``Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stop its support for Israel, which is killing our children,'' the bearded, Saudi-born fugitive said.
He added that the tape was being issued to mark about three months since the attacks on New York and Washington and two months after the United States began its bombing of Afghan targets.
The remarks indicated the tape was recorded in early to mid December.
Looking tired but calm, bin Laden was dressed in a clean, camouflage-patterned combat jacket. He sat against a cloth or canvas screen, his Russian-designed submachinegun propped beside him. There was no indication where he was when he recorded the video.
Because the Israel-firsters MADE IT A POINT to insist that 9/11 had nothing to do with Israel. Notice RUSSIA is on his hit list. TIME TO BLAME THE RUSSIANS SHILL-BOY. BS Mr. Strawman. Most supporters of Israel took the position that it was ONE of the elements in his Pan Arab Islamic take and not even a major element.
Jane's Report on Osama and The Qaeda
To give all a perspective of how international terrorism is organized, funded, and operates. One can use this as model to better understand how events such as those this week can occur without our intelligence agencies knowledge and the depth to which the US must engage if we are truly serious about waging a war against terrorism.
Subject: Article on Osama Bin Laden Copyright 2001 Jane's Information Group Limited, All Rights Reserved Jane's
Intelligence Review August 1, 2001 BYLINE: Phil Hirschkorn, Rohan Gunaratna, Ed Blanche, and Stefan Leader
HIGHLIGHT: During the 1980s, resistance fighters in Afghanistan developed a world-wide recruitment and support network with the aid of the USA, Saudi Arabia and other states. After the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, this network, which equipped, trained and funded thousands of Muslim fighters, came under the control of Osama bin Laden.
In light of evidence from the recently completed US embassy bombing trials, Phil Hirschkorn, Rohan Gunaratna, Ed Blanche, and Stefan Leader examine the genesis, operational methods and organizational structure of the Bin Laden network - Al-Qaeda.
AL-QAEDA
Al-Qaeda ('The Base') is a conglomerate of groups spread throughout the world operating as a network. It has a global reach, with a presence in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Xinjiang in China, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Mindanao in the Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kashmir, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia, and in the West Bank and Gaza.
Since its creation in 1988, Osama bin Laden has controlled Al-Qaeda. As such, he is both the backbone and the principal driving force behind the network.
THE ORIGINS
The origins: Osama bin Laden, alias Osama Mohammad al Wahad, alias Abu Abdallah, alias Al Qaqa, born in 1957, is the son of Mohammad bin Awdah bin Laden of Southern Yemen. When he moved to Saudi Arabia, Osama's father became a construction magnate and renovated the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, making the Bin Ladens a highly respected family both within the Saudi royal household and with the public. At Jeddah University, Osama bin Laden's worldview was shaped by Dr Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian of Jordanian origin. An influential figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, Azzam is regarded as the historical leader of Hamas.
After graduation, Bin Laden became deeply religious. His exact date of arrival in Pakistan or Afghanistan remains disputed but some Western intelligence agencies place it in the early 1980s. Azzam and Prince Turki bin Faisal bin Abdelaziz, chief of security of Saudi Arabia, were his early mentors, and later Dr Ayman Zawahiri, became his religious mentor. In 1982-1984 Azzam founded Maktab al Khidmat lil-mujahidin al-Arab (MaK), known commonly as the Afghan bureau. As MaK's principal financier, Bin Laden was considered the deputy to Azzam, the leader of MaK.
Other leaders included Abdul Muizz, Abu Ayman, Abu Sayyaf, Samir Abdul Motaleb and Mohammad Yusuff Abass. At the height of the foreign Arab and Muslim influx into Pakistan-Afghanistan from 1984 - 1986, Bin Laden spent time travelling widely and raising funds in the Arab world. He recruited several thousand Arab and Muslim youths to fight the Soviet Union and MaK channeled several billion dollars' worth of Western governmental, financial and material resources for the Afghan jihad. MaK worked closely with Pakistan, especially the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the Saudi government and Egyptian governments, and the vast Muslim Brotherhood network.
