Bin Laden network 'plotted hundreds of attacks'

The Guardian ^ | Thursday November 8, 2001 | Julian Borger in Washington

[maquiladora]

The attacks on US targets culminating in the September 11 suicide hijackings were only a fraction of the onslaught planned by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, it emerged yesterday.

Over the past three years, US intelligence detected plots against US embassies in 14 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, and there were over 600 more "credible threats" of attacks. Some were thwarted by arrests or stepped up security. Others appear to have been suspended or may still be pending.

The global extent of al-Qaida's terrorist ambitions is revealed in a new book by Peter Bergen, CNN's terrorism analyst, who interviewed the Saudi fugitive in Afghanistan in 1997. The book, Holy War Inc.- Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden, portrays al-Qaida as a multinational corporation with "investments" in terrorist cells all over the world. Mr Bergen argues that if Bin Laden is killed, other members will take his place, including possibly his son Mohammed, or the "eminence grise" of the organisation, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

For about a year, Bin Laden kept in touch with his empire through a computer-sized satellite telephone bought from a New York company for $7,500 in 1996, but he soon became aware his conversations were being intercepted by US satellites. Since then, Mr Bergen writes, he has been communicating by radio or in person, rendering the huge US surveillance operation largely futile.

According to the book, al-Qaida plotted attacks on three US embassies this year, in Yemen, Bangladesh and India. The Indian plot was foiled by the arrest of two men in New Delhi with six kilos of high explosive. The mastermind behind the attack, Mohamed Omar al-Harazi, was also the cell operations leader in the attack on the US Cole warship last year.

Holy War Inc. plays down the CIA's role in creating the Afghan-based Islamic terrorist groups during the 1980s. During the war against the Soviet army, Bin Laden had closer links with Saudi intelligence, Mr Bergen reports. Bin Laden was "effectively working as an arm of Saudi intelligence".

[1Old Pro]

Since then, Mr Bergen writes, he has been communicating by radio or in person, rendering the huge US surveillance operation largely futile.

Oh really...The U.S. has failed??? I beg to differ, it appears that Bin Ladan's ability to communicate is futile. Heck, a radio's range might be 5 miles, and how many people visit his cave to talk in person?? I'd say he's boxed in with little effective means to communicate at distance or in a timely fashion.

[princess leah]

Yes, and while in a jail cell, if he happens to get beaten to death by other cell mates, well that's prison life!

[MurryMom]

Little Dumbya has really done a great job reducing partisan rancor and sowing of domestic discord among his fellow Repukies, hasn't he?

(end sarcasm)

[Ciexyz]

How in the world did the Al-Qaeda network get to be so powerful and so extensive throughout the world? Someone was asleep at the wheel (or accepting bribes).

By the way, I'm listening to Condoleeza Rice on Fox News. Very impressive lady, she means business.

[cake_crumb]

"Someone was asleep at the wheel (or accepting bribes)."

Someone asleep on the wheel or accepting bribes during the Clinton Administration??? Unheard of !! You go wash your mouth out with soap right NOW! LOL

[cake_crumb]

Not to mention 8 more years about being lied to about the true state of the economy, while bloated tech stocks are traded with impugnity, using Monopoly-money to pay for them. Oh, there's also the "prosperity" of having a government that nearly taxes it's citizens out of existence in order to pay for that "prosperity".

Then there's the 8 years of "peace" we had while the WTC was bombed the first time, US embassies were bombed, Somalia, Kosovo, Oklahoma City, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Elian, Vince Foster and the rest of the mysterious deaths, etc. Yeah, I remember how "peaceful" those 8 years were.

Gosh, I miss all that "peace and prosperity" !

[kidd]

Dear MurryMoron - Here's more from cake_crumb:

Not to mention 8 more years about being lied to about the true state of the economy, while bloated tech stocks are traded with impugnity, using Monopoly-money to pay for them. Oh, there's also the "prosperity" of having a government that nearly taxes it's citizens out of existence in order to pay for that "prosperity". Then there's the 8 years of "peace" we had while the WTC was bombed the first time, US embassies were bombed, Somalia, Kosovo, Oklahoma City, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Elian, Vince Foster and the rest of the mysterious deaths, etc. Yeah, I remember how "peaceful" those 8 years were. Gosh, I miss all that "peace and prosperity" !

[TonyInOhio]

Lordy, she's off her meds again.

Seek help. Now.

[MamaLucci]

Over 80% of Americans disagree with your opinion(everybody has one)of President Bush.
That would put you in the leftwing, extremist category of the SoreLoserman party.
You fancy yourself a "progressive", but at this point, you are on the political fringe.

