Rating: 
Summary: This man knows his stuff
Review: There are those of us who know Bodansky and believe his words, and those who think he cannot be trusted. Those who dismiss his work do so at their own peril, as this man has been right on the money time after time after time. Unfortunately, the powers that be (and those that want to be) would like to downplay the significance or the accuracy of his research. They would have us maintain the fiction that we have "reliable allies" in the middle-east (other than Israel). They don't want to upset our European allies either, who never met a terrorist country they didn't like. (see Powell, Clinton, Albright, Ross and others). Yes, Bodansky does often refuse to divulge exactly where he gets his information, but his sources are likely to be fed to the dogs or worse if he were to even hint at their identity. Bodansky is a man that lives with a price on his head yet doggedly works 15 hour days for little compensation to warn the U.S. and the world of the existential dangers about to take place. He is not doing this for any ulterior motive, and is not out to make a "name" for himself. In fact, he rarely does interviews, and his book sales have, until recently, been relatively minimal. I know this, having worked with him for 4 years. He is one of the true geniuses in the intelligence field, and THE world's leading expert on bin Laden. You may find the reading a bit dry---it reads like an intelligence report at times---but it's worth plodding through, as only the enemy you know is one you can face, and face it we must.
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable treatise has many flaws but sparkles at times
Review: You don't have to see the author's name to guess a Russian emigre wrote Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. Yossef Bodansky endlessly and repetitively describes minor events and characters. On the postive side, portions read like a sparkling essay. Because Bodansky doesn't exercise much discretion is editing, you get voluminous details about Islamic terrorists, the historical impulses that created al-Qaeda, and how these Muslim radicals view themselves and the "infidel." The result of this sometimes plodding but often riveting treatise is a great introduction into the murky and twisted world of Islamic terror.The book isn't a biography of Osama bin Laden, either. It is a history of al-Qaeda. Bin Laden is the central figure but hardly the exclusive focus in the terror organization Bodansky chronicles. Osama bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America was published prior to the U.S.S. Cole attack and long before September 11th. The book could be described as dated yet it reveals great prescience. Bodansky sounds many warnings about al-Qaeda activity and support in Yemen, the nation where the Cole atrocity later took place. Bodanksy also predicted the United States would suffer "spectacular attacks," a term we now all painfully know. These forewarnings of terror are, in retrospect, amazing. Yet Bodansky undermines his credibility at times with outrageous assertions like the claim that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a terrorist bomb. He also portrays an al-Qaeda that is much braver and more intelligent than recent events would indicate. The strongest aspect of this book is how it follows bin Laden's conversion and those of a like mind from warrior to terrorist. After these religious zealots defeat the Soviet Empire in Afghanistan, bin Laden and al-Qaeda go on to engage in messicanic terror campaigns in other Islamic lands. Bodansky explains how the United States and the West incorrectly downplayed Serbian claims of al-Qaeda infiltration of Bosnia and Kosovo. The author makes it apparent that Russia's fight against the Chechens is hardly a David vs. Goliath morality tale. As Bodansky describes it, al-Qaeda found an early ally in and eventually fell out with Saddam Hussein (bin Laden's rocky relationship with the Iraqi dictator is remarkably similar to the one Abu Nidal experienced as recounted a decade ago in Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire by Patrick Seale). Other benefactors like Iran find bin Laden equally useful and frustrating. As al-Qaeda becomes bolder in its initial confrontations with the United States in the Horn of Africa, it seems all too obvious in hindsight that the terror group would come to American shores to kill innocents. You won't know much more about bin Laden the man than you probably do now if you read this book, but you will have many more details about al-Qaeda the organization and insights into the terrorists who murder and maim in its name.
Rating:
Summary: Cogent book on Islamicism
Review: Bodansky gives a good introduction into the thought process of Islamic extremism. It definitely should be "required reading" for not only people in the "field", but also for journalists and other assorted "experts".
If one understands the historic foundations of a movement, be that movement Islamicism or left wing or right terrorism, then one also gets an appreciation of what it may take to overcome the dangers inherent in the confrontations which will inevitably ensue.
Naturally, as with every book, one must pay attention to what is soundly based in fact and logic, and what may be speculation, but that critical process should be present at all times when reading non-fiction, that is, when the "willing suspension of the dis-belief" is not purposely invoked.
