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Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden
Despite the saturation of global media coverage, Osama bin Laden’s own writings have been curiously absent from analysis of the “war on terror.” Over the last ten years, bin Laden has issued a series of carefully tailored public statements, from interviews with Western and Arabic journalists to faxes and video recordings. These texts supply evidence crucial to an understanding of the bizarre mix of Quranic scholarship, CIA training, punctual interventions in Gulf politics and messianic anti-imperialism that has formed the programmatic core of Al Qaeda.
In bringing together the various statements issued under bin Laden’s name since 1994, this volume forms part of a growing discourse that seeks to demythologize the terrorist network. Newly translated from the Arabic, annotated with a critical introduction by Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence, this collection places the statements in their religious, historical and political context. It shows how bin Laden’s views draw on and differ from other strands of radical Islamic thought; it also demonstrates how his arguments vary in degrees of consistency, and how his evasions concerning the true nature and extent of his own group, and over his own role in terrorist attacks, have contributed to the perpetuation of his personal mythology.
In bringing together the various statements issued under bin Laden’s name since 1994, this volume forms part of a growing discourse that seeks to demythologize the terrorist network. Newly translated from the Arabic, annotated with a critical introduction by Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence, this collection places the statements in their religious, historical and political context. It shows how bin Laden’s views draw on and differ from other strands of radical Islamic thought; it also demonstrates how his arguments vary in degrees of consistency, and how his evasions concerning the true nature and extent of his own group, and over his own role in terrorist attacks, have contributed to the perpetuation of his personal mythology.
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2005
17 people are currently reading
483 people want to read
About the author
Osama bin Laden
11 books13 followersOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was also a member of the wealthy Saudi Bin Laden family.
Osama bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the War on Terror.
On May 1, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan in an operation conducted by a U.S. Navy SEALs team and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Osama bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the War on Terror.
On May 1, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan in an operation conducted by a U.S. Navy SEALs team and the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 19, 2008
By far the best collection of resources towards understanding not only the primary figurehead enemy of the west, but the whole movement that has coalesced around radical Islam.
Going beyond news reports and actually reading the rhetoric communicated to his followers, a picture of Bin Laden as an extremely talented orator, with (from his twisted perspective) rational goals emerges, instead of just a raging hater of all things western.
The collection includes extremely useful footnotes, especially with regards to completing Koranic versus referenced in fragment, providing considerable insight into Bin Laden's abilities to recontextualize Islam to his own purposes.
His speech style is dense and political, and the book is not a quick read, but a great piece of research into a powerful enemy that is often underestimated as a one-dimensional zombie, as well as a good source of insight into the issues fueling the extremist-Islam movement worldwide.
Going beyond news reports and actually reading the rhetoric communicated to his followers, a picture of Bin Laden as an extremely talented orator, with (from his twisted perspective) rational goals emerges, instead of just a raging hater of all things western.
The collection includes extremely useful footnotes, especially with regards to completing Koranic versus referenced in fragment, providing considerable insight into Bin Laden's abilities to recontextualize Islam to his own purposes.
His speech style is dense and political, and the book is not a quick read, but a great piece of research into a powerful enemy that is often underestimated as a one-dimensional zombie, as well as a good source of insight into the issues fueling the extremist-Islam movement worldwide.
May 11, 2017
Don't believe the shameless fucks on TV, read the primary texts for yourself. The importance of this book cannot be understated. Based on fighting the messages contained in this text the US launched what is an ongoing imperial project with no end in sight.
June 1, 2021
I have to give credit to Verso for publishing this amazing collection of messages. After reading just a few pages, I quickly realized how much I did not know about the historical and political interventions of the United States and other imperialistic forces in the Middle East and in particular in the Islamic world inhabiting more than 1 billion people.
Reading the introduction, you might get a feeling that you are reading a book about a supernatural figure, or the physical embodiment of a global radical movement. My general problem with the introduction is its centrality on the figure of Bin Laden, his background and life, instead of focusing more on constructing a political-historical context that led to the radicalization of people in the Middle East and around the world. In other words, a political movement doesn’t exist for the Western media-consumers if it’s not accompanied by an image, whether a human-figure (Bin Laden) or a brand (Al-Quaeda).