[bribriagain]

I see the FR resident loony is back with her comedy relief.

[xm177e2]

Actually, I believe it was their wrestling team.

[michaelt]

You're delusional, but that is the effect of years of thinking like a Democrat, so it's more sad than shocking.

After all, most Republicans/conservatives actually have more compassion than most Democrats/liberals. And you're not the only evidence of that.

[GVnana]

God forbid, we might have had to suffer through 8 more years of peace and prosperity. Thank God that Dumbya's term is limited to 4 long years.

OH PALEEZE!! The fifth column, liberal hand-wringing, moral equivalency thread is over here: Clinton calls terror a U.S. debt to past

Washington Post:Bill Clinton, the former president, said yesterday that terror has existed in America for hundreds of years and the nation is "paying a price today" for its past of slavery and for looking "the other way when a significant number of native Americans were dispossessed and killed."

You can get a taste of what it's like to go down in flames.

[an amused spectator]

Little Dumbya has really done a great job reducing partisan rancor and sowing of domestic discord among his fellow Repukies, hasn't he?

Dunno about that, but from the looks of Hitlary's face lately, the reaction of the country to "Dumbya's" handling of this Two Towers business has given her a nuclear wedgie.

;-)

[Alamo-Girl]

Will do! Thanks for the heads up!

[bjcintennessee]

MurrayMom's post gave me the idea of finding some left-wing web-site, lurking a bit, then posting my views and sitting back and enjoying the attacks.

Unfortunately, I don't know any places to visit and could use a bit of help from the FReepers. Are there any leftist websites that are equivalent to the FReepers?

[piasa]

For about a year, Bin Laden kept in touch with his empire through a computer-sized satellite telephone bought from a New York company for $7,500 in 1996, but he soon became aware his conversations were being intercepted by US satellites.

The guy who bought the satellite phone is Ziad Khaleel aka Ziyad Sadaqa, who was given the task by al Qaeda's Khaled al Fawwaz :

In the mid-to-late 90s, Ziyad Khaleel finally ran afoul of federal authorities in the United States for taking his orders not from Musa Abu Marzook, but rather from the top advisors of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. In November 1996, senior al Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz instructed Ziyad Khaleel to purchase a $7,500 satellite telephone for personal use by bin Laden. Between 1996 and 1998, Khaleel replenished the phone with more than 2,000 minutes of telephone air time, also at the behest of Fawwaz. Bin Laden's bustling branch office in Columbia, [Missouri] managed by Khaleel and disguised as a low-income housing project, started attracting far too much attention. The FBI secretly raided the nondescript office and collected extensive intelligence information. -----------“Axis of Evil: Indicted Hamas leader linked to al Qaeda activist in Midwest,"By Evan Kohlmann, NRO, January 2, 2003, 9:20 a.m.

Ziyad Khaleel is the webmaster of the official Hamas web site. The phone is the one Osama bin LAden used to plot the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa.

Ziad Khalil had a satellite phone battery Osama bin Laden wanted for his phone delivered to a guy in Herndon Virginia named Tariq Hamdi.

So, who is Tariq Hamdi?

Self-proclaimed "journalist" Tariq Hamdi is the guy who was selected by the ABC News producer to act as an intermediary between Osama bin Laden and their reporter John Miller, who was seeking to interview Bin Laden. He claimed to be anti-Saddam Hussein but Newsweek cought him making pro-regime statements in the past.

As it happens, Tariq Hamdi appears to have been at one point an Iraqi diplomat accredited to their embassy in Turkey.

Anyway, John Miller and Tariq Hamdi went to Afghanistan together in 1998. Tariq Hamdi brought along the battery that Khaled al Fawwaz had ordered on behalf of bin Laden so he could continue his planning. Shortly after this the US embassies were bombed in Africa.

Hamdi is unindicted co-conspirator 9 in the Sami al Arian case regarding Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

[lndrvr1972]

The problem with the war in Iraq is not working is becuase of 24 hour news service and we are not quoting my cousin who served 3 times in Iraq is even though we are fighting a war we are still worried about opinions of other countries who are not even helping us.
Like Marcellis says in Pulp Fiction "We need to get medevial on their asses."

[ladyinred]

For about a year, Bin Laden kept in touch with his empire through a computer-sized satellite telephone bought from a New York company for $7,500 in 1996, but he soon became aware his conversations were being intercepted by US satellites.

Well, now we know how he became aware of this don't we?

[piasa]

He knew of the planning for those plots which took place long before the date they were to be carried out- 2001. AQ plans several years ahead.