Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It

by Terry McDermott

From an award–winning L.A. Times reporter, a brilliantly researched investigation of the lives of the men responsible for September 11 attacks – how they lived, what they thought, and how they changed into the sort of men who could do what they did. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the acknowledged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, had been to the United States before; as a bright young man, he had come here from his native Kuwait to study science. He had returned home appalled, telling people Americans hated Muslims, and spent the next 20 years plotting to get even, developing for this purpose an unusual a group of young men from Hamburg, the agents of a seismic shift in modern history but in many respects utterly normal. The Sept. 11 attackers have largely been depicted with a series of caricatures that run from evil genius on one end to deluded fanatics on the other, but most of Mohammed's protegees came from apolitical and only mildly religious backgrounds. Under his watch, though, they evolved into devout, pious Muslims who debated endlessly on how best to serve, to fulfil what they came to regard as their religious obligations. In fundamentalist Islam, religion and politics are inseparable; the Hamburg men saw themselves as soldiers of God.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Terrorism, Politics, Middle East, Religion, Psychology

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2005

About the author

Terry McDermott is the author of Perfect Soldiers (HarperCollins, 2005), and 101 Theory Drive (Pantheon, 2010). His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Smithsonian, Columbia Journalism Review, the Los Angeles Times Magazine and Pacific Magazine. McDermott worked at eight newspapers for more than thirty years, most recently for ten years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a national correspondent.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reeling and aghast from the suicide bomb in Manchester on the 22 May at the Ariana Grande concert I try to make some moral sense of it all but it’s not easy. A 23 year old Libyan British guy blows up himself and kills 22 people outright, mostly fans who were just leaving the concert. The youngest was 8. Most of the others were teenage girls. There were a few parents in there too, waiting outside to meet their kids. I imagine the bomber had no particular hatred of Ariana Grande fans. Any large number of British people would do. It could have been a football match, but it was a pop concert.

It took days for some of the names to be released as the police could only make identifications of some of them with DNA. Dozens of other people ended up in hospital with pieces missing. I see that Ariana visited some of those today, that was nice.



And there’s a huge concert arranged for victim support featuring Ariana, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and who knows who else for tomorrow.

I see that at least one Muslim doctor (Naveed Yasim) spent 48 hours operating on Manchester victims, and on the way back to hospital after a brief rest at home was racially abused by a white guy.

I also see that on 31 May a giant car bomb exploded in Kabul which killed around 90 and injured over 400 people. The Taliban have denied responsibility and no else has volunteered any information on who did it. So far there has been no announcement of any star-studded concert to raise funds for those victims.

I also see that NBC News reported on 25 May that a Pentagon investigation of a US air strike on a building in Mosul, Iraq in March this year killed 105 civilians in error.

"Our condolences go out to all those that were affected," said Maj. Gen. Joe Martin, commander of ground forces for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS. "The Coalition takes every feasible measure to protect civilians from harm.”

Most (but not all) of this current apparently unstoppable coming-soon-to-your-neighborhood mayhem is either perpetrated by Isis or by Isis wannabes or by the US fighting Isis.
As we know, Isis is a monster which was unleashed by the destruction of Iraq as a functioning state, which is something they did not do to themselves, it was done to them, beginning with the famous Shock and Awe campaign.

At the time I remember feeling fairly complacent about getting rid of Saddam Hussain. Sounded like a reasonable idea, even though he had nothing to do with the Taliban or al Qaeda, in fact he hated them, and he didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction. But he was dreadful, so why not. If they couldn’t get rid of their own dictator, why not liberate the whole damn country. Do ‘em a favour. They’ll love us for it, right?

There’s a terrible line of causation here – the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were directly inspired by 9/11.

A little over 20 years ago we visited New York and naturally we zoomed up to the top of the World Trade Centre – I remember the guy operating the elevator bragging that the elevator accelerated to a speed of 70 mph so it only took three minutes to get to the top - and we marveled at the views and got scared when we stood on the glass-floored bit and looked down. We took lots of pix which look like this



I still have them, they’re better than that one but I don’t know how to paste them onto GR.

