Product Description

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.
"This fascinating account of Osama bin Laden's war against America illustrates the murky world of Islamic extremism and state sponsored terrorism."
—Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Leavey Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University
"Americans need to know about Osama bin Laden, and the best place to find out is in this trenchant study of the man. A brilliant work."
—Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401107 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-21
• Released on: 2001-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com 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 preeminent organizer 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 modernizing 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

Review
?This fascinating account of Osama bin Laden?s war against America illustrates the murky world of Islamic extremism and state sponsored terrorism.?
--Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Leavey Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University

?Americans need to know about Osama bin Laden, and the best place to find out is in this trenchant study of the man. A brilliant work.?
--Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard -- Review

Review
“This fascinating account of Osama bin Laden’s war against America illustrates the murky world of Islamic extremism and state sponsored terrorism.”
--Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Leavey Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University

“Americans need to know about Osama bin Laden, and the best place to find out is in this trenchant study of the man. A brilliant work.”
--Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard

Customer Reviews

Hindsight is 20/20
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.

Osama-bin-Laden
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

A real eye-opener!
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.