The conversation shifts dramatically as Bloom draws a parallel between two figures he calls the greatest idealists on the planet. He outlines bin Laden's theology in detail, explaining how the Al-Qaeda leader views Western democracy, human rights, and secular law as enslavement to Satan. Bloom warns that bin Laden's speeches recruit students worldwide to join jihad in Iraq, a message largely unreported by American media.
Bloom delivers his most alarming revelation about French-built Agosta 90B stealth submarines sold to Pakistan, each carrying 16 cruise missiles with nuclear capability. These submarines feature liquid oxygen propulsion systems that allow them to remain submerged for 60 days without surfacing, making them virtually undetectable. He questions whether Pakistan's military dictator Pervez Musharraf truly controls these assets or serves as a puppet shielding bin Laden's access to nuclear weapons.
Key Moments
Bloom frames the war as a clash of civilizations: Bloom argues the biggest mass-behavior battle of the era is a clash of civilizations, a phrase used by both Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden, and says he will use Michael Jackson as his unlikely emblem of one side.
Meeting Michael Jackson and the bubble-baby myth: Bloom describes meeting Michael Jackson for the first time after reading six inches of documents calling him a recluse, and finding him completely normal in person.
Osama as the Saladin of the Islamic world: Bloom argues that within two weeks of 9/11, posters and toys of bin Laden circulated across the Islamic world and that he became a Saladin-class hero, more compelling than even Khomeini.
The Korean steel-mill parable for terrorist training: Bloom tells how Park Chung-hee had 3,000 South Koreans rehearse steel-mill operations in an empty field for three years, then dominated the global steel industry, and uses it as a parable for taking al-Qaeda's WMD training drills seriously.
350,000 tons of unsecured Soviet nuclear material: Bloom claims 350,000 tons of Soviet nuclear material remain unsecured with no count of what is missing, and recounts a Pakistani journalist's interview in which al-Zawahiri laughed and said al-Qaeda already has suitcase weapons.