The introduction is reinforcing the popular Western need of “understanding” Islam, which finally after 9/11 fell on the wicked shoulders of Bush’s administration through publications of The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, and Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Bruce B. Lawrence, the editor of the book, did a good job, considering that he is an American Islamic Studies “expert" from Duke University (wink wink). In the introduction Lawrence is mostly citing Western intellectuals such as Bernard Lewis, but once he borrowed from the leftist postcolonial intellectual Eqbal Ahmad without crediting him. Eqbal Ahmad was one of the first writers who brought into question the definition of terrorism and who has the authority to call someone a terrorist? From this notion Lawrence writes: “Definitions of terrorism vary widely: it is well known that many who are now hailed as freedom fighters in their own communities, and accepted as respectable statesmen by the powers that be, were once denounced as terrorists, responsible for killing innocent civilians—Israeli leaders like Begin and Sharon prominent among them.”
Today’s anti-Islamist ideology of far-right (Steve Bannon, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orban) is not aiming to understand Islam, as Hamid Dabashi argued, but claims to annihilate Islam in a much more vicious way than in early years of globalization. One of the origins of this hate movement can be traced to the same War-on-terror rhetoric that George W. Bush started in 2001. (Speech on September 16th, 2001 on White House Lawn).
Despite being highly politicized, OBL is still not fully understood. Most people don’t even know what nationality he had. The recent Guardian article about OBL’s mother created another angle for the general media-consumers. It’s interesting to know that he was frequently using poetry in his messages and how much he was trying to make himself sound like a religious figure rather than a militant radical revolutionary. OBL knew that presenting himself as a polemist was crucial for his recruitment projects.
When it comes to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, these messages help us understand the bigger picture that is often sidetracked from the news. The popular opposition to Iraq war is often reduced to the falsified claim of Colin Powell that Saddam is holding and developing chemical weapons. OBL gives us a much broader perspective on the Middle East, oil companies and their connection with the Bush dynasty, but also about the unpublished facts of American and European banks and secret government funds. Here are some examples of these facts:
• Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton Energy based in Texas (1995-2000)
• GCC states assisted the U.S logistically during the Iraq invasion.
• On October 10th, 2001, Bush’s administration openly asked the 5 major Tv channels to NOT show live footages of OBL from Al Jazeera. Blair did the same with BBC.
As an artist living in the United States, I first learned about these marginalized facts through works of Mark Lombardi, and specifically in the book, Interlock: Art, Conspiracy, and the Shadow Worlds of Mark Lombardi. Reading this book, gave me another perspective on the causes of human suffering in the Middle East throughout the last century and a half. Here are some of those facts:
• 1973 Nixon-Kissinger were considering military operation against Saudi Arabia, and possibly following the oil crisis.
• 1.75 Million people died in Iran-Iraq that lasted for 8 years in which the USA sold arms to both sides.
• in 1995, US Congress voted to move US Embassy to Jerusalem, and G.W. Bush promised to move it during his first campaign in 2000.
• Sykes-Picot agreement 1916, and colonial slicing of the Arab-land.
• Anglo-Afghan wars happened 3 times in history: 1838, 1878, 1919.
• April 9, 2001, International Conference of Deobandi where OBL gave a speech.
• Since its inception, United States of America has been at War 93% of the Time (222 out of 239 Years) and almost always outside its borders.
OBL rarely used the term imperialism in his messages (only two times in the book, and only when he was asked specifically by the interviewers). For example, after the dark events of Halabja, and responded attacks on Iraq and Sudan, OBL mentioned in an interview in 1998: “the time has come for Muslim peoples to realize after these attacks that the states of the region [Middle East] do not have their own sovereignty”. Although, without a doubt, he saw the war with the West as the wicked "Clash of Civilization”, it seems like he is using this concept due to its benefits for recruitment. To the vast majority of Muslims around the world, the Clash of Civilization is not only a ridiculous idea but is very harmful to their safety and well-being. It doesn’t matter if you are part of the; subaltern classes in the East worrying about another imperial invasion or you are part of the marginalized masses living in the West, facing the far-right’s Islamophobia and anti-immigration militancy of white terrorism.
Reading Bin Laden’s messages in 300 pages might sound very repetitive and tedious. One might learn more from the foot-notes than the actual text. Foot-notes are great in explaining the complex historical events that are often neglected on this subject. About his references to Quran and Hadith on the anecdotes, the book was very accurate. I simply skipped reading most of those Quranic references because I grow up in Iran reading Islamic texts, but for a person new to this field it might be very helpful. Here is a good passage from the introduction, which is very timely today.
