Base of Islamism - 2: Rise of the Anti-Mohammed

The bin Laden family itself is not to be implicated for Osama’s evils no more than Charlie Manson’s blood cousins are guilty of his murderous rampage.  In fact Osama’s father was not part of the rise of Islamism nor did Osama grow up as an islamist.  Osama grew up as a member of the privileged elite, heir to great riches.  His father was loyal to the Royal Saudi family and gained great wealth by being a preferred construction contractor to it. 

Of particular note is that the family construction business was contracted by the Saudi Monarchy to renovate the Kabaa in Mecca.  This resulted in power, prestige, and financial gain for the bin Laden family.  The young Osama was enamored with the benefits of the rich lifestyle.  He partied and whored around as many spoiled rich kids do. 

It wasn’t until he attended college that his “radicalization” started.  As an engineering student in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he was exposed to a professor and his mentor, Sheik AbdAllah Yussuf Azzam.   Azzam, born in Jenin, Samaria, had a BA degree in Sharia from Damascus University, and a Master’s in Sharia Law from Azhar Univerisity in Egypt, along with a Ph.D. in Islamic Jurisprudence from Amman University.

Both the engineering student, Osama, and the radical professor, Azzam, found themselves in the Afghan-Soviet War, as community organizers.  It is unknown if their travels were mutually planned but they both set up organizations to influence political support for the conflict in Arabia as well as logistical support in the Pakistan/Afghan border mountains.  It was there that they were reunited.

Bin Laden had formed “Ma’sadat al-Ansar,” which recruited Arabs for the war, paying for their travels to the fight.  His perceived motivation was to provide the organization to overcome the chaos and lack of Arab unity he first encountered. 

Azzam had been discouraged from a direct combat role due to his abilities as a motivator and recruitment agent.  Instead, he founded Bait-ul-Ansar, which provided specialized services to the Afghan resistance fighters. 

Together, they formed Maktab al-Khidamat (MSB: Mujahideen Services Bureau), the precursor to today’s Al-Qaeda (“the base” or “the database,” with Azzam as the leader and Osama as the financial backer and implementer of Azzam’s policies.  Osama’s organizational abilities and enthusiasm made him a key asset, but his youthful ideology prevented him from accepting direct assistance from the United States. 

Further blocking direct contact of OBL and US Agents was the Pakistani ISI role as middleman.  The motivations were multiple.  The US desired plausible deniability of any direct role in the conflict.  The Pakistanis desired greater power and influence over the fighters as well as the ability to divert resources to their own conflict in Kashmir against India. 

It didn’t take the Pakistani government long to recognize the increased recruiting and motivational aspects of using islamist forces rather than simple nationalism and freedom.  Dictates from “God” are simply more powerful than are appeals to risk life for a stranger’s freedom.  Further, promises of rewards in the afterlife cost governments much less than paychecks to the mercenaries they’d be paying.

In the 1980’s, islamist terrorism was in comparative infancy.  The PLO was one of the most known organizations, but its appeal was not based in Islamism.  Hezbollah and Hamas were not yet well known.  Hezbollah would not become a known until its successes in bombing the US Embassy and Marine Barracks in Beirut.  But while Palestine was a popular rallying cry, few outside of Palestinians did more than protest or donate money to Palestinians to spill their own blood.

On the other hand, with firebrands like Azzam and Osama rallying governments and recruits to fight in Afghanistan, many Arabs attained their birth in battle.  As a primary waypoint and organizational base for those headed to the fight, the pair created a database of future terrorists of various backgrounds and nationalities which would prove key to Osama’s futures.  It took little effort to build legends of his exploits and make lasting networks in the community.

While Bodansky, in the OBL biography states that Osama believes his own hype, his own propaganda, of the ills of Westernization against the Ummah (“Nation of Muslims”), it appears to this editor that OBL is too intelligent to truly believe his own blowhard statements.  While he may have initially believed in the preachings of Azzam, at some point, he had to have come to the realization of its ability to further enrich and empower him.  At some point, he must have realized the embedded hypocrisies.  

Nevertheless, with the defeat of the Soviets, also came the assassination of Azzam.  With the assassination of Azzam, Osama took the reins of the MSB and shortly thereafter renamed it Al-Qaeda.  At the time, this was aptly named as its power was entrenched in the huge database of fighters the pair had compiled.  Al-Qaeda became a front organization, advertised as a “charity,” and in many ways acting as one, throughout the 90’s.

