Peter Bergen Lands Osama Bin Laden Manhunt Book Deal

CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen — who is speaking at Asia Society in New York on Thursday, May 5 — has already signed on to write a book about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In a press release, Crown Publishers, part of Random House, said Bergen will produce "an immersive, definitive account of the operation that killed the world's most wanted man." The book is tentatively titled The Manhunt. No publication date was announced.

More from the press release:

Drawing upon access to senior U.S. government and military officials as well as key political and intelligence figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Bergen will paint a multi-dimensional portrait of the hunt for bin Laden over the past decade, as well as of the recent campaign that gradually tightened the noose around him and culminated in his being killed in a firefight with United States special forces in Pakistan on Sunday.

Bergen is the bestselling author of The Longest War, Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know. In 1997, Bergen and CNN colleague Peter Arnett scored a now famous 1997 interview with bin Laden. It was bin Laden's first televised interview, and in it he repeated his declaration of a holy war on the United States.

On Thursday, Bergen will discuss what's next for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Al Qaeda with TIME columnist Joe Klein. The program will also be a live webcast on AsiaSociety.org/Live from 6:30 to 8:00 pm ET. Submit questions for Bergen, to be asked at the event, to [email protected].

Sources: The New York Times and The Washington Post

For complete Asia Society coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden, click here.

Afghanistan and Pakistan after Osama: A Global Dialogue 5/5/11