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bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America

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This is one of the books that has sat on my "going to read" bookshelf until the tragic events of 9/11/01. Now that I have read it I am experiencing a wide array of emotions, not the least of which are anger and dismay. Not that my reading it before would have done anything but it would have at least lessened the shock and surprise at "who could do such a thing" and "how could something like this have happenned?". This book answers those questions. It is for readers who believe in the maxim "Know thy Enemy" for the author does a magnificent job of describing bin Laden and how he developed into the extremist terrorist who threatens the free world's way of life; how he developed his resources, and the complex network of followers who are willing to die for their beliefs. It's almost as interesting to read some of the reviews of this book written prior to the recent acts of terror. Those reviews discount bin Laden and the assertions Bodansky makes about him, claiming the author is trying to make money by sensationalizing the Islamist leader, his resources and his blueprint for destruction. Don't believe them. Yossef Bodansky has impeccable research to back up his statements and the indescribable horror of this last week solidifies his credibility.

The Saudi millionaire militant Osama Bin Laden and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) have struck a deal under which the so-called Mujaheddin will carry out ``spectacular terrorist strikes'' in the heart of India in return for the ISI's support, protection and sponsorship, according to a new book on the world's most-wanted terrorist.

The deal, solidified in Spring 1998, enables the ISI to strike in India while denying any involvement, says Yossef Bodansky, author of the recently released book Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.

The book also makes a stunning allegation: The ISI, in cahoots with the so-called Mujaheddin, sponsors, supports and trains terrorists throughout the world from centers in Afghanistan and Pakistan for operations in the Middle East, India (not just Kashmir), and increasingly, western Europe.

In a compelling account of the ISI's nexus with Osama bin Laden and their flagrant involvement in subversive activity in India, Bodansky says the Pakistani spy agency is actively assisting bin Laden in the expansion of an Islamist infrastructure in India.

It distributes cassettes and other propaganda material in which Bin Laden and others described India, along with the United States and Israel, as the greatest enemy of Islam. Primary venues for the distribution of Islamist propaganda and incitement material are the institutions run by the Ahl-i-Hadith religious charity, which is associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba Islamist Kashmiri organisation.

Bodansky writes that under the command of Abdul Karim Tunda, the Lashkar-e-Toiba has already been responsible for several terrorist attacks in India. In addition, Bin Laden has major cells in the southern city of Bangalore and Hyderabad which support Harkar-ul Ansar, a Pakistan-sponsored Islamist organisation that actively participates in the jihad in Kashmir and trains mujaheddin for jihad fronts all over the world.

What makes Bodansky's revelations all the more interesting is that he is the Director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism headed by Congressman Bill McCollum. Although the disclosures in the book are widely known and privately acknowledged in the intelligence community of which Bodansky is a part, the US executive _ and the American media _ have preferred to tread softly on Pakistan on the terrorism issue.

Bodansky's book paints ISI as a sinister and malignant terrorist outfit that is spreading mayhem not just in India but elsewhere in the world in the name of Islam. He says the US strikes against bin Laden and the terrorist camps in Afghanistan have only reinforced the relationship between the ISI and bin Laden.

Bodansky says Pakistan promoted Islamism as the sole ideology capable of containing and reversing the breakup of Pakistan on ethno-national lines. ``Consequently, the ISI's support for and sponsorship of sisterly Islamic terrorist movements throughout the Arab world became a cornerstone of Pakistan's national security policy,'' he writes.

The book has explicit details of ISI-run terrorist training camps right through the 1980s and how it was largely aimed at India while also feeding terrorism elsewhere in the world.

At one point during the Afghan war, says Bodansky, the ISI kept even the CIA out of these camps. This was because the ISI wanted to hide the extent of training and support non-Afghan volunteers were getting at these camps. Most numerous were the thousands of Islamic trainees from Indian Kashmir and to a lesser extent Sikhs from the Punjab.

In one particularly damning passage that shows how recklessly the ISI turned Pakistan into a ``place of pilgrimage for terrorists,'' Bodansky reveals that in the Fall of 1988, the spy and subversion agency instructed all Pakistani legations to issue ``special tourist'' visas to any Islamist aspiring to fight in the Afghan Jihad.

