Afghanistan - Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin-Laden was born in the city of Riyadh in 1957 the youngest son of Muhammed bin Laden. He was raised in Medina, Munawwara and Hijaz. He went to school in Jedda before studying management and economics in King Abdul Aziz University. Although he describes himself as construction engineer and an agriculturist, he is more famous for being America's biggest nightmare.
He fought against the Russians in Afghanistan between '79 and '89 and raised a number of volunteers from Arab countries. He also helped build tunnels, roads and bunkers using heavy construction equipment he donated. You can visit the huge tunnels he blasted into the Zazi Mountains of Bakhtiar Province for guerrilla hospitals and arms dumps. He still likes to hang out in air-conditioned, cruise-missile-proof caves.
In 1994 he was kicked out of Saudi Arabia and hung out with Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the National Islamic Front. He built the Port Sudan roads (paid for in sesame seeds) invested in agricultural projects and built three training camps for mujahedin.
In May 1996 he was expelled from Sudan and hung out in southern Yemen and some say Afghanistan as well. He came to the world's attention in April 1996, February 1997 and February 1998 when he gave a round robin of interviews to the world's press. He has been fingered for the November 13, 1995, Riyadh Bombing, the June 25, 1998, bombing in Dhahran of the Al-Khobar towers and a number of other events that range from trying to kill the pope, blowing up airliners from the Philippines, the assissination attempts in June 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sudan and in June 1993 of Jordan's Crown Prince Abdullah.
Bring me the head of Clinton!É But can you make that two-day instead of overnight?
Peshawar-based Afghan scholar Abdul Rahim Muslim has offered a reward to anyone to bring him the head of Clinton according to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) "If anyone kills Clinton I will pay a reward of five million afghanis," Rahim rants; "If America sets the price of Osama bin Laden at $5 million, then we can set the price of the American president at five million afghanis" (about $113).
What drives Binny? Well, some say that he always wanted to one up his older brother Salim, who was killed in a hang glider accident in Texas in 1989. He is one of 53 children and the only son of one of his father's 10 wives. Technically he is half Palestinian on his mother's side and half Yemeni on his father's side. Osama was never really taken seriously by the mujahedin in the early days and was even ridiculed as a spoiled brat who expected respect in exchange for his dollars. Osama is no slouch in the toy department-he owns a Gulfstream G-8 business jet. His organization, called "the base" or Al-Qaida, is unique in that there is no government behind it. Essentially, terrorism meets entreprenurialism. In 1997, bin Laden's new Terrorists 'R' Us concept was blown apart when moneyman Sidi al-Madani al-Ghazi Mustafa al-Tayyib was busted and squealed. The CIA has been bragging that they have been tracking his satphone calls as well.
What Osama lacks in popularity in the West he makes up for in directness. In his May 26 ABC interview with John Miller, bin Laden simply said, "Leave Saudi Arabia or die. . . . Allah ordered us in this region to purify the Muslim land of all nonbelievers, and especially in the Arabian Peninsula. . . . We believe that the biggest thieves in the world and the terrorists are the Americans. . . . We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa." The only thing that bin Laden might have overlooked is that he is not a mullah since his degree was in economics and agriculture not religion. It is a bad habit he shares with his close friend Mullah Omar, who is also technically not a mullah.
So let's just say Binny is the bearded Ross Perot of the Middle East. Technically Binny Bang Bang (he keeps going an going and going and going . . .) can now join Castro and Qaddafi for drinks at the Bad Boy's Club, unless the United States keeps turning off his cash flow. A man with 40 brothers, 13 sisters and wealthy patrons can probably play hide the pickle longer than the State Department can. For now bin Laden is a right-wing billionaire (or millionaire or even destitute, depending who you talk to) who combines industrial activity with political activism. Although Laden's chances of creating a hardline Saudi government are about the same as Perot's presidential bid, he's doing just fine in sunny Afghanistan. Laden found a friend in the former jihad buddy Mullah Omar and the Taliban and intends to stay in Jalalabad with about 50 of his family members, his four wives, five kids and twenty truckloads of bodyguards. A tip to up-and-comers, son Muhammed bin Laden (born 1984) is expected to be the heir apparent. To visit Binny just turn left after you leave the last checkpoint heading east out of town. He originally came here from Sudan and gathered around him a group of 200 or so Arab fighters who were trapped inside Afghanistan. They formed the core of a fighting group and bodyguard that ensures that only the quick or the dead will make a snatch attempt to get the $5 million the U.S. government has offered for his arrest and conviction. He can be contacted through 39-year-old Zainul Abideen, alias Abu Zubaida in Pakistan or Harkatul Mujahideen, in the NWFP. In case you wonder what he thinks of Yanquis, his June and February 1998 fatwah cut to the chase: ". . . kill[ing] the Americans and their allies-civilians and military-is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip . . ." Oh, and one other thing: Don't offer him a Pepsi.
Taliban Says Stone
Clinton to Death
Another major setback in Hillary's on- again off-again secret election bid in Afghanistan came in a weekly newspaper published by the militant Islamic group Harakat ul-Ansar. Mullah Omar was quoted as saying that Clinton should be stoned to death for becoming involved with a woman who is not his wife. "Clinton is a confessed sinner and a bad person," Omar was quoted as saying "It is absolutely not possible to negotiate with such a person and he should be removed [from power] and stoned to death. He is of bad character." Hillary then decided to run in New York.
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