9/11 Report – Chapter Two

In chapter 2 of the 9/11 Commission Report (did I happen to mention I'm a very slow reader?) Osama bin Laden's worldview is explained and put in historical context. I've read a fair bit about this since September 11, but this report provides a good summary. The second chapter doesn't move as quickly as chapter 1, but it's equally well written and easy to read.

This chapter has most of what I wanted to know on September 12, 2001, essentially:

1. Who are these people?
2. What motivates them?

Of course, I knew about the previous attacks – in Somalia, on the World Trade Center '93, Khobar Towers, and the African embassies – yet I never really tried to understand what was happening after any of those attacks. The chapter does an excellent job of illustrating just how much the government really didn't (& still doesn't) know and how much of al Qaeda's development remains a vague fog (at least officially, publicly) for the government.