Osama Bin-Laden Interview, June 1999: Entering the Mind of an Adversary

Summary

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Aboul-Enein reviews Bin Laden, Al-Jazeera, and I by Jamal Abdul-Latif Ismail.

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Extract

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Osama Bin-Laden Interview, June 1999: Entering the Mind of an Adversary

Osama bin-Laden Interview, June 1999: Entering the Mind of an Adversary

Osama bin-Laden's news medium of choice, the Al-Jazeera television network, has enabled him to converse in a religious style of Arabic used by learned men of theology in Saudi Arabia. Al-Jazeera correspondent Jamal Abdul-Latif Ismail, author of Bin Laden, Al-Jazeera, and I (Bin Laaden wa al-Jazeerah wa Ana) conducted a most insightful interview with Bin-Laden in 1999.1 This essay focuses on excerpts from this interview and helps the reader understand the meaning behind Bin-Laden's words.

Getting the Interview

Ismail begins his book by describing how he obtained interviews with Bin-Laden and the number two al-Qaeda leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Getting to Bin-Laden involved many false starts and required working with contacts in London, Cairo, and Peshawar: an al-Qaeda operative would set up an interview with Ismail then abruptly cancel it. It is important to understand that Ayman Al-Zawahiri and members of his Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) orchestrated media events. Al-Zawahiri, who has a keen understandin...

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