During interviews conducted by Khaled al Hammadi on August 3, 2004, and between March 30 and April 4, 2005, Saudi Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, recalled: ” ‘According to our security arrangements, if enemy forces surrounded Sheikh Osama and there was no possibility that he would escape, I was to kill him before they could catch him alive. For six months, the period during which I was personal bodyguard, I constantly stood behind his back and accompanied him round the clock. He refused to be captured alive, he would become a martyr, not a captive, and his blood would become a beacon that arouses the zeal and determination of his followers. I remember that he used to say: *Martyrdom rather than captivity.* ‘ ”
– Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, Page 260