Both the fighting and relief efforts were assisted by two banks - Dar al Mal al Islami, founded by Turki's brother Prince Mohammad Faisal in 1981 and Dalla al Baraka founded by King Fahd's brother- in-law in 1982. The banks channeled funds to 20 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the most famous of which was the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). Both IIRO and the Islamic Relief Agency functioned under the umbrella of the World Islamic League led by Mufti Abdul Aziz bin Baz. In addition to benefiting from the vast resources and expertise of governments channeled through domestic and foreign sources, MaK developed an independent global reach through several mosques and charities throughout the world. Bin Laden's relationship with Azzam suffered towards the end of the anti-Soviet Afghan campaign. The dispute was over Azzam's support for Ahmadshah Massoud, the current leader of the Northern Alliance fighting the Taliban.
Bin Laden preferred Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former prime minister and leader of the Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party), who was both anti-communist and anti-Western.
When the Soviets withdrew, Bin Laden decided to form a group that could unite the whole Muslim world into a single entity. Despite their differences, Azzam and Bin Laden worked together until Azzam was assassinated in September 1989. Although Soviet troops withdrew that year, they installed the pro-communist leader Najibullah in Kabul. MaK strengthened the organization in order to fight the Najibullah regime and to channel resources to other international campaigns where Muslims were perceived as victims. In addition to benefiting from MaK's pan-Islamic, as opposed to pan-Arab, ideology, Al-Qaeda drew from the vast financial resources and technical expertise mobilized during the decade-long anti-Soviet campaign.
At the end of the campaign Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia where he helped Saudi Arabia to create the first jihad group in South Yemen under the leadership of Tariq al Fadli.
After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the failure of Saudi rulers to honor their pledge to expel foreign troops when the Iraqi threat diminished led Bin Laden to start a campaign against the Saudi royal house. He claimed the Saudi rulers were false Muslims and it was necessary to install a true Islamic state in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi regime deported him in 1992 and revoked his citizenship in 1994.
Meanwhile, the National Islamic Front, led by Hasan al Turabi, came to power in Sudan and sent a delegation to Pakistan. Bin Laden had moved his infrastructure of well-trained and experienced fighters from Pakistan to Sudan beginning in 1989 and remained there until international pressure forced him to return to Afghanistan.
THE ORGANIZATION
The organization: Vertically, Al-Qaeda is organized with Bin Laden, the emir-general, at the top, followed by other Al-Qaeda leaders and leaders of the constituent groups. Horizontally, it is integrated with 24 constituent groups. The vertical integration is formal, the horizontal integration, informal. Immediately below Bin Laden is the Shura majlis, a consultative council. Four committees - military, religio-legal, finance, and media - report to the majlis. Handpicked members of these committees - especially the military committee - conduct special assignments for Bin Laden and his operational commanders. To preserve operational effectiveness at all levels, compartmentalization and secrecy are paramount.
While the organization has evolved considerably since the embassy bombings, the basic structure of the consultative council and the four committees remains intact. Bin Laden's intention to expand his operations has been curbed by the post-bombing security environment, and both Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have become increasingly clandestine. Al-Qaeda membership is estimated at between 3,000-5,000 men, most of whom fight alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance and are designated the 055 Brigade.
It has camps in Khost, Mahavia, Kabul, Jalalabad, Kunar, Kandahar, and depots in Tora Bora and Liza. There are no female members.
In terms of recruitment of experienced fighters, Bin Laden has benefited from his vast Mujahideen database, created during the anti-Soviet campaign.
