Holy War Inc. Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden [Hardcover]

Not - as I half expected - a quick tabloid exploitation of recent events.

Bergen has interviewed numerous sources worldwide. This gives the reader a panoramic view of the Bin Laden network, coupled with a genuine sense of the people involved. Exemplary research underpins the author's analysis. You may not always agree with Bergen, but you can certainly respect the book's integrity and use of argument.

bin Laden's history, the politics and goals of Islamic militantism, and the alliances, activities, and methods of al-Qaeda, are all relayed in a lively, engaging style. The subject matter is never sensationalised (it hardly needs to be), and the book as a whole is a vivid confirmation of the globalised threat posed by groups either roughly allied to bin Laden, or under his formal control.

In all, this is a highly informative and reasoned account, written, of course, from a western perspective. In what will probably be a year when books on bin Laden fill the shelves, this one will prove hard to beat.

Four years in the reporting and two in the writing, Peter L. Bergen's Holy Way Inc. is in no way a tawdry cash-in on the awful events of 11th September 2001 but rather a measured study of the wide-ranging influence of al-Qaeda, written by a journalist who has actually interviewed Osama bin Laden.

Bergen's book is part investigative study of bin Laden and his global connections and part travelogue of the writer's journey's around the Middle east and it is these latter parts which provide the book's best sections.

There are a few inconsistencies in the text and, depending on your perspective, these are either trivial and inconsequential and due to the book being pushed into publication ahead of schedule, or they are significant and worth exploring further, though the author does not.

Bergen automatically links Osama bin Laden to the 9/11 atrocity, which might seem reasonable to many readers but this is simply never proven in fact. Indeed, the world's most well-funded investigative agency, the American FBI, does not include 9/11 in the list of crimes for which bin Laden is accused, in their Ten Most Wanted list, due to a lack of evidence.

Bergen acknowledges that the 9/11 hijackers, whilst living in the United States, were wired $100 000 to finance their operation. Who financed 9/11 is never delved into further than that, though it is obviously of tremendous importance. Bergen is not alone in his lack of curiosity: the official 9/11 "Independent" Commission deemed the funding of the hijackers as not worthy of their attentions either.

Bergen writes correctly that Mohammed Atta goes on a drinking binge only days before crashing American Airlines flight 11 into the North Tower, which he describes as "puzzling." Surely the consumption of alcohol undermines the premise that these were religiously motivated terrorists? The actual events are more disturbing than Bergen writes: the hijackers visited Las Vegas, were indeed seen drinking alcohol and enjoying the company of prostitutes. Not exactly the behaviour of people who detested the morally bankrupt West.

Bergen also states that found in Atta's bags which never made it on to flight 11 purely by accident, were Atta's will (other suspect documents were also found). Why Atta would include this document, knowing that it would be immolated in the furnace of the explosion of the aircraft, is never considered.

Despite these errors, Peter L. Bergen's book is still worth a read for how he connects the dots betwixt Embassy bombings in Africa, hotel bombings in the Far East, the bombing of the USS Cole, the 'Black Hawk Down' events in Somalia, the first World Trade Center attacks and others. Not as in-depth as Jason Burke's superior Al-Qaeda, Holy War Inc. provides a serious introduction to the disturbing world of terrorists with a medieval mindset who avail themselves of the modern world's tools of communication and destruction.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book, thinking as some of the other reviewers did that this would be a quickly-put-together offering to jump on the 'books about terrorism' bandwagon. However, this book was almost at the publishing stage at the time of the attacks in New York and Washington, and so comes across as extremely well researched and put together, without the hysteria of some other books on this subject (it has since been updated to include the 9/11 attacks). Yes, it is written by a Western journalist, however, Peter Bergen has travelled throughout the Middle East and has interviewed many key figures, including bin Laden. I found this book to very informative and, I think, as balanced as any Western writer can be. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in current world affairs, and anyone seeking some answers as to why the world is facing an increase in terrorist attacks, and how targets are selected. The historical detail is fascinating and allows the reader to follow how this movement has grown and perhaps how the world needs to respond in the future. Read this book!