THE GW-OSAMA CONNECTION--THE MONEY FUNNEL FROM BUSH TO OSAMA BIN LADEN
20 August 1998 TEXT: U.S. GOVERNMENT FACTSHEET ON USAMA BIN LADIN (Saudi advocates destruction of United States) (860) (The following U.S. government factsheet was distributed by the Defense Department August 20, 1998.) Usama Bin Ladin was born around 1955 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is the youngest son of Muhammad Bin Ladin, a wealthy Saudi of Yemeni origin and founder of the Bin Ladin Group, a construction firm heavily involved with Saudi Government contracts. Usama Bin Ladin left Saudi Arabia to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan in 1979. In the mid-1980s he co-founded the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) or Services Office, to help funnel fighters and money to the Afghan resistance in Peshawar with a Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood member named 'Abdallah 'Azzam. The MAK ultimately established recruitment centers around the world -- including in the U.S., Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan -- that enlisted, sheltered, and transported thousands of individuals from over 50 countries to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. It also organized and funded paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bin Ladin imported heavy equipment to cut roads and tunnels and to build hospitals and storage depots in Afghanistan.
Bin Ladin split from 'Azzam in the late 1980s to extend his campaign to all corners of the globe: 'Azzam remained focused only on support to Muslims waging military campaigns. Bin Ladin formed a new organization in 1988 called al-Qa'ida -- the military "base." After 'Azzam was killed by a car bomb in late 1989, the MAK split, with the extremist faction joining Bin Ladin's organization.
Bin Ladin returned to work in his family's Jeddah-based construction business after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, but he continued his organization to support opposition movements in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Bin Ladin's anti-government activities prompted the Saudi government to expel him in 1991, after which he relocated to Sudan. Although the Afghan war had ended, al-Qa'ida has remained a formidable organization consisting of mujahedin of many nationalities who had previously fought with Bin Ladin. Many of these have remained loyal to and continue working with him today.
In May 1996, Sudan expelled Bin Ladin, largely in response to U.S. insistence and to the threat of UN sanctions following Sudan's alleged complicity in the attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995. Within a month, Bin Ladin took refuge in Afghanistan, where his support for and participation in Islamic extremist activities continued.
Bin Ladin's Organization
Al-Qa'ida's goal, in Bin Ladin's words, is to "unite all Muslims and to establish a government which follows the rule of the Caliphs." Bin Ladin has stated that the only way to establish the Caliphate is by force. Al-Qa'ida's goal, therefore, is to overthrow nearly all Muslim governments, which Bin Ladin views as "corrupt," to drive Western influence from those countries, and eventually to abolish state boundaries.
Al-Qa'ida is multi-national, with members from numerous countries and with a worldwide presence. Senior leaders in the organization are also senior leaders in other terrorist organizations, including those designated by the Department of State as foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya and the Egyptian al-Jihad. Al-Qa'ida seeks a global radicalization of existing Islamic groups and the creation of radical Islamic groups where none exist.
Al-Qa'ida supports Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, and now Kosovo. It also trains members of terrorist organizations from such diverse countries as the Philippines, Algeria, and Eritrea.
Anti-U.S. Agenda
Bin Ladin advocates the destruction of the United States, which he sees as the chief obstacle to reform in Muslim societies. Since 1996, his anti-U.S. rhetoric has escalated to the point of calling for worldwide attacks on Americans and our allies, including civilians.
-- Bin Ladin publicly issued his "Declaration of War" against the United States in August 1996.
-- When anti-U.S. attacks did not materialize immediately, he explained the delay: "If we wanted to carry out small operations, it would have been easy to do so immediately after the statements. Even the nature of the battle requires good preparation."
-- In November 1996 he pronounced as "praiseworthy terrorism" the bombings in Riyadh and at Khobar in Saudi Arabia, promising that other attacks would follow. He admitted carrying out attacks on U.S. military personnel in Somalia and Yemen, declaring that "we used to hunt them down in Mogadishu."
-- He stated in an interview broadcast in February 1997 that "if someone can kill an American soldier, it is better than wasting time on other matters."
-- In February 1998, Bin Ladin announced the creation of a new alliance of terrorist organizations, the "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders." The Front included the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Harakat ul-Ansar, and two other groups. The Front declared its intention to attack Americans and our allies, including civilians, anywhere in the world.
-- In May 1998, he stated at a press conference in Afghanistan that we would see the results of his threats "in a few weeks."
February 12, 1989 Bush OKs Military Aid For Rebels ByAP
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) - President Bush has approved continuing U.S. military aid to the Mujahadeen rebels resisting the Soviet-imposed government in Afghanistan, an administration spokesman said Saturday. Deputy press secretary Steve Hart confirmed that Bush had decided Friday to continue helping the rebels. "The president met with his National Security Council," Hart said, "and reaffirmed U.S. policy" of continuing the flow of money, arms and supplies to the rebels..."