These ``visas'' were provided, frequently along with paid airline tickets, to volunteers who lacked proper travel documents as well as those who gave false names and were wanted by their governments for terrorism and subversion. C. Rajghutta

I don't usually read books on history, politics, or world affairs, but I wish I had read this a long time ago. The author explains the complicated politics of the Middle East, along with ever-shifting loyalties, and our country's own manipulation by Pakistan, all of which contributed to the rise of Osama Bin Laden and worldwide terrorism. The book is detailed and well researched. Although it's not a "quick" read, it was so informative, I had a hard time putting it down.

This book was written before the events of September 11 2001, but it gives the background information to put those events into perspective. It made me realize that in America, we've all been living in denial for the past 20 years, while overseas, a lot of anti-American (and anti-Western) sentiment has been brewing. I had no idea how many people out there would die to ensure the fall of Western civilization. We take our religious freedom, as well as separation of church and state, for granted in this country. I have never appreciated it as much as I do right now. Thank you to Mr. Bodansky for opening my eyes.

As might be imagined, "Bid Laden, The Man Who Declared War on America" is an alarming book. And the fact that it was written two years before 9/11/01 makes it more so, since the narrative puts the events of that day into the context of an unfolding political reality that has been too long in the making to be resolved any time soon. The title is somewhat misleading, and I picked the book up thinking it was going to be a biography of sorts. However, other than some perfunctory material on Bid Laden's youth, the study isn't really about Bid Laden himself so much as it is about the violent political movement, of which he is a leader, that has evolved from Islamic eschatology. Bodansky takes his readers on a trip through the snake pit of Middle Eastern and radical Islamic politics, which he portrays as a world where wealth, self-interest, violence, religious doctrine, and state policy are intertwined inextricably. It's also a world where loyalties or even strategic alliances don't seem to exist much beyond ephemeral alignments around tactical objectives that shift with the political wind. In this light, Bodansky - who is a consultant to the U.S. government - reveals much about our supposed friends in the region. He describes Pakistan as one of the primary architects behind the terrorist infrastructure managed by Bid Laden and other leading Islamists. He portrays the Saudi government as a craven and tottering regime which continues to provide lavish funding to this infrastructure as a kind of protection money to keep it's activities away from Saudi soil. Bodansky, of course, turns his cynical eye on the U.S. too, reminding us that we ourselves collaborated in birthing this movement, nurturing its spectacularly successful war against our one-time enemy, the Soviet Union. As for the Islamists, they see themselves now as simply continuing to fight the same war, having destroyed one "superpower" and now taking aim at the other in their campaign to overturn the prevailing world order. Bodansky depicts them as dedicated to a eschatological vision in which all secular states are overthrown by whatever means necessary and replaced by a kind of global Islamic government, which will usher in heavenly peace and glory. The parallels between this vision and that of messianic communism are as striking as they are ironic, since both justify political violence as a tool necessary for achieving a glorious albeit it ill-defined future. Of the two visions, the Islamic seems more dangerous in the nuclear age, since doctrinaire communists, being atheists, were made cautious by their belief that they had to achieve their heaven on earth. Bodansky quotes extensively from Bid Laden and others, and their words make clear that they believe that in a global conflagration they would be sending themselves to heaven and their enemies to hell, not inhibiting themselves with much of a disincentive. Bodansky seems to know almost too much about some things, leading one to question the extent to which he might be interjecting his own supposition into this narrative as ostensibly factual material. For example, he states unequivocally the Bid Laden already possesses nuclear weapons, although not necessary the means to deliver them. While this may be true, Bodanksy doesn't provide much basis for his startling conclusion, nor for many of the other observations he makes about the private relationships said to exist between various terrorist factions and governments. In his introduction, he addresses the problem of the credibility of his material by saying that elucidating his sources would compromise their security. While on one level this seems entirely fair, it has the unfortunate effect of relieving the author of a burden which all academic writers should have to bear of drawing a crisp line between conjecture and well-grounded reporting. Despite these limitations, the big picture Bodansky draws clearly has the force of much knowledge behind it, and it is acquires a prophetic aura now in light of the events occurring after the book was written. Most Americans - myself included - are dangerously ignorant about Islam in all its manifestations, both good and bad. While this book, focussing as it does on a violent fringe, probably should be read alongside more balanced treatments of Islamic culture, I recommend it to anyone trying to make sense of the new geo-political environment in which we have suddenly found ourselves.

