The Osama Bin Laden I Know. An Oral History Of Al Quaeda's Leader

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Publisher: Free Press
Publisher Place: New York
Publisher Year: 2006
Edition: First Edition

Description: 444 pages. Book and Jacket are both in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Osama bin Laden has haunted the popular psyche and stymied the worlds mightiest military for the last five years. Despite President Bushs declaration that he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive," despite being one of the worlds most notorious men, and despite the barrage of coverage surrounding him, Osama bin Laden remains at large -- and shrouded in a fog of anecdote and myth, rumor and fact. Peter Bergen, author of the bestselling book Holy War, Inc., offers an astounding, unparalleled portrait of bin Laden, comprised of Bergens own interviews with more than fifty people who have known bin Laden personally, from his brother-in-law to his high school English teacher to former members of al Qaeda. The resulting collage of voices and memories affords an unprecedented glimpse into the life and the true nature of the man directly responsible for the largest terror attack in history.No journalist knows more about Osama bin Laden than Peter Bergen. In 1997, well before bin Laden became a household name, Bergen met with him, and has since followed his activities closely. After an insightful introduction -- in which Bergen recounts how, at their meeting, bin Laden "presented himself as a soft-spoken cleric, rather than as the firebreathing leader of a global terrorist organization" -- Bergen stands aside to make way for the voices of dozens of people with firsthand, sometimes intimate experience with the al Qaeda leader.Current conventional wisdom seems to be that bin Laden and his organization have faded in importance, but Bergen argues urgently that that perspective is far from accurate -- indeed, each day that bin Laden remains free adds to al Qaedas public relations triumph, for his legend only grows among his supporters. More concretely, he continues to provide broad strategic guidance for jihadists -- his many statements released on video or audio tape since 9/11, for instance, have exerted direct influence on terrorists actions. In 2003 the world suffered more significant terror attacks than had occurred in a single year during the previous two decades -- and in 2004, the number of attacks doubled over 2003. In 2004, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Iraqs most ferocious insurgent leader, pledged his allegiance to bin Laden, a sign of the continued importance of al Qaedas leader.How did Osama bin Laden transform himself from a shy, polite, middle-of-his-class schoolboy to commander of the worlds most formidable terrorist organization Where was bin Laden on 9/11, and what was his reaction to it How did he escape from Tora Bora Is al Qaeda a top-down organization or a loose ideological alliance What is it about this man that draws hundreds of thousands of followers, and makes men willing to fly airplanes into buildings at his command This definitive and engaging portrait gives the American public its first true, enduring insight into a man who has declared us his greatest enemy. Industry Reviews He was a nice, quiet boy, a loner, kept pretty much to himself. Then he got a little funny in the head-but we never saw it coming. So suggests Osama bin Ladens high-school English teacher, remembering him as "extraordinarily courteous . . . probably partly because he was a bit shyer than most of the other students." From shy teenager to world-renowned criminal: The career arc that CNN correspondent Bergens oral history describes surely seemed unlikely to the wealthy Saudis among whom bin Laden came of age, though all the signs were there; a neighbor, for instance, recalls that though bin Laden was fond of Westerns and kung-fu movies, he was also a priggish fundamentalist who dreamed of liberating Palestine and chided his siblings for ogling the maid and wearing short-sleeve shirts. He translated that fundamentalist drive into military action by funding and fighting alongside the anti-Soviet mujahedeen of Afghanistan, though he later made the "odd" decision to form the predominantly Arab force called al Qaeda. The accounts of his fellow soldiers and of veterans of al Qaeda, some taken from trial transcripts and intelligence reports, point to bin Laden as something of a failure as a strategist; his closest friend from university chided him in Afghanistan for his willingness to spend his soldiers lives, saying, "You can throw away the Koran, but not drop the blood of a person," while even al Qaeda members characterized him as "a madman from a mental hospital, a madman but a genius." All recent accounts agree, however, that bin Laden outfoxed his American pursuers in post-9/11 Afghanistan and is very much alive, though he will gladly fight to the death as a martyr for Islam: "I am just a poor slave of God," he told Al-Jazeera. "If I live or die, the war will continue." Know your enemy, the adage goes. This is a most helpful resource. (Kirkus Reviews)

ISBN: 9780743278911