Yosri Fouda and Nick Feilding: Masterminds of Terror

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

The detail with which they planned might be epitomised by something as mundane as the empty box. Just an empty box, but it tells you so much about the scrupulous attention to detail paid by the masterminds behind the terrorist attacks on September 11.

When al-Jazeera reporter Fouda received an anonymous phone call to his London office in April 2002, it set in train a series of events which lead him eventually to Karachi and a meeting with two of al-Qaeda's top operatives: Ramzi Binalshibh (aka Omar Sheikh) who had been implicated in the bombing at the World Trade Centre in '93 (among other terrorist activities, including the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl), and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, most commonly described as one of al-Qaeda's leaders.

Through a series of faxes and phone calls - and diversions - Fouda was lead to Karachi, where his eyes were covered and wrapped in sunglasses. When he got out of the vehicle at the undistinguished apartment in an anonymous suburb he couldn't identify, he was told to carry one end of the empty box the few steps between the car and the door to the apartment.

An empty box? But consider: Any curious passers-by would have their attention diverted by the box - I wonder what's inside it? - rather than paying attention to who was carrying it. That's attention to detail in an organisation which has rewritten the manual on global terrorism.

Yousi's account of his meeting - co-written with senior Sunday Times reporter Fielding - has all the elements of a thriller and in its early pages this dense but readable book adopts a somewhat breathless tone as he questions: Why me? What if it's a set-up?

His fear is justified, however. The two he was taken to meet were behind terrorist strikes across the globe, were proud of their faith and conviction to the cause, and utterly ruthless. They betrayed no regret for their actions. They may be fanatical, but they weren't crazy.

Fouda prayed with them, filmed interviews, and disagreed on their interpretation of quotes from the Prophet.

The middle chapters look into the broad historic background of Islamist politics, the bloody and single-minded careers of some of those engaged in international terror, explores the maze of interwoven organisations and cells which carried out their murderous plans, and reveals the elusive nature of these global organisations.

How they plan with meticulous attention to detail, using modern technology and the most primitive of weapons (box-cutters on September 11 were hardly sophisticated equipment) is recounted in chilling, dispassionate detail.

Masterminds of Terror is an enthralling and important book, even within the growth industry of al-Qaeda literature. It has been overtaken a little by events with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in February, but in its scope, the drawing together of available information, and its dogged plotting of the daily lives of the September 11 terrorists leading up to that fateful morning, it is engrossing.

The authors, too, pay attention to detail: Fouda remembers that empty box, emblematic of so much.

Mainstream/Penguin, $37.95