Whatever can be collated into a bio of Osama Bin Laden is in here. An exploration of the mind of terrorism. A lot of history on the Iranian-Sudanese axis that resisted the US-UN in Africa and its activities on the Horn of Africa. An almost exausting amount of data on various terrorist actors and their interrelationships. Also dealt with extensively is the networking process of using legitimate economic development and humanitarian aid organizations to create a shadow economic network to pass money and materiele around. Also the legitimate activities of these organizations can serve propagandistic purposes. The book also details the involvement of Pakistan's ISI in the development of terrorist camps and networks; as well as Pakistan's role in the evolution of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The book is more than an attempt to biographize Osama bin Laden. It is a study of terrorist networks in general, how they exist and survive, and how the operate.

I am fairly well educated (Master's degree) and read a lot (3 newspapers a day and 5-6 books a month), but this is the most important book I have ever read. While it does have some errors (mostly about bin Laden's early life and family), overall it is the most complete history and description of the Islamist movement that I have seen.

To be honest, I did not understand what the Islamist movement was before reading this book. Nothing in newspapers or on television has explained this movement as clearly and comprehensively as Bodansky has with this book. Essentially, it is a totalitarian political movement cloaked by Islam. It has many similarities to communism - a utopian view that their philosophy will make life/the world perfect, lack of civil rights, no free press, no freedom of religion, only the Islamic movement makes it especially bad for women. Examples of this type of government can be seen in Iran, Sudan and Taliban-era Afghanistan. Its religious cover makes it attractive to many devout Muslims, some of whom seem to believe the whole world should be either Muslim or dead. Many of the leaders of the Islamsist movement have said that the ultimate goal of the Islamist movement is world domination. And that seems to be how they are behaving.

The most shocking thing about this book is that it was written before 9/11 and predicted some sort of "spectacular" and "devastating" attack on the US, either in New York or Washington, DC.

I was disappointed to read about the US/Clinton Administration's response to attacks prior to 9/11 (this book was written long before 9/11 and ends in 1999). While the Clinton Administration did attempt some retaliation, it was, from the terrorists' standpoint, laughable and accomplished nothing more than making the US look ridiculous. This seems to be mostly due to the incredible naivete of that administration with regard to the growing threat of the Islamist movement.

I feel as though this book has allowed me to read the news about the Middle East now with some comprehension of what specific events really mean. I understand the difficult situation we are in and expect that it will probably last for many more years. This is not an easy book - it is detailed and complicated to read and contains information that is hard to digest. Still, it was the most important book I have ever read.

Once again, Yossef Bodansky brings his insight and expertise to the problem of Osama Bin Laden, an ideological, Islamic zealot considered responsible for many American deaths. Rather than adopt the simplistic approach put forth by "Foggy Bottom" -- that says in essence that Bin Laden is an independent terrorist and all that is required is to spend perhaps another billion or two to kill Bin Laden in order to halt all major terror strikes -- Bodansky spells out in detail the synergism between Bin Laden and major Arab countries, such as Syria and Iran. Bodansky places forth the metaphor of Bin Laden as one who represents radical Islam in ALL its depth, along with his co-conspirators. After Bodansky proves that Bin Laden is an instrument, rather than an independent, Islamic aberration, the entire spectrum of world terror comes into focus along with the realization that removing the tip of one tentacle of an octopus, is counterproductive at best and lethal at worst. Bodansky's encyclopedic grasp of world events, coupled with his talents as a word smith makes this book his most important and a must read for all. On a scale of one to five, I rate this a ten.

Read "Taliban" by Ahmed Rashid instead.

The good parts of this books are the brief biographical bit about bin Laden; the emphasis on Pakistani (esp. ISI) involvement; and details about Iranian strategies and participation. They were not worth wading through this 400+ pages polemic to get.

Strike 1: The book is mislabeled.
Chapter 1 is about bin Laden. Chapter 2 is somewhat about bin Laden. The other chapters have only an occasional mention of him.

Strike 2: Ayman al-Zawahiri is the COO to bin Laden's CEO in HizbAllah International, and so has far greater involvement with specific terrorist acts. He figures more strongly than bin Laden, but get less coverage in the text.

Strike 3: There are so many groups mentioned here that keeping track is overwhelming. appendices relating them each to the other would be most helpful.
One out: not well organized or packaged.

Strike 1: The narrative is weak, the analysis thin and full of surmise and conjecture. Periodic jabs are taken at Clinton's policies, while Bush I's 'love 'em and leave 'em' approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan -- abandoning them to a Kalashnikov culture from 1989 to 1993 -- is ignored. Israel and 'The Jews' are mentioned as co-indicted with the US -- certainly as a red herring, perhaps to foster sympathy for Israel -- but no information about any operations targeting Israel are mentioned anywhere in the text.

