Inside Osama bin Ladin - book - "Joshua's Hammer"

What is this? A teaser to sell the book? Somebody needs to emphasize Bin Laden's love of death. He first realized his special talent in Somalia where against innocent peacekeepers who were there to help the local population get food from the clutches of the warlords, he fashioned a death trap for the peacekeepers - first killing 63 Indian troops in order to ambush an American resuce force. BL was in Somalia as a contractor. After his ambush, he was made a cleric.

Joshua's Hammer at AMAZON This book and the author were featured on Art Bell this week. Compelling fiction.

I've read and re-read this book, and it is very plausible and realistic in the areas dealing with bin Laden. Naturally, there's a heroic CIA agent that knows all and does all, but it doesn't detract from the story.

It would be hard to find a better depiction of bin Laden in fact or fiction anywhere. Recommended.

I don't like Hagberg much, but this book was really good. It gave a really realistic view of the Al Quaeda network and also of Bin Laden. The book also features a powerful lieutenant of Bin Laden's, western educated and trained by MI6. I wouldn't be surprised if Al Quaeda has some professional spooks and operators working for them. Another great "fictional" look on possible terrorist networks was the recent book "The Kill Artist" by Daniel Silva.

I didn't get around to reading the novel until this week. I thought it was great. There really is a lot of relevant stuff in it. I think I can summarize a few of them, without giving to many of the plot twists away.

One of them has to do with the subject of madness...I think Hagberg gives a description that fits bin Laden's character nicely (Here his character is paraphrasing Voltarie):

p. 92 "But be sure that the madness corresponds with the turn and temper of your age. Have in your madness reason enough to guide your extravangaces; and do not forget to be obsessively opinionated and obstinate. It is certainly possible that you may get hanged; but if you escape hanging, you will have altars erected to you."

p. 33..."...were thought to be the precursors to something big that was coming. Something that would make Oklahoma City look small."

p. 54 "In June I asked my Riyadh station to try to open negotiations with Osama bin Laden," McGarvey said. "I did this for a number of reasons, among them the generally held belief that bin Laden was getting ready to make another strike against U.S. interests somewhere in the world,and possibly even here on our soil." The situation room was suddenly very still.

p. 103-104 "McGarvey sat down cross-legged in the sand and watched the three men pray. Sarah had gone off by herself because Muslim men and women did not pray together, it was forbidden in the Qoran. But as he watched he wondered where and how it had all gone terribly wrong for so many of them. Why the jihads and fatwahs, the acts of terrorism, the senseless killings, the endless wars, the intolerance that led a man like bin Laden to contemplate using a nuclear weapon against innocent men, women and children? He didn't know if even Islam's most religious leaders could have answered that simple question, and yet it was probably the most important question they'd ever been faced with.

*As an aside here - I like this bit of "retrospection." I do think the issues that ibn Laden has brought to the table will determine Islam's "character" for centuries to come. I also think it is quite remarkable that Hagberg "predicted" a devasting attack on American civilians in 2000 - before this time bin Laden had "only" attacked governmental and military targets (though he was perhaps linked to the earlier 1992 attempt to blow up the Trade Center). The choice of "Sarah" for the name of bin Laden's fictional daughter is interesting. It is a Jewish name - hardly if ever used by Muslim parents for their children - yes -mentioned in the Qoran, but like the names David, Saul, Jesus and Moses which are also mentioned in the Qoran - they are clearly recognized as Jewish and Christian names.

p. 115 If a nuclear weapon, even a small one went off in New York or Washington or any other major U.S. city, there would be tens of thousands of...(dead). For what? That was the question he wanted to ask bin Laden. Why?

P. 128 The origin of evil has always been an abyss, the depth of which no one has been able to sound, Voltaire had written. McGarvey thought that no one in the West had any idea who bin Laden really was. We had deluded ourselves into believing that he was nothing more than another Islamic fundamentalist waging a holy war against the infidels. Just like in the thirties when we had decluded ourselves into thinking that Hitler was only interested in righting the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty, and gaining Lebensraum for his people.

*Again, I think Hagberg shows some good forsight in clearly calling bin Laden what he is...evil.

p. 311 "Thank you for coming out on such short notice this morning. My name is Kirk McGarvey and for those of you who don't know me, I'm the deputy director of Operations. I've called this meeting because the CIA believes that the U.S. is facing the worst threat of terrorism in its history...

*Again this is a 2000 novel, if the real CIA had taken the treat as seriously...one wonders if things really would have had to happen they way they did...