I had never heard of Osama Bin Laden before 9/11, but within months my name was on a book about him as contributing editor. In an uncanny coincidence, a book titled Au Nom d’Oussama bin Laden, by French counter-terrorism expert Roland Jacquard, had just been published on September 11^th; Duke University Press scrambled to buy the English-language rights, and approached me for an English edition. I taught at Duke at the time, and was recommended by a professor there as the ideal person, not only trilingual in English, French, and Arabic, but also with a background in Middle East history and Islam. That turned out to be just the problem. When I read Au Nom d’Oussama bin Laden, I found it essentially a stark account of counter-terrorism findings, entirely without historical context, and reported in a tone likely to exacerbate the phobia against all Muslims spreading in the aftermath of the World Trade Center horror.

When I explained my reasons for declining Duke Press’ offer, the editors countered my objections one by one, suggesting I provide the historical context, in an introduction and in an afterword, and promising that I would have full editorial authority to require of the author any changes I felt were necessary. On those terms, I went to work on the manuscript for an intense three months, and it was published in record time in early 2002.

Now Bin Laden is dead, and his malignant legacy is being evaluated. Two things I retained from that crash course on the man and the movement: the first is that, even in 2001, Bin Laden was a figurehead for “Al-Qaeda” rather than an indispensable leader. The second is that he would never have let himself be captured alive.