Research Catalog

Title

The Osama bin Laden I know : an oral history of al-Qaeda's leader / Peter L. Bergen ; [with a new afterword].

Author

Bergen, Peter, 1962-

Publication

New York : Free Press, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxxvi, 483 p. : ill., maps; 22 cm.

Summary

The Osama bin Laden I Know is an unprecedented oral history of Osama bin Laden's rise to revered leader of al Qaeda. Peter Bergen takes the reader onto the battlefields of Afghanistan as bin Laden goes from a shy, quiet teen to a leader; he brings you into Osama's intimate family life as he lives under the radar in Sudan, then Afghanistan; he puts you right in the room for al Qaeda's very first meeting; and he uses eyewitness accounts to relate what bin Laden said, and thought on 9/11 as he watched the twin towers fall. Derived from Bergen's interviews with more than 50 people who know bin Laden personally, from his high school teacher to an early al Qaeda member who later became a US informant, The Osama bin Laden I Know recounts individual experiences with the man who has declared the US, and its allies, his greatest enemies.

Subjects

• Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011
• Biographies
• Interviews
• Qaida (Organization)
• Terrorism > Religious aspects > Islam
• Islamic fundamentalism > Islamic countries
• Terrorists > Saudi Arabia > Biography
• Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011 > Friends and associates > Interviews

Genre/Form

• Biographies
• Interviews

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Arabia -- The Afghan war -- From donor to holy warrior -- The birth of al Qaeda -- Al Qaeda goes global -- Afghanistan, again -- Al Qaeda attacks -- The charismatic leader -- The 9/11 plot -- The fall of the Taliban and the flight to Tora Bora -- Al Qaeda's quest for weapons of mass destruction -- How al Qaeda took root in Iraq and the story of Abu Musab al Zarqawi -- Bin Laden on the run -- Bin Laden's legacy.

ISBN

• 9780743278928 (pbk.)
• 0743278925 (pbk.)
• 9780043278928 (pbk.) (canceled/invalid)
• 0043278922 (pbk.) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2006281152

OCLC

• 70826532
• SCSB-10301885

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library