Book Review: The Osama bin Laden I Know–By: Peter Bergen

528 pages (including indexes)
$20ish from Amazon.com

Editorial Review:

No one knows more about Osama bin Laden than Peter Bergen. In 1997, well before the West suddenly became aware of the world’s most sought-after terrorist, Bergen met with him and has followed his activities ever since.Today, years after President Bush swore to get him dead or alive and despite haunting the popular imagination since September 11, 2001, bin Laden remains shrouded in mystery and obscured by a barrage of facts, details and myths. With numerous never-before-published interviews, The Osama Bin Laden I Know provides unprecedented insight into bin Laden’s life and character drawing on the experiences of his most intimate acquaintances. This timely and important work gives readers their first true, enduring look at the man who has declared the West his greatest enemy.

What I Thought:

If you need to know anything about bin Laden, get this book. Bergen looks at many types of publications (from interrogations to television interviews to personal encounters) to illustrate Osama bin Laden. Starting from bin Laden’s childhood, you learn about the al Qaeda leader’s movements, ideas, and strategies starting when he was growing up and including, fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, growing sunflowers in Sudan, planning 9/11, living with the Taliban, escaping Tora Bora, and on the run after the Iraq War. The beginning of the book goes to great lengths to portray bin Laden as an average, very religious young Muslim. He had hundreds of millions of dollars from his father’s company, but lived the life of a poor man. He followed the Quran to the letter and fasted twice a week. We see a change in him when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and he traveled to fight them, and when his mentor, Abdullah Azzam, and bin Laden went their separate ways (Azzam was a believer in peace, bin Laden obviously condones violence). Bergen likens this change to bin Laden’s relationship with al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian Islamic Extremist and now second in command of al Qeada, and also Abu Hafs (Mohammad Atef), the eventual military leader of al Qaeda. Basically all of those quoted in this book have trouble connecting bin Laden to the man he has become. Even when Bergen met him, and bin Laden declared war on the US, he thought he was a very peaceful man. Regardless of his past, bin Laden is now the most wanted man by the US, even though he has higher approval rates in the Middle East than George Bush. It is a great, fast read for anyone looking to gain more knowledge about al Qaeda, Islamic Extremism, or bin Laden himself.