This book traces the buildup to 9/11, going deep into the 1940’s to cover the people who influenced Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and Kalid Sheikh Mohammed. It is interesting for the style of writing, which is like a novel, and for some really deep analysis. The book bounces from character to character, as they meet one another, chase one another, and have conflicts with each other. Every character is brought closer and closer until they all “meet” on 9/11.
An important theme in the book and in the motivation for radical Islamists is humiliation. As I understand it, humiliation, pride, and honor, play a big part in Arab culture, so this may have to do with Arabs more than Muslims. That said, it is very important for understanding Bin Laden and others’ rage at the United States and the West for colonizing the Arab world, keeping troops in Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War, etc. It should not be underestimated in future foreign policy decisions. In all dealings, you want your adversary to feel good when you’ve finished, but especially in the Arab world, where humiliation is justification for vengeance.
The book begins with Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian who spent several years living in America in the 1940s and 50s and wrote influential works about the evils of American society. He was wealthy and fundamentalist in his religious outlook and he argued that there was little difference between capitalism and communism, in that both neglected the spiritual needs, which he believed only Islam could satisfy. I think it is very interesting to see the world ideological debate in this light- in the West we normally would consider religion to be outside of the debate or on the side of the West due to freedom of religion in capitalist society. However, in the fundamentalist, Wahhabi (Salafist) outlook, freedom of religion is spiritual emptiness that only a strict interpretation of Islam that engulfs your entire life can fill.
It also covers Osama Bin-Laden’s father, Mohammed Bin-Laden, an incredibly successful real estate developer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Very influential, and very rich. He was well paid for his loyalty to the Saud family, as he would be patient when they owed him money and stop jobs for others immediately to work on jobs for the Saudis. When we get to Osama, he is a deeply religious boy by 14 years old. He fasts two days a week and he refuses to associate with people he decides are sinners. His career as a terrorist gets started in earnest during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when all the Saudi money that went to Afghanistan (and there was a lot) went through him.
After the Soviets left Afghanistan, Bin Laden set up camp in Sudan, acting as a major real estate developer and land holder, not to mention providing employment to the Arab Afghans who fought with him as the Mujahideen. At this point, Al- Qaeda was more of a business than a terrorist organization, providing employment to young men who had a jihad-sized hole on their resumes. During this same time, the royal family of Saudi Arabia had come to take over much of Sunni Islam. By the 1980s, Saudi Arabia, just one percent of the world Muslim population, was covering 90% of the expenses of the entire religion, overriding other traditions and replacing them with Salafism (Wahhabism) a form of extremist fundamentalism. However, when Iraq invaded Kuwait (and appeared as if it had its eyes set on Saudi Arabia), none of the other Muslim countries came to aid it. Its only ally was the United States.
Two forces came together to create Al-Qaeda as a modern terrorist organization. The will came from the American presence in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden, and many others interpreted a statement from Muhammad to mean that only Muslims could be permitted on the Arabian Peninsula, yet American forces stayed for years after the First Gulf War (and I believe are still there to this day). The means to create Al-Qaeda came from the thousands of veterans from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, who returned to find themselves unable to reintegrate back into regular society. They came home with physical and mental wounds, as well as a new and dangerous ideology.
In the hunt for Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, it appears from the book that the CIA and other intelligence agencies share much of the blame for not giving enough information to the FBI. The problem was that any intelligence given to the FBI would become public in a trial, therefore disclosing secret matters. This created huge problems, because, to make a long story short, if the FBI had all the information the CIA had already obtained months and years earlier, they surely would have prevented 9/11. In fact, they are able to confirm it was Bin Laden within days of 9/11 because the CIA releases the information on an order to catch the perpetrators by any means necessary.
In sum, this is a great book with a frustrating ending. It ends right after 9/11, really the beginning of the whole story of the War of Terrorism that continues today. I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about Saudi Arabia, Radical Islam, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and the way that the FBI and intelligence agencies work.
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