Osama bin Laden’s autobiography inside the al-Qaeda leader’s final hideout: NPR

As the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks approaches, a new autobiography emerges Osama bin LadenThe path from a devout shy teenager to the leader of a global jihadist group dedicated to mass murder.

journalist Peter Bergen, who met the al Qaeda leader in 1997, says a series of events continued to push bin Laden “more and more on the path of extremism.”

“[Bin Laden] He could have chosen a different path at several stages in his life,” says Bergen. But the introduction of US forces into Saudi Arabia [in 1992] He turned his latent anti-Americanism into an intense hatred of the United States.”

Bergen says bin Laden believes that the 9/11 attacks, which he is credited with orchestrating, will result in the United States withdrawing its forces from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. “Of course, this was an illusion,” he adds. “It didn’t work.”

Bin Laden was killed in 2011 when he killed US Marines raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bergen’s new book, The rise and fall of Osama bin Laden It is based on materials recovered from the compound as well as on interviews with dozens of people in bin Laden’s inner circle.

Bergen says some of the items found in the 2011 raid were particularly surprising: “When I visited the compound, I actually saw what was in his bedroom, the bedroom where he was killed,” Bergen says. “In the toilet area I saw men-only hair dye… He wanted to look younger. When bin Laden died, he was 54, but he definitely looked older in reality. So he was using men’s only hair dye.”

Interview highlights

On the documents Bergen relied on to write the book

In late 2017, the Trump administration released a file 470,000 files which was found in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was included in something the CIA described as bin Laden’s magazine. It turned out to be something a little different. It is also handwritten in Arabic. It was a kind of family journal that the bin Laden family kept mainly for the last several weeks of bin Laden’s life.

On the people that bin Laden kept with him in the compound

The total was 27 – 16 of his family, he had two bodyguards and their families. Usually, when we think of a fugitive, we don’t think of a fugitive who takes with them three wives and dozens of children and grandchildren. But bin Laden, with all his many vices, and all evil, death and destruction Caused by it, he was a family man, and he wanted his family to be around him.

About Bin Laden’s Personal Security Measures

It was a prison of his own making. He was the chief warden in a sense. He himself was very careful about what he did. He was walking around the park wearing a cowboy hat so that no one could recognize him if there was a satellite in the sky. He had a healthy respect for American spy capabilities.

His family members did not leave the compound. He never left the complex. In fact, he was hiding so much that one of the bodyguard’s wives did not know that Osama bin Laden lived among them, even though she lived in the same compound.

Once, bin Laden appeared on television, and one of the bodyguard’s 9-year-old daughters asked, “Isn’t that the guy who lives here?” At that moment, the bodyguard got rid of the television and asked his daughter not to talk about this matter, and he also prevented contact with the bin Laden family. So bin Laden was hiding from people in his private compound.

On the importance of his two older wives

Bin Laden’s two older wives played an important role in his life. Two of them had a Ph.D… One of them had a Ph.D. in child psychology. And someone else got a Ph.D. in Quranic grammar. And so these two older wives were educating the children at home. And they’ve been doing this for years, even before 9/11. …and these wives also play an important role in helping bin Laden think through the complex strategic problems of al-Qaeda’s future direction.

About Bin Laden’s reaction to Arab Spring

“This is perhaps the most important development in the Middle East in centuries,” wrote one of his senior deputies. But he was also bewildered about what to do about these great events because he was aware of the fact that the protesters on the streets of Cairo or on the streets of Tunis did not wave the banners of bin Laden calling for Taliban-style democracies. They were demanding universal human rights, the right to assembly, freedom of speech, and not to live under an authoritarian and corrupt government. So bin Laden was really thinking, “How do I respond to this? How can I be relevant? What can I say about that?”

The Arab Spring begins [in December 2010], and was killed in May 2011. I think the fact that he wasn’t really able to issue a statement on the events of the Arab Spring during his life speaks for itself, because he didn’t quite know what to say, and how to establish himself as the leader of the Arab Spring.

On the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban

I think there is a lot of information in the documents released from the Abbottabad compound that showed that al-Qaeda and the Taliban were still on friendly terms, that al-Qaeda was funding elements of the Taliban, guiding elements of the Taliban on what to do. . They were cooperating in joint operations. And then, fast forward to today. The United Nations in June released a report on the relations between al-Qaeda and the Taliban, describing them as very close. They even said that relationships are getting stronger. …

The Trump administration began peace negotiations with the Taliban in 2018, which are based on the idea of ​​al-Qaeda and Taliban secession. It was all nonsense and a charade. And I think we will all see that the Taliban are recruiting foreign fighters from all over the Muslim world.

Split screen on 9/11 [in 2021] It would be Taliban control over parts of Afghanistan, using the US military equipment they captured, and [U.S. officials] Read the names of 9/11 victims at the World Trade Center website. And, you know, I can’t imagine a worse split screen, but I think that’s what we’ll likely see.

Sam Breeger and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Seth Kelley adapted it for the web.