Al-Qaeda support and operational cells have been detected and neutralized in Italy, Germany, UK, Canada, USA, Tanzania, Kenya, Yemen and Albania, but they have since been replaced. Cells have also been identified in about 50 countries including Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, and the Philippines. Al-Qaeda operational cells comprised of 'commandos' operate under Mohammad Atef, alias Abu Hafs. They are mostly suicide members. The organization also has a Security Service led by Mohammad Mousa.
THE IDEOLOGY
The ideology: Al-Qaeda owes its extensive support and operational infrastructure to its broad ideological disposition. Bin Laden's ideology appeals to both Middle Eastern and non-Middle Eastern groups that are Islamic in character. Although an Arab, Bin Laden advocates pan-Islam, not pan-Arabism. His thinking in this direction was greatly influenced both by Azzam, his Palestinian mentor, and to a lesser extent by Hasan Turabi, the spiritual leader of Sudan. To put his ideology into practice, Bin Laden dispatched several hundred Afghan veterans to join Islamic groups in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, boosting the domestic and international guerrilla and terrorist agenda of these groups. Bin Laden's cadres are drawn from a 50,000 strong pool of two generations of Afghan veterans. The first generation fought in the multinational Afghan campaign in 1979-89, the second generation in campaigns in Tajikistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kashmir, Mindanao, Chechnya, Lebanon, Nagorno-Karabakh, Algeria and Egypt.
These fighters are devout Muslims inspired by Islamic scholars and are willing to sacrifice their lives for Islam. Bin Laden supports three types of groups.
First, groups fighting regimes led by Muslim rulers, which they believe, are compromising Islamic ideals and interests (as in Egypt, Algeria and Saudi Arabia).
Second, groups that are fighting regimes perceived as oppressing and repressing their Muslim populace (as in Kosovo, India and Indonesia).
Third, groups fighting regimes to establish their own Islamic state (as in Palestine, Chechnya, Dagestan and Mindanao). Bin Laden has also directed his efforts and resources to fight the USA, a country he sees as a direct threat to Islam, closely followed by Europe, Israel, Russia and India in importance as targets.
Al-Qaeda's broad ideology has enabled it to infiltrate many Islam-driven groups. After realizing the potential for inflicting damage to Europe and North America, Al-Qaeda infiltrated the European network of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Arme - GIA) after 1997.
Although the GIA is an Al-Qaeda constituent, the Al-Qaeda fatwa did not claim GIA as one of its signatories, possibly because it believed that exposing the association would be counterproductive.
Compared to other groups that openly signed the fatwa, the GIA had a greater reach into the West.
Most of Al-Qaeda's membership is drawn from the two Egyptian groups: Islamic Group of Egypt (Gamaya al Islamiya) and Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Al Gamaya Al Islamiya). Khamareddine Kherbane, an Afghan veteran, was close to both the GIA and Al-Qaeda leaderships. Two Algerian groups, the GIA of Antar Zouabri and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat - GSPC) of Hassan Hattab developed ties with Al-Qaeda early on, but large-scale penetration of Algerian groups came in 1997-8. Bin Laden also cemented ties with Jaish Aden Abin al Islami of Yemen, and members of several small Islamist parties from Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and elsewhere also joined. With the exception of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayaaf Group (ASG), Al-Qaeda links with Asian Islamist groups, notably those fighting in Kashmir, developed in the second half of the 1990s.
Other Al-Qaeda constituent or affiliated organizations include al Jamaa essalafya lid Daawa wal Q it al, en Nahda, Sipah e Sahaba Kashmir, Hizb-al-Islami in Kashmir, Harakat ul Mujahjideen and Harakat-ul Jihad in Kashmir, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Occupied Territories and the Islamic Party of Turkistan.
Due to fears of penetration, especially since the embassy bombings, Al-Qaeda is likely to become more discreet in its decision making process, with fewer operatives knowing the next target. Target selection, preparation and acquisition will remain confined to Bin Laden and a handful of leaders in the military committee.