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Previous: 2/8/2010: Part 1 Base of Islamism Motivations - 1

Tomorrow: 2/10/2010: Part 3

Osama, as with many rich leaders, headed not only the “charity,” Al-Qaeda, but also for-profit corporations, primarily construction companies but also financial institutions, and terrorist organizations.  Though of Yemeni descent, he was born in Saudi Arabia, and returned from the Soviet-Afghan war a favored son of the Saudis, a hero, whose father had a special relationship with the King himself.

Enamored with the Afghan success, marketed as a hero, and believing the hype, when Saddam invaded Kuwait and threatened the Saudi Kingdom, he offered to lead the mujhadeen veterans in defense of the two kingdoms against the secular tyrant.  His enormous pride was wounded when his offer was rejected by the King, in preference of the more tested, but secret ally’s offer: the United States. 

Pragmatism overruled ideology and religion in the decision.  The world’s 4^th largest military (Iraq) would be challenged by the last superpower, not the ragtag force that had taken down the other superpower.  The firebrand Osama took great offense that the King had less confidence in his military abilities.

The Wahhabi sect (based in Saudi Arabia) of Sunni Islam has some of the strictest ideologies, but the Islamism of Osama was of greater radicalization.  The Shi’a sects of Islam also have historical political implications from which the Shi’a Islam was incubated.  One would expect the militants of these two to be even more opposed than the populace, but in most places, to include Iraq, Shi’a and Sunni have traditionally lived together in peace.

Islamist terrorism began with Shi’a militants, the most known of which were Hezbollah.  Hezbollah was and is directly controlled by Iran, from its infancy.  Sunni strains of Islamist terrorism came to the table much later.  Hamas is a Sunni terrorist organization, but is also directly controlled by the Shi’a Islamist government of Iran.

One would therefore expect that the Wahhabi based Islamism of Osama would be in direct conflict with the Shi’a based Islamism of the Ayatollah.  And while at times, it may have been, pragmatism and greed of empowerment overcame those differences.  The center of this alliance occurred in The Sudan in the 1990’s. 

When the Ayatollah Khomeni seized power on the blood of Democratic Persian Rebels in Iran, he immediately set out on a course of Islamist expansion.  His initial goal had been Iraq and its young secular dictator, Saddam.  Saddam’s own grandiose plans fed into the war, turning it from minor skirmishes and sabotage against Iraq into a full-scale war.  This led to the Iran-Iraq war and the pragmatic realization that Islamism was not yet strong enough for such a grandiose plan. 

As a result, Khomeni directed his terrorist enterprise towards Egypt and Lebanon which appeared to be more achievable.  Lebanon can be considered a success with the advent of Hezbollah as a shadow government, a political entity, and a military force which even UN peacekeepers and Lebanese Military forces won’t confront.

Egypt on the other hand saw some successes that eventually faltered.  In the process though, The Sudan became a key ally with Turabi, a Sunni Islamist, as its tyrant.  Initially, this was likely an alliance of convenience of two entities with one common enemy.  But the rise of The Sudan as an Islamist state strategically situated on the Egyptian border created an environment ripe for breeding terrorism.

The Sudan provided Iran with plausible deniability in its own export of terrorism while also becoming a safe haven for Sunni Islamists such as Osama.  The early 90’s saw Khartoum as a hotbed for all kinds of malcontents, so long as the Turabi government got their cut. 

It was here that Osama was first identified by US Intelligence Agencies as a future problem of great magnitude, while Billy Waugh was searching out the pre-eminent terrorist of the day: Carlos The Jackal.  (See: Hunting The Jackal by CSM(Ret) Billy Waugh.)  While his work succeeded in capturing the first pictures of Carlos in decades and in his capture by French authorities, the US Administration declined to capture the Jackal or eliminate OBL as recommended.

As Turabi consolidated power, the finances afforded it by sources to include Iran and Osama, and the infrastructure construction provided by Osama became a key to maintaining Turabi’s rule and attaining The Sudan’s centrality in the future of terrorism.

Osama became the financial guru who set up tangled tentacles throughout worldwide financial institutions; including the Catholic Churches own BCCI, to move money from the Arab elites and Iranian government, as well as criminal enterprises and “charities” into terrorist finances.  As a few established key financial institutions, such as BCCI, were exposed, it was OBL that created a system so complex and embedded that even today, the best accountants have not uncovered all of it.