Rating: 
Summary: UBL: The man who declared war on America
Review: I found some of the reviews to be quite accurate. In my field this book was "required reading". I found it difficult, long-winded and most important....not factual! Some glaring inaccuracies such as the explosion of flight 800 off Long Island... I found Bodansky had a penchant for a cut and paste style writing when it came to Arab newspaper editorials. He included many! He also went into fine detail about meetings involving Bin Laden and many of the Islamic terrorists known leaders. Although sometimes accurate.....Many times not!! He also assumed the purpose of these meetings, which did not always reflect the truth...
Rating: 
Summary: Unreliable
Review: Several books have now been published on Bin Laden. I have read a number of them. Bodansky's book is - unfortunately - among the worst ones, and I feel frightened to see how people rate it positively. Bodansky's book primarily consists of unproved allegations. It is easy for him to do that, since everything supposedly comes from "intelligence" sources which he cannot disclose, etc. But people with some knowledge of the topic soon realize that it is a mixture of accurate information and mere allegations. ... I would much more recommend Bergen's book, for instance - another early book on Bin Laden. Gunaratna's book is also significantly better, although it does not entirely escape criticism
Rating:
Summary: BEST PROFILE OF ISLAMIST TERROR--PERIOD.
Review: Bodansky simply has the inside track on what's going on in the world of Islamist terrorism. He predicted that the '93 WTC bombing was only the beginning in his 1993 book "Target America" and this pre-9/11 release proves to be equally prohetic. My greatest frustration with this book was that it went to press before even the U.SS. COLE bombing in Yemen so we don't get the story behind the most recent events, but perhaps this makes Bodansky's intuitions about the terror to come even more impressive. His most startling revelations regard the key involvement of state-sponsors in all of "al Qaeda"'s major operations, particularly the roles of Iran and Iraq. Recently many pundits have doubted these connections, pointing to Saddam's secular regime and Iran's Shi'ite ideology as being diametrically opposed to bin Laden and his beliefs. These arguments are agressively and convincingly refuted in Bodansky's book, and if you still need convincing read ex-CIA man Robert Baer's "See No Evil" or Bill Gertz's "Breakdown" amongst others. If you want to understand the way Islamist terror works and the precise nature of the threat, read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a biography of Bin Laden but good
Review: When you see this title, you naturally think this is a biography of Bin Laden. It is not. You never get a sense of what animates Bin Laden or what forces shaped him to become the person he is today. He seems a two-dimensional "stick figure" in the book. Nonetheless, this book does have a number of important qualities. It provides a fact-intensive, "blow by blow" account of how the al-Qaeda organization operated in places like Afghanistan and Sudan and how the group allegedly undertook an undercover jihad against the American military in
Somalia. Be forewarned: the writing style is dry to the point of tediousness. Sometimes the acronyms get to be too much and you have to flip back and forth to reconfirm what group or intelligence agency Bodansky is talking about. You will also pause at various points and wonder "How does Bodansky even know all this if al-Qaeda is so secretive?"
There is another book, available from Amazon, that I
thought provided the most fully realized, psychologically "true to life" portrait of Bin Laden out of the ones I have read. That book is "Osama Bin Laden: A Psychological and Political Portrait" by Anthony J. Dennis. Peter Bergen's "Holy War Inc." is also good but the story line is mostly focused on Bergen's journalistic pursuit of Bin Laden for an interview and is rather
disjointed. Unlike the others, Anthony Dennis focuses on the formative influences that shaped Bin Laden as an individual and Dennis examines how Bin Laden operates as one of the 21st century's most skilled politicians and demagogues. Go to Bodansky for the operational details of al-Qaeda. Go to
Dennis for an unmatched psychological and political portrait of Bin Laden, the individual.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Crock, but a Crock Nonetheless
Review: An exhaustive look at the author's biased worldview in which Iran lurks behind every Islamic terror organization, regardless of their orientation. The author's obvious pro-Israel anti-Iran bias and total lack of documentation for fantastic claims of insider knowledge undermine the essence of the information contained in the book. Reading it, one wonders how an outsider, a Jew and a representative of the US government can get detailed accounts of insider meetings of terrorist organizations. We're told to trust him, he has to protect the sources. Sorry, but without documentation, there is no factual basis to judge this book on. His bizzare theories with regard to TWA 800 are offered with little understanding of explosive physics and no documentation whatsoever. Any valid information in the book is undermined by flawed and undocumented claims elsewhere. There are far better researched and documented books on Bin Ladin available.
