Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It

Far from wild-eyed raving religious fanatics, the 19 men who struck on 9/11, were by and large middle class and from secular backgrounds. How these seemingly unexceptional young men became suicide soldiers for Al Qaeda is the story that's told here. It's their decided ordinariness and their descent into fundamentalist jihad that makes this such a frightening read. McDermott paints chilling portraits of the leaders of the 19. Young and lonely Middle Easterners floundering in German colleges, their insecurities lead them to the Islamic fundamentalism preached in Hamburg mosques. Like moths drawn to a flame, they find the direction, certainty and purpose they so crave. Once immersed in the tenets of jihad, they move on to Al Qaeda's terrorist training camps in Afgahnistan. Here, they are hand-picked by Al Qaeda's leadership to go to the U.S. to train to be pilots. The rest, as they say, is history. The question that's never really answered here is why these men did it, why they sacrificed their own lives to kill innocent civilians. Perhaps no one will ever know. Perhaps the answer is beside the point.

Terry McDermott has made a well-written and well-researched investigation of the 9/11 hijackers. His work focuses on the pilots, plus Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind. Osama bin Laden is to a lesser extent covered, though his 1996 and 1998 fatwas against Americans are included in the appendix. Steering clear of conspiracy theory nonsense, McDermott nonetheless supplies critical questions in the endnotes. Overall an important book, the "Perfect Soldiers" are shown really to be ordinary men, made extraordinary by the forces of radical Islam. The starke evil of the hijackers could wear an alarming human face. Highly recommended.

I've read a number of the 9/11 related books out there and this is one of the best. I learned many things I either didn't know or had misconceptions about. For example, I'd heard that most of the 9/11 hijackers didn't know it was a suicide mission- a somehow comforting thought. McDermott makes the convincing case that every one of them knew they were about to die and embraced their path to paradise. This is a must read for anyone who wants insight to what these fanatics were really thinking.

I have had the view that the 9/11 highjackers were a bunch of militants, trained in Afghanistan camps and raised in ultra strict Muslim families. This narrow and simplistic view on my part has been somewhat comforting, after all it took a number of factors and many years of indoctrination for these folks to calmly take their lives and the lives of thousands of incidents. I say comforting because just how many of these guys can there be? Unfortunately this book details that the men involved in the 9/11 attacks were primarily bored, unemployed and living in societies with significant economic problems. They just happened to chose a course that lead them into performing the worst terrorist attacks ever. This is concern because as the author points out , there are millions more young men in the same position that can only turn to religion for comfort and need a enemy to hate. This book gives the reader a very interesting view of some of the 9/11 highjackers. The author writes in a way that is as captivating as a fiction book. He makes even the most normal run down of facts interesting. It helps that the ultimate event has so much drama surrounding it. Overall I enjoyed the book. It is full of facts presented without a lot of over the top reasoning about how these people hate us because of our freedom. It is an eye opener and if you are interested in the war on terror or the 9/11 attacks I think you will find the book well worth the time.

McDermott has written what is so far the definitive narrative of the 9/11 hijackers. He divides his book into three parts: First, he profiles the backgrounds and personality profiles of the hijackers, many who started as regular citizens and slowly drifted into their extremism, often by chance. Second, he explains the political forces in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan that helped to revive Jihad and give power to Osama Bin Laden. Third, he focuses on the actual plot to hijack the planes on 9/11. The reportage is remarkable and provides clues to the hijackers' personalities that have so far not been publicized. What's scary is the effective way the author shows the hijackers often came from privileged backgrounds and then drifted into the fringes of society where, needing direction and identity, they were susceptible to the extremist rhetoric of fundamentalism and violent jihad. Where I might disagree with McDermott is his characterization of the hijackers as "fairly ordinary men." Perhaps I have a different definition of "ordinary" than does McDermott who uses hundreds of salient illustrations to paint these men anything than as ordinary: They are often portrayed as sullen spoiled narcissistic brats and bullies. One of the most prominent of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, in particular is an extreme personality study in repressed sexuality, narcissism, and sociopathic hatred of others. He cannot smile or enjoy life in the slighest so that when he eats food he mutters to himself how boring and tedious the task of eating is. Everyone who knew him, even people who shared in his beliefs, found him an obnoxious presence. Sullen, brooding, and controlling, he made the hairs on people's neck bristle whenever he entered a room. In spite of his fastidious religious adherence, he takes to the mysterious and disturbing desire to wear eye mascara. I'll let you decided if he is "ordinary" or not. In any event, Atta, like the others, is misogynistic; women are shunned and held in contempt. The total sum picture you get of these hijackers is a bunch of malignant malcontents who need an extreme cause to be a vehicle for their personal frustration and deeply-set anti-social tendencies. For an excellent companion book to better understand the types of personalities who get drawn to extreme forms of belief, I highly recommend Eric Hoffer's slim masterpiece The True Believer.