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COVER STORY:EXCLUSIVE BOOK EXCERPTS
War Declaration From The
Hindu Kush
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BROTHERS IN ARMS: Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri (above)
is bin Laden's top aide; when bin Laden came to Afghanistan in 1996,
Taliban chief Mullah Omar (below) sent a delegation to greet him
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When bin Laden arrived
in Afghanistan in May 1996, accompanied by his three wives and many of
his children, he was in a sense coming home. He knew the place well, having
traveled over its rugged mountains and valleys on and off for more than
a decade, and he greatly admired the Taliban religious warriors who were
gradually taking control of much of the country.
The journey to Afghanistan also had a profound
spiritual importance for bin Laden: it recalled for him the Prophet Muhammad's
emigration, or hijra, from Mecca to Medina in the seventh century. The
Prophet and his followers left their native city because they were under
intense pressure from their fellow Meccans, pagans who did not appreciate
Islam's monotheistic message. From Medina, Muhammad waged war almost continuously
for eight years until he retook Mecca from the unbelievers. This was the
model bin Laden planned to follow in his jihad against the West. And Afghanistan,
in his mind, was the Medina of the twenty-first century.
The Saudi exile first settled near the eastern
town of Jalalabad, shuttling between various mountain hideouts in the
area. The Taliban's leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, sent a delegation after
his arrival to assure bin Laden that the Taliban would be honored to protect
him, because of his role in the jihad against the Soviets.
In November, Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of
the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, traveled to meet bin Laden at his base
in a cave in the Afghan mountains. In his office in west London, Atwan
recalled the visit: 'It was not comfortable. His quarters were built in
an amateurish way with the branches of trees. He had hundreds of books,
mostly theological treatises. I slept on a bed underneath which were stored
many grenades. I maybe slept for half an hour. I saw perhaps twenty to
thirty people around him, Egyptians, Saudis, Yemenis and Afghans. At night
it was very cold, fifteen degrees below zero. I waited for two days to
see him. He was familiar with my writings. I found him to be sincere,
simple, not trying to impress. He never portrayed himself as an Islamic
leader. He told me that the Saudi government had applied pressure on him.
They offered him $400 million if he said the Saudi regime was an Islamic
regime.' To no avail, obviously.
'His followers really, really believe in him,'
Atwan told me. 'They can see this millionaire, who sacrificed all those
millions, and he is sitting with them in a cave, sharing their dinner,
in a very, very humble way.'
From his new refuge in Afghanistan bin Laden
issued a slew of ever more radical pronouncements, beginning with 'The
Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two
Sacred Places', on 23 August 1996 ...
... Bin Laden concludes the declaration with
a call to arms: 'Our Muslim brothers throughout the world ... Your brothers
in the country of the two sacred places and in Palestine request your
support. They are asking you to participate with them against their enemies,
who are also your enemies-the Israelis and the Americans-by causing them
as much harm as can be possibly achieved.' Bin Laden signed his manifesto
with a flourish: 'From the Peaks of the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan.'
This declaration of holy war against Americans,
which was picked up by various media outlets and publicized around the
world, was, according to an Arab journalist, written on an Apple Macintosh.
'Think different', indeed.
In early 1997, bin Laden gave his first television
interview-the one that opens this book-to CNN, from one of his hideouts
near Jalalabad. He reiterated his calls for attacks on US soldiers and
said that he could not guarantee the safety of American civilians should
they get in the way of those attacks. Shortly afterwards, bin Laden moved
to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where Mullah Omar is based.
On 22 February 1998, bin Laden upped the ante
considerably when he announced the formation of the World Islamic Front
for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders. Co-signatories of the agreement
included Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egypt's Jihad Group, bin Laden's most trusted
lieutenant; Rifia Ahmed Taha of Egypt's Islamic Group; and the leaders
of Pakistani and Bangladeshi militant organizations. All were brought
together under one umbrella for the first time.
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