Rating:
Summary: Bin Laden comes off surprisingly well!
Review: ... I found it fascinating. Its central theme is the author's insistence that sponsoring states, especially Iran, are behind all the Islamist terrorism of recent years. ... I don't have the expertise to judge Bodansky's claims. But I find it interesting that for him, the true villains seem to be unscrupulous government officials. Bin Laden comes off well. ... Bodansky tells a different story. He explains the background of the Islamist movement. Then he mentions specific things that happened when bin Laden was in his teens, that contributed to turning Saudi youth against "Westernization." He also reports an atrocity of that earlier Afghan war, for which bin Laden wrongly believed the U.S. was responsible. He goes on to say that after the war, bin Laden seemed ready to settle down. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait changed everything. Bin Laden, with genuine war-hero credentials, tried to persuade his government to let him put together a Muslim force to defend the country and liberate Kuwait. They turned him down. (One wonders how different history might be if they'd let him try.) Bodansky says bin Laden was far from alone in opposing the presence of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. He was actually a moderate among Saudi Islamists. But the government didn't appreciate his moderate stance, and tried to muzzle him. When it became clear the Americans would be there for the long haul, he had to leave--to protect his extended family from threatened economic reprisals. Bodansky says he apparently didn't go to Sudan to become an agitator. Once again, he was ready to settle down. The Sudanese recruited him for the international terrorist movement--initially, because of his expertise at setting up financial networks. Within the movement, he became a loyal team player who rose gradually through the ranks. There's no indication he's ever been power-hungry. I've seen criticism of Bodansky's claims about an alleged "deal" between the Clinton Administration and Islamists. (Note: I'm a left-of-center Democrat.) The critics have overlooked his statement that the same CIA agent approached Ayman al-Zawahiri a decade earlier, when Republicans were in power. Zawahiri supposedly broke off that contact because he thought he was being asked for $50 million. The second time around, the [individual] made clear he was offering that sum. But Bodansky doesn't claim any money was paid. If his story is true, it's possible the whole thing was CIA skullduggery. His point, however, is that the Islamists believed they had a deal and were betrayed. They promised not to do certain things in the Balkans; their agents didn't do those things, and the U.S. had them arrested anyway. Writing in 1999, Bodansky actually mentions a three-nation terror "axis"! His axis--more plausible than Bush's--consists of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. He claims Iran and Syria are the two main terrorist-sponsoring states, and they don't want to see Iraq taken over by a pro-Western regime because it's the land route between them. I am puzzled by small discrepancies that make me less trusting of the work as a whole. I have no way of knowing who's wrong. But Bodansky mentions bin Laden's father being alive when he was a young man; I've heard elsewhere that he died in a helicopter accident when Osama was 13. Also, Bodansky translates "al-Qaida"--which he says was originally the name of a semi-bogus charity, wrongly applied to the actual terrorist group--as "Islamic Salvation." Other sources say it means "The Base," and refers to a computer database of supporters' names. I was disappointed that this book makes no mention of the rumors about bin Laden's health. Perhaps they weren't circulating in 1999. ...
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Information?
Review: That is, too much non-applicable information. One must keep in mind when reading this book that it was written in 1999. I was surprised that little was done to update it regarding the events of September 11, 2001, even though the book displays a second copyright date of that year. Only one sentence on the next-to-the-last text page makes a reference to September 11, and it is vague: "Even those wounded in the U.S. strike revere him." Only one sentence on the back cover does the same, however clearer. The book is extremely informative, but the foreign names of people and places in their complete forms on almost every reference and the lack of use of pronouns and/or last names on subsequent references make it a difficult read. The book is a good primer on who the players are in the unfortunate world of terrorism, but a real update would serve its ultimate goal better. Nonetheless, it is enlightening. Mr. Bodansky seems to have his information in order and from excellent and reliable sources, and he does little if anything as far as scare tactics as so many books of this nature attempt. Some of the passages are redundant, but I wrote these off as necessary for stage-setting. I found sections to be too long, drawn-out, and exceedingly wordy, but again thought that perhaps the reader would need to be refreshed at those points. You will learn who the players are and what they wish to accomplish in this horrible business, by reading this book!
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