The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader

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Simon and Schuster, Jan 20, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 480 pages
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 highschool 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.
 

Contents

The Afghan War
24
From Donor to Holy Warrior
49
The Birth of al Qaeda
74
Al Qaeda Goes Global
108
Afghanistan Again
160
Al Qaeda Attacks
219
The Charismatic Leader
258
The 911 Plot
283
The Fall of the Taliban and the Flight
311
Al Qaedas Quest for Weapons
337
How al Qaeda Took Root in Iraq and
350
Bin Laden on the Run
369
Bin Ladens Legacy
382
Appendix A Where Are They Now?
395
Acknowledgments
427
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Peter Bergen is the author or editor of nine books, including three New York Times bestsellers and four Washington Post best nonfiction books of the year. A Vice President at New America, Bergen is a professor at Arizona State University and a national security analyst for CNN. He has testified before congressional committees eighteen times about national security issues and has held teaching positions at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University.

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