We had just found out that Helen was pregnant so it’s true to say that Georgia (now aged 20) was with us that day on the top of the World Trade Centre. She was five when they were destroyed. And last week I was real glad she isn’t an Ariana Grande fan or she might have been at that concert in Manchester.

The chain of causation stretches further back from 9/11 and that is what I wanted this book to tell me about. Unlike the planes on that unbelievable day, the concept of destroying the towers did not come from a clear blue sky.

But what Terry McDermott does is drown the poor Western reader in a dust storm of dauntingly dubious detail. He informs us laboriously of so many Muslim jihadi guys, all of whom have a real name, a street name and a jihadi name, and all of whom either know each other or know guys who know other guys. The narrative, if you can call it that, leaps from Baluchistan to the Philippines to Kuwait to Colorado. It’s hard to know why we need to know at least two thirds of the stuff in the book.

I think investigative journalism, like this, is great except when it loses track of what it’s supposed to be doing, which is answering the questions on the front cover : who they were, why they did it.
I think Terry McDermott got lost in the chain of causation just like I do. I get lost out of ignorance, whilst he got lost because he knew so much he ended up no longer knowing what he knew.

But I do know now that there’s a link between the 22 dead pop fans in Manchester and the 1953 Iranian coup which was promoted by Eisenhower. That part of it now seems pretty clear to me. How many other bitter links there will be on this chain of death is not at this time clear at all.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder how long it took my late-grandparents to say, “Pearl Harbor feels like a long time ago.”

It’s been 14 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but it feels like a minute. I was 1,245 miles away from the World Trade Center when they were hit; I have no personal connection to the attacks at all; and yet I can remember that morning as though it’s been caught in amber.

I was in college that September morning. I woke up at 5:30 a.m., Central Standard Time, and was at the campus gym by 6:00 a.m. (Many things have changed in 14 years – going to the gym at 6 a.m. is one of them). After working out for an hour, I went to breakfast at the dining hall with my buddy Aaron. I ate granola mixed with Cheerios. Shortly after 7:46 a.m. local time, Aaron – who’d gone out to the lobby – came back into the dining hall to tell me an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. Being an insufferable know-it-all – that has not changed in 14 years, per my wife – I remember saying something about a B-25 bomber hitting the Empire State Building. My first thought, I suppose, was a Cessna that had veered off course.

I went out to the lobby with Aaron and watched the video of the North Tower billowing smoke like a chimney. It was an impossible, surreal sight, and I remember thinking How are they ever going to be able to fix that?

We were transfixed, and my business ethics class didn't start till 8:30 a.m., so I was watching when – at 8:03 a.m., CST – an airplane drove into the South Tower on live television. I recall not being sure what I was watching. Was this a replay of the first plane hitting the North Tower? Was it a secondary explosion? Based on the initial CNN anchor’s response, I wasn’t the only one. (I checked the archives. The CNN anchor thought it was a secondary explosion from the North Tower; he was soon replaced by Aaron Brown, a far more competent anchor). I watched for a few more minutes and then, I shamefully admit, I went to class. The world had just shook off its axis but I headed off to a useless lecture.

In my defense, I was a college student, and by definition, had my head pretty far up my own ass.

After the initial confusion – on CNN, it took another 15 minutes after the second plane before terrorism is mentioned – the story seemed to come together quickly. Planes had been hijacked and driven intentionally into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

Terry McDermott’s Perfect Soldiers, published in 2005, purports to tell the story of the nineteen men who came into the United States, boarded those four planes, and humbled an empire. It writes a big check. The subtitle promises to tell us “who they were” and “why they did it.” Alas, the book falls far short of that tease.