Osama was quickly moving from a glorified hero of Afghanistan, to a feared upstart, in the eyes of the Saudi Monarchy.  Osama’s message demonstrated the potential threat to their rule.  The Monarchy attempted to distance him physically, while not being positioned to be implicated in anything untoward to the popular “hero” they had helped create.  When the US Administration refused to accept their help in capturing him, the Saudis turned to appeasing both the Iranians and their own Islamist firebrand.

The Saudi government literally held the reins of power by a string and a popular uprising would likely have led to an Islamist government of the strictest kind.  Iran, The Sudan, OBL, and other actors were actively working towards it.  Two things appeared to them to stand in their way: US and Egyptian alliances with the Saudis.  Breaking these alliances became the focus in hopes that it would in turn set the stage for an overthrow of the monarchy.

On June 26^th, 1995, an alliance of Iranian, Sudanese, and multiple terrorist organizations implemented an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarrak.  Key players were Sudanese leader al-Turabi, Osama bin Laden, and al-Zawahari, who planned the attack in coordination with Iranian Intelligence.  Though members of the cell were captured and though terrorists organizations of less known names claimed responsibility for the attempt, the long term effect was for Mubarrak to move closer towards appeasement of the terrorists and distance himself and his government of the US Administration.

The reasons for the Egyptian political moves were US missteps.  An Arab, known to have acted on CIA orders, claimed that the US had authorized the attack.  Further, the CIA operative had negotiated a deal which was in direct conflict with promises made to Arab Nations shortly beforehand.  The perception in Middle East governments was that the US Administration of the 90’s would not keep its promises and would throw its allies to the wolves with the smallest basis.

This perception was seized upon by Middle East enemies as well as terrorist organizations.  They used it to weaken US-MidEast alliances while re-enforcing their own alliances and building new ones.

The primary US attention in the Middle East was focused on Iraq, an enemy in common with bin Laden and Iran.  But it must be put into context that Arabs view nationality in a different light than does the Western World.  An “Islamic Emirate” is as much akin to a US State as it is to a Sovereign State.  Islamism in particular refuses to recognize nationalism.  Perhaps, the current direction of the states of the European Union would be the best analogy to it.

The goal of Islamism is a “Caliphate” and this is often stated in their propaganda.  The Caliphate is nothing less than a religious empire with subordinate emirates (states). 

Though terrorist attacks continued and intensified in nature against the West during the 90’s, the unifying islamist terrorist organizations used Western responses to those attacks as justification for further attacks. 

A prime example were the cruise missile attacks on The Sudan and on Afghanistan ordered by President Clinton in retaliation for Al-Qaeda attacks on US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.  The Pakistani ISI warned the Taliban of Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda leadership itself of the attacks.  As a result, the key leadership was whisked away from the targets, while low level terrorist recruits were killed, but the response by islamists, worldwide was an accusation that righteous innocents had been killed and must be avenged.

Still, the Islamist leadership was looking for a more convincing excuse and it found one in the attacks on Iraq.  Of all the potential alliances, an Al-Qaeda/Saddam alliance would seem to be and was one of the least likely. 

It was Saddam’s threat to Mecca and Medina which in many ways initiated the career of OBL in international terrorism.  Saddam was the enemy that OBL’s Monarch would not let him fight.  Saddam was a secular tyrant opposed to islamist rule of Iran.  But in the US “aggression against Iraq’s Muslims,” OBL found a rallying cry.

Saddam also had found himself in an untenable position, with a powerful Iranian enemy on his border and the United States demanding proof of disarmament.  He had learned the hard way that he could not fight the US toe to toe and terrorism by proxy was the course he settled on for survival.  His hope was that US attention would be diverted from his tyrannical government enough to allow for his survival.

Qusay Hussein and OBL met on multiple occasions to work out details for the plan.  Saddam agreed to provide the catalyst for American actions against his Nation in return for Al-Qaeda attacks in response to it.  When cruise missiles were launched into Iraq, Islamists worldwide protested and vowed revenge.  Saddam and OBL would not likely have been friends, but they found the need for an alliance of convenience.  Saddam sent teams of top Intel/Special Operations out to act as instructors for Al-Qaeda camps.

It had not been the first time support for Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists was received from Iraq, but it was given with greater conviction.  Of more deadly note was his dispatch of WMD experts in support of Al-Qaeda.