“Bin Laden’s own fate remains uncertain. Unless he dies a natural death in hiding, it seems inevitable that sooner or later his hunter will catch him. If captured alive, he will doubtless be killed on the spot, as Che Guevara was forty years ago. His captors will know that it would be useless to torture him for information, as they have his lieutenants; while to put him on trial would risk huge embarrassment for those attempting to judge him, given his powers of eloquence and their own record. He is not troubled by the predictability of this end:
So let me be a martyr,
dwelling in a high mountain pass
among a band of knights who,
united in devotion to God,
descend to face armies.”
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***
January 12, 2009
It is very interesting to read what bin Laden is actually saying, as our media shows very little of his opinions. The texts are supplemented by the comments of an academic, to set it in context. I don't agree with much of what Osama bin Laden states on.. anything, in a way. But it's interesting to see that he is using logic in his statement. Twisted, confused logic, but logic nonetheless. It's not frothing at the mouth, it is intelligent, well written statements. This only makes him more terrifying.
April 12, 2015
This collection of translated and annotated statements represents a unique historical record of a defining and divisive figure. Although bin Laden appears to have been retired for some time, this shy do-gooder enjoyed a certain Robin Hood status in the Islamic world, as if he had tried to reform their world solely by force of alms. Given the possible consequences, it is worth understanding why. I happened, due to a backlog, to buy it some time before bin Laden's death and read it after, so it has gone from an exercise in "know thine enemy" to a historical record while on my shelves, but perhaps that lends some perspective.
His historical importance can certainly be exaggerated, but bin Laden assumed stature in our own age primarily as a polemicist. (Notoriety for other reasons, of course.) Absurdly, we in the West were not permitted access to his statements through the popular media on the pretext that this man whose satellite phone they were bugging could be sending coded messages in his epistles. Read them now and you will immediately understand why they were deemed too dangerous to guarantee the correct reception, and in one missive he openly ridicules this attempt at justification. Did I mention that he was a polemicist? Worse, though, they were circulating covertly on tapes in the Islamic world all the time, so the attempt at censorship played right into bin Laden's hands.
Bin Laden's reputation among radical Muslims stems from his perceived piety, honesty and preparedness to sacrifice himself. It is easy to dismiss him as a mirror-image of the US Republicans, but this reputation for personal integrity gives it the lie. However, his statements are not entirely consistent. He assumes direct responsibility for 9-11 only rather late on, being somewhat evasive at first. Here and there he quotes Qur'anic text in his support but leaves off conditional clauses at the end of the original, but it is never clear that this is actively misleading. At any rate, his piety and self-abnegation are clearly sincere and his will be a hard image to tarnish among more militant Muslims. He is no Wahhabi exegete, however, and he concedes authority and the leadership of the faithful to others.
Ultimately, bin Laden's utterances have had such power because they are 95% self-evident truth or articles of shared Muslim faith. For every attack of his own, killing ten people, he can point to a prior one on Muslims killing 10,000, and it's quite a striking record when you see them all collected in these statements. As Chomsky has said, you need quite a special education to be able to not see it. His simple view of Islamic justice is that reciprocity applies - when they attack us, we attack them. And in at least one case the reciprocity was so clear that it toppled the Spanish government. Bin Laden knew that this war would see his death, and accepted it, but his missives carry a sense of inevitable victory: I will not see it, but we are winning. He will be a memory hard to discredit, even if most Muslims rejected his choice of methods. As we have seen in recent months, his disgust at the ruler-ship of the Muslim world is widely endorsed. One hopes that his Semite's anti-Semitism is not, and this is an ugly aspect of his words that is hard to dismiss as applying only to the polity of Israel.
Attempts to suppress bin Laden's words have led to repressive measures. A Spanish journalist, Tayseer Allouni, was jailed without trial and confined to solitary merely for having interviewed him. Ultimately, however, in his calls for reform of the Muslim world's leadership, he has already won. Of the four regimes against whom he rails - Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Saud - only one remains standing today: The House of Saud. We actually gave him Iraq! Meanwhile, we are being routed in Iraq and Afghanistan This book is no longer just a means of understanding our enemy, therefore - it yields clues to a new political reality wrought partly by Osama's words.
His historical importance can certainly be exaggerated, but bin Laden assumed stature in our own age primarily as a polemicist. (Notoriety for other reasons, of course.) Absurdly, we in the West were not permitted access to his statements through the popular media on the pretext that this man whose satellite phone they were bugging could be sending coded messages in his epistles. Read them now and you will immediately understand why they were deemed too dangerous to guarantee the correct reception, and in one missive he openly ridicules this attempt at justification. Did I mention that he was a polemicist? Worse, though, they were circulating covertly on tapes in the Islamic world all the time, so the attempt at censorship played right into bin Laden's hands.