Perfect Soldiers actually starts reasonably well. The first third of the book is dedicated to the hijackers who carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in US history. Well, strike that. It is dedicated to one terrorist in particular, Mohammed Atta, the leader of the American cells. (Ziad Jarra, who had a serious girlfriend, is also given some space; that’s really all, however, when it comes to the actual on-the-ground terrorists).

This makes sense, in a way. When we think of the 9/11 hijackers we are really thinking about Atta. It is Atta, after all, who is emblematic of the existential dread left in the wake of the September 11 attacks. He stares out from an infamous headshot with dark, angry eyes and a grimly implacable expression. When surveillance catches him going through airport security, there is not a whit of hesitation in his demeanor. He marches off to doom with the insouciance of a businessman who knows the plane will wait. He emblemizes Dashiell Hammett’s “perfect soldier,” a man who “went where you sent him, stayed where you put him, and had no idea of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him.” (The Hammett quote is used as the book’s epigram). He is, quite frankly, frightening. Dedicated, focused, and suicidal.

Atta was Egyptian born, from a middle class family. He graduated from college and went to graduate school in Germany to study engineering. He grew more religious after arriving in Hamburg, and at a later point in the book, McDermott speculates that it was the vulnerability that comes with living in a strange land that drew Atta and others into the ambit of radical groups. Despite this speculation, Atta’s motivations remain frustratingly vague. (McDermott locates a lot of strings; frustratingly, he does not really pull at them).

In the days after 9/11, it became a fraught proposition to acknowledge the humanity of these men. They were monsters, and if you dared to give them humanlike qualities, you were apt to get shouted down. They were humans, of course. Awful, terrible, pathetic wastes, but bipedal hominids nonetheless. It’s bleakly interesting, with the passage of time, to read about Atta’s family, to see his graduation photos, and to conjecture at the deep psychological issues that made him act the way he did.

Despite the details McDermott provides, there are parts of the Atta story that aren’t even mentioned. For instance, there is the claim that Atta had a girlfriend while in the United States. This claim is controversial, but McDermott doesn’t even mention it. (In the book, Atta is portrayed as a pretty loathsome misogynist who couldn’t stand to be in the same room as a woman).

The middle third of Perfect Soldiers strays away from the hijackers to give a brisk recapitulation of al-Qaeda’s war against America. There is nothing particularly wrong with this section. McDermott is a very good writer. It’s just that this section felt like a digression from the book’s purported focus. A whole lot of names and entanglements are introduced without much space to let the information breathe. The ground covered in this part of Perfect Soldiers is better told in other books, such as Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower.

The final third of the book covers the conception and execution of the plot. This was the most disappointing section of Perfect Soldiers. It was rushed, diffuse, and strangely lacking in details. Instead of separating out the teams and spending some time introducing the other hijackers (other than Atta and Jarrah), McDermott provides a semi-vague, generalized portrait of the months and days leading to the attacks.

The reason I got this book is that I’d seen McDermott interviewed for a 9/11 documentary. In the interview, he makes clear that he uses the term “perfect soldiers” ironically. These guys weren’t an elite unit of unstoppable villains. They were bumblers. The terrorists drew attention to themselves with rude behavior; they had law enforcement contacts; and they made some odd decisions, including one by Atta that almost caused him to miss his flight. (This last is fleetingly mentioned in the book). They were also hypocrites. Some of them went to strip clubs. FBI agent Ali Soufan claims that Atta was a drunk, pounding shots a few nights before his rendezvous with the fires of hell.

McDermott barely mentions any of this. I can’t explain it, but it’s the reason this book ultimately disappointed me.

To some, it might seem unnecessary at best, unholy at worst, to attempt to understand men who could commandeer and airplane and fly it into a building. It’s such a momentous crime that it’s tempting to label it “evil” and move on. Obviously, that won’t stop people from trying, if the unending fascination with Hitler and Stalin is any indication. And “evil” is a concept, not an explanation.

