Countdown Bin Laden

Chronicles the final months of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

A "behind-the-scenes account of the 116 days leading up to the Americans attack on Hiroshima"--Dust jacket flap.

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Holy War, Inc., this is the definitive account of the decade-long manhunt for the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda expert and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen paints a multidimensional picture of the hunt for Osama bin Laden over the past decade, including the operation that killed him. Other key elements of the book will include: - A careful account of Obama's decision-making process as the raid was planned - The fascinating story of a group of women CIA analysts who never gave up assembling the tiniest clues about bin Laden's whereabouts - The untold and action-packed history of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the SEALs - An analysis of what the death of bin Laden means for Al Qaeda and for Obama's legacy Just as Hugh Trevor-Roper's The Last Days of Hitler was the definitive account of the death of the Nazi dictator, Manhunt is the authoritative, immersive account of the death of the man who organized the largest mass murder in American history.

New York Times bestseller: The true behind-the-scenes story of the manhunt for the 9/11 mastermind is “a page-turner” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). From the author of Black Hawk Down and Hue 1968, this is a gripping account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. With access to key sources, Mark Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded. After masterminding the attacks of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden managed to vanish. Over the next ten years, as Bowden shows, America found that its war with al Qaeda—a scattered group of individuals who were almost impossible to track—demanded an innovative approach. Step by step, Bowden describes the development of a new tactical strategy to fight this war—the fusion of intel from various agencies and on-the-ground special ops. After thousands of special forces missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the right weapon to go after bin Laden had finally evolved. By spring 2011, intelligence pointed to a compound in Abbottabad; it was estimated that there was a 50/50 chance that Osama was there. Bowden shows how three strategies were mooted: a drone strike, a precision bombing, or an assault by Navy SEALs. In the end, the president had to make the final decision. It was time for the finish. “In-depth interviews with Obama and other insiders reveal a White House on edge, facing top-secret options, white-knuckle decisions, and unforeseen obstacles . . . Bowden weaves together accounts from Obama and top decision-makers for the full story behind the daring operation.” —Vanity Fair “The most accessible and satisfying book yet written on the climactic event in the United States’ long war against al Qaeda.” —San Francisco Chronicle

The world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the “riveting” (The New York Times) definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today. In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergan provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long war with al-Qaeda and its decedents, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on his two wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make critical strategic decisions. Yet, he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious but willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty, yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. In his final years, the lasting image we have of bin Laden is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just as another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet, despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s “comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling” (H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World) portrait of Osama bin Laden reveals for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.

A graphic retelling of America’s global search for one of the most notorious fugitives in modern times. From the tragedy of September 11, 2001, to the events that brought a global search for one of the most notorious fugitives in modern times to a dramatic end, Killing Geronimo is the compelling graphic retelling of the hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden . . . from the initial order by President George W. Bush to find him wherever he might be hiding, to the CIA’s finally tracking the courier that would lead to bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan, to the United States’ constructing a facsimile of bin Laden’s compound, to the tense, high-stakes meeting between President Barack Obama and the rest of his high command, to the final firefight between bin Laden and the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Describes the campaigns of American Green Berets in Afghanistan in the period following the September 11 terrorist attacks as they overcame Taliban and Al-Quaeda forces and sent them fleeing.

"Congressman Curt Weldon provides a rare—indeed unique—insight on what is going on in the war on terrorism through his 'Ali' missives. The book is a case study of an intelligence failure in the process of happening, with potentially catastophic consequences for the United States. Moreover, Curt accurately diagnoses the larger problems in the intelligence community that can result in intelligence failures. He offers a blueprint for solving these problems, and for winning the war on terrorism, that deserves a wide hearing." —R. James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence

"Updated with a brand-new chapter"--Cover.

The Bible code-the ancient code encrypted in the Bible that may reveal our future-was made known to the world by investigative reporter Michael Drosnin. Now he reveals startling new predictions warning that we may have only three years to stop the countdown to Armageddon. This dramatic account opens on the morning of September 11, 2001, when Drosnin witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center-and then found the terrible event predicted in detail in the 3,000-year-old Bible code. But according to the code, September 11 was only the beginning. The Bible code says we are already in the "End of Days," the Apocalypse foretold by all three major religions of the West. Drosnin has traveled the globe to meet with world leaders to prevent the impending danger-and to search for the "Code Key," a long-buried ancient object that may completely unlock the Bible code, just in time to save our world.