Fatal Visions

Three months before September 11,1 was waiting nervously in my office at United Press International in Washington for a phone call or e-mail from “somewhere in Afghanistan.” Journalistic boy wonder Arnaud de Borchgrave, about 75 years old at the time, was rattling over the Afghan hills on UPI’s behalf towards a meeting with Osama bin Laden. If Arnaud returned with an interview (and he had known Osama since the terrorist was a boy) it would be another one of his world-beating scoops.

When Arnaud finally contacted us, he was crestfallen. He had got within 200 yards of Osama, who was himself willing to be interviewed. But the Taliban had, at the last moment, withdrawn its permission and made Arnaud turn back. He had done so—but with a very substantial consolation prize: an interview with the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Omar, only the second he had ever given. This was, moreover, a terrific interview. Arnaud’s sympathetic, non-hectoring technique (“Really? That’s fascinating. How did you manage that?”) had lured the mullah, like so many others, into dangerous frankness. It was an interview with a gathering storm.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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Three months before September 11,1 was waiting nervously in my office at United Press International in Washington for a phone call or e-mail from “somewhere in Afghanistan.” Journalistic boy wonder Arnaud de Borchgrave, about 75 years old at the time, was rattling over the Afghan hills on UPI’s behalf towards a meeting with Osama bin Laden. If Arnaud returned with an interview (and he had known Osama since the terrorist was a boy) it would be another one of his world-beating scoops.

When Arnaud finally contacted us, he was crestfallen. He had got within 200 yards of Osama, who was himself willing to be interviewed. But the Taliban had, at the last moment, withdrawn its permission and made Arnaud turn back. He had done so—but with a very substantial consolation prize: an interview with the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Omar, only the second he had ever given. This was, moreover, a terrific interview. Arnaud’s sympathetic, non-hectoring technique (“Really? That’s fascinating. How did you manage that?”) had lured the mullah, like so many others, into dangerous frankness. It was an interview with a gathering storm.