The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden (Bestselling Historical Nonfiction) Paperback – August 2, 2022

Detailed accounting of UBL from childhood through the Family Business years , The terrorist years and ultimately 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan Excellent !

It’s a little irritating that the writing itself stops at about 65 percent, with the rest devoted to acknowledgements, sources, and indices.

Lots of details. Cleared gaps in my knowledge. Now know more than I wanted to know, but I understand the stupidity of going into Afghanistan better. Osama helped get Trump elected. US became more of a terrorist state. One thing is right that he said: US dropped two atomic bombs killing innocent civilians.

This is an excellent read. The author is the most knowledgable expert on Bin Ladin. This book is in depth without getting boring.

Haven’t finished reading yet

Bergen does a great service by correcting the many false narratives peddled by lesser journalists and talking heads for personal profit. Bergen stitches together the quarter century that saw Bin Laden's ascent at the end of the eighties to his ignominious death in 2011. The crafty and delusional heir to a vast Saudi fortune set the world ablaze with his self-serving martyr ideology and the West's reaction his threat ( the War on Terror) tilted US foreign policy away from long term geopolitical interests. Avery readableand persuasive book.

This book has 17 chapters, and about 250 pages of main story, not including the “Notes” section at the end.At the start of the book, before the Prologue, there is a map of locations where bin Laden was known to be throughout his life, covering the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The map has locations marked with dates when bin Laden was there. This is followed by a visual family tree, showing the names of bin Laden's parents, wives and children; and when they were born.The Prologue describes bin Laden's life in his Abbottabad compound in the weeks leading up to his death. His daily routines with his family, and his growing concerns are discussed. There were documents recovered that detailed the meetings he would have with his family members, and messages he sent to al-Qaeda operatives, that give a window into his thoughts. Apparently he was increasingly concerned with the events of the Arab Spring, and wanted to position himself as an important leader, and claim some credit for the recent revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia; even though these revolutions had nothing to do with him or al-Qaeda.The next few chapters cover the earlier years of bin Laden's life. His biological father's path to immense wealth is described, and the author attempts to explore Osama's relationship to the rest of his extended family, as his father's 18th son. His education and formative years are discussed, as is his focus on his faith. A major event in his life seems to be the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, which first inspired young Osama to the take up the cause of jihad against the invading Soviets. Chapters discuss bin Laden's contributions to the Afghan War, his funding of the construction of roads, and victories against the Soviets, and the eventual founding of the al-Qaeda organization in the late 1980s.The next few chapters explain bin Laden's actions in the 1990s. Bin Laden was upset that the Saudi government relied on Americans to help defend Saudi Arabia when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, and also disliked the US because of their support of Israel. He started to plan attacks on American targets, and trained terrorists during his time in Sudan in the 1990s. The next chapters describe bin Laden's return to Afghanistan, his relationship with the Taliban, and specific terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda. The CIA's growing concern with al-Qaeda is discussed, as well as several missed opportunities and unheeded warnings, culminating in the attacks on 9/11.The last few chapters detail the US response to 9/11, and the operations of al-Qaeda in the years following the attacks. The author explains the escape of bin Laden, and his retreat into hiding for the next decade. His establishment of a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and his attempts to still lead the al-Qaeda organization are all documented. The intelligence leading to his discovery is discussed, and the mission to eliminate him is described. There is a final chapter explaining some of the events that took place after bin Laden's death was announced to the world.The “Notes” section begins on page 253, so a good portion of the book is Notes and documenting sources, all the way up to page 384.Overall, I learned quite a bit of information from this book. The sources seem to be well documented, and the author has done quite a bit of research to compile all of this information about such an infamous person, that most people knew so little about. It was interesting to learn about what factors shaped his personality, and what went wrong. It is worth reading about and studying people like this, so you can try to identify how to prevent such tragedies in the future.

