THE OATH

“Relationships are an art. You must understand people if you want to win them over,” explains Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, to a group of young potential jihadists. This charismatic man, who personally knew all the perpetrators of the 11^th September attacks and ran bin Laden’s guesthouse in Afghanistan, is obviously quite capable of understanding the motive of potential al-Qaida fighters. THE OATH tells his story and, in stark contrast to it, that of his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s former driver, who spent seven years in Guantánamo and who was tried in a significant test case in 2006. This is a tale of family, guilt, loyalty and remorse, which offers a profound insight into the thought patterns of the “others.”