The Osama bin Laden I Know is an unprecedented oral history of Osama bin Ladens rise to revered leader of al Qaeda. Peter Bergen takes the reader onto the battlefields of Afghanistan as bin Laden goes from a shy quiet teen to a leader he brings you into Osamas intimate family life as he lives under the radar in Sudan then Afghanistan he puts you right in the room for al Qaedas very first meeting and he uses eyewitness accounts to relate what bin Laden said and thought on 911 as he watched the twin towers fall. Derived from Bergens interviews with more than 50 people who know bin Laden personally from his highschool teacher to an early al Qaeda member who later became a US informant The Osama bin Laden I Know recounts individual experiences with the man who has declared the US and its allies his greatest enemies.