Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers : Who They Were, Why They Did It

Seeing themselves as soldiers of God, the September 11, 2001, hijackers felt they were fulfilling their religious obligations. "Perfect Soldiers" traces these men's lives and the evolution of their beliefs, putting a human face on a heinous act. 8-page photo insert.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, were a calamity on a scale few had imagined possible. In their aftermath, we exaggerated the men who perpetrated the attacks, shaping hasty and often mistaken reporting into caricatures we could comprehend -- monsters and master criminals equal to the enormity of their crime. In reality, the 9/11 hijackers were unexceptional men, not much different from countless others. It is this ordinary enemy, not the caricature, that we must understand if we are to have a legitimate hope of defeating terrorism.

Using research undertaken in twenty countries on four continents, "Los Angeles Times" correspondent Terry McDermott provides gripping, authoritative portraits of the main players in the 9/11 plot. With brilliant reporting and thoughtful analysis, McDermott brings us a clearer, more nuanced, and in some ways more frightening, understanding of the landmark event of our time.