Bin Laden's reputation among radical Muslims stems from his perceived piety, honesty and preparedness to sacrifice himself. It is easy to dismiss him as a mirror-image of the US Republicans, but this reputation for personal integrity gives it the lie. However, his statements are not entirely consistent. He assumes direct responsibility for 9-11 only rather late on, being somewhat evasive at first. Here and there he quotes Qur'anic text in his support but leaves off conditional clauses at the end of the original, but it is never clear that this is actively misleading. At any rate, his piety and self-abnegation are clearly sincere and his will be a hard image to tarnish among more militant Muslims. He is no Wahhabi exegete, however, and he concedes authority and the leadership of the faithful to others.
Ultimately, bin Laden's utterances have had such power because they are 95% self-evident truth or articles of shared Muslim faith. For every attack of his own, killing ten people, he can point to a prior one on Muslims killing 10,000, and it's quite a striking record when you see them all collected in these statements. As Chomsky has said, you need quite a special education to be able to not see it. His simple view of Islamic justice is that reciprocity applies - when they attack us, we attack them. And in at least one case the reciprocity was so clear that it toppled the Spanish government. Bin Laden knew that this war would see his death, and accepted it, but his missives carry a sense of inevitable victory: I will not see it, but we are winning. He will be a memory hard to discredit, even if most Muslims rejected his choice of methods. As we have seen in recent months, his disgust at the ruler-ship of the Muslim world is widely endorsed. One hopes that his Semite's anti-Semitism is not, and this is an ugly aspect of his words that is hard to dismiss as applying only to the polity of Israel.
Attempts to suppress bin Laden's words have led to repressive measures. A Spanish journalist, Tayseer Allouni, was jailed without trial and confined to solitary merely for having interviewed him. Ultimately, however, in his calls for reform of the Muslim world's leadership, he has already won. Of the four regimes against whom he rails - Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Saud - only one remains standing today: The House of Saud. We actually gave him Iraq! Meanwhile, we are being routed in Iraq and Afghanistan This book is no longer just a means of understanding our enemy, therefore - it yields clues to a new political reality wrought partly by Osama's words.
May 30, 2008
The good thing about this book, besides the text of Osama's words and messages, is that it is very well annotated. Anytime Osama uses references to the Qu'ran or other Islamic works, it is identified in the footnotes. Also, other people, events, and so on are identified in order to provide context. At times, looking at some of the footnotes can be interesting. However, this is not exactly a page turner, part of the reason I gave it only two-stars. It is a bit slow reading. Yet, Osama emerges as a very talented and thoughtful orator for one as well as knowledgeable of his religion and beliefs. Thus, I think it is an important book. Certainly, researchers will find it of interest. College students who may be writing papers on topics related to terrorism and the Middle East may want to look at it as well. Overall, anyone wanting to get a better sense of the man and his movement should be reading this book.
October 28, 2019
Read for personal research - found this book's contents helpful and inspiring.
A good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
A good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
April 6, 2021
Some interesting history in this, but I was expecting more than just a compilation of the messages. Potentially a better narrative between the transcriptions.
August 8, 2018
It's very strange to highly rate a book by Osama bin Laden. But here we go.
Techinically, this book is a very readable translation. It begins with communiques from before 9/11 and goes through the 2005 or so. Since Osama had a "theme" there is repetition between chapters and some rather obscure references but overall the translator did a good job in the footnotes. It can drag a little when OBL quotes endless hadiths or praises the mujahadin for the 10th time, but in general, it's not a tough read.
As to the content, I think this is an important book for anybody who wants to understand the place of Islamist terrorism as it related to the United States. OBL was not "crazy" any more than any other revolutionary. He outlines very clearly the reasons behind attacks (9/11, USS Cole, etc.), the justifications for killing civilians, and what his vision of the future was. It's not a particularly attractive vision, unless of course you're prone to Islamic fundamentalism, however he makes some very salient points about the United States' role in the world. This is, of course, mixed with some (((globalist))) talk that you could find in the YouTube channels of the alt-right.
In 2018, I find two things very relevant: One, given these public statements, the US public was completely misled about the reasons behind 9/11, the beliefs of those who carried out the attacks, and what our response to it would cause. Two, OBL, for a truly reactionary Islamist, has criticisms of the Western world that resonate today. He is critical of the United States meddling in the affairs of the Middle East, the sanctions and invasion of Iraq as well as the complicity of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States role in helping the US. But also, he has a subtle critique of materialism and capitalism that I find surprisingly "progressive" considering the general conservatism of his beliefs.
