The Sword Of Jehad

THE mystery thickens: was a Taliban 'guest' behind last fortnight's brutal blasts outside American missions in Africa? "How can a man living as a refugee in Afghanistan sponsor bomb explosions in distant Africa?" counters Mulla Mohammad Omar, founder of the four-year-old Taliban Islamic Movement. "I don't think Osama Bin Laden is behind the acts of terrorism in Kenya and Tanzania." In a telephonic interview with 바카라 from the movement's headquarters in Kandahar in southwestern Afghanistan, he pointed out that Bin Laden was a guest in Afghanistan and had come to the eastern city of Jalalabad before the city fell to the Taliban in September 1996.

"We told him not to indulge in political or military activities from Afghanistan's soil. Recently, he gave a press conference and we told him that he violated his promise to us not to do so. Still I believe he hasn't got the power to carry out bomb blasts in another corner of the world. I feel some people are waiting for an excuse to blame the Taliban and Bin Laden," says Mulla Omar.

Omar, who is refer red to as Aminul Momineen (commander of the faithful) by his followers, has for the first time publicly defended the Saudi dissident who has been accused by certain Arab and western governments of being the financier of an international Islamic army. In the past, Taliban officials praised him as a good Muslim who took part in the Afghan "jehad" and gave assistance to the Afghan mujahideen and refugees.

When accusing fingers were pointed at Bin Laden after the recent bomb explosions at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Taliban spokesman Mulla Abdul Hye Mutmain said it was premature and wrong to blame the 42-year-old Saudi millionaire for the two incidents. On his part, Bin Laden hasn't yet commented on allegations by sections of the American media and officialdom that he was the top suspect behind the blasts.

In fact, the western media has been citing Bin Laden as a kingpin in Islamic terrorism for a long time now. A 1996 account in the British Independent newspaper said of him: "When the history of the Afghan resistance movement is written, Bin Laden's own contribution to the Mujahedin—and the indirect result of his training and assistance—may turn out to be a turning point in the recent history of militant fundamentalism, even if today, he tries to minimise his role." Bin Laden told the paper: "When the invasion of Afghanistan started, I was enraged and went there at once—I arrived within days, before the end of 1979. Yes, I fought there, but my fellow Muslims did much more than I. Many of them died and I am still alive."

As evidence about the actual culprit is unavailable, if not sparse, speculation abounds and most American commentators rate Bin Laden and his associates as the key suspects. For instance, Kenneth Katzman, the terrorism analyst for Congress, remarked: "I think you have an atomic bomb brewing between Bin Laden, Hezbollah and the Iranians. If these huge forces are married, either could set off the spark. Sooner or later you are going to see more from these people." In a draft report prepared for the Congressional Research Service, Katzman asserted that Bin Laden himself was worth $300 million and "pays an estimated 3,000 Islamic militants".

Osama Bin Laden has been described as a shy man and is married—reportedly with three wives—but is incredibly wary of the press. According to one account, Bin Laden, whose family made a vast fortune in Saudi Arabia in the construction industry over the last few decades, founded the Islamic Salvation Foundation in Saudi Arabia through which he financed initially the Afghan mujahideen, later extending that to radical Islamic groups around the Arab world. The Saudis denied that Bin Laden and others were involved in these activities. Nonetheless, in early 1994 the Saudis revoked bin Laden's nationality—an extremely rare occurrence—and his family, originally from the south Yemeni province of Hadramawt and one of the richest in Saudi Arabia, publicly disowned him.

Reaching him for his reaction is impossible and journalists must wait for him to contact them through a laborious, security-oriented network. In the past, Bin Laden has picked up reporters he wanted to meet, taking care that they were not told much about their destination and the time of their appointment with him. He broke the story of his arrival in Afghanistan in May 1996 from Sudan to a British journalist he knew and later allowed himself to be interviewed by a few Arab and Pakistani journalists.

Recently, a group of 14 Pakistani journalists, including this correspondent, was taken by the Harkatul Ansar, an Islamic organisation active in Afghanistan and Kashmir, to Khost province in southern Afghanistan to meet him. The group had to wait three days to talk to him at a heavily-guarded mountain base and was smuggled across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at night to avoid being caught by the Pakistani border guards. The base where Bin Laden agreed to meet the journalists is referred to as a military training camp for Arab volunteers, some of whom return to fight against the pro-West governments in Egypt and Algeria.

