A review by taylorcali
The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan

4.0

Finally, some “new” (to me) information regarding AQ and the attacks they carried out over the years. I’ve read many books on 9/11, OBL, and AQ, and for the most part, they’re all just the same recycled information. This book, however, gives an insider’s story on the FBI’s investigation of the Kenya bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and, of course, 9/11. The author being Muslim and from Lebanon served him well in his career with the FBI. The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the amount of redacted information. If this was for effect, great, the blacked out pages did their job creating the “classified” appearance. But so much of what appeared redacted in a number of chapters were the pronouns I, me, and my. At that point, I felt like my brain was filling in the blanks to match the verbs.