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COVERSTORY: OSAMA BIN LADEN
A Difficult Task
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FAITHFULLY YOURS: Musharraf (left) with Taliban
Foreign Minister Muttawakil
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Bin Laden also released
a videotape showing terrorist training camps apparently inside Afghanistan
in which recruits are seen running through buildings and mountain passes
and jumping through hoops of fire. Last year, US intelligence agencies
found CD-ROM copies of a six-volume training manual apparently used by
bin Laden to teach his followers how to make bombs.
If the US links bin Laden to the attacks in
New York and Washington the response is likely to be punishing and will
target the Taliban as well as the Saudi and his followers. "You can
certainly expect a fairly devastating response against the Taliban now,"
says Bergen. "At this point it does not matter if a military response
enrages people in West Asia. If the US does not respond Goliath will have
no potency."
UN envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell said
if the US found the attacks were linked to bin Laden it would have "incalculable
consequences" for Afghanistan. UN staff and other aid workers pulled
out of Afghanistan last week in fear of retaliatory US strikes and reprisals.
Three years ago, a UN military officer from Italy was shot dead in Kabul
in a reprisal attack after the US fired missiles at bin Laden's camps
in Afghanistan. Bin Laden escaped unhurt during the assault that came
after he was linked to the embassy bombings in Africa.
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OSAMA BIN LADEN'S SCHOOL
OF TERRORISM
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ORGANISATION
Al Qaida is founded in 1988 in Peshawar to facilitate jehad against
"anti-Islamic" states like US, Israel and India.
AIM AND PLANS
To unite all Muslims. Al Qaida aspires to liberate holy Muslim shrines
from the control of the Saudi royal family.
MANPOWER
10,000 have been combat-trained in Afghanistan. Bin Laden has a
core group of 700 and controls 3,000 more.
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TENTACLES OF TERROR
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MAJOR STRIKES
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1993 World Trade Centre blast
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YEMEN: Destroyer USS Cole,
docked at Aden, bombed in October 2000, killing 17 US sailors.
KENYA AND TANZANIA: US embassies bombed
in August 1998, leaving 224 dead and thousands injured.
SAUDI ARABIA: US military complex at Khobar
bombed in June 1996, killing 19 and injuring hundreds. It is the
largest US casualty after the Beirut bombing of 1993.
US: World Trade Center in New York bombed
in February 1993, killing six and injuring hundreds.
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Across the border in Pakistan the consequences
would be no less severe. The military regime in Islamabad is the strongest
supporter of the Taliban on the international stage. Many in Pakistan's
military and intelligence establishments, which helped create and support
the Taliban, also privately support bin Laden and regard him as an Islamic
mujahid, or holy warrior.
"This man is not capable of doing any of
the things attributed to him," says Hamid Gul, the former head of
Pakistan's ISI, who is close to the Taliban regime and has met bin Laden.
"He has been put under so much control by Mulla Omar (the Taliban
leader) he cannot do these things. Besides Osama has denied any involvement
in the attacks. He is not a man who tells lies."
There is considerable sympathy for the goals
for which bin Laden stands. A leading Pakistani newspaper said the attacks
in New York and Washington were the inevitable repercussion of US foreign
policy. "The attacks must provide an occasion for the US establishment
to pause and think whether the hardline they have adopted is proving to
be counter-productive," The News, an English daily, said in an editorial.
Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf,
who is routinely criticised by the West because his country supports the
Taliban and harbours militant groups fighting in Kashmir, promised to
help Washington fight terrorism. "We regard terrorism as an evil
that threatens the world community," he said, offering his "unstinted
cooperation in the fight against terrorism".
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RELIGIOUS ECONOMICS: Militants outside an
Islamabad mosque solicit donations to fight the Indian forces in
Kashmir
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But it will not be easy for him. This crisis
comes at a time when Musharraf is trying to rebuild his relationship with
the West in the face of criticism from Pakistan's religious right. He
has promised to crack down on sectarian and militant groups in his own
country but little has been achieved. Two small hardline groups, responsible
for dozens of sectarian murders in Pakistan, were banned and police arrested
militants found raising money for the guerrilla war in Kashmir. The new,
widely publicised policy came alongside a promise to hold parliamentary
elections next year and just weeks before Islamabad hopes to secure a
major new loan from the IMF.
But already Pakistan government officials appear
confused about whether to implement the new laws. Police officers in Karachi,
where many of the militants are based, arrested 250 activists from groups
raising funds but released them after a few hours. Militant leaders, angered
by the arrests, demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Moinuddin
Haider, a retired general and a liberal.
"All jehad groups have welcomed Musharraf's
bold stance on Kashmir but it appears certain forces have forced him to
take a policy U-turn against us," said Abdullah Muntazir, the spokesman
for Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of the most powerful militant groups operating
in Kashmir.
It quickly became clear that there was considerable
opposition within the regime to the campaign against armed fighters. Many
of the militant groups are supported by the ISI, although Islamabad insists
it gives only moral, diplomatic and political support to the groups. Yet
others in the Government, particularly in Pakistan's Finance Ministry
led by former Citibank executive Shaukat Aziz, are keen to win western
support in the middle of crucial negotiations with the IMF. Christina
Rocca, the US assistant secretary of state for south Asia, made it clear
during her visit in July that a lessening in tension over Kashmir would
improve Washington's relations with Islamabad.
Western governments have largely welcomed Musharraf's
promise of elections next year, though it is clear he will retain ultimate
control as president. Yet all the goodwill the general has tried to earn
in recent months may evaporate if he does not help when the US turns its
sights on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Bin Laden, hiding in the
mountains of Afghanistan, may prove to be a greater problem for Musharraf
than he anticipated.
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METRO TODAY
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