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Bin Laden And The Al Qaeda Network

President Bush last September said in regard to Osama bin Laden, "I want justice. There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" The U.S. government has not changed its stance. U.S. officials say bin Laden's Al Qaeda is responsible for the attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard a hijacked aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania. If anyone had doubts about bin Laden's involvement, he himself removed them in a videotape U.S. forces found in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in November 2001.

The tape shows bin Laden calmly discussing the attacks. "We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day," he can be heard saying to a visiting sheik. At one point, he told his visitor that they had been trying to estimate the number of casualties that would result from the World Trade Center attacks. "We calculated in advance ... ," bin Laden can be heard saying. "Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for."

The Sept. 11 attacks are just the latest attributed to the Al Qaeda, a network bin Laden established in 1988. The group also was responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995, the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attack on the destroyer USS Cole in 2000.

Al Qaeda's avowed goal is to "unite all Muslims and establish a government which follows the rule of the Caliphs," according to a U.S. government fact sheet. Under the caliphs, the successors of Mohammed, Islam expanded from Arabia through Persia, the Middle East and North Africa. Al Qaeda seeks to overthrow nearly all Muslim governments because bin Laden regards them as corrupted by the West. It also seeks the "liberation" of Islam's three holiest places -- Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem.

According to published sources, "Al Qaeda" translates to "the Base." It is a loose coalition of groups with a total of about 3,000 members. The network has a global reach, with cells in more than 30 countries -- including the United States, as the events of Sept. 11 indicated.

Bin Laden was born around 1955 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He left home in 1979 to fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In the mid-1980s he co-founded the Maktab-al-Khidamat, or "Services Office," to funnel money and fighters to Afghanistan. Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others, numbering thousands in bin Laden's estimate, joined the Afghan Muslims in ousting the Soviets.

After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, bin Laden turned his attention to the United States and its Middle East allies. He also worked against the Saudi royal family and for that was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991. Bin Laden took refuge in Sudan and continued his efforts against the United States and its allies. Sudan expelled him in 1996 due to threats of U.N. sanctions for bin Laden's complicity in the attempt on Mubarak's life. Praising the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. Air Force barracks in Khobar Towers, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, he promised more attacks on Americans.

In February 1998, he created a new terrorist alliance, the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders. Parts of that group are the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Harakat ul-Ansar, according to a U.S. government release. He's also suspected of helping to set up Islamic training centers to prepare soldiers to fight in Chechnya and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Jim Garamone. A Global Terror Group Primer. American Forces Press Service. Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda Network updates an American Forces Press Service article published Sept. 21, 2001. February 14, 2002.

Inside Osama’s Lair One man has eluded the armies of the world for nearly three years. A man with a capacity for pure evil matched only by his animal resourcefulness. We didn’t capture Osama bin Laden, but Maxim did land the interview of a lifetime—and a tour of Osama’s secret compound. All he asked is that we not reveal the mystery location. The free subscription to Maxim was our idea. Room 1: The Entertainment Center Osama bin Laden flashes a partly toothy grin from the foyer of the top-secret bunker he calls home sweet cave. “This is the living room and entertainment center, where I declare jihad on boredom!” he announces. “Look at that plasma screen! And, yes, I have remote control!” The Dartboard: Living on the run doesn’t equal no fun! Practice on living targets has honed Osama’s game. Big-Screen Tv: “Today another near total victory for Al Qaeda!” [buzzzzzzzz] “Total victory! I mean total victory!” The Sofa Bed: “This is magic!” says the madman. “Is it a couch? Fold out, it’s a bed! Then a couch! Again it is bed!” Room 2: The Master Bedroom “Being hunted by every Special Ops team on Earth takes its toll,” muses Osama. “This is where I relax and get my freak on.” His homemade dialysis machine is testament to his ingenuity. Of the bed Osama will only say, “I didn’t get 23 kids by blowing up an adoption center!” Closet: “Look at selection! I can change 10 times a day! Sweatiest goes on the left…take dry one from the right!” The panties? We opted not to ask. Kidney Dialysis Machine: Crafted by top Al Qaeda scientists, this rig keeps Osama alive and warmongering. It also purées, toasts, chugs, and liquefies. Hi-Fi: “State-of-the-art sound!” yells Osama, fiddling with a crotch-level knob. “Watch how high I can crank the treble!” Animal Porn: “Is this camel one-humped or two-humped? Is trick question—camel is virgin!” Room 3: The Eat-In Kitchen “Kitchen is still under construction,” growls Osama, angrily slapping a deputy. It’s a classic bin Laden understatement: There are only two forks and a broken knife. Oh, and a blender. “This is wedding present from Khadafi!” he says proudly, whipping up a rat-tatouille. “Mangia!” The Outside World: “Do I get stir-crazy? Yes, I suppose. But Afghanistan is so beautiful. I would never leave my land. So keep looking there, America… or here, rather. Hey, close that door!” Fridge: “When we get running water, or food, or electricity—what a kitchen this will be!” Rats: “It sucks, I know. I would make you smoothie, but we have no fruit. And camel dung gums up blender blades.“ In Case Of Emergency: “AK-47 is number one,” says Osama, “but Uzi will do for kitchen pests and disturbances from neighbor children.” Inside Osama’s Lair. Maxim. April 2004.

