The Finish

Jan 01, 2013 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: terrorism, military, spy-vs-spy, war, politics, non-fiction, 2013, usa-usa

On September 10, 2001, I was on an American Airlines flight to Puerto Rico for work. Flying home several days later was a vastly different experience from the plane ride there. I had a bunch of paperbacks I’d bought for the trip, and I finished one and got another one out of my bag. It was Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down. I didn’t much feel like reading about the deaths of American soldiers at that moment so I picked another one and only read that book months later. So there was a certain grim sat...more On September 10, 2001, I was on an American Airlines flight to Puerto Rico for work. Flying home several days later was a vastly different experience from the plane ride there. I had a bunch of paperbacks I’d bought for the trip, and I finished one and got another one out of my bag. It was Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down. I didn’t much feel like reading about the deaths of American soldiers at that moment so I picked another one and only read that book months later. So there was a certain grim satisfaction and symmetry for me in reading Bowden’s account of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Those who read Black Hawk Down and expecting a blow by blow account of the manhunt and the military operation are probably going to be disappointed because the classified nature of it only gives Bowden enough material for summaries that aren’t much deeper then the media accounts. Instead, Bowden focuses on how a decade of war had honed the US’s tactics to find and target al Qaeda’s leadership, and how President Obama came to the decision to use those abilities.

Bowden lays out how the US military and intelligence agencies had developed hardware like drones to gather data and then linked that sophisticated databases that make it seem like The Machine in the TV show Person of Interest isn’t that far fetched. Bowden credits this evolving system with the eventual decrease in insurgency attacks in Iraq as well as being a key tool that has severely hurt al Qaeda.

Perhaps what will surprise most readers is how willing President Obama has been to use these methods. Anyone who thinks that he’s some kind egghead liberal peacenik should probably reevaluate that stance because he’s personally authorized the use of this system to target and kill al Qaeda’s leadership at a rate four times that of President Bush. One gets the distinct impression that you don't want Obama deciding that you're a clear and present danger to the United States.

The story of how this process developed is interesting and fairly scary. (After reading Kill Decision and this, I’m worried that the evil robot apocalypse will soon be upon us.) Bowden does a nice job of laying out how the changing US tactics and increases in the use of highly experienced special forces groups like SEAL Team Six contributed to the decision to risk going into Pakistan after bin Laden when the intelligence that he was actually there was not certain.

However, while this story is intriguing, it also feels a bit like filler because Bowden didn’t have enough declassified material about the manhunt and final raid to fill out an entire book. There’s a telling lapse in which the courier who was the final link to bin Laden is discovered. Bowden describes how that courier’s alias had come up several times in various interrogations over the years, but he doesn’t know how the US ultimately tracked him down. Bowden notes that one analyst told him that story would make a book in itself so it’s frustrating to be left hanging. Plus, it seems entirely possible that bin Laden was actually discovered by someone ratting him out for the $25 million reward and that this talk of tracking the courier is a story to cover for whoever dropped a dime on him.

The story of the attack itself as Obama and several of his key advisors watched in real time via drone cameras is a vivid account, but again, there’s nothing there that hasn’t been reported already. Plus, since SEAL Team Six couldn't be identified or interviewed, Bowden has to stick with bland descriptions instead of sketching out some background to give us an idea of who they are or what they were thinking during the attack.*

*My library copy of the book included a loose card with a note from Bowden noting that a member of the SEAL team released a different account of bin Laden’s final moments after his book went to press, and that he’ll research and note it in later editions.

There’s some fascinating stuff here like how the US has adapted its methods over the course of the war on terror, and there’s a very nice account of how the plan came together as well as how President Obama arrived at the decision to risk the raid. We also get some insight into how bin Laden spent his last years isolated in hiding and increasingly seeming like Hitler in the bunker ordering phantom armies into battle. Still, this feels like a good magazine feature article that’s had a fair amount of filler added to pad it out since there weren’t enough classified details released yet to make it a thorough and definitive telling of the death of bin Laden.(less)

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May 08, 2013 Jeffrey Owens rated it 2 of 5 stars