Strike 2: As a couple other reviewers have said, he can't go ten pages without saying 'spectacular operation', 'spectacular terrorist operation,' or 'these were not idle threats.' These are the most obvious bits of an extensive seam of purple prose riddling the book.

Strike 3: Too much ink is devoted to long verbatim quotes from windy overwritten communiques by various terrorist organizations, which irritate then bore. The book should be at least 100 pages shorter. Two out: not well written.

Strike 1: The author does not know the history of Islamic societies (and should read Ira Lapidus' excellent work of that name). On the second page of the introduction, he says "during the eleventh century the Muslim world suffered a series of major defeats: The Crusaders occupied the Levant... while in the Iberian Peninsula a Christian coalition... began the campaign to evict the Muslims from Spain and Portugal" Far from occupying the entire Levant (the Nile - Oxus area), the Crusaders occupied no more than some bits of what are now Israel, Syria and Lebanon, and mostly they just occupied a handful of ports and the hinterland within 20 miles of the coast. By 1300 they were all gone. At the time, the Crusaders were crude barbarians by comparison to the civilized and technologically advanced societies of Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. The Crusaders had a far larger (and negative) impact on their erstwhile fellow Christians in Constantinople in 1204 than ever they did in the Levant, indeed facilitating the Muslim conquest of the Balkans.

In Iberia, the Reconquest began with Charlemagne in the 9th Century, with major surges around 1085 (Toledo), 1212 (Las Navas de Tolosa), and 1492 (Grenada). Between 1099 and 1529 the (Muslim) Turks conquered Anatolia (making it Turkish rather than Greek), Greece, Bulgaria, Moldavia and Wallachia (Romania), Serbia, and Hungary, losing only Hungary before 1815 (in 1699). As late as 1700 Muslims ruled all of India. On the whole it was the Christian world that was suffering the defeats before 1700, not the Muslim one. Muslims were also victorious against the Hindu, Buddhist, and African worlds in these years, giving better than they got worldwide. Bodansky waves his hand and says that Muslim rulers "revived religious extremism as the source of their legitimacy... so the Muslim world was swept with ... 'anti-intellectual rage'... Thus the Muslim world has been in paralysis since religious extremism rose in the twelfth century." It would be interesting to hear what he thinks about the Inquisition or Jerry Falwell.

Strike 2: The author has problems distinguishing Western from Modern. Phones are modern; jeans and carbonated soda are Western. The author is not alone in this problem: many thoughtful people in the Orient, Occident, India and Africa have problems with it also. The breakdown of the family in America is just one sign of it (what Americans call a nuclear family would be seen as a sad fragment of a family in much of the world). Bin Laden is himself both utterly Modern as well as totally (though by most standards heterodox) Islamic. A large part of his achievement is that reconciliation internally as well as within the organizations he's been part of. The interesting question here is: Why did Modernity arise in the Occident not in, say, Sung China of the 12th century? [See "Rethinking World History", Marshall Hodgson] For Bodansky to call Islam backwards (p. XVI) is a mark of his ignorance. Is Christianity backwards too? Hinduism?

Strike 3: Bodansky says that "the seemingly unstoppable spread of Westernization... motivates the terrorists... Their individual struggles are the essence of the Islamist movement against Westernization." Bodansky is wrong. Most Muslim people are ruled by military dictatorships and monarchies, without the opportunities and freedoms that many Occidentals take for granted. Why have a pointless impoverished, oppressed and hopeless life when you can have a meaningful death, say recruiters to prospective suicide terrorists/martyrs? Naming the US operation "Enduring Freedom" must seem a bitter irony to most Muslims, who have no prospect for any such thing. The US support for those regimes at high (though not limitless, as the Shah found) levels pours salt into the wound. Three outs: not well conceived or knowledgeably produced.

Here's the deal; I am middle of the road politically, but have leaned conservative in terms of the current crisis. First of all, I thought this would be a biography of bin Laden, but it really isn't. It's full of detailed minutae about terrorist organizations; a dizzying, detailed cloud of specific dates, names, summits, meetings, declarations, communiques, etc. Bodansky doesn't focus on bin Laden and the book is lacking in the big picture department.

