Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America

by Yossef Bodansky, Nadia May

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

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Terrorism, Politics, War

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about the life of Osama Bin Laden. This book also talks about Al-Qaeda's doings, as Bin laden led the group. The book was written before 9/11, but talks about the attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak, but that was foiled due to a rocket launcher failing, and the driver of Mubarak’s car broke protocol. One other thing I found interesting was that when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Bin Laden took his family’s construction company’s bulldozers and other large construction equipment to the border of the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and destroyed all the road, barring the Soviet Union’s path to invade, while still working under heavy fire from the Soviet Union. The purpose of this book was to give a detailed account of the things Bin Laden did and was associated with, and how he “declared war on America.''


This book was actually pretty interesting. It was written by a dude who was the Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives from 1998 to 2004. I appreciated the fact that Yossef Bodansky was well qualified to write this book. His analysis and detail in the plots of Al-Qaeda were exceptional. This book is mostly expository, while lightly influencing the theme of “declared war on America.” This book helps me understand more about Bin Laden’s life, how he acted when he acted, and why he acted. It showed me some of the reasons why Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda did what they did, and how they justify it. I also learned that Bin Laden has 23 siblings


I would recommend this book for anyone that has a slight interest in finding more about Bin Laden, or about terrorism or about Al-Qaeda. It is a biography so it doesn't quite have the flow as a dramatic fiction.

[Fernando · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un estudio que ofrece una vasta idea de lo que implica la guerra santa (jihad). Permite entender los intereses religiosos, políticos y económicos que provocan y/o justifican el conflicto; Explica con detalle el génesis de las organizaciones terroristas así como el modo en que operan y se sustentan. Muestra el importante papel que juega Osama Bin Laden en dichas organizaciones y dimensiona la gravedad de un conflicto que parece no tener fin.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book ended up being pretty disappointing for me. I was very intrigued when I found this book that focuses on Bin Laden and was written a couple of years prior to 9/11. Unfortunately, I'd say the majority of the book isn't about him. Page after page, especially in the first 1/2-3/4 of the book, are dedicated to organizational structures of the many terrorist organizations and lists of people who went to different meetings and propaganda speeches given by terrorist leaders. You'll read almost entire chapters that barely feature Bin Laden at all, and then at the end it'll say something like Bin Laden was in charge of the financial aspect of this operation.

At first, I found the statements put out by various terrorists to be interesting, but once you've read 50 statements, the next 300 don't seem necessary because they are all essentially the same.

It's not that I didn't learn anything from the book; it's just that I learned much less about Bin Laden than I expected to.

Some of my thoughts as I read:
- I was impressed by Bin Laden's commitment to his cause. I knew he came from money and was rich, but I wasn't aware how fabulously wealthy he was. Not many people would give up extreme luxury to go live in a cave.
- I was a little surprised at how much I sympathized with the base claims made by some of the terrorists in terms of the insidious nature of Western culture. Like many religious people in the states, most people in the world don't like the US government telling them how to live. I don't blame them from wanting to keep the influence of the United States out of their lives.
- I didn't know how accomplished Bin Laden was in construction.
- It was funny picturing these evil terrorists going to what Bodansky termed conferences. I imagined a professional conference with name tags like I go to every time he described them this way.
-It was hilarious that the terrorists got pissed and offended when some Western powers bent or broke some laws to arrest and extradite terrorists to Egypt. They're murdering people all over the globe and then clutching their pearls when a government doesn't follow every law in response.
- The book was not kind to the Clinton administration and the CIA, particularly in how they dealt with Iran. Bodansky does a pretty good job of showing how Clinton conveyed weakness, which emboldened Iran and the terrorists. They fell for the lies of Pakistan and alienated formerly friendly (relatively at least) countries like Egypt so much so that Egypt went from being the target of terrorists to being the ally of them.
- The acronyms and names of the organizations and people in them were difficult to keep track of. Here's a taste: "Smaller groups included the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), which originated with the Ogadeni and to a lesser degree the Kismayu (of Kenya) clans, the Somali Salvation Liberation Front (SSLF), which started with the majensteen clan, traditionaly oppressed by the Hawiye, and evolved into the movement of all oppressed miniclans inside central Somalia; the Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA), originating with the Gedabursi clan; and the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM), which started with the Rahanwein clan." Throw in a couple of names like Abdul-Rahman Ahmad Ahmad Ali Tour, and you quickly lose track of how everything and everyone fits together.