March 16, 1989 Column: LEONARD LARSEN Financing Afghan guerillas may return harsh dividends ByLEONARD LARSEN
WASHINGTON - The situation in Afghanistan is fluid, as the diplomats say, but it's clear the "freedom fighters" American taxpayers financed with more than $2 billion have now become "holy warriors" with no debt of friendship to the United States.
In celebrating the rebel victory, Americans might also contemplate the possibility that other Islamic "holy warriors" may soon be perched near airports around the world, targeting civilian planes with the deadly U.S. missiles we sent to the "freedom fighters."
June 6, 1989 Pentagon Plans Sale Of Arms to Pakistan ByAP
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon notified Congress on Monday it had approved sales of torpedoes and anti-aircraft missiles valued at $68 million to Pakistan. The plans were announced the day Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was scheduled to arrive in the capital for talks with President Bush, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and congressional leaders. Pakistan has supported anti-Communist fighters battling the Marxist government in neighboring Afghanistan, and it has served as a conduit for U.S. aid destined for the rebels..."
July 26, 1990 Baker denies accord in Afghan dispute ByAP
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)..." The Bush administration has been hoping for a breakthrough to end the war between Afghan government forces armed by the Soviet Union and a guerrilla coalition fighting with American- supplied weapons funneled through Pakistan..."
Bin Laden, US' own creation, becomes its enemy no 1 Chidanand Rajghatta --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, AUG 21: Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire-turned-renegade charged with international terrorism, bears a striking similarity to the late Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The resemblance is more than just facial. Like Bhindranwale, Bin Laden was created by the very forces which are now seeking to destroy him. Experts are almost unanimous in saying that bin Laden is a creature of a US foreign policy which recklessly fed and nurtured him and his Islamic warriors with million of dollars worth of money and arms to fight the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. The money was funnelled largely through Pakistan's maverick Inter-Services Intelligence. Even at that time, Bin Laden and his holy warriors had made it clear that the US was as much anathema to them as the communists.
The CIA is now trying to destroy the same camps it helped set up, Robert Fisk, a British writer who covered the region and who met bin Laden at his camp recently said on Friday in an interview on National Public Radio. Fisk said Bin Laden did not appear to be such a fearsome international terrorist that the US was making him out to be. On the contrary, he was isolated, lonely, virtually unlistened to, and was constantly trying to know what was happening in other parts of the world.
US officials have made Bin Laden out to be a terrorist mastermind operating out of a high-tech cave filled with satellite phones and other gizmos overseeing a worldwide network of extremist organisations. Bin Laden is said to be around 43 years old. Born in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, he is the youngest son of Mohammed bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who founded the Bin Laden Group, a construction firm that thrived on Saudi government contracts. Osama Bin Laden is said to have inherited some $ 300 million from his father. In his mid-20s he left Saudi Arabia for Afghanistan to fight in the so-called Jihad against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Several accounts have it that he was cultivated by the CIA, which helped him set up camps in and around Khost, the same town now bombed by US forces.
After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to work in his father's construction business. But he soon began to oppose the Saudi royal family, especially after the Gulf War when US troops landed in Saudi Arabia and remained there. He launched a local movement to force US troops out of the country, railing against the defilement of the Muslim holy places of Mecca and Medina.
But he was thrown out of the country by the rulers and was virtually disowned by his family. He relocated to Sudan in 1991 and resumed his construction operations there. Sudanese officials said they expelled him in 1996 under US pressure after Washington suspected him to be indulging in terrorist activities.
US officials think he and his followers were involved in the bombing of US training facility in Riyadh in 1995 which killed seven people (including two Indians) and the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 which killed 19 US servicemen.
Bin Laden relocated to Afghanistan in 1996 and has been on the US terrorism watchlist since. Earlier this year, the US ambassador to UN Bill Richardson contacted the Afghan Taliban rulers to ask for bin Laden but was reportedly turned down. In several interviews this year, bin Laden openly issued threats to the US, calling for a holy war to evict the infidels from Saudi Arabia. In February this year, he is said to have issued a fatwaurging holy Islamic warriors to kill Americans everywhere, whether military or civilian. In June this year, he is said to have presided over a conclave of extremist leaders from across the world in Peshawar under the umbrella of the Islamic Front, which endorsed the fatwaand decided upon an undisclosed course of action.
American intelligence agencies tracked all these movements closely and issued a heightened alert warning to its US personnel and establishments in South Asia and the Middle East. But bin Laden, they now say, struck in East Africa." |