Unfortunately, this book doesn’t really get us any closer to an answer (with the caveat that ultimately, there is no answer). It is well-reported, engagingly written, and yet strangely reticent to consider the motivations that McDermott claimed to be exploring. Instead, this is a hodgepodge of unearthed facts that is crying out for a better, more focused narrative, and deeper, more insightful analysis.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow read. Added very little to my knowledge. Read instead Wright's "The Looming Tower."

[Axel W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ganska straightforward reportagebok. Man märker att författaren är en bra journalist och det finns många intressanta detaljer, men det hela vävs inte riktigt ihop och som bok betraktat inte jämförbart med tex den mästerliga Looming tower.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was eleven years old when 9/11 happened. I live in the Philadelphia suburbs, so where these awful terrorist acts occurred were close to home. It was a beautiful September day. Blue skies and sunshine. The temperatures were perfect. I had no idea what was in store for all of us that fateful day. I remember my Spanish teacher came into class and said, "Today is a sad day for America." My classmates and I were asking "Are we at war?" We were eager to know what was happening. She escorted us to the library, and I saw the Twin Towers in flames. We sat down and watched the news with another class. Then, the Pentagon got hit. After that, a plane crashed in a field in my state, which I thought at the time it had been shot down. I witnessed both towers collapse. It seemed like anything could happen because there was just so much shock and sadness. The rest of the day was not a normal school day. I remember going into my last class, which was US history, and the news showed footage from the morning, and I will never forget seeing a man falling because he had jumped from one of the Twin Towers. I watched President Bush's speech that night and I learned the names Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The next day at school we discussed the day before, and I commend my teachers for leading conversations for such a serious topic to eleven- and twelve-year-olds, especially my history teacher. It was her first-year teaching, so I can imagine it was a bigger challenge for her, but I got to tell her this summer she did an amazing job that day and the day after and she is an example for me when I have difficult discussions with my students. A comment that stood out to me was in science class. My teacher said he liked to sit on his deck and look at the stars. He noticed there were no airplanes in the sky that night, which was unusual. He always saw planes fly overhead.

I saw Terry McDermott's book years later and I read it. I re-read it again recently because I want to understand why 19 young men between the ages of 19 to 33 with their whole lives ahead of them would hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings with the intention of killing many people as possible.

McDermott does a decent job. I think he could have focused on some of the other hijackers a bit more. His main focus is Mohammad Atta, the face of the 9/11 hijackers and the others do not really get the biographical treatment that the ringleader gets, which is kind of disappointing. However, I find Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker of United 93, more disturbing and a more intriguing case study. He was not like the other hijackers because he was sociable, friendly, popular, and seemed to have a happy upbringing unlike Atta. He also had a girlfriend. What made him suddenly change?

Atta, Jarrah, and another future hijacker named Marwan al-Shehhi, who crashed United 175 into the South Tower, were part of the Hamburg Cell. These men studied in Germany and started attending mosques that spewed extremist rhetoric. They were eventually chosen by al-Qaida because they spoke English and understood Western culture. They learned how to fly, and the rest is history.

This book does a decent job explaining why the hijackers did this atrocity. However, I would read this along with Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright to get the bigger picture. I also prefer Wright's book. However, I liked some of the primary documents provided at the end of the book. Mohammad Atta's will is in there and it really helps you understand how disturbed this individual was.

[Tom Sparrenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed the book and found several sections very interesting. After recently reading “Looming Tower”, I was looking for additional details/insights into the actual highjackers. The book started off strong, then somewhat randomly went into the history of the Middle East/conflicts and then back to a focus on 9/11. The flow seemed to be severely interrupted but persistence paid off. The backgrounds of the highjackers provided a lot of insights and frequency of world travel before 9/11 by these individuals was surprising. Worth the time as I took away pieces that were very interesting.

[Faisal Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. Very nuanced, tactful and in depth insights on the hijackers. In particular the ring leader Atta and how the geopolitical climate / context of the Middle East in the late 20th century and Islamic fundamentalism fueled their hatreds for America and motives for the attack.