SOURCES OF SUPPORT
Sources of support: Bin Laden's state sponsors have included Sudan, Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan has not supported Bin Laden's terrorist campaigns but it does assist several hundred Afghan veterans currently serving directly under Al-Qaeda, notably Harakat ul Mujahidin which is engaged in fighting Indian troops in Kashmir.
Bin Laden's funding sources vary. His personal inherited fortune is in the region of US$280 to $300 million according to the estimates of Western intelligence agencies. Wealthy Arab well-wishers in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf states, continue to support Bin Laden and sympathetic organizations. Bin Laden is also known to siphon funds from overt Muslim charities. A wide variety of banks in the Gulf are used, with Bin Laden front organizations transacting businesses. The transfers of funds occur via international banks in the Gulf where his brother-in-law Mohammad Jamal Khalifa is based. He is responsible for managing a part of the financial network and manages significant investments, notably in Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. His businesses range from trade in diamonds to fish.
Despite some sources saying he has been disowned, Bin Laden has received significant funds from wealthy donors including his family. The distribution of funds was managed by an exiled Saudi businessman in Ethiopia, Sheik Mohammad Hussein Al-Almadi, and the Afghan-based Abu Zubayda, who is thought to be a Palestinian originally named Zein Abedein Mohammad Hassan. Funds are transferred through a number of banks in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
During the 1990s, contributions from Bin Laden's accounts have funded a number of operations, including providing hotel accommodation, safe houses and cars to mount reconnaissance on physical and human targets. His funds have also purchased or manufactured key components for explosive devices. US authorities were able to trace $5,000 transferred by Bin Laden to the operational group in Yemen that attacked the USS Cole. He had specifically allocated funds to video the attack, a task that could not be accomplished.
However, overall evidence suggests the extent of Al-Qaeda funding is limited, a result perhaps of successful US attempts to block finance to and from Al-Qaeda or of limits on communication placed on it by the Taliban. Much Al-Qaeda support is difficult to quantify as it is in the interests of Bin Laden to keep his involvement covert. It is also difficult to assess the validity of US government agency and mass media claims about him, as there are some indications that they exaggerate his influence.
In any case, the embassy bombers received little funding. Ahmad Ressam and his associates, arrested in the USA and Canada in 1999, were involved in either credit card fraud or petty theft; and terrorists associated with Bin Laden arrested in Jordan appear to have financed themselves by bank robberies, burglaries and forged checks, and were planning ransom kidnappings to raise funds. MODUS OPERANDI
Modus operandi: Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman, direct a number of support and strike operations using their own support activists and attack teams. Al-Qaeda's elite consists of experienced Egyptian, Algerian and Yemeni cadres. Al-Qaeda has a high capacity for infiltrating any Muslim community irrespective of size and geographic location. Individually, Al-Qaeda members have joined Muslim communities from New Zealand to India, and the organization has infiltrated both authoritarian and democratic states. In the authoritarian states of the Middle East, especially in the oil-rich Gulf, Al-Qaeda enjoys the support of Islamic philanthropists and foundations.
In emergent democracies, it infiltrates by providing goods and services to Muslims in need. In democracies, it operates by forging links with influential Muslim communities with the aim of soliciting and channeling their support to Muslim communities in need elsewhere. As the lead-up to the 1998 bombings demonstrated, several Al-Qaeda infiltrators were sleepers for several years. In some cases, members who have left have been re-approached by Al-Qaeda leaders for assistance, and have returned to the fold. The Western intelligence community believes there are sleepers in Europe and North America waiting to be activated
STATE RESPONSE
State response: The fight against Al-Qaeda poses several challenges. Bin Laden has built an organization difficult to disrupt, degrade and destroy. The intelligence community is unfamiliar with the network's fluid and dynamic structure and the past offers little guidance. The time-tested strategy to destroy a politically motivated, armed group is to target the core and penultimate leadership, but in Bin Laden's case, this is a difficult proposition. In Sudan, several rings of Sudanese as well as Al-Qaeda bodyguards protected him and in Afghanistan, the Taliban provides security as well as Al-Qaeda bodyguards.