Don’t bother reading this book. Just read Peter Bergen’s Manhunt instead. Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down is a classic in special operations reporting, but The Finish is a disappointment because it is nothing but a rewrite of Peter Bergen’s book. I had personally heard from an inside source a few years ago that Mark Bowden had been cut off from U.S. special forces due to him having publshibed some classified informaiton, so I thought it was unsual when I heard that this book was coming out with Bo...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A gripping summary of the politics, espionage, and military planning that went into not only hunting down Bin Laden, but also goes into the U.S.' anti-terrorism strategy generally. Bowden makes a compelling argument that national strategy had to shift dramatically to combat al Qaeda. And I find the book helpful in understanding the context of curent events. The parts about the use of drones, for example, are especially relevant, and they raise interesting ethical questions for us as a nation and...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Mick rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a big Mark Bowden fan, having really enjoyed Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo.

This book is great, and showcases Bowden's reporting and writing skills. He knows when to summarize long boring stretches (and he makes it clear it took a lot of long, boring stretches of mundane, routine intelligence work to run down bin Laden) and when to drill down into the details.

So why only three stars? He, by his own admission, did not speak with/interview any of the seals/pilots/military personnel actuall...more

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May 12, 2013 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started reading The Finish almost immediately after I completed The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11as a sort of companion/sequel to Wright's book. It turned out to be a much quicker read; where Looming Tower was well sourced and loaded with footnotes and endnotes and tons of sources, The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden is more along the lines of a political thriller. The combination of these two books into one storyline makes a compelling full narrative of al Queda: from it...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Scott Draeger rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, history-bio

This was a great summary. I was moved by the "Getting bin Laden" article in the 8/8/2011 New Yorker, reading it multiple times. But when I saw Mark Bowden was going to tackle the topic, I was excited. He didn't disappoint.

It's a good piece of history, reminding us that this was the diligent work of thousands of people and many mistakes along the way. In a way, it's about building an organization that responds and adapts to new threats. It's a bit of a business book in that regard.

Next, it's did...more

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Jan 24, 2013 George rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bowden's record as a writer speaks for itself, but I thought this book was a bit perfunctory, essentially a summary of the search for bin Laden, with some color, but fundamentally hampered by the classified nature of the information that would've made the book actually interesting to read. As a result, it's not really any informative than many of the news articles written about the event since it happened. And the book's brevity sort of speaks to that. He tries to give it some depth by putting t...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Fabio Laporta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: military

I was expecting more details about the mission of Navy Seals Team Six that killed Osama bin Laden. The book is still really good since Mark Bowden well describes the long process that made that day a success. You are actually going to be surprised to read how the entire concept of war against terrorism changed in the last 10 years. From the believing of Bush that it was enough to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq, to the understanding that the key of success was the intel and a real accurat...more

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Apr 04, 2013 J.J. Christensen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read Bowden's other books, and I love the way he presents the complicated and chaotic in a way that's easy to understand and comprehend. It was nice to cut through the "glitter" (as Bowden calls it), and get the true story of the successful hunt for Bin Laden.

One curious thing, though. Bowden opines that the SEALs who raided bin Laden's compound encountered relatively light resistance, and could probably have taken the terrorist alive if they wanted. He was, however, shot immediately. Bowde...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Krycek rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-military-war-spy-stuff

