Eight years, billions of dollars and thousands of dead bodies into the 'global war on terror' - sorry, Mr President, the 'overseas contingency operation' - and we still don't have an answer to one of the fundamental questions: where is Osama bin Laden? Other, of course, than skulking invulnerably in the darker corners of the Western public imagination, where he is plotting to steal nuclear warheads, cooking up GM anthrax, reading (or misreading) the Quran, and making interminable speeches to his acolytes, possibly punctuated by bursts of insane laughter. It's unlikely that the forthcoming book by bin Laden's first wife and fourth son, which emphasises his love of gardening and the World Service, will do much to change that.* Even Blofeld had a cat.

LRB 5 November 2009 | PDF Download