Bob Woodward: Bin Laden should have read my book more closely

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 20 May 2015

Osama bin Laden's extensive digital library inside his Abbottabad, Pakistan, hideout included numerous think tank papers, computer manuals, conspiracy theory books and, as you'd expect, more than a few writings about the 9/11 mastermind himself. Included in the collection: Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward's 2010 examination of the president's early handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Except bin Laden may have missed some crucial information in the book, according to the author himself — information that could have kept him alive.

"If he read Obama's Wars, bin Laden's takeaway should have been Obama does not like war but is willing to use lethal force," Woodward said in an e-mail. "The American commander-in-chief in fact prefers covert Special Forces raids targeted and aimed at capturing or killing known high-value terrorists in their hideouts. A close reading might have sent him back to a mountain cave." [The Washington Post]

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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