When I first learned a few months ago that this book was being published, I knew little about Peter Bergen. However, the fact that he was one of the incredibly few Westerners to have personally met Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11, along with the fact that he was one of the only people whom the US Government allowed to tour the site of bin Laden's compound after his death, as well as to interview all of those involved with virtually every aspect of the mission that led to his demise, was more than enough to assure me that Mr. Bergen had both the authority as well as the insight for this topic.On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in the third grade and already a fan of action movies, crime stories, and the like. So when my elementary school went into lockdown that morning, I grew excited at the prospect of potentially enjoying a firsthand view into what I believed was sure to be a local crime saga. It was only after a few hours, when my teacher informed us that planes had been "hijacked, which means they took over the controls from the pilots" and flown into buildings that I began to feel uneasy and consider that something deeply serious had occurred. A few hours after that, when I boarded the school bus to head home and encountered our driver, Roberta, weeping inconsolably, I finally realized how uniquely and incredibly terrible this hijacking event was. A feisty, witty, resilient, and incredibly loving person, Roberta was the quintessential sort of middle-aged woman who did not suffer fools, was terrified by virtually nothing, but nevertheless had a heart of gold and an immense capacity for love. Seeing her so shaken, distraught, and emotional was jarring. It was also, more than anything, confirmation that whatever had occurred that morning was devastating and profound on a scale far beyond anything I'd yet experiencedToday, less than a month shy of my 28th birthday, I remain wholly convinced that 9/11 was one of the most significant, far-reaching, consequential events to ever occur. The fact that it occurred, was executed so flawlessly in spite of profound obstacles, and was able to cause as much damage and loss as it did, especially in light of how little it required, is remarkable. I have spent countless hours watching footage of the devastating strike of the second plane, the collapse, the pandemonium, and the horror. Within a day of the attacks, Osama bin Laden's face kept showing up on my television screens, and I grew increasingly intrigued by him (even more so after my favorite rapper, Eminem, dressed up as bin Laden for the music video to his 2002 song "Without Me").After reading the 9/11 Commission, "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright, the transcripts to virtually everything bin Laden publicly wrote or spoke, this book, and more, I find myself remarkably unable to come to a complete verdict regarding the man. Mr. Bergen's praiseworthy ability to remain as objective as possible is a testament to his skills and ethics as a journalist and writer.For the most part, no doubt owing to my Catholic faith and my status as a happily employed member of the criminal defense bar, I have a tendency to look at what occurs in a person' s life or to them, what shapes them, and how and why they wound up where they did. This book especially is excellent at providing the most comprehensive biography of Osama bin Laden and doing so without allowing the truth to become impacted by emotions (and trust me, I am the first to understand how significant such emotions in this case are).If anything, this should be a mandatory read precisely because it demonstrates perfectly that the media and government rarely give us the full picture. Among the many tidbits in this book that shocked me were that bin Laden sought Western journalists pre-9/11 to ensure his message reached the US, as Islam forbids jihad against unbelievers unless they have a meaningful opportunity to convert first. The fact that he came from an enormously wealthy family was something I already knew, but this book details just how austere of an existence he led and how difficult life was. He could have easily languished on a yacht in luxury but his moral compass (yes, it was his moral compass, as confounding as that may be to some) would not allow him to do so. I was truly stunned by the revelation that in the mid 1990s, the Saudi monarchy, which had grown livid with his critiques against them, offered to restore his citizenship and give him access to bank accounts and other funds that were in the hundreds of millions. All he had to do was publicly state that the King was, in fact, a good Muslim. Bin Laden refused to do so, troubled by the prospect of leading other believers astray by making such a pronouncement.Osama bin Laden's life and doings are almost perfectly orchestrated for Hollywood movie. That this inconspicuous man from an even more inconspicuous region managed to change the course of history is incredible and far too ludicrous to believe had it not actually occurred. He renounced his life of wealth and voluntarily lived in poverty, then somehow managed to handpick and train not even 20 young men to pull of the most unfathomable and devastating attack in modern times. Even more incomprehensible, with virtually the entire US government after him, not to mention other nations, and despite being the most wanted man on the planet, he evaded capture for a whopping ten years. When Pakistani authorities interviewed his wives and children after the Abbottabad raid and inquired why the compound lacked any of the more typical and effective security measures, they answered, "He believed Allah would protect him." A most confounding man he truly was, genuinely seeking to do the right thing in spite of how misguided it was at times.This is a superb and excellent book for many reasons and in many ways. It is definitely worth a read.

I enjoyed this book, and Peter Bergen never fails...My biggest beef is towards publishers in general. This book's actual reading was actually 248 pages long. The rest (pages 249 to 384) are nothing but notes, indexes etc.Laws ought to be passed by government to force publishers to clearly state (1) How much of the content is actually written by the book's author and (2) Separately list all the crap at the end (notes, bibliographies, "thanks to everyone" etc. . This book's description on Amazon says 416 pages. It's not that at all. With notes and all it's 384 pages!So, what you get here is really 252 pages of reading from Peter Bergen. 65%.

It's a real thrilling story....