Second, I wondered how Bodansky could know all of these "facts." He details the names, dates, locations, even conversations of SECRET terrorist meetings and SECRET agreements and SECRET government sponsorships of terrorists. I looked up his list of sources: it's all newspaper articles, most of them from Arab publications. Most of the time he simply states information as objective fact (he knows how the intelligence organizations of closed societies like Iran and Saudi Arabia collect information, make decisions, etc.) with zero footnotes or reference to sources. Sometimes he mentions the information came from a named source; the vast majority of the time oral sources are POSITIVELY ANONYMOUS.

Third, he leans, bends, prostrates in a blatantly conservative direction. He roundly blasts Clinton at several points, even claiming that "if certain terrorist sources are to be believed" Clinton made an evil deal with the Islamists; supposedly that the US would tolerate the overthrow of the Egyptian government and installation of an Islamist regime in return for no terrorist attacks on US troops in Bosnia.

I was further perplexed by his claim that the President of Iran, widely considered to be a moderate in favor of liberal reforms, is personally involved in planning terrorist acts against the US. Bodansky asserts that Iran was behind the bombings of US embassies in Africa. Really? Why haven't the American people been told? It took us years to figure out a couple of Libyans were responsible for the Lockerbie disaster. Once we had the facts we were relentless in our pressure on Libya to hand them over. If our government knows Iran bombed our embassies, why are we not doing the same with them? The cause of the crash of TWA flight 800 has never been determined. But omnicient Bodansky knows it was IN FACT a terrorist bombing, that Tehran was behind it, he even knows the type and placement of the explosive; "A small, twin-charge bomb was placed against the middle of the forward wall of the central fuel tank... The twin charges were a blast charge made of powerful plastic explosives (SEMTEX-H class)... The direction of the explosion was toward the tail of the aircraft (p.179)."

The back of the book says Bodansky is "an internationally renowned military and threat analyst, is the director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism..." I noticed that both of the plug quotes on the book are from staunch conservatives: Jean Kirkpatrick (former Reagan appointee who fired off a letter with fellow arch conservatives to President Bush urging expansion of the war to Iran and Iraq) and Fred Barnes.

I did some research on Bodansky on the internet and found a biography (biased also, as it is written by Fred Abood of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, but the only profile of Bodansky my search found) that states: 1) Bodansky was the editor of the Israeli Air Force's official magazine in the 1970's, 2) , Bodansky became the technical director of the newsletter JINSA (The Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs), 3) . In the early years of the first Reagan administration (1980-84), Bodansky was hired as a Defense Department consultant, 4) In 1985, shortly after Naval intelligence employee Jonathan Pollard was caught as an Israeli spy, Bodansky dropped out of sight. According to sources, Bodansky was one of Pollard's controllers and had, they say, always operated as an agent of LEKEM, the Israeli defense ministry's technological espionage branch, 5) . In 1989, Bodansky became director of the House REPUBLICAN (my caps) Research Committee's "Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare."

The man is a former Israeli citizen who now works for REPUBLICAN congresspeople. In fact, the "task force" is unofficial. It's a body dreamed up by Republicans, given an official sounding name, and appointed conservative members. (Rep. Saxton, the "task force " chair, admits as much in his remarks to Congress on August 7, 1998; "As the chairman of a group of Republicans... [known as] the Task Force on Terrorism and U.N. Conventional Warfare.") This blasts Bodansky positively out of the orbit of what we would call "objectivity." My concern is that people will buy this book, thinking it's an objective account of bin Laden and the Islamist movement, as I did (this book is now a best seller here at Amazon; it glares off the shelves as the featured bin Laden book at a major book chain). I did a search on bin Laden books and thought, hey, here's one that sounds good, and bought it. I'm sure much of this stuff is true; a great deal jibes with what I've read since 9/11 (Pakistan has been an incubator for terrorism, Saudi Arabia has tons of Islamist sympathizers and citizen patrons, etc.) but I have no doubts much of the content is pro-Israel rhetoric. And it's packaged in a way that makes it sound like an objective study, which it clearly ain't. Which parts are true and what is propaganda I couldn't say. But I can say for certain it's a dry read chock full of minutae, NOT a biography of bin Laden, and deviously biased.

Americans want to know about bin Laden, and this book clearly appears to be the number one book they are snatching up to learn about him and the Islamists. It is shaping opinions with false, biased, uncited information, and this is positively dangerous.

