The Osama I Know

(This article is reprinted from The American Prospect.)

In March 1997, Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden, traveled to Afghanistan for CNN in order to interview Osama bin Laden and became one of only a handful of Western journalists to have met and spoken to the leader of al Qaeda. Here, he talks about his new book, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader.

Why write a biography of bin Laden?

I wrote the book because I have an old-fashioned view of history: People matter. It's impossible to understand al Qaeda without the personal stories of Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman al-Zawahiri. And it's not as if either of them has now disappeared from history: Not only did bin Laden affect history with the 9/11 attacks, but he continues to influence it. Through his cassettes and videotapes, he is playing an active role in al Qaeda. You have bin Laden on tape ordering the attack on Coalition partners of the United States, and then you see the Madrid bombing. Al-Zawahiri called for attacks on President Pervez Musharraf [of Pakistan], and some time after, they were carried out.

What were bin Laden's early formative experiences?

The picture of the young Osama is someone who was hyper-religious, even by the standards of 1970s Saudi Arabia. But he was also very polite, mild-mannered and shy. And by all accounts, a selfless individual. He was hardworking too, although he didn't graduate from university. So how did he come to become the leader of the world's leading terrorist organization? The short answer is Afghanistan, where he went to fight jihad against the Soviet occupation. At first, people didn't notice him. He had little charisma or leadership skills. But as he fought the Soviets through the 1980s, he became more confident, and his personal bravery was tested. He then decided to set up his own organization, even though his friends and relatives told him not to: It's suicide, not jihad, they argued. But it's critical that he ignored this advice and chose to set out on his own.

Was this the origin of al Qaeda?

Yes. al Qaeda wasn't an outgrowth of Adbullah Azaam's "Office of Services," as has been suggested elsewhere. al Qaeda grew in opposition to Azzam's organization, not out of it. Azzam's organization had been becoming something like an NGO, which provided education and the like. Bin Laden didn't want to do that. He wanted to fight the Soviets by forming his own group. But this is also an early example of an interesting trait of bin Laden's: He acts on impulse and doesn't follow good advice. Azzam didn't think the Arab jihadists in Afghanistan were all that important to the anti-Soviet effort. So Azzam wanted to pepper them among different Afghan units and use them as morale-boosters. Bin Laden didn't listen. And at the end of the day Azzam was right: It was the blood of Afghans that won the war against the Soviets, along with lots of money from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

What's the importance of Ayman al-Zawahiri to bin Laden and to al Qaeda?

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri first met in 1986, and they have developed a symbiotic relationship. Bin Laden got status and credibility from al-Zawahiri, who had been in prison in Egypt for three years, and was a serious political thinker in a way that bin Laden wasn't. But al-Zawahiri needed bin Laden's money. And, in any case, al-Zawahiri hasn't ever had any real leadership skills. He's just not attractive enough as a leader. People who know them both now say that al-Zawahiri isn't the "brains" of the pair anymore. In fact, it's bin Laden who's been the one that focused al Qaeda on the "far enemy" in the United States. And you have to remember that bin Laden is now 48, and he is very much his own man. If bin Laden were to die or be captured, al-Zawahiri wouldn't be able to achieve the same level of influence.