Jason Burke (born 1970) is a British journalist and the author of several non-fiction books. A correspondent covering South Asia for The Observer and The Guardian, he is based in New Delhi as of 2010.[1] In his years of journalism, Burke has addressed a wide range of topics including politics, social affairs and culture in Europe and the Middle East.[1][2] He has written extensively on Islamic extremism and, among numerous other conflicts, covered the wars of 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq. According to a 2009 article in Asharq Al-Awsat, Burke has been the "first journalist to conduct an interview with President Pervez Musharraf after he seized power in Pakistan in October 1999" and "the first western journalist to enter the Afghan city of Khost during the US war in Afghanistan".[3]
In 2003, Burke authored Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror, which was later updated and republished as Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam. Noam Chomsky described it as the "best book there is" on the Al-Qaeda.[4] In 2006, he authored On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World.
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Burke attended Oxford University. For four years, he held a position as an investigative reporter at the Sunday Times.[3] He relocated to Pakistan in 1998 to cover events there and in Afghanistan. During this period, he also traveled to Baghdad and Basra. Around 2000, he was hired by The Observer to serve as its chief foreign correspondent.[3] Since then, he has become the South Asia correspondent for The Guardian, The Observer's sister publication, as well. As of 2010, he is based in New Delhi.
Prior to his New Delhi assignment, Burke was based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Paris,[1][3] but his work has taken him to many locations. According to a 2006 book review in The Daily Telegraph, Burke "is one of the journalistic band of brothers whose job is to get to the trouble spots ahead of the TV crews and show the electronic media what it is all about".[5] His travels have included Gaza, Kurdistan, Thailand, Algeria, and Jordan, among others.[3][5] Burke also authored "On the Road to Kandahar", and more recently the critically aclaimed "9/11 Wars" released in October 2011.