Is Osama bin Laden Still Alive?

Osama's faded from view, but the war with Al Qaeda rages on. Exactly who are we targeting, and what are their plans? Several recent audiotapes have been attributed to bin Laden, but his last video appearance was just before the 2004 presidential election, when he officially claimed responsibility for September 11th and warned Americans, "There are still reasons to repeat what happened."

If he is alive, bin Laden is probably hiding somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, provoking debate over how much control he could still be wielding over Al Qaeda's day-to-day ops. The flames of that debate are fanned by the situation in Iraq, where "Al Qaeda in Iraq" leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi initiated a vicious sectarian struggle against Shiite Muslims.

While bin Laden is a Sunni, he intended for Al Qaeda to be a Pan-Islamic group that would battle the Judeo-Christian West, not a disjointed body fractured by infighting. Early in 2004, he was reportedly displeased with al-Zarqawi for straying from his master plan but caved when he realized the strength of the Iraqi Al Qaeda faction. That development illustrates an important point: If Al Qaeda is, as the CIA estimates, a vast organization of 40,000 men with outposts all over the world, bin Laden couldn't possibly control them all.

Bin Laden's second in command, Al Qaeda cofounder Ayman al-Zawahiri, has lately emerged from behind the scenes as the group's PR man, appearing regularly in incendiary audio- and videotapes released to the media. In one video made public in January, he ridiculed President Bush's planned troop surge in Iraq, saying, "Why send 20,000 [troops] only? Why not send 50,000 or 100,000? Send your entire army to be annihilated."

Al-Zawahiri is one of the few constants in the organization, however. The rest of Al Qaeda's leaders are shadowy figures easily replaced in the group's chain of command, so that no one killed or captured by U.S. forces can cripple their plans. For example, al-Zarqawi was killed last June when the Air Force dropped two 500-pound bombs on his hideout outside of Baghdad; within days someone calling himself Abu Hamza al-Muhajir announced on an Islamist Web site that he was al-Zarqawi's replacement.

But U.S. counterterrorism officials immediately speculated that the name was a pseudonym and suggested that al-Muhajir was actually Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian who'd been a senior advisor to al-Zarqawi. The American officials' confusion reportedly prompted mocking on Al Qaeda-friendly chat sites, with one poster writing, "Ha, ha ... the CIA and Pentagon hawks are failures. We don't want to know his name. We don't care."

Which is exactly the point, if you're Al Qaeda: It doesn't matter who's giving orders, so long as someone is. In our efforts to combat terrorism, however, names do matter. So we'll be keeping close tabs in the future on people like Abu Hafiza, who organized the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and Saif al-Adel, bin Laden's security chief, who many experts feel may now be heading up Al Qaeda's military.