Unless you've been living in a cave you probably know who Osama bin Laden is. Ironically, bin Laden was thought to have been actually living in a cave at some point, but instead he was living in a suburban neighborhood in Pakistan. If you count yourselves among those who have not been living in a cave, you also probably know that there were two major books regarding the hunt for bin Laden published in 2012. One was No Easy Day written by former Navy SEAL Mark Owen (pseudonym; his real name has b...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Gary rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. It was the third and last selection in my "JSOC/UBL block", which also encompassed GEN Stanley McChrystal's memoir, "My Share of the Task," and Mark Owen's "No Easy Day." Each book served a distinct purpose: McChrystal's tells about, among many other notable qualities, how he built the JSOC targeting machine during his unprecedented five years as its commander that ultimately would snare the highest prize; Owen's book gives one all the detail that could be desired on what it...more I enjoyed this book. It was the third and last selection in my "JSOC/UBL block", which also encompassed GEN Stanley McChrystal's memoir, "My Share of the Task," and Mark Owen's "No Easy Day." Each book served a distinct purpose: McChrystal's tells about, among many other notable qualities, how he built the JSOC targeting machine during his unprecedented five years as its commander that ultimately would snare the highest prize; Owen's book gives one all the detail that could be desired on what it was like to be part of the Seal Team Six "dream team" that conducted the raid that killed bin Ladin; and Bowden's book provides the strategic-level picture that goes along with this. Bowden apparently had great access to high-level Washington decision makers for this book, up to an including the president. Then-Vice Admiral Bill McRaven, who succeeded McChrystal as head of JSOC, and who is now head of all U.S. special operations forces as the Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, also played a big role in this book and comes off very well in Bowden's rendering. Between these three books, it will give you a very good picture of how the team that got bin Ladin was built, a detailed story of how the Intelligence Community found and tracked him, how the forces that conducted the raid built up their expertise over a period of a decade, and the pressures of strategic-level decision making in a time of incredible technological capabilities that allow unprecedented awareness of operations taking place on the opposite side of the planet in real time.

The other neat thing that Bowden was able to do was incorporate material from several of his previous books. He logically compared the audacity of the bin Ladin raid into Pakistan to the failed Eagle Claw raid into Iran that sunk the presidential career of Jimmy Carter (one of Bowden's previous books, "Guests of the Ayatollah," talks about that raid and the Iranian hostage crisis); he drew parallels between bin Ladin's years as a fugitive from justice and pursuit by U.S. special operations forces to the plight of Colombian drug cartel big Pablo Escobar (Bowden's book on that situation is "Killing Pablo"); and finally, if the raid into Pakistan failed and the SEALs would have had to fight their way out, there are obvious similarities between that situation and the story of Operation GOTHIC SERPENT told in Bowden's most famous book, "Blackhawk Down." Obviously, the raid did not fail, there were not bodies of U.S. special operations forces being dragged through the streets, and a presidency was not ruined - but all of those things were on the line when the decision to go was made.

After all this reading (or listening - two of the three titles were audiobooks), now I want to go see the "Zero Dark Thirty" movie that dramatizes the raid. I wonder how well it will tell the stories I've learned about through these three books?(less)

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Mar 22, 2013 Rusty rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-military

Readers expecting blow-by-blow detail on how the Abbotabad raid took place, ala Bowden's excellent "Black Hawk Down," will be disappointed in this book as the description of the raid itself takes just a few pages. The bulk of the book could actually be titled "Osama vs. Obama," since it deals extensively with the President and Bin Laden's respective back stories and thought processes in the years up to and following 9/11.

In the special ops community, "Find, Fix, Finish" refers to the fusion of i...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Justinbwood rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a good book outlining the basic way in which Osama Bin Laden was found and killed. It does a good job of following the various threads and giving context for the politics and military aspects. There are a couple main problems. One, much of the story is still secret, so there are details missing that hopefully will be filled in some day. Two, the bigger problem, is that you can basically get everything you get from this book from the author's Vanity Fair article. The book expands usefully...more

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Apr 16, 2013 JR rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't think I'd learn anything new about the killing of UBL, having already read "No Easy Day," the article in Esquire about "The Shooter," and Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars." But this one surprised me.

From Mark Bowden, whose "Black Hawk Down" improbably and hearteningly has become the gold standard when it comes to modern military non-fiction, this slight, seemingly redundant and seemingly unnecessary book contains enough new interesting information, and approaches the subject matter from suc...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Rod rated it 3 of 5 stars

I like Mark Bowden's writing. His Atlantic articles seem well researched and coherent. I highly recommend BlackHawk Down. If you;ve only seen the movie; read the book.

Someone described The Finish as more of an extended magazine article. I coul dsee how the arrive at that opinion. There were times I thought it felt like a publishers assignment; "We need an entry in this bin Laden thing by a reputable author".

Still, Mark Bowden bings his investigative and interviewing skills to bear on the task a...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Jennifer Farr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-read

This is a First Reads Book and I did not pay any money for the book or for my review.

