In the preface to “Perfect Soldiers,” his thoroughly researched and disturbing investigation into what made the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers tick, author Terry McDermott tells us that they were ordinary young men. In so many ways they were, and that is what makes them so scary.
He says that “the men of September 11 were, regrettably, I think, fairly ordinary men. I say this is regrettable because it was their ordinariness that makes it much more likely there are a great many more men just like them.”
In significant ways, though, they certainly weren’t like you and me. McDermott makes it clear that they burned with an almost maniacal fanaticism, which, it became all too obvious, made them willing not only to kill thousands of innocent people, but to take their own lives in the process. This seems anything but ordinary, and all you have to do to accept this is to look at a photograph of the attackers, particularly ringleader Mohamed Atta. The eyes say it all.
Perhaps, though, that is the Western mind-set, which has trouble accepting murder as righteous, even in what the killer thinks is a virtuous cause.
McDermott takes us into the world of the true believers, those who are willing and, in many cases, eager to take their own lives while callously killing thousands, all in the name of religious fervor. But, in the case of the hijackers, those who managed to pull off the complicated and devastating events of 9/11 were always religious fanatics.
We learn, for example, that all of the hijackers came from the middle class, mostly in Saudi Arabia, and most were not especially devout in their youths. But something changed them, just as it changed most of the Arab world – the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent success of the mujahadeen fighters who threw out the Russians. The Russian retreat was followed by the first Gulf War and the subsequent American presence in Saudi Arabia, something that angered may fundamentalist Muslims.
It was a heady time for Islam and fed the fires of the extreme Muslim world’s hatred for Christianity. It became easy for these extremists to draft young men to their cause.
McDermott focuses most of his attention on three of the hijackers: Mohamed el-Amir (also known as Mohamed Atta); Ziad Jarrah, a Lebanese student; and Marwan al-
Shehhi, from the Emirates. All three would pilot an airliner on that fateful day.
We follow the hijackers from their middle-class youths to their college days in Hamburg, Germany, where they went to mosques and talked – and talked some more – about Islam and its differences with Christianity. Atta was always the most intense, barely communicating with people outside the small circle of fanatics.
As interesting and important as the story of the hijackers in “Perfect Soldiers” is the author’s ability to explain in simple terms the complicated blend of politics, religion and customs of that area of the world that spawned these radical young men. Most prominent of the congealing elements was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and its subsequent expelling at the hands of determined Muslim fighters, the mujahadeen. Ironically, their success can to no small degree be credited to the United States and its infusion of arms – particularly shoulder-fired Stinger missiles – and money.
We also learn about the ascendance of a young, charismatic Saudi progeny who put his own money where his sentiments were and built a small fundamentalist organization into the most feared terrorist organization in the world. Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda built facilities to train would-be jihadists how to be killers and hatched the plan that resulted in the attacks on New York and Washington.
In 1993, bin Laden was barely a blip on the terrorism radar screen. “In Washington, D.C., in discussions of terrorism at the time, bin Laden’s name was mentioned in passing, if at all,” McDermott writes. “When bin Laden was mentioned at all it was generally as a financial backer of others who were potential dangers.” Mostly, these others were the state-sponsored organizations like the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
In just three short years, though, things had changed. By the time bin Laden left Sudan, at the insistence of the U.S. government, and relocated to Afghanistan, McDermott says, we were trying to stop him. “The CIA established a bin Laden station, the first ever agency unit focused on an individual, an acknowledgment that he represented a target the likes of which they had never seen before.”
And two years later, with the attacks at American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the United States realized that the group was particularly virulent. As McDermott writes, “The simultaneity of the attacks amplified their impact and suggested a degree of sophistication and daring no one previously had granted al-Qaeda.”
The time the hijackers spent in the United States leading up to the attacks is perhaps the most chilling part of McDermott’s reporting. These 19 hijackers were in no measure James Bond, and there were telltale signs that things were amiss, signs that were missed then (but, it is hoped, wouldn’t be missed in our current state of awareness) that perhaps should have alerted authorities. In “Perfect Soldiers,” McDermott provides a valuable and well-researched look into the minds of men who set out to do us all harm while shedding some light into the dark corners of the world that produced them.
Staff writer Tom Walker can be reached at 303-820-1624 or twalker@denverpost.com.
Perfect Soldiers
The Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It
By Terry McDermott
HarperCollins, 330 pages, $25.95
