Life As A Terrorist, In My Own Words

By Sora Song

Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right-hand man and principal financier, has apparently written a memoir, an account of his life's "work and holy struggle." According to French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard, who has seen the approximately 600-page manuscript recently smuggled out of Afghanistan, the book details al-Zawahiri's reasons for devoting his life to the militant struggle, the significance of jihad and the justification and logic behind the killing of civilians. In short, says Jacquard, the manuscript is an al-Qaeda handbook. "What's really significant about this is the timing," Jacquard notes. "Bombs are falling on Afghanistan, U.S. special troops are apparently now on the ground, and things have got to be really heating up for al-Qaeda, its leaders and its training camps. And yet, amid all that turmoil and chaos, what do they do? They rush through the completion of this document and smuggle it out of Afghanistan and into Europe, where they've made its publication the No. 1 priority." The book, Jacquard says, is meant to be al-Qaeda's "testament," a written form of the group's beliefs that will inspire its followers to persevere--even if all its leaders and bases are destroyed by the U.S.

--Reported by Bruce Crumley/Paris