Let me start with stating a simple fact: I am not a fan of President Obama. On to my review:::

I was very excited when I won this book because I have great respect for this author and his book Black Hawk Down. I felt that if anyone could write a book about this, he would be the one. I struggled with the first few chapters. I felt like it was a "love Obama" fest. I am not sure if it's because of my personal feelin...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Chuck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, namerica, espionage, history, military-war, owned, review, arab-themes

I thought that I would enjoy learning the details of the Navy Seals operation when they captured and killed Osama Bin Laden. I had enjoyed Mark Bowden's previous literary work when he documented the events in Somalia in his book "Black Hawk Down". This book covers the Abbottabad operation in detail, but goes much further in giving detailed background of Al Queda, the events leading up to 9/11, and gives great detail on the politics and the decision making that led up to this event. Since I am so...more

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Feb 19, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book and a first-rate effort by Mark Bowden. I hesitate in giving it five stars, because it often feels a bit incomplete or rushed. Still, as a real-life thriller or investigation procedural, it is hard to beat. Bowden takes us from September 11th up to the killing of bin Laden and then the aftermath of the event.

Bowden begins the book by introducing a set of (real life) characters, one of whom is State Senator, Barack Obama, and then follows the characters throughout...more This is a very interesting book and a first-rate effort by Mark Bowden. I hesitate in giving it five stars, because it often feels a bit incomplete or rushed. Still, as a real-life thriller or investigation procedural, it is hard to beat. Bowden takes us from September 11th up to the killing of bin Laden and then the aftermath of the event.

Bowden begins the book by introducing a set of (real life) characters, one of whom is State Senator, Barack Obama, and then follows the characters throughout the book. Unfortunately, while this gives the book a personality and gets it off to a great start, the middle of the book tends to focus on the CIA investigation for quite some time, allowing the reader to forget about the people who would come into play later.

The style of the book swings back and forth from this character-driven, fact-novel to a straight documentary approach in the middle of the book, to first person interjections by Bowden, i.e. "As Barack Obama would say to me later...blah blah blah". It gives the book an uneven feel and it is often hard to figure out what kind of book we are reading. Fortunately the subject matter overcomes this annoyance easily.

The actual pursuit of bin Laden and Al Quaeda by the CIA over the years after 9/11 is perhaps the best part of the book. Bowden documents the tenacious pursuit of bin Laden by a few CIA agents, who are not named, but who have this as the main mission of their lives. He also fills us in on all of the rank stupidity we have come to expect from the good 'ol U.S. Government that may have delayed the capture of bin Laden by many years.

The decision making that led up to deciding to go ahead with the raid, is set forth for the reader in great detail. Whether or not to go after the unknown man in Pakistan with a bomb, a drone or a SEAL team raid was the issue. Bowden makes each of the possibilities crystal clear so that the reader is aware of the risks inherent in ordering the raid. You really would have to be a full-fledged staunch-to-the-end Obama hater not to give the man his props for ordering the raid after reading this. Love him or hate him, Barack Obama deserves credit for making this gutsy call.

The raid and the aftermath finish the book. The raid itself is described in thrilling detail. The political posturing that followed by the White House is described in not-so-thrilling detail as well. In any case, who needs fictional thrillers when you have this real life thriller by Mark Bowden? Despite the annoyances of its continually shifting style, this is a book well worth the time invested.(less)

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Oct 26, 2012 Rianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, november-2012-scavenger-challenge

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

I will be the first to admit that I am tragically uninformed about politics and current events. That being said, I was surprised by how engaging and enjoyable Bowden's book The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden was.

Bowden presents an exciting play-by-play of the events - both recent and farther back - leading up to the death of Bin Laden. He presents things in an exciting manner, giving the reader an insi...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars

From Mark Bowden, the preeminent chronicler of our military and special forces, comes The Finish, a gripping account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. With access to key sources, 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 al

...more

From Mark Bowden, the preeminent chronicler of our military and special forces, comes The Finish, a gripping account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. With access to key sources, 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.