Also in depth analysis of the plans themselves and how they the attacks were funded and meticulously planned.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to give 4 stars because I think it was very meticulously and well researched. The author aimed to write a book explaining the planning behind the 9/11 attack and the people who did it, and I think he accomplished that. However, I don’t think this was the author’s fault, but I did not enjoy reading it, and I did start skimming and skipping sections- This book is painfully detailed and is pretty boring if you don’t want to learn about the details of jihadist Islam, which I did not. However, I think that was kind of the point. The author says himself in the beginning of the book that what strikes him as the scariest thing about these men is how incredibly unremarkable they are. And I agree. Their life histories are pretty boring. However I think if you are looking to study the effects of radical religion on psych/actions this book could give you some helpful info.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to know if McDermott got it right. But it sure was interesting to read about these guys. It helps to see the big picture and understand such a terrible and monumental event.

[Thalassophile_takemetotheocean · Rating 3 out of 5]

September 11, 2001 is a day that should never be forgotten. So many lives were unnecessarily and ignorantly taken. I had just woken up by my mom calling me on the phone over and over. As soon as I answered, she said "WE'RE BEING ATTACKED! TURN YOUR TV ON!" All I could do was stare at the TV as I watched the twin towers burning and smoking. The news anchor mentioned 'Terrorism". They zoomed their cameras at people waving their flags on the higher floors waiting for rescue that wouldn't and couldn't come. Then people started jumping, either single and together. I could feel their desperation and hopelessness in my chest. A pain for these victims that I didn't even know. Planes had been hijacked and driven intentionally into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. I lived three hours away from Manhattan and wanted to rush there to help as I'm sure others did too.

Then I got curious as to who are these cowards who have no regard for human life. Who are willing to do something so drastic to make a statement. How could they have commandeered an airplane and willingly fly it into the building. I stumbled across this book. I am amazed to find that these 19 hijackers were young adults (minus a few) that were around the same age as me in 2001.

The books title is Perfect Soldiers: The 9/1 Hijackers: Who they were, why the did it", but the first portion of the book is mainly about Mohammed Atta, the leader. He is the pilot of Flight 11 that hit the North Tower. Ziad Jarrah (pilot of Flight 93) is talked about a little, too. McDermott is a very good writer, but there was very little information regarding the rest of these hijackers. I'm still not sure why they did what they did or who these other men were. Some of the details are vague or missing. This book doesn't really have any new information that is not in the 9/11 commission report. So, I give this book 3 stars.

[Van Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read the 9/11 Commission Report, it's hard to find other Sept. 11th books that bring new information or insight into your world. This book (along with "American Ground" and "From The Inside Out") does just that. Although painful and angering to read, it's still important in terms of understanding the twisted and violent psychology of religious extremism. Lots of detail in terms of the hijackers and the journeys each of them took to get to September 11th, 2001. A good overview on the broader history of Islam and the Middle East to bring it all together. The title "Perfect Soldiers" nauseates me a bit, but the quote to start off the book explains it perfectly - they were all useful idiots:

"HE WAS THE PERFECT SOLDIER: he went where you sent him, stayed where you put him, and HAD NO IDEA OF HIS OWN to keep him from doing exactly what you told him." —Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A step on the journey to understanding

At this writing, it’s been sixteen years since the 9/11 attacks and tragedies. When it happened, I read all I could find to try to learn the what and how it happened. The who and why answers are more difficult to find, and hard to understand. Since 2001 I’ve read quite a bit, and this book is a very good source of knowledge about the young men who died believing they did their God’s work. It’s an interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for basic information on the 9/11 bombers, their background, and some of the whys - but not all of them!

[Wes F · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-reported & written book about the 9/11 plot and how it developed. Gives good background on all 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attack, though the main focus is on the 4 "pilots" and on KSM, who was the mastermind behind the plot. There is also good historical background on Islamic extremism as it developed over the years through the aegis of people like Osama bin Laden/al Qaeda & the key leaders he worked with over the years. Thanks, Dylan, for the birthday present!