If Bin Laden is eliminated, he is likely to be replaced by another Islamist, although none in the second tier possess his charisma. The penultimate leadership is operationally significant, and so Al-Qaeda is likely to remain operational even if Bin Laden is captured or killed. Both his contemporaries and successors are likely to draw lessons from the unique experience and expertise of long-range land and sea operations nurtured by Bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda is resilient for four principal reasons:
1- it is the symbol of resistance against Western domination. Although Bin Laden is a veritable icon of terrorism to the West, in parts of the Islamic world he is seen as the only leader that can stand up to the big Satan (the USA) and the little Satan (Israel). To draw maximum support, Al-Qaeda created the 'World Islamic Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders'. As such, Al-Qaeda has a ready base of recruits, supporters and sympathizers. To deepen and widen Al-Qaeda's reach, Bin Laden departs from tradition and embraces a pan-Islamic view. As a result, Al-Qaeda draws the support of both Arab and non-Arab Muslims. With time, Al-Qaeda's vast active and potential support base will grow and mature;
2- Al-Qaeda has built strategic depth by maintaining leadership and operational links with some of the largest and deadliest Middle Eastern and Asian terrorist groups. As an experienced practitioner, Bin Laden's stature and personal relationships with the leaders of these groups facilitated Al-Qaeda links. Bin Laden's generosity with funds and, more importantly, words of praise has enabled him to cement strong working relationships at both leadership and operational levels. Although conceptualized, planned and even financed by Al-Qaeda, the targeting end of terrorist operations will be by constituent groups such as GIA, MILF, and ASG. Attributing individual attacks and finding the perpetrators will be a long process;
3- Landlocked Afghanistan provides Al-Qaeda with a political, security and geographic shield, which, by imposing sanctions, the international community has only strengthened. Afghanistan's isolation has major implications for intelligence collection, especially for the generation of high-grade intelligence, which usually comes through human sources. Without people-to-people contact it is difficult to influence their thinking;
4- Al-Qaeda physically and/or ideologically penetrates international and domestic Islamic NGOs throughout the world. Thus the Al-Qaeda infrastructure is inseparably enmeshed with the religious, social and economic fabric of Muslim communities worldwide. Host countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and even the USA, are hesitant to investigate Islamic charities, including foreign charities. Nonetheless, Al-Qaeda is not invulnerable. As was seen in Sudan in 1995, diplomatic and political pressure and shortage of resources can threaten the network. Similarly, when Libya pressured Sudan, Bin Laden asked Al-Qaeda's Libyan members to leave the group. Thanks mainly to US intelligence agencies, Al-Qaeda has suffered gravely since the embassy bombings but it still retains a high capacity to replenish its losses and wastage. However, Al-Qaeda can be destroyed with the allocation and sustained application of resources, political courage, legal and diplomatic tools.
The key to disrupting, degrading and destroying Al-Qaeda lies in developing a multipronged, multidimensional and multinational strategy that targets the core and the penultimate leadership and the network's sources of finance and supplies.
In Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda forces fight alongside the Taliban. If the Taliban defeats the Northern Alliance, Western intelligence and security agencies fear tens of thousands of foreign and Afghan fighters would then be free to engage in other theatres and other conflicts in which Al-Qaeda might take an interest. Russia, India, China, Europe and the USA have regional interests in Chechnya, Kashmir, Xinjiang, the Balkans and the Middle East, all conflicts in which Islam is a central factor.
Dr Rohan Gunaratna is Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Dissing California is OK (not anti-American), not so with the country which name can't be spoken (that's pro-Osama!)
Osama bin Laden is the first man ever to try to rule the world from a cave.
I don't care what his reasons were. I don't care what he's angry about. I don't care what his childhood was like. I simply want him, and anyone who feels they can attack, assault, spy upon or even mildy taunt to die.