Amazon.com Review

While much has been written about the killing of Osama Bin Laden by an elite group of Navy Seals--and much more will be--no account could be more meticulous and balanced than this fascinating report from the author of Black Hawk Down. Riveting but evenhanded, dramatic but thoughtful, Bowden’s account is the deeply sourced story of what was going on in the heads of our government leaders, as well as the Al Qaeda leader known in the intelligence community as “The Pacer.” --Sara Nelson

Review

“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

“A book — one with sweep and sophistication — about a pivotal, secretive operation . . . smart and measured, long on transparency and short on speculation. . . . Bowden enjoyed exceptional access, but wasn't captured by it. . . . Bowden’s lens is wide, encompassing Obama’s evolution as a politician and the peculiar influence of bin Laden . . . Where the book shines is in Bowden's reconstruction and refined analysis of the intelligence operations that turned up bin Laden's location. . . . The book also succeeds in its artful portrait of Obama as commander in chief. . . . compelling drama, and Bowden has captured it with skill and style.”—Seattle Times

“How all the president’s men and women finally nabbed the world’s most wanted terrorist is truly a stunning story. And while parts of it have been told, Barack Obama himself has confided in only one writer about all the details. And he is Mark Bowden.”—CNN

“The first book, and, to date, the definitive one, that looks at the Osama bin Laden raid from President Obama’s perspective. The Finish describes a new kind of war fighting—the fusion of intelligence from vast and scattered sources—to track and apprehend, or kill, the enemy. . . . It's a gripping tale.”—The Daily Beast

“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 death of the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks is a fantastic story. It has goodies and baddies, a long, slow build to the climax, exotic locations and lots of hardware. . . . Bowden [shows] how success in the raid last May was the culmination not just of a decade of often tedious data-crunching by the CIA and other analysts, but of a vast and ongoing effort within the American security establishment and government to develop a new range of capabilities. . . . How the Americans finally got their man is an extraordinary tale and Bowden does it justice.”—Guardian

"A superb storyteller, Bowden captures the tense drama accompanying the final months of the bin Laden hunt, even as he underscores the quiet, essential work of years."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Bowden’s new book outlines the changes in warfare since the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks, and the way our increasing computational power has helped capture terrorists like Osama bin Laden.”—NPR

“The Finish leverages access to key White House, military, intelligence, and foreign-policy officials—including President Obama himself—to get behind the intricate story of how SEAL Team Six was sent to Abbottabad, Pakistan, to kill Osama bin Laden. . . . Bowden reviews the evolutionary progress made in intelligence processing and military capabilities that led to the raid on Abbottabad. . . . close to a textbook example of complex national security decision-making.”—The Atlantic

“[A] dramatic narrative . . . the actual champion of the bin Laden hunt is a collective of mostly nameless hands within the intelligence bureaucracy. . . The Finish is at its best when Mr. Bowden goes deep into mission planning, gameboarding the choice of means of attack—air strike? sniper drone? ground-force raid?”—Wall Street Journal

“A page-turner . . . an informative, on-the-ground account of the mission. Adept at maintaining suspense even when the outcome is widely known, Bowden also makes judicious assessments of how much credit Obama deserves -- and the impact of the assassination on al Qaeda.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Bowden would seem like the perfect person to tell the bin Laden story. . . . There is an excellent setting-the-record-straight section at the end that has been missing in other volumes.”—Washington Post

“Bowden . . . reveals the details of the planning, but knows when to pull back from a close focus to give the wider view of what was at stake for President Obama, military planners and the Navy SEALS team. . . . [His] experience as a reporter and author shows.”—Fayetteville Observer

“Shaping up to be one of the fall’s big books.”—Publishers Weekly

“Bowden’s book draws back to look at the raid in strategic context. I suspect that readers who choose Bowden’s wide-angle approach will find themselves better informed.”—St. Louis Today

“[Bowden] uses his hard-earned access to focus on the decade of intelligence-gathering and decision-making that led up to the Abbottabad raid.”—National Post (Canada)

“The Finish paints the U.S. government’s relationship to technology and social media as integral in the capture of bin Laden. . . . Many see Bowden as one of the most respected writers covering the U.S. military and Special Forces today.”—Books & Review

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Nov 20, 2012 Jason Golomb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action, history, military, war, first-reads

I've had several books written about the Osama bin Laden killing on my wish list since they first started to appear on the market, mere weeks after the May 2, 2011 U.S. Seal Team action in Abbotabad, Pakistan. I read Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down" earlier in the year, and figured few authors would be able to tackle this story better than he.