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well researched and informative, but this seemed to focus more on the history and foundation of Al-Qaeda. I would've liked to have learned about the muscle hijackers, for example, and encounters that American civilians had with hijackers while they were in the US. Instead I learned more about people who were not on the planes that day (like Zacarias Moussaoui) and top officials who were responsible for organizing meetings and handling the financial aspect

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an morbid curiosity about the lives of the hijackers, particularly the lesser known ones that supplied the muscle on the hijacked flights. I thought this book, written well after the 9-11 commission report, might have new information. It did not. Author did paint a vivid picture of the principal plotters, though, and because of that I have a better understanding of their lives, and particularly the Hamburg cell.

[ForenSeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent non-fiction thriller that lays out a creepy story using clear, flowing prose and rigorous background research. The key players are fleshed out in a way that puts a face and personal history on the kind of human evil that rises from delusional narcissism and blind religious dedication. All of us saw 9-11 happen, but you need this book to understand the "why" of it all. Highly recommended.

[Kathleen Spratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand the men who hijacked the planes on 9/11-- what inspired them, what motivated them, and why did they do what they did?
Look no further. This book exposes each hijacker and his motivations. Written with care and in-depth research.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ordinariness of young men going off to war was also evidence of another fact—there was little or nothing for them to do at home. The Saudi Arabian economy had simply not produced worthwhile jobs for the growing ranks of Saudi young adults.
p 221

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a concise account of the development of radical Islam, though the pilots of the planes were the focus rather than the “muscle hijackers.” There were also a few strange typos.

[Leo Mccarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. A little insight in to muslim culture. Also a testament to the absolute ineptness of the fbi and cia.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author pushed the story as much as he could but still feels its missing 2/3 rds of the story

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Published 2/3 years after 9/11, it doesn’t have the content depth of The Looming Towers, but it reads quickly and provides good general information.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. It was as easy to read as a story. I had trouble keeping all the Muslim characters apart, and finally I quit trying. It ended quite suddenly.

[Chris Borgerding · Rating 5 out of 5]

And incredible look at the 19 terrorists of 9/11. Truly an eye opening read as to their motivation and preparation, which was years in the making.

[Alejandro Mejia]

This book is an excellent starting point for those who want to know more about the hijackers of 9/11. It is written with easy going prose and is divided into three books. The chapters are fairly short and trace the beginnings of each hijacker. This really humanizes them again because most of the time we are used to dehumanizing people who commit such horrible atrocities. Here we see Mohammed Atta, the leader of the groups, go from a mommas boy who is a decent student of architecture , to an ardent radical Islamic fundamentalist. We see Marwan Al Shehhi eager to become a martyr. You bear witness to the deterioration of Ziad Jarrah’s relationship with his girlfriend Aysel due to Jarrahs descend into radical fundamentalism. And you can’t help but wonder how in the hell Hani Hanjour was able to hit the Pentagon when you see here that, by all accounts, he was a terrible pilot.

Overall, this book is a great supplement to our understanding of 911 and is a must read for any serious student of the events that transpired that day.

[Eric Cordina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written book. McDermott has done a very good job of piecing together all that is known about those who took part in the 9/11 attacks. There is also a very good history of what led to all this and what motivated Al Qaeda.

[Mike S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that seeks to figure out who the terrorists were who executed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and, more importantly, why they did what they did. Specifically, to find an explanation that goes beyond the easy "they were crazy" mantra. While the book does discuss all of the terrorists, the focus is on three of the four pilot hijackers who made up the "Hamburg Cell" of terrorists who were all enrolled in schools in Hamburg Germany and attended the most radical Mosque in the city where they ended up being radicalized and started looking for a fight.