In any case, it's a worthwhile read, especially for Americans who are interested in how we got where we are today.
Techinically, this book is a very readable translation. It begins with communiques from before 9/11 and goes through the 2005 or so. Since Osama had a "theme" there is repetition between chapters and some rather obscure references but overall the translator did a good job in the footnotes. It can drag a little when OBL quotes endless hadiths or praises the mujahadin for the 10th time, but in general, it's not a tough read.
As to the content, I think this is an important book for anybody who wants to understand the place of Islamist terrorism as it related to the United States. OBL was not "crazy" any more than any other revolutionary. He outlines very clearly the reasons behind attacks (9/11, USS Cole, etc.), the justifications for killing civilians, and what his vision of the future was. It's not a particularly attractive vision, unless of course you're prone to Islamic fundamentalism, however he makes some very salient points about the United States' role in the world. This is, of course, mixed with some (((globalist))) talk that you could find in the YouTube channels of the alt-right.
In 2018, I find two things very relevant: One, given these public statements, the US public was completely misled about the reasons behind 9/11, the beliefs of those who carried out the attacks, and what our response to it would cause. Two, OBL, for a truly reactionary Islamist, has criticisms of the Western world that resonate today. He is critical of the United States meddling in the affairs of the Middle East, the sanctions and invasion of Iraq as well as the complicity of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States role in helping the US. But also, he has a subtle critique of materialism and capitalism that I find surprisingly "progressive" considering the general conservatism of his beliefs.
In any case, it's a worthwhile read, especially for Americans who are interested in how we got where we are today.
May 14, 2019
Interesting insight into bin Laden's ideology and radical Islamist extremism as a whole. The translation is good, but bin Laden himself was (known to be as well) extremely long-winded.
December 3, 2019
An invaluable resource for approaching and tackling the ideology and rhetoric of contemporary global jihadist thought.
April 24, 2020
An insightful read about al Qaeda and American foreign policy.
September 30, 2021
Osama bin Laden is a rich boy, a religious fanatic, and a cat’s paw of the CIA.
February 8, 2022
Great book, gave me a new perspective on a very controversial man.
August 31, 2022
Chilling and informative.
May 18, 2025
honestly a good read just to get the perspective
June 15, 2025
A lot tamer than expected, comes off as pretty rational
June 15, 2024
Interesting read. Bin Laden is at least honest in his bloodthirstiness, contrary to George W. Bush who hides it behind a facade of utilitarian calculus and appeals to "freedom" and "democracy". It is is sad, reading this 15 years later as the death tolls from the War on Terror (6-10 million throughout the Middle East) are more shocking and depraved than even Bin Laden could imagine. Read this alongside Eqbal Ahmad's "Confronting Empire" and it provides a good academic backdrop as well as historical context to the quasi-primary sources that this book presents.
February 17, 2012
Required reading for anyone trying to make sense of what's going on in the Middle East and the Muslim world more generally. And maybe more importantly, it exposes some of the myths that have been built around the man as lies, and portrays him as a pious and warm-hearted man who has felt moved by his God into taking action for his people. He is not so unlike Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr., except in terms of the strategic approach he has chosen to obtain such a liberation.
June 12, 2008
I read this book because it seemed crazy that I had seen so few of the words from someone who has been such a powerful figure in recent history. Reading his speeches definitely took away the mystery. I would have liked a little more context for the speeches and he people bin Laden refers to, but to do so might have made it too long.
September 19, 2008
"Really Liked It" doesn't really fit, because I Really Did NOT like it.
But, I and everyone who cares about others needs to know what is said in this book. Cliff Notes on it would be better.
At least everyone should read the first paragraph(s) of each chapter, 'cause they're kinda like chapter summaries/forewords in advance.
But, I and everyone who cares about others needs to know what is said in this book. Cliff Notes on it would be better.
At least everyone should read the first paragraph(s) of each chapter, 'cause they're kinda like chapter summaries/forewords in advance.
April 7, 2008
Very good read. For the people who want to know what Bin Laden really thinks. I like the part where he states that muslims who died in attacks in non-muslim countries were breaking the islamic law and they shouldn`t be there in the first place.
May 13, 2008
A fascinating insight into bin Laden's worldview. This is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand what motivates Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and why extremist groups are gaining the support of moderate Muslims.
August 14, 2008
Fascinating read - provides an in depth understanding of Bin Laden's psych.
February 25, 2014
I think everyone should read this book.
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August 3, 2016Read "Letter to America" (online.)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews