Osama, by Jonathan Randal, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004, 340 pages, hardcover, $26.95, indexed
Reviewed by: Mayer Nudell, CSC, is an independent consultant on crisis management, contingency planning, and related issues.
Contemporary terrorism has become exemplified in the person of Osama bin Laden. Yet for all the publicity surrounding him, he remains an elusive figure that has become larger-than-life in the Islamic world. The mere mention of his name or that of his creation Al Qaeda (The Base) is enough to inspire either adulation among his devotees or revulsion in the Western world and his issuing of a video or audio tape often inspires heightened states of alert around the world. Therefore, knowing as much as possible about him is useful for those attempting to counter his activities and those of his supporters. Osama: The Making of a Terrorist by Jonathan Randal, is an excellent effort to do this.
Jonathan Randal is a veteran Middle East correspondent who is one of the few Western journalists to have spent considerable time with bin Laden. Through his personal interviews and other sources developed over more than 40 years of covering the region, Randal places the phenomenon of Osama bin Laden within the larger context of the clash between Islam and the West. In doing so, he also raises some interesting matters, including discussing the possibility that bin Laden offered his organization to Saudi Arabia following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and how bin Laden represents a new permutation of international terrorism.
While Randal does an excellent job of explaining who and what bin Laden is, he seems less able to deal with the Western responses to bin Laden's terrorism, falling into the standard criticisms of U.S. foreign policy and in some ways blaming the West for terrorism generally. Nonetheless, Osama is a worthwhile book for security professionals, policy makers, and academics to read and consider. Its insights into bin Laden the man will help them understand how and why Al Qaeda has become the International threat we now confront.