A couple of the more interesting takeaways from the book are that not all of the hijackers (especially Atta and Jarrah) were not overtly religious or political growing up, and did not really become either until they were radicalized in Hamburg. Also, they did not even have fervent hatred of the United States, they were just angry and wanted to join any fight. In fact, their initial idea was to go to Chechnya to fight the Russians but ended up at an Al-Queda training camp in Afghanistan shortly after Khalid Sheik Mohammed pitched the "planes operation" to Osama Bin Laden, and he approved to finance the operation. So, they just happened to be the most educated people willing to volunteer for a martyrdom operation and were essentially assigned to the plot that would become the 9/11 attacks. Overall, there was nothing really different or abnormal about any of them, they were just "normal" guys with varying levels of education, some even coming from upper-middle-class backgrounds, that were young and mad and willing to follow whatever they were told. The author also debunks the notion that Atta really planned much of anything, that everyone who knew him said he could follow orders but had very little in the way of leadership ability (because most everyone hated his attitude) or creativity. In fact, he was probably the most "abnormal" one of the bunch as he hated pretty much everyone (especially women) and was just generally miserable about everything.

The book is divided into three parts. The backgrounds of the hijackers, Bin Laden's rise to power, and the actual plot to hijack the planes and execute the attacks on 9/11. The author gives a pretty good reconstruction (as much as he could put together) of the movements of the various people involved up to 9/11. One big takeaway is, that having made as many stupid decisions and mistakes as the hijackers did, even that day at the airports, the fact that they were able to pull the attacks off with the level of success that they did was frankly amazing. And, it underscores just how unprepared our system was at all levels for an attack like this, such that even a bunch of nitwits like these could pull it off. The only thing the book does not go into great detail about is the actual attacks themselves. It basically sets up what happened up to 9/11, but does not go into great detail about the events of the day itself.

Overall, the book is very good. It provides a very interesting look into the lives of the hijackers, what caused them to become radicalized, and what made them do what they did. It does not in any way glorify them or try to make them seem like tragic or sympathetic figures. In many ways, it does just the opposite, both by pointing out how stupid some of their actions were and how hypocritical they were regarding their so-called "beliefs" in the days leading up to the attacks. I definitely recommend it.

[Ethan Eiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, informative read on the hijackers (mainly the Hamburg cell - Atta, al-Shehhi, Jarah as well as Ramzi al-Shibh) in addition to some background into Al-Qaeda from the Afghan-Soviet Mujahideen and how the "planes operation" came to be. Goes into detail about the "Bojinka plot" and "millennium" attempted attacks. I appreciated it talked about the first WTC attack in ‘93 and some background on Ramzi Yousef, KSM and of course Bin Laden.

It was interesting to learn how systematic the failures were that lead to the attack itself, the close calls, the carelessness on behalf of the American government (particularly the CIA and FBI) as well as the carelessness of the hijackers themselves.

I wish it talked more about the day itself and seemed to end very abruptly. It also basically just glanced over Hani Hanjour and essentially says nothing about him (although even today we know little about him). The book itself is slightly dated but considering it was published in 2005 it still holds up as one of the most informative pieces on the 19 men who changed the course of American and global history on that sunny September morning.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

McDermott's background knowledge and exhaustive research inform a well-reasoned explanation of what moves seemingly normal men to undertake monstrous acts of violence. Even though most of the hijackers responsible for 9/11 remain murky figures, the important few whose lives and personalities McDermott carefully examines illustrate just who these people were and why they did what they did, on a level that official government reports never approached. Perfect Soldiers is an important book for the context it provides, a chilling book for the implications it leaves, and one of the most informative books written about 9/11 to date.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terry McDermott's "Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It", is a great account of the personal lives of the known hijackers. This book additionally helped me to assess the personal feelings surrounding the hijackers (Mohammad Atta & Ziad Jarrah).

Mohammad Atta seems to have been a firm pressed individual, whom faced great criticism by his father, despite his many accomplishments. I think his choice of Jihad was through spite and psychological burnout.

Ziad Jarrah was easily persuaded because he longed to be a part of something important. He had a lack of personal identity; attempting to fill that gap of identity through a romantic relationship, he became bored and unfulfilled, and this led him to Jihad.