The U.S. government estimates that up to 80 percent of Al Qaeda's forces have been killed since our invasion of Afghanistan, but most experts believe that's simply not true. "Al Qaeda is a larger threat now than it has ever been," says 22 year CIA vet Michael Scheuer, chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. The forces formerly concentrated in Afghanistan have now spread out to Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Somalia, creating opportunities for new leaders to emerge and making them harder to track. Many believe that Al Qaeda's international web is stronger than ever.

The head of British security agency MIS recently acknowledged a "steady increase in the terrorist threat to the U.K." from Al Qaeda, with at least 1,600 known terrorists currently operating in Great Britain alone. Julie Sirrs, a former military analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, who began warning in the late'90s about bin Laden's operations in Afghanistan, says we helped to create this situation with our initial plan of attack in that country. "We should have allowed the factions naturally opposed to the Taliban to fight them," Sirrs says. "Instead, we managed to alienate the only real allies we had."

According to Scheuer, Al Qaeda will continue to pursue small attacks against the West, part of a broader strategy intended to go directly to the hearts and minds of citizens of non-Muslim nations. "It's meant to erode popular support for assisting the United States in its war on terrorism," he explains, "leaving it increasingly isolated."

Few specific plots have been outlined by Al Qaeda leaders, but the 20-year "master plan," described by al-Zarqawi in several mid-'90s sit-downs with a radical Jordanian journalist, states that September 11th was designed to provoke us into military operations in the Muslim world, stirring up hatred there that would help Al Qaeda recruit troops.

The next phase reportedly involves drawing Iran into direct conflict with the United States and staging Al Qaeda attacks in Syria, Turkey, and Israel. Then Al Qaeda reportedly plans to topple unsympathetic Arab governments and mobilize a massive pan-Arab army to engage in a worldwide war of Islam vs. "nonbelievers." While this timetable might sound like the crackpot fantasies of a delusional extremist, there's no doubt that the continued emergence of Al Qaeda leaders around the world has made the war on terror more challenging to fight than ever.

Financing Terror

When it comes to funding, Al Qaeda makes money like a true criminal enterprise - any way it can. What was once a global network financed by elusive donors and administered by Al Qaeda "fund- managers" has now fragmented into a constellation of franchises that sustain themselves primarily through crime.

This, experts say, is partly a result of the vigorous multinational effort since 9/11 to break up the Al Qaeda network and stanch the cash flows that sustained terror attacks. But it's also due to the reduced cost of mounting terror attacks, they say. Estimates suggest that the 9/11 attacks may have cost as much as $500,000 to stage. By contrast, the Madrid bombings of 2004 are believed to have cost no more than $15,000, and last year's London attacks perhaps $2,000. Four bombs, four rucksacks, some train tickets, a little gasoline, and a few phone calls.

Al Qaeda’s network marks up imports, and sympathetic customers pay up. A honey operation run this way in Yemen funneled $250,000 back to AI Qaeda operatives here in the U.S. About $20 billion a year changes hands in a tradition called hawala ("trust"), a low-tech, untraceable money order between small businesses in the U.S. and the Middle East.

Bin Laden is believed to have created the Ash-Shamal lslamic Bank of Sudan, allowing him to accept and transfer funds at will. AI Qaeda operatives in Texas received $250,000 through this bank in the '90s. Some intel sources believe the largest source of AI Qaeda funding is a heroin-trafficking network run by Haji Juma Khan, who ships smack from Pakistan for weapons and cash.

A gang of robbers arrested in 2005 in France had ties to al-Zarqawi, while groups in Spain linked to the Madrid train bombings had traded stolen vehicles, jewels, and credit cards. Goods from South Asia are drastically undervalued when they're traded offshore near Dubai (to avoid customs duties). Buyers resell them at their fair value and funnel the profits to AI Qaeda.

Charles Coxe. Who's running Al Qaeda? . May 2007.

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