Masterminds of Terror : The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Terrorist Attack the World Has Ever Seen

by Yusrī Fawdah, Yusrڶi Fawdah

The capture of the masterminds of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, grabbed headlines around the world. Both men were quickly trundled off to secret locations by the U.S. government, away from the press and the courts. Before they were caught, though, one reporter gained exclusive access to them, and in this book he tells the riveting story of his scoop, and what the terrorists revealed. When star Al-Jazeera reporter Yosri Fouda received an anonymous call summoning him to a secret interview in Pakistan with al-Qaeda, he knew he could be walking into a deadly trap, as Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had done only months before. But nothing could have held him back. For the next 48 hours, he listened as two of the world's most wanted men, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the head of al-Qaeda's military committee and the alleged murderer of Pearl, and Ramzi Binalshibh, the link between Mohammed Atta and senior al-Qaeda leadership, proudly claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Over the course of their in-depth interview, they detailed exactly how, over a two-year period, the plot was conceived, planned, and executed. This account, based on that interview and hours of follow-up investigation, also provides portraits of both terrorists and analyzes al-Qaeda's attempts to justify its actions on what it calls "Holy Tuesday." This may be the closest we get to the full inside story of the September 11th plot.

Genres: Terrorism, Nonfiction, History

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Yasmin Sabry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a MUST read, a lot of insights in it especially the appendix. However, it doesn't give a deep description to the inside of Al Qa'eda. It takes you through a lot of incidents caused by terrorists, tells the history of some of them as well. Too many names though which is kindda confusing.

[Irfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary and fascinating.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading if you want to understand the internal logic of a modern terrorist movement

[Mai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting how in the chapter about Omar El Sheikh and out his own diaries, his group leader refused to take an Israeli hostage!

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First of all, the book reflects the difference between a true journalist like Yosri Fouda and other media clowns. How far he had to go and under which circumstances and taking such risks in order to build the story.

The book is definitely is a close up on both on terrorism groups and police states with thorough investigation and research done; in my eyes it condemns the latter even more.

The question in my mind remains, when Fouda refused to give any information to lead to the group arrest was it because of the usual ethics of a journalist protecting his/her resources or was it because he knew that he would be turning them in to a less ethical authority that have originally created the beast!