Khost is not the only secret location where Bin Laden has been staying in Afghanistan. On occasions, he has lived in Kandahar, Logar, Kabul and Jalalabad at houses and bases that are guarded round the clock. In fact, it is learnt that his security was fortified further when he was named as one of the prime suspects in the Nairobi and Dar-es Salaam blasts.

When Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan on May 18, 1996, the normally fractious Arabs who had taken refuge there after the end of the "jehad" found not only a leader, but a man with a well-thought-out agenda. This was made amply clear when he went on to launch a global Islamic front for jehad against the US and Israel.

There are probably just a few hundred Arab volunteers still living in Afghanistan. Leftovers from the several thousand Arabs who came to Afghanistan via Pakistan in the 1980s to fight the Soviet Red Amy and the Afghan communists, they have nowhere else to go as they risk being caught if they return home and no other country is willing to accept them. In fact, the ones who have returned to their countries have mostly joined the political and military struggle aimed at bringing about Islamic changes there. Now known as Arab-Afghans, these battle-hardened Islamists have gained a reputation for being the most radical and dangerous of the fighters who have taken up arms against the Algerian and Egyptian governments.

바카라 웹사이트But the leftover Arabs have now rallied behind Bin Laden, and the few journalists who have visited his camp in Khost were left in no doubt about who was in charge. Prolonged gunfire greeted his arrival and departure like tributes to a hero. Though tall, frail, thin and walking with the aid of a stick, he commanded immediate respect and obedience.

THE rigorous lifestyle and punishing discipline that the millionaire Saudi has imposed upon himself may have taken a toll on his health, but he remains as defiant as ever. When asked why he was challenging the world's only superpower and its protege Israel with the scant resources at his command, he replied that a true Muslim would never be overawed by worldly power. He then went on to cite examples of how the US had been humbled recently as well as in the past despite its daunting power and resources.

바카라 웹사이트Interestingly, though he categorically condemned India for its nuclear tests and for threatening Islamabad, despite attempts by several Pakistani reporters, Bin Laden refused to be drawn into polemics concerning Pakistan's dispute with India. He complained Pakistan had refused to allow him and his Arab mujahideen to fight in Kashmir. To solve the Kashmir problem, he opined, Pakistan should allow setting up of military camps for the Kashmir jehad, and that it should open its borders to enable volunteers to infiltrate into the "Indian occupied state" to liberate it once and for all.

THE 42-year-old is aware of the risks to his life after his challenge to the US and Israel. Two dozen hooded bodyguards dressed in black cordoned him off as he moved around. Most carried Kalashnikovs, some even had SAM-7 missiles. He keeps shifting his base and carefully screens both his guards as well as his visitors. His family, including several offspring, also have to be heavily guarded, living as they do in an alien land.

Bin Laden doesn't believe that his wealthy clan—-it runs a construction and transport business in Saudi Arabia besides providing services at Islam's holiest site, Masjid Al-Haram—-has disowned him under pressure from the Kingdom's royal family. "Blood is thicker than water," he emphasised. Asked whether he was still a millionaire, he quipped: "My heart is rich and generous."

Was he willing to come to Pakistan? "Why not, I have lived there during the Afghan jehad, and have many Pakistani friends. But I am not sure whether I can go there in the prevailing situation," he replied. He named some Ulema and madrassas which have endorsed his call for a jehad against the US and Israel, and asserted that he was in touch with them. He is also aware that many of the right-wing political parties in Pakistan have warned the government against becoming party to any American plans to nab or kill him. In fact, most of them have declared Bin Laden a soldier of Islam who needs to be supported in his jehad against his enemies.

But it remains to be seen how long Bin Laden can enjoy the hospitality of his Taliban friends. Earlier the Taliban had made it clear that he could stay as a guest in Afghanistan, but on the condition that he refrain from political or military activities. Bin Laden, however, says he is free to pursue political activities. Since it is unlikely that Bin Laden can do anything in Afghanistan without the Taliban's support, perhaps it's an indication that the Taliban have realised that they could pressure the US and the Saudis by unleashing Bin Laden on them.

If that is indeed the case, it indicates clever politics, not exactly the Taliban's forte so far. This arrangement should also keep Bin Laden happy, as he continues his battle against several enemies: the US, Israel and the pro-West Arab regimes. Foremost among the latter is the one in power in his native Saudi Arabia.