Jehad Against World
The danger that Islamic terrorism poses to the US and the world was underscored in a stunning manner by the audacious strikes in New York and Washington.

Alliance In The Air
Russia, NATO and India may be friends in adversity.

Joining Hands
India will cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.

Wake-up Call
Despite precautions, India can't remain complacent.

Liaison Man Man
Over half a century, Salik Ram has persuaded almost 500 dacoits to lay down arms.

Leisure Storeys
Cinemas, hotels, game arcades all rolled into one.

Greenback Revival
Kolkata is getting a new polish with expatriates providing the finance for productions.

COVER STORY: OSAMA BIN LADEN

Death Dealer

The Saudi renegade, prime suspect in the attacks, is proving a millstone around the neck for both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the sympathetic regime in Pakistan

	ROLE MODEL: Osama is Islam's hero say anti-UN, pro-Taliban protestors at Islamabad

Deep in the barren mountains of Afghanistan, a thin, bearded man bowed in thanks to God when he heard the news about the devastating suicide attacks in New York and Washington and the deaths of thousands of Americans. Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, saw the September 11 devastation as "punishment from Allah", one of his aides told a Palestinian journalist in Islamabad. Minutes after that, he moved to another hideout. The 44-year-old Saudi dissident has made his life a military crusade against the US and all it represents in the world.

Bin Laden's aides deny he was involved but US intelligence officials are slowly tracing back the source of the world's worst terrorist atrocity to bin Laden who lives under the shelter of Afghanistan's brutal Taliban regime. The FBI found the name of a suspected bin Laden supporter on the passenger list of one of the hijacked jets and began to search houses in Florida for evidence. Few terrorist organisations in the world have the capability of carrying out a strike involving four hijacked aircraft. The search always leads to Afghanistan and bin Laden. Three days after the attack, US Secretary of State Colin Powell named him as the prime suspect.

From his hideouts in Afghanistan bin Laden runs Al Qaida, one of the world's most feared terrorist organisations. He is known to have operated training camps near Jalalabad in the east, Kandahar in the south and in the remote mountain territory. Many of those trained here are from Pakistani militant groups, like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen fighting in Kashmir.

Bin Laden has a track record of such attacks. He is wanted by a US court for masterminding the bombing in 1998 of two US embassies in east Africa in which 224 people died. According to the indictment, his organisation is "dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence". It targets the US for its support to Israel and the presence of its troops in Saudi Arabia. He is suspected of involvement in the killing of 18 US soldiers in Mogadishu in Somalia in October 1993. He also provided a safe house for Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000. In addition he is believed to have tried to obtain components of nuclear and chemical weapons, although it is not clear how extensive his weaponry is now.

	FACE OF TERROR: Despite denials, bin Laden is widely believed to be behind the attacks

"By a process of elimination his is the only organisation that could have done it," says Peter Bergen, a Washington-based writer who has met bin Laden and is writing a book about the Saudi and his terrorist network. "We know he has suicide bombers in his organisation, we have seen them in the Africa bombing," adds Bergen. "You cannot buy that kind of commitment. He has also recruited commercial pilots in the past. One pilot testified in the trial in Manhattan (relating to the 1998 embassy bombings) and another unindicted co-conspirator was also a pilot." Bergen also feels that this must have been an operation in planning for years. It is several orders of magnitude higher than anything he has done before.

Bin Laden has been living in mountain hideouts across Afghanistan. He has been constantly on the move, especially at night, for security reasons for the past five years. The Taliban insists it has taken away all his communication facilities, but western intelligence sources dispute that.

Despite UN sanctions, the Taliban has refused to hand over bin Laden to answer charges that he masterminded the 1998 bombings in Africa. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef, said talk of the Saudi's extradition was "premature". "If any evidence is presented to us we will study it," he said. The Taliban's reluctance is understandable. Bin Laden, who inherited $300 million from his father's construction business, bankrolls the movement's military operations. At least 3,000 Arabs have come to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban and to spread its radical form of government north into central Asia and east into Pakistan. Taliban ministers openly speak of bin Laden as their hero. The Saudi renegade is believed to be behind the assassination attempt last week on Ahmad Shah Masood, the leader of Afghanistan's opposition forces.

Bin Laden was reported to be living in two camps in Farmada and Daruna near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. But late last year, after the destroyer USS Cole was bombed in Yemen, resulting in the death of 17 sailors, he moved north into the Hindukush mountains in an apparent ploy to avoid any American retaliation.

"The US has no problem with killing bin Laden but it is incredibly hard to find him," says Bergen. "They need real-time intelligence but they don't have spies inside the organisation. They have people who have left the organisation but that is old information." He says the possibility of the US getting its hands on bin Laden would arise only if the Taliban is sufficiently horrified by what happened in New York and Washington to hand him over. But at the moment he has the Taliban on his side."

Bin Laden rarely makes public appearances. He was filmed in January this year in Kandahar at the wedding of his son with the daughter of his deputy. Then in June a videotape was released to Arab newspapers in which he warned of an attack on American targets. "With small capabilities and with our faith we can defeat the greatest military power of modern times. America is much weaker than it appears," he said. The US State Department issued worldwide alerts after the tape surfaced.

MetroScape

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Chandana and 25 others from Kolkata have formed Jagari, a "musical wives" club to organise concerts and soirees for women.
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In The Red