me with Bin Laden
the role of masterminds
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
(KSM) and his nephew Ramzi
Yousef, who, in the 1990s,
had dreamt up what became
known as the Bojinka plot
to blow up 11 US airliners
simultaneously over the
Pacific Ocean.
Who ever had the idea, Bin
Laden’s first miscalculation
about 9/11 was to assume that
the twin tower attacks would
make the Americans withdraw
from the Middle East.
Instead, it is clear that he was
surprised by the American
response in Afghanistan,
describing it as “beyond
anyone’s expectations”.
The subsequent toppling
of the Taliban and the end of
their sanctuary left the Arab
jihadists in a desperate plight.
Many fled to Pakistan, where
about 600 were arrested,including KSM and Yousef.
Others, including many of Bin
Laden’s family, went to Iran,
which, despite being Shia
and therefore an ideological
enemy, was assumed to hate
the US even more. There
they found themselves
under detention, Iran having
decided to keep them asa bargaining chip. It is still
not clear where Bin Laden
himself went when driven
from the Afghan mountains
of Tora Bora, one of a number
of questions that remain
unanswered. What is clear,
though, is that by 2004 the
group was in disarray,
with most senior leaders
eliminated or arrested.
Intriguingly, Lahoud says
that al-Qaeda could not have
been behind the Madrid
attack in 2004 and the 7/7
London ones in 2005 because
there is no mention of them in
the papers and the group did
not have enough money.
Indeed, when Bin Laden
sets up a security commission
to work out how to stop losing
so many members in Pakistan
to American drones, he offers
them only $480 in funding.
It is here that the book really
gets going when it talks about
the effect of the drones, which
Bin Laden describes as “a
calamity”. He even writes to
Pakistan’s intelligence ISI,
saying “our war is against the
Americans in Afghanistan”
and begging them to leave
them alone. On the perennial
question of whether he could
really have lived all those
years in Abbottabad without
ISI being aware, the book lets
Pakistan off the hook.
It is the family side that is
most interesting. We see a
man struggling to relaunch
his organisation with a new
spectacular to mark the
ten-year anniversary of 9/11,
while at the same time
desperately trying to get the
rest of his family back from
Iran. Inside the compound,
his eldest son complains
about not being able to leave
to get married, the children
are cooped up, not allowed
to make a noise, his second
wife is trying to run a school
timetable, and the two
brothers providing his
security are completely fed
up. When much of the Middle
East erupts in the revolutions
of the Arab Spring, he is
confused how to react, tearing
up statement after statement
as his teenage daughter tells
him to get on with it.
It is astonishing to have
such a picture of the inner
workings of a terrorist group.
Luckily those navy Seals
stayed for those extra minutes
and fortunate that they found
someone in Lahoud prepared
to take on the mammoth task
of sifting through it all. cincompetence in following
basic security protocols.
All this while partners around
the world were proving hard
to control.
The world had been
changed by 9/11, but it
“turned out to be a pyrrhic
victory for al-Qaeda”, Lahoud
writes. “The man whose
public statements were full
of threats was in actuality
powerless and confined to
his compound overseeing an
‘afflicted’ al-Qaeda.”
The book is not the liveliest
read. The beginning is
unpromising, managing to
make the Abbottabad raid,
to most of us the stuff of
Hollywood, sound quite dull.
Citing from a couple of
scribbled paragraphs, Lahoud
claims that the idea of flying
planes into buildings was Bin
Laden’s. This seems to ignoreCHILDREN’S
BOOK OF THE WEEKNICOLETTE JONES
One Time
by Sharon Creech
Guppy Books £6.99,
age 9-11Carnegie medal-winning
US author Sharon Creech
writes novels that expound
the principle that children
should be free and
encouraged, and that
testing and punishment
have no place in education.
Her stories celebrate
imagination, creativity,
eccentricity and the joy
of books. This one alone
recommends seven other
real works to follow up
with afterwards. It reads
like a memoir of a
wonderful teacher and her
creative writing prompts,
as remembered by
11-year-old Gina, which
involve her classmates and
the smiling, unusual,
beautiful boy next door. It
is rich in characters of all
ages, including two quirky,
elderly cohabiting ladies
and a houseful of
mysterious neighbours.
Gentle, observant and
inspiring, it warms the
heart without being
sentimental.WATCH OUT FOR
Rigatoni the Pasta Cat
by Michael Rosen,
illustrated by Tony Ross
Andersen Press £5.99,
age 5-7This simple and comic story
of a cat who eats nothing
but pasta, and his search
for his favourite food, was
written by Rosen in his head
while he was in hospital.
Light relief indeed.Private life Osama bin Laden
in Afghanistan in 1998Al-Qaeda
could not have
been behind
the 7/7 London
attacks
10 April 2022 23