Bowden delivers a readable narrative of this significant political and military milestone. At only about 300 pages, Bowden blends the context, history, mili...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Rachel Bayles rated it 4 of 5 stars

It starts off slow, but hits its groove about 60 pages in. The book does an excellent job of placing the operation in the context of President Obama's national security strategy, and lays out how and why key decisions unfolded as they did. It even changed my mind about drones. Not a must read, but a decent one.

Bowden delivers consistently fine journalism, and is always careful not to indulge in bravado. Given that many authors in the genre inject far too much testosterone into a field that hard...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Rick rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read other reviews that indicated that this book was poorly researched and seemed rushed to market. To the contrary, I found it a fascinating study on the little known events that led to finding UBL. For instance the role of McCrystal in shoring up our ability to gather and integrate all the sources of data available and mine it to get actionable intelligence to the operators in the field in a timely way. I also thought that it was a well balanced account of the political and moral decision...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Swapnil Bokade rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading No Easy Day, I had high hopes from this book as I thought the author would have more access to resources and we would get a better picture. Sadly, I was disappointed. Critical elements of the story are missing. One example that comes to my mind is the complete surprising absence of the female CIA operative. She is even mentioned in No Easy Day and is completely skipped in this book. Also felt this was a bit biased towards Obama. Could be wrong here. Yet, the book is not that bad. I...more

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Dec 21, 2012 A Pickett rated it 3 of 5 stars

Excellent summary by journalist Bowden of the long process of bringing Bin Laden to ground once and for all. He includes very intriguing analyses of the diminishing role of Al Queda on the world stage, in parallel to the growing expertise of US forces in special operations planning and execution. I often wished for footnotes, references to sources, and an index! In his concluding notes, the author addresses the lack of footnotes, and his reasoning makes sense, since many of his sources for the m...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Chad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-intelligence, history

I was excited to see Mark wrote a book on the subject and snatched it up as soon as I saw it. Mark does not disappoint. He delivers a well written book that walks the reader through the events surrounding the killing of OBL and the events leading up to it. The weakest part of the book is where in the middle there is a sense that you may be reading filler but all of it is seen to be laying of groundwork to tie everything in later on. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to get an truthful accoun...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book. The author of several other fantastic books (Blackhawk down, Guest of the Ayatollah, and Worm - just to name a few) tackles the tracking down and killing of Bin Laden. Extremely well written and researched, it is a fascinating account of the events - and the final raid - on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. The book is engaging, discusses events on multiple levels (from the operators to the decision makers), and is full of fascinating details. (Did you know that they a...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Glenn Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of Bowden's writing, but, in a rush to be the first book out, this feels rushed. While some sections are page turners -- Bowden at his reportorial best -- others are turgid and repetitive, as if Bowden had a page-count minimum he was striving for. Having said that, I was certainly happy to have read this account of one of America's most exciting military endeavors. This book would have merited a 5-star review had Bowden been able to work with a stronger editor or not been so rushed by...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Howard Anders rated it 4 of 5 stars

About as even-handed, unbiased look at this event as I have seen. A great detailed look at the behind-the scenes big picture, including the political maneuvering and intelligence efforts. It is understandably short on operational details (operational security requirements). I found the information on the intelligence drones to be very interesting, as well as the video feed system used to keep the President and other high-rollers informed during the operation. As a veteran of the Vietnam conflict...more

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Nov 10, 2012 David Nguyen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Riveting and efficient: Bowden edits years of history into an exciting and concise account of the hunt for Bin Laden. He also avoids needless politicising, offering a balanced and objective view of the decade-long mission.

The book is also peppered with enough emotional and psychological insights into the major players to add a human dimension to the narrative.

Particularly interesting is how he emphasises how the element of chance and, less romantically, tedious administration work — played a si...more

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Trivia About The Finish: The K...