Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #834391 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Shortly after terrorists led by Osama bin Laden attacked the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered retaliatory missile strikes against targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. It was the first time the United States had responded to an individual terrorist with such overwhelming military force. Bin Laden, of course, is no run-of-the-mill rabble-rouser; Clinton called him "perhaps the pre- eminent organiser and financier of international terrorism in the world today." That's quite a label for someone who, as biographer Yossef Bodansky describes, "lives with his four wives and some fifteen children in a small cave in eastern Afghanistan" without running water. Yet he is "a principal player in a tangled and sinister web of terrorism-sponsoring states, intelligence chieftains and master terrorists." Remarkably little is known about the man; as Bodansky reveals, even the year of bin Laden's birth is uncertain. This book, then, is more than the story of a single terrorist. It's a description of a whole movement waging a jihad--holy war- -against the United States in the belief that America's modernising influence on Arab nations thwarts Islamic fundamentalist goals. Bin Laden is strikingly current, extremely well-informed, and thoroughly detailed. Readers interested in facts about the Middle East's violent underworld will find it fascinating--and chilling. Bodansky notes that Bin Laden has become a hero to radical Muslim youth, and "Osama" is now a very popular baby name in many Arab countries. --John J. Miller

Synopsis
A portion of the proceeds on the sale of this book will be donated to the Red Cross to aid in humanitarian relief efforts around the world. Who is Osama bin Laden- the only terrorist leader ever to have declared a holy war against America? What drives him and those he leads to hate a West that helped enrich and arm them? Bin Laden's name has been linked to a number of incidents that have cost Americans their lives, including the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 and the destruction of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Now, he is linked to the recent catastrophic assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Here is a comprehensive account of the rise of bin Laden. In meticulous detail, world-renowned terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky uncovers the events in bin Laden's life that turned the once-promising engineering student into a cold-blooded leader of radical islam. In the process, Bodansky reveals a chilling story that is as current as today's headlines but as ancient as the Crusades-a story that transcends bin Laden and any other single man. This book is a sobering wake-up call.

Customer Reviews

Lots of detail, some incorrect with little real analysis
This is not an easy book to review. Bodansky has pulled together a lot of information about Bin Laden and his networks from a whole set of sources, and this is in itself a considerable achievement. However, and this is where the book fails, little effort has been made to distinguish between fact and fiction. There is also not much in the way of any real analysis. As a result many myths are replayed for all they are worth although they may well have no basis in fact. The book is therefore a conspiracy theorist's paradise.

Bodansky in his opening section refuses to give any details about his sources stressing security concerns (though he quotes a length from news accounts). This may well be true but both Rashid and Bergen, who have written both better and more focused books on the Taliban and Bin Laden issue, have at least given some idea where the information has come from. This is important if people are to have the necessary confidence in what is written, especially as much comes from sources who are not famous for their veracity or reliability. Part of Bodansky's problem is that the editor has not really been up to the job as such, and many of the chronological difficulties in accounts could have been resolved relatively easy.

The book has much unprocessed information and is a long read for an attentive reader. Most general readers are unlikely to finish it and might find alternative books such as Bergen's a much more enjoyable and educational read.

Dissappointed
I bought this book at a giveaway price from an online retailer, initially I found it a bargain, but as I began reading I was not surprised at the price.

Like the earlier reviewer I found that it was very difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction, and a lot of times I find that the author is drifting into this fantasy.

The author claims that he cannot name his sources because of security reasons, so you have the massive text with no footnotes or any references to any author/person/documentation what so ever.

Which begs the question, how on earth did he get all these 'insider' knowledge from. The author simply knows too, so much that it soon becomes apparant that a lot of the stuff has to be made up or exxagerated or even 'spiced up'.

The book is written by a director of an expert in terrorism organisation, one of the many people who have aided britain and america in their iraq dossier, and as you'd expect a lot of the threats are inflated highly, the terrosist organisations are potrayed as highly education and intellectual people who have vast resources of money and technology, who live parralell lives to the people in the west. The terroist organisation are also portrayed as being capable of attacking any place in the world of their choosing. I.E. scaremongering.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, it's a new york times 'bestseller' - well what would you expect?