In the last several chapters of the book, Bodansky repeatedly notes that Al-Qaeda is preparing for global “spectacular attacks” to include inside the US, with specific targets of Washington DC and New York.  In one message from the enemy, it notes that airliners and their passengers are legitimate targets.  Completed in 1999, the book sounds the alarm for 9/11, though it does not note the kind of attack we witnessed.  The elements of information are there, but not put together to make the precise prediction of either time or type.

Bodansky illustrates the type of propaganda used but gives too much credence to the hierarchy of Islamism in believing their hype.

Ah, but I promised you the hypocrisy of OBL and Al-Qaeda.  I only promised one cornerstone crumbled.  I’ll give you multiple: Al-Qaeda has killed more Muslims than has any other force in the 21^st Century.  It has purposely targeted Muslim Civilians in Iraq, to include both Shi’a and Sunni, even when no foreign troops were present.

It is a cardinal sin to commit suicide, according to the Koran, yet OBL trains recruits to commit suicide.  OBL himself has a plan for his death in the case of imminent capture, but it is not by his own hand.  His loyal bodyguards are charged to kill him, as even he won’t take the chance on suicide.

Al-Qaeda and the myriad of terrorist organizations/names used by it fund themselves by alliance with organized crime, to include atheists, apostates, and polytheists, by means of drug trafficking and prostitution.  Al-Qaeda controlled prostitutes include Muslim women of the former Soviet Union.

On multiple occasions, Al-Qaeda has purposely murdered its own supporters or fighters in order to claim atrocities by the West.

While proclaiming its cause as the liberation of “holy sites” of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, Al-Qaeda has taken little action against any entity involved with the control of those locations.  It ignores the plight of Palestinians and has chosen to attack the United States, primarily.

Al-Qaeda does engage in charity, but jealously wards off any non-islamist organization attempting to assist Muslims.  It prefers that Muslims starve than be given food by US or other Western forces.  It uses food as a weapon. 

Somalia provides example of this, as does Afghanistan.  In Somalia, 1993, the primary effort of US and UN forces was to protect Humanitarian Aid.  Islamist terrorists, to include bin Laden and Sudanese forces were used to further de-stabilize Somalia and were instrumental in Aidid’s forces, to include the Battle of Mogadishu made famous by the movie “Black Hawk Down.”

 

In Kosovo, Al-Qaeda and its myriad of subordinate organizations propagandized the US Air Campaign as attacks on Muslims (as opposed to the truth of a war against Serb aggression) until its realization that islamist forces were powerless to do anything against the Serb aggression.  At that point, Islamism declared a truce in effect for NATO and US Forces in that particular location, even while Al-Qaeda with Iraqi support was actively recruiting Muslims in Australia to fight in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, there has been little note of Hezbollah, outside of attacks on Israel and Lebanon.  Short of a specialized Iraq based Hezbollah unit, it has been relatively low-key.  One might conclude that due to the high visibility of Iranian ties, the Hezbollah name is not used in claims to prevent reason for attack against the center of terrorism itself: Iran.  Even in Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas avoid attacks on Americans.

Still, Hezbollah is very active on the criminal finance side of the house and has a worldwide presence including multiple cells inside the US and strongholds in the Caribbean and in South America.

The 9/11 attacks were conducted by primarily Saudis, specially selected by OBL himself, for a reason: he wished to accomplish the ire of the American People against the Saudi government.  The second wave were selected from Western European islamists, as he had anticipated that they would not yet have gained attention.  The third wave were supposed to be American Islamists.  And in 2009, we saw Major Hasan and before that a young muslim convert attack US Soldiers inside our own borders.

It is difficult to ascertain the total numbers of enemy terrorists we face, but it is important that both Americans and Muslims understand that that enemy is not Islam.  The enemy we face is profoundly anti-Islamic.  Osama is a false prophet and heretic to Islam who murders Muslims in order to further his own desire for fame, glory, and power.

And it is important for Americans to understand that the majority of islamist terrorist organizations are now and have been for over a decade, little more than part of a umbrella organization, united with a cause of imperial goals.  Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda are more akin to various parts of the same Iranian organization than to independent groups that just happen to aspire to the same inglorious end.

 

War On Terror News ©2007-2010 War On Terror News ARM, all rights reserved. 

Previous: 2/8/2010: Part 1 Base of Islamism Motivations

2/09/2010: Part 2 Rise of the Anti-Mohammed

2/10/2010: Part 3 Islamist Alliances

2/11/2010: Part 4: Unholy Alliances

2/12/2010: Part 5: Prophecies Fulfilled