Ultimately, this book is much less about Bin Laden than the various organizations he has been affiliated with.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has the purpose of telling and informing people about Bin laden. The author tells about the major attacks on America that bin laden had been a part of. The author talks about the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and many more. The book is about informing g people about
what Bin laden had done towards America and how he did it. It also talks a little bit of what the United States did to retaliate. I didn’t see a really obvious argument within the books or what the author if the author had a side really. He just basically wrote a book about what Osama Bin Laden had done to America to declare a holy war.
This book helped me understand more about who Bin laden was and how he had acted. It showed me how he went from a promising college student to a terrorist against America. This book was very informative towards what happened in america and what America was involved in at that time. This book basically showed who Osama Bin Laden was and how he went from a college student to be a well known enemy and terrorist against America.
A particular or suggested audience would be anyone who likes or appreciates history. It could also be an audience who wants to know more about what happened with Osama Bin Laden or what was going on in that time with America and our problems with that certain terrorist. This audience would be a good book for just anyone who wanted to know some more insight on Bin Laden and his reasoning for declaring war on America. So overall this book was very informative, I most likely wouldn't read it on my own for fun, but for knowledge and information I would definitely read it.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

ONE OF THE MOST DETAILED (PRE-9/11) BOOKS ABOUT BIN LADEN

Yossef Bodansky is a military analyst; he has also written books such as 'The Secret History of the Iraq War, 'T'he High Cost of Peace: How Washington's Middle East Policy Left America Vulnerable to Terrorism,' etc.

He noted in the Introduction to this 1999 book, in the 1991 Gulf War "the Saudi royal family---the custodian of Islam's holy shrines in Mecca and Medina---had to invite American and other Western forces to defend Saudi Arabia and defeat a sister Arab-Muslim state, Iraq. It was a humiliation that still haunts the Muslim world." (Pg. xv)

After noting that Osama (who was from a very wealthy family) COULD have become a billionaire in his own right (Pg. 1), he renounced this course; nevertheless, "his wealth increased and his business grew with the amount of money he spent on jihad." (Pg. 14)

Presciently, he notes that "Despite the Taliban's vigorous denials, Afghanistan is a hub of and safe haven for Islamist terrorists." (Pg. 273)

He cites that bin laden "is reported to have spent well over $3 million since 1996 in an effort to purchase a nuclear suitcase bomb from the former Soviet Union." (Pg. 328)

This book---though pre-9/11---contains a wealth of information about bin Laden.

[Rajni Relhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed account of how and why a normal ordinary wealthy man turned himself into the most hunted terrorist and lived the life of a pauper. This book was a fascinating account of turning life around for a cause to whom he related to. As a teenager he used to go clubbing have fun with friends, but his extremist ideas and thoughts turned him into a leader of a disgruntled youth of the time. He could unite so many young minds, it belies the thought what if he could have veered them in the right direction of humanitarian causes, he could have achieved mountains. But now world is a better place without him!
Although I read this book late by too many years, this book’s timeline was set from the start of terrorism activities in early 90s and finished in 1999, well before the capture and death of Osama bin Laden, the procedural details were encapsulating. I learned the details of how a terror organisation was created and functioned amidst the so called leaders of military operations and intelligence and eventually could hurt them so badly. At times, the book was too complicated and hard to understand that’s why it took me a long time to read, but I persevered.

[Dakota Lemon · Rating 1 out of 5]

The purpose of this book is to provide useful information on the life of Osama Bin Laden. The purpose was to also expand the knowledge of Osama Bin Laden's reasons for declaring his Holy war on america. To fulfill this purpose the author uses specific dates and events that Osama was a part of which can be checked for their credibility. A couple examples of this is the description of the point at which Osama switched sides to become a part of aidid's USC central committee, the date on which the U.S. Marines landed on the beaches of Somalia, " on August 3,1993, in the first communique broadcast on their own radio and in leaflets, the Vanguard urged Somalis to escalate their jihad against their "satanic" U.S. Forces." Instead of giving his own opinion Yossef states facts and quotes what other authors have said about the events that occur in this book. This allows the reader to form his or her own opinion on these topics and events. I for one found this particular strategy to be slightly noneffective in presenting and explaining the issues and events in the book if the purpose was to persuade the reader to change his or her point of view on the topic at hand. This strategy does however have a very effective way of simply informing the reader on the topics and events. As a teen myself I would not recommend this to my classmates because none of us remember any of these attacks however I feel that if they were looking for a book to use for research on Osama Bin Laden this would be the right book for them to read.

[Edwing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pone en perspectiva las organizaciones islámicas extremistas y como jugó su papel Osama Bin Laden en la finanziación y adoctrinamiento terrorista, ademas de su comienzo y su implicacion en el primer atentado contra el world trade center

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read into the life of Bin Laden before he fled into hiding

[Don Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not know much about Bin Laden until reading this book. Nor did I have any concept of the how much America had in creating him.