Description: Osama bin Laden was and remains America's most formidable and implacable enemy. And yet no one has written a serious assessment of his influence over world events in the last decade. Available biographies depict him as crazed and marginal--or simply as a gangster, fanatic, or nihilist. These accounts, Michael Scheuer believes, have contributed to a widespread and dangerous denial of his impact and significance. In Osama bin Laden Scheuer provides a corrective: an objective and authoritative portrait of bin Laden that will show him to be a man of remarkable leadership skills, strategic genius, and considerable rhetorical abilities. For ten years, he has eluded capture despite being the most hunted man in the world.
Review Quotes: "Mike Scheuer was long the dean of U.S. government analysts of Osama bin Laden. Out of government Scheuer has continued to be one of the most original and thoughtful interpreters of bin Laden and al- Qaeda, and in this volume he has distilled his decade and half of thinking about them to great effect, synthesizing a large body of literature to produce a portrait of bin Laden that is authoritative."--Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War and The Osama bin Laden I Know
"No individual enemy has done more to drive the direction and sap the resources of U.S. foreign policy than bin Laden, yet policymakers have paradoxically underestimated his ability and character, dismissing him as a simple demon. This book by a uniquely qualified expert probes the depth and complexity of his ideas, strategy, and leadership, shakes off conveniently misleading images, exposes uncomfortable realities, and faces the full challenge posed by bin Laden." --Richard K. Betts, Director, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University
"Lucid and important. Scheuer takes a crucial step in revealing how the West keeps itself vulnerable by persisting in demonizing rather than understanding its formidable opponent." --Publishers Weekly"In this highly readable and jargon-free book, Scheuer (Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror), head of the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, updates the issues he had covered in his previous publications and offers a serious and nonideological treatment and analysis of bin Laden's thinking. Unlike many Western analysts who dismiss bin Laden as simplistic, uncouth, and incompetent, Scheuer portrays him as a patient, devout, and talented, albeit ruthless, leader who remains a formidable enemy of the West. This informative book is one of the most detailed biographical sketches of bin Laden available in the West and is useful for both the general public and specialists." --Library Journal"Scheuer, former chief of the CIA unit charged with tracking al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, writes that the Western powers have 'failed miserably in every conceivable way' in containing the terrorist group and eliminating the threat it poses. Of vital interest to many kinds of readers, particularly those who share the author's view that we are fighting a war that may soon reach our shores." --KIRKUS Reviews"Steeped in detailed knowledge of the Saudi jihadist. It is a needed corrective to most of the airy generalisations about bin Laden and his followers." --The Financial Times"Scheuer knows more about Bin Laden as a subject of US intelligence pursuit than almost any other expert." --International Affairs"...This book is a first-class study, well argued and written for a broad audience; it retains its value for understanding al Qaeda in the post-bin Laden era... [T]his book will be the definitive biography for the future." --CHOICE