The Black Bear

The Black Bear by Charl Fouad El-Masry, Cairo: Nahded Masr Publishing, 2012. 140pp In a unique piece of work, journalist and writer Charl Fouad El-Masry, who works at Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, documents a rare meeting and sets of interviews with an unnamed personal bodyguard of the late Osama Bin Laden. El-Masry asks the bodyguard straight and direct questions, which lead to an understanding of the secret world of Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, killed last year by US forces in Pakistan. The long interviews reveal how the guard was selected for his delicate role, what training he underwent, in addition to many secrets of the little-known world of Bin Laden, illustrated El-Masry's enthralling language based on the interview with the Yemeni bodyguard.