

His 2005 book, "Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops and Lock-and-Load Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah," focuses on the American troops he followed during 19 weeks of urban warfare in late 2003 and early 2004.

Tucker also wrote "Hell is Over: Voices of the Kurds after Saddam," a finalist for the Publishers Marketing Association's 2005 Ben Franklin Award in the history/political category. Another book, "The Long Patrol: With Karen Guerrillas in Burma," chronicles his experiences in infiltrating Burma clandestinely to patrol with Karen guerrilla fighters behind Burmese Army lines in order to investigate army war crimes.

Tucker earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at JMU — a bachelor of arts degree in history in 1982 and a master of arts degree in English in 1999. In addition to writing nonfiction works, Tucker writes poetry and fiction. His also is an accomplished photographer.

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by Janet Smith, Media Relations