Upcoming, updated Bin Laden books

Coming swiftly after Bin Laden’s death, an ebook of essays entitled ‘Beyond Bin Laden: America and the Future of Terror’ will be available May 9 for just $1.99. It includes contributions from several heavyweights: former secretary of state James A. Baker III, Karen Hughes, who was a security advisor to President George W. Bush, and Richard N. Haass, chair of the Council on Foreign relations. Journalist Peter Bergen, author of ‘The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda’ (2011), has signed on to write a book tentatively titled ‘The Manhunt.’ Coming in August, ‘Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda,’ by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, is getting a new chapter that will illuminate how America’s counterterrorism strategies led to the May raid on Bin Laden’s compound. Three books coming in September -- the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks -- may cry out for updates incorporating news of Bin Laden’s death: ‘Rock the Casbah: How Sheikhs, Comedians, Rappers, and Women Are Challenging Osama bin Laden’ by Robin Wright, Debora Scroggins’ ‘Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui’ and ‘The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda’ by former FBI agent Ali H Soufan with Daniel Freedman. In fiction, Richard North Patterson’s latest book was sort of (but, we hope, not entirely) prescient: ‘The Devil’s Light’ posits the possibility of a nuclear attack on Israel by Al Qaeda with weapons stolen from Pakistan. It was published May 3.