Yossef Bodansky goes into exhaustive detail on the history of Osama bin Laden and how he became the man he is today. Bodansky explains the training, the financing, and the methodic steps it takes to pull off a terrorist attack. A process Bin Laden clearly has mastered. First written in 1999, shortly after the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were simultaneously blown up, and updated after the terrorists attacks of September 11th, Bin Laden The Man Who Declared War on America quickly educates us on the fundamental reason why Bin Laden has devoted his life to terrorizing Americans. 'Bin Laden is convinced that United States presence in the Muslim world, particularly in his home country of Saudi Arabia, prevents the establishment of real Islamic governments and the realization of the Islamic revivalism to which he and others aspire. Since a frontal assault is out of the question the United States must be terrorized into withdrawing from the Muslim world.' These reasons, along with the United States' unconditional support for Israel are the reasons behind every terrorist attack on Americans. Bodansky cannot state it any simpler.

Through his years of research, and eight prior books on international terrorism, Bodansky is able to explain the complexities of the network bin Laden has established to carry out terrorist attacks like no other. Upon completion of the book you feel well informed on the man who has caused so much pain here in America. It is also an excellent book to refer back to as the present war on terrorism evolves.

Bin Laden was quick to join the fight against the Soviet Union after their invasion of Afghanistan. Arabs who fought alongside him describe him as fearless. 'He was a hero to us because he was always on the front line, always moving ahead of everyone else, he not only gave his money, but also gave himself. He came down from his palace to live with the Afghan peasants, and Arab fighters. He cooked with them, ate with them, dug trenches with them. That was the bin Laden way.' Osama continues to use the respect and heroic status he achieved during the war against the Soviets, to establish a devoted and loyal following that he now uses to terrorize the U.S.

Perhaps the most critical event, which enabled bin Laden to rise to the top, was the confrontation in Somalia between U.S. troops and a local Muslim warlord in 1993. The confrontation can now be watched on DVD in the movie Black Hawk Down. Bodansky does a remarkable job of explaining how bin Laden had a hand in the operation that would ultimately lead to the death of 18 soldiers and the eviction of U.S. troops from Somalia. Shortly after the U.S. announced plans to begin a humanitarian mission in Somalia, Bin Laden organized the movement of 3,000 trained Afghans along with heavy weapons, high explosives, and supplies from Yemen to Somalia. At a personal cost of $3 million, these troops were critical to the Islamists operational plan of destroying American forces. The death of the 18 soldiers, when a mission to capture the local warlord goes bad, brought shock to Washington and the rest of America who thought the mission of the U.S. military was strictly humanitarian. Shortly after the tragic events on October 3, 1993, U.S. troops were entirely pulled out of Somalia.

While most Americans seem to have forgotten the events of that day, Islamists have not. In fact it was an enormous victory for them that would motivate future terrorists strikes with the goal of evicting U.S. presence in the Gulf. The achievement against the U.S. in Somalia convinced bin Laden that it would be possible to ultimately evict the U.S. from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states as well. Bin Laden still defines the fighting in Somalia as one of his major triumphs against the U.S. He states in the book, 'We also believe that our battle against America is much simpler than the war against the Soviet Union, because some of our Mujahideen who fought here in Afghanistan also participated in operations against the Americans in Somalia - and they were surprised at the collapse of American morale. This convinced us that Americans are a paper tiger.'

Bodansky's discussions of present day terrorists strikes enable the reading to be fresh as it relates to America's current crisis. One is overcome with an eerie feeling when reading about a visit to the U.S. in 1995 by one of Bin Laden's top men, Ayman Al Zawahiri. His mission was to 'establish first hand the strength and reliability of local networks'and confirm the suitability of various objectives for spectacular strikes.' The events of September 11th were no doubt one of Bin Laden's planned 'spectacular strikes.' The eeriness continues when Zawahiri returned home to Europe 'convinced that the U.S. could become fertile ground for a series of spectacular terrorists operations'provided they were properly planned and professionally executed.' Just six years after his visit the World Trade Center no longer stands and nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens lost their lives in the world deadliest terrorist operation.

Bodansky has written a book we all should study. The extensive research and information he has accumulated on Bin Laden over the past decade, makes this book perhaps the most detailed one in bookstores today. Bodansky provides incredible evidence of Bin Laden's attempts to obtain weapons of mass destruction by spending over $3 million in an effort to purchase a nuclear suitcase from the former Soviet Union. Bodansky also show the collaboration between Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein through his son Qusay Hussein. Such evidence is surly being studied by Washington. As the war on terrorism continues, we can all benefit in gaining a deeper understanding of our enemy. This book is an excellent beginning.