AS American sleuths and counter-terrorism experts combed the debris for clues and evidence in Nairobi
AS American sleuths and counter-terrorism experts combed the debris for clues and evidence in Nairobi and Dares Salaam after the one-two-punch bomb blasts that shook the Clinton administration's foreign and national security apparatus, one name has been elevated to Viagran heights as the prime suspect in the blasts—Osama Bin Laden.
No evidence has been authoritatively offered that Osama Bin Laden, a maverick, if not renegade, Saudi multimillionaire, is directly linked to the August 7 bombing 450 miles apart in Kenya and Tanzania. But counter-terrorism experts generally lean toward a consensus that the one-time Afghan war hero is perhaps the mastermind of the ghastly explosions that left several dead, including two Indian Americans who served in the US foreign service.
The state department has pinpointed Bin Laden as a major bankroller of what it calls Islamic extremism, and is Washington's prime suspect in a 1995 car bombing in Riyadh that killed five Americans as well as a June 1996 attack on a military housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 US servicemen. In fact, Stanley Bedlington, a counter-terrorism expert who worked with the CIA, said about Bin Laden: "He more or less predicted what would happen—that there would be attacks against US targets in the next few weeks. And lo and behold it happened."
More importantly, Bin Laden's own words clearly indicate the depth of the hatred he nurtures toward the US. For example, Bin Laden has bluntly asserted: "If someone can kill an American soldier, it is better than wasting time on other matters." In a May 28 conversation with ABC-News, he said: "We do not worry about what America says. I worship Allah, which includes carrying out the jehad to raise Allah's word and evict the Americans from all Muslim land." No wonder then the state department has declared him as "one of the most significant sponsors of Sunni Islamic terrorist groups" around the globe.
According to Yoram Schweitzer, an expert affiliated to the Israel-based International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, "Bin Laden came to see that conflict in terms of Muslim believers vs heretics. In his view, the term 'heretics' embraces the 'pragmatic' Arab regimes (including his homeland, Saudi Arabia) and the US, which he sees as taking over the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina and assisting the Jews in their conquest of Palestine."
According to Schweitzer's assessment, "Bin Laden plays an important role in supporting and enlarging the pool of Islamic fighters known as the 'Afghan veterans'." In a chilling warning, he notes: "At the same time he maintains extensive ties with a number of international terror organisations—in Egypt, India, the Philippines and elsewhere. These organisations enjoy the use of Bin Laden's funding, his training camps, and possibly even his many companies around the world. These companies would be invaluable in furnishing logistic support as well as providing cover."
바카라 웹사이트Several years ago, at a Washington power-dinner, this reporter asked a then US lawmaker, who took keen interest in Afghan issues, why the US was "abandoning" Afghanistan after helping the mujahideen rout the then Soviet forces. He responded rather facetiously: "It ain't our problem any more. It's a Muslim problem. It's for them to resolve. If it turns out to be our problem, then we shall worry." That time, it is evident, has come.