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The holy warrior The most entertaining of current books on Osama bin Laden paints him as a devout, charismatic CEO of worldwide terror. – – – – – – – – – – – – By Laura Miller Nov. 21, 2001 | Without a doubt, Peter Bergen’s “Holy War, Inc.” is the most entertaining of […]

If any good could possibly emerge from the tragedies of Sept. 11, it would be that regular Americans develop more of an interest in the world beyond their borders. Yes, U.S. diplomats, government workers, think-tank dwellers and academics possess a more global perspective. But not until 9/11 did serious books on Islam and Afghanistan become sellouts at chain bookstores.

CNN’s terrorism expert Peter Bergen joined us Thursday, Nov. 29 at 10 a.m. ET to discuss his new book — Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden.
Bergen spent four years researching the book which was rushed into print after the Sept. 11 attacks. In the book, Bergen reveals how bin Laden lives, where his money comes from and how the al-Qaeda operatives have penetrated North American society.

The Free Press. $26. The gathering — a sea of colored cloth, flowing robes, turbans and fezzes, of silk headscarves and pantaloons — rose rhythmically to chants of “jihad” and “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”). Anguished lectures described an unrelenting threat from the West. It was 1995 in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, at a biennial meeting of militant Muslim groups from more than 80 countries.

ONLY RARELY does an author contradict his own publisher’s hype as directly as Peter Bergen in his preface to Holy War, Inc. The dustjacket makes the impossible claim that this is “the complete story of bin Laden’s life, career and influence”. Peter Bergen, however, acknowledges that the book was not originally intended for publication until next summer.

America’s crash course in Al Qaeda 101 continues tomorrow night (at 8 on MSNBC) with the airing of “Holy War, Inc.” a “National Geographic Explorer” documentary that draws on the expertise of Peter Bergen, the telegenic terror expert who interviewed Osama bin Laden four years ago and is author of “Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden.”America

“Holy War, Inc.” is essentially a concise encapsulation of what we’ve learned about Osama bin Laden in the days since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., adding some less-well- known but equally chilling information. Former CNN reporter Peter Bergen, whose new book provides the title of this report, has been studying Afghanistan and Pakistan for nearly 20 years. Bergen tells us that bin Laden first got his taste for American blood in Somalia in the early ’90s, when an American mission to deal with the nation’s then-ruling warlord went horribly awry and 18 American servicemen were killed. Muslims were already angered at images of American troops celebrating Christmas in Muslim territory during the Gulf War, and another American assault on their lands – even if it was for the humanitarian purpose of restoring order to a war-torn land run by a corrupt and brutal regime – chafed even further.

How do we in the West, non-Muslims and non-Arab speakers for the most part, go about understanding Osama bin Laden? Is he at heart somebody like us – a shy rich kid who discovered booze and sex but then got religion, angry with the Americans but really angry with his Dad? Or is the holy warrior bin Laden an expression of the “Arab street”, or a “Muslim persecution complex”, in the words of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, a phenomenon almost entirely beyond our ken?

In the closing years ofthe 20th century, globalisation emerged as the west’s new creed in the aftermath of the cold war. It had its priests in the form of economists, chief executives of multi-national companies and western governments, who all preached its merits to their respective congregations. Globalisation, they declaimed, would sweep away corrupt and undemocratic regimes, alleviate world poverty and usher in a brave new world.

Peter Bergen is one of the few Western journalists who has ever interviewed Osama bin Laden. In March 1997, after endless negotiations, he and Pulitzer Prize-winner Peter Arnett were taken by six machine gun-toting men to a secret location, to meet with bin Laden for CNN. “He’s a very serious and committed individual, says Bergen, the author of “Holy War: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Ladin (Free Press). “The first impression you have of him is he’s tall. He’s around 6’4”. He walks with a slight stoop, and walks with a cane, due to some war injury he sustained. People say he has charisma; I didn’t really see him as a charismatic individual. He’s almost a low-key presence.”