Bin Laden: The Man Who Wasn't There

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"Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" (Forum, 439 pages, $17.95) by Yossef Bodansky
"Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden" (Free Press, 284pages, $26.00) by Peter L. Bergen

Near the beginning of his slim, but highly readable volume about the life and (alleged) crimes of accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, Bergen summons up what is one of the more potent metaphors for wartime futility when he writes about Buzkashi, a bloody polo-like sport that could be (after war) that second leading pastime in battle-scarred Afghanistan. Writes Bergen: "Buzkashi is played by horsemen who compete to grab hold of the headless carcass of a calf. That's pretty much it for the rules. As a book on the sport observes: 'The calf is trampled, dragged, tugged, lifted and lost again as one competitor after another tries to gain sole control.' Now the carcass was Kabul."

Bergen's book is filled with colorful observations and informed witticisms, such as "the visa application process is usually a strikingly accurate foretaste of the country you are about to visit" and "My translator, who was moonlighting from his job as a Web Master at a newspaper, wore a beautifully embroidered, century-old belt that held both his dagger and his pager." Bodansky's book, while drier and not as readable, offers up an impressive amount of historical detail on bin Laden's alleged criminal empire and the exploits of his fellow outlaws.

Home: The People of the Book Part 1: Bin Laden: The Man Who Wasn't There "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" by Yossef Bodansky "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden" by Peter L. Bergen Part 2: The Rise and Fall of the Taliban Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid "Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan" by Michael Griffin "The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan" by Peter Marsden Part 3: Worlds Apart Karen Armstrong, "Islam: A Short History" Armstrong, "Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet" Bernard Lewis, "The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years" Geneive Abdo, "No God But God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam" Part 4: History Repeats Peter Lamborn Wilson, "Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes" Donald Barr Chidsey, "The Wars in Barbary: Arab Piracy and the Birth of the United States Navy" John Lukacs, "Five Days in London May 1940

One thing both books miss out on, however, is bin Laden himself. There's a lot to say about what he may have done but not that much to say about what we're sure that he's done. He's the man that isn't there, and his personal life, in particular, is mostly blank. Bin Laden may be the most talked about man in the world today, but it's interesting that his biographers aren't even sure who he's married to — his wives aren't even named and are barely identified. Writes Bergen: "Exactly how close are bin Laden and the shadowy Mullah Omar [spiritual leader of the Taliban]? There were widely circulated rumors of a marital alliance between their families: perhaps bin Laden had married one of Omar's daughters. Every Taliban official I spoke to denied this. (In 2000, bin Laden married the fourth and last wife allowed to him Islamic law; she is a Yemini)."

More importantly, bin Laden's biographers are in disagreement as to the extent of his arsenal. Bergen ventures that "It is certainly possible, however, that al-Qaeda has acquired rudimentary nuclear materials." Bodansky goes further, stating flatly: "There is no longer much doubt that bin Laden has finally succeed in his quest for nuclear suitcase bombs," and Bodansky goes on to say that Bin Laden bought them from the Chechens for $30 million in cash and two tons of Afghan heroin. In recent interviews, however, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that stories about nuclear weapons leaking out from the former Soviet Union are a myth.

There's a lot of scary stuff in Bodansky's book, and it's hard to tell if he's a visionary, an alarmist or a bit of both. Given the fact that his book was first released in 1999, he must, at the very least, be given credit for being ahead of the game in regards to the immediacy and magnitude of the terrorist threat to America. Bodansky writes in one chapter: "In March 1998 the main question was, where and when would the Islamist terrorists strike at a U.S. objective?" And later he asserts: "Throughout the Muslim World, from the Philippines to Morocco and in numerous Muslim emigre communities from Western Europe to the United States, Islamic terrorist and subversive cells are getting ready to strike out." And: "International terrorism is in the midst of a quest for the super-spectacular terrorist strike...Samples of deadly anthrax — a favorite agent for use in biological weapons all over the world — were obtained [by bin Laden's organization] from North Korea for relatively small sums of hard currency."

Not all of Bodansky's sources are named, so it's difficult to judge the veracity of his claims. Bergen, in his book, takes a shot at Bodansky's accuracy: "Further clouding our understanding of bin Laden is the fact that a vast amount has been written about him [and] a good deal of it is rubbish." He goes on: "Other examples of misinformation about bin Laden can be found in a tome by Yossef Bodansky, who enjoys the title of director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism. In 'Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America,' Bodansky describes the teenage bin Laden visiting Beirut to drink, womanize, and get involved in bar brawls. Those who know bin Laden, however, describe a deeply religious teenager who married at the age of seventeen. Perhaps Bodansky confused Osama with one of his twenty or so half-brothers."

Bergen also takes aim at some other authors. Samuel P. Huntington's book "The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of World Order" has made it popular, in some pundit circles, to view the war on terrorism as a conflict between societies. Bergen rips that idea apart. Writes Bergen: "The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. Since then the country has been torn apart by multiple civil wars pitting Afghan against Afghan, Islamist against Islamist. Shia against Sunni, Tajik against Pathan. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. The Clash of Acquaintances, anyone?" Bergen uses the phrase the "narcissism of minor differences" to describe many of the conflicts — like the wasteful war between the Hutus and Tutsis in Central Africa — that have dominated the headlines of recent years.

Bin Laden have many gaps and blanks in his biography, but Bergen, to his credit, finds useful insight in the things bin Laden hasn't said. Writes Bergen: "In all the tens of thousands of words that bin Laden has uttered on the public record there are some significant omissions: he does not rail on against the pernicious effects of Hollywood movies, or against Madonna's midriff...If we may judge his silence, bin Laden cares little about such cultural issues. What he condemns the United States for is simple: its policies in the Middle East. Those are, to recap briefly: the continued U.S military presence in Arabia; U.S. support for Israel; its continued bombing of Iraq; and its support for regimes such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia that bin Laden regards as apostates from Islam."