Yonah Alexander and Michael
S. Swetnam, USAMA bin Laden’s al-Qaida:
Profile of a Terrorist Network New
York: Transnational Publishers, Inc. Published in Pakistan by Mr. Books (Pvt)
Ltd, Islamabad, 2001.
Usama bin Laden is the most wanted terrorist by the
U.S.A. He is also a hero of the masses, or at least a large number of them, in
most of the Muslim world. For some people he is the worst criminal of the
contemporary world; for others he is a symbol of resistance to the dominance of
the West. Books on Bin Laden---such as Yossef Bodansky’s Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America and Simon Reeve’s The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin
Laden and the Future of Terrorism---are being sold like hot cakes. But
Usama is known because of the activities he has carried out in the world. And
these activities could not have been carried out without his organization, the
al-Qaida. The al-Qaida is dreaded but not much is about it. Now, for the first
time, information about it has been put together in one place. This, then, is
the book under review.
Al-Qaida (the Base) emerged in 1989 from Mektab al Khidemat (MAK), the office
providing services to the warriors (mujahedeen)
in Afghanistan. It has a council for consultation (majlis al shura), a business committee, a religious committee, a
media committee and a travel office. The consultation committee approves all
major actions and policies. The business committee oversees business and
financial matters. The religious committee discusses religious decrees. The
media committee sends information and procures the information received from
the outside would while the travel office arranges visits of the members.
The al-Qaida was created by Usama bin Laden who was born
in 1957 in Saudi Arabia. He was the seventeenth son of 51 children of Muhammad
bin Laden, a very wealthy construction contractor. In 1980 Usama probably
received a civil engineering degree from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.
Soon after this he came to Afghanistan with both money and construction
machinery. In 1984 he built a ‘guesthouse’ in Peshawar from which the Mektab
was born. From 1986 he established six camps and fought in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaida emerged from the base camp (the guest house) in Peshawar when Usama started
keeping records of all those who stayed there. In 1989 the Soviet Union
withdrew from Afghanistan and Usama went back to Saudi Arabia but,
nevertheless, al-Qaida remained functional.
After the Gulf War in 1991 American troops were stationed
in Saudi Arabia. Now bin Laden expressed deep resentment against the fact that
U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia and vowed to force them out. From this point
onwards al-Qaida became a great threat to the West in general and the U.S. in
particular. Meanwhile bin Laden lived in Sudan and then in 1996 when he was
forced to leave that country came and settled down in Afghanistan. Since then
he has been issuing statements against the West and has been accused of having
financed and masterminded terrorist activities all over the world. Among other
things the charges against the al-Qaida network of Usama are:
- Car bomb explosion outside the American-operated Saudi National Guard Training Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing five Americans and two Indians on 13 November 1995.
-
Car
bomb explosion in Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia, killing 19 soldiers and wounding hundreds more on 25 June 1996.
-
Truck
bombings outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Darus Salaam,
Tanzania, killing 234 people and wounding 5000 others on 7 August 1998.
-
Suicide
bombing of the USS Cole killing 17
and wounding 39 American Sailors in Aden, Yemen on 12 October 2000.
-
and,
finally, the 11 September hijacking of four aircrafts to strike at the World
Trade Centre and the Pentagon causing over 6000 deaths and destruction at an
unprecedented scale in the U.S.A.
Al-Qaida is spread all over 55 countries. Its members
take an oath of loyalty to its objectives. It established what it calls the
International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders in 1998 and
most militant actions are taken under its auspices. During the last several
years about 100 al-Qaida members have been arrested but the network survives.
The ultimate stated aim of the al-Qaida is to bring about an Islamic
government---in accordance with its own interpretation of the concept---in all
Muslim countries. Other subsidiary objectives are to remove American soldiers
from Saudi Arabia. Eventually, the group wants to establish a worldwide Islamic
government.
Among other things Usama bin Laden issued a ‘Declaration
of Jihad’ against the U.S. government and the Saudi government. In February
1998 Usama and Ayaman al-Zawahiri, sent a letter declaring that Muslims could
kill Americans anywhere in the world. This was published in the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 23 February 1998.
This important order is printed as Appendix 1B in this book. The words of the
order, as translated into English are, ‘to kill the Americans and plunder their
money wherever and whenever they find it’.
Al-Qaida is financed primarily by Bin Laden himself whose
wealth was estimated between $ 270 to $ 300 million. Besides, in 1999 the Saudi
Arabian government found a group had been donating $ 50 million of alms money
to Bin Laden. Moreover, a number of banks and private persons, as well as
businesses run by the group, provide it with the finances needed to carry out
the activities of the group. The group, having links in 55 countries, operates
in all the continents. It has a very strong presence in the U.S.A and Europe
too. Besides the members, it has affiliates who may be individuals or groups.
The book names a number of Pakistani religious groups---such as the Jaish
Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba---as being affiliated with the Al-Qaida.
The most important part of the book is that it provides
biographical profiles of members of Al-Qaida. These profiles have been obtained
from the press or the intelligence agencies. The profiles are complete with
photographs, dates of birth, record of involvement with al-Qaida and whether
the person in question is charged with an offence or not.
Among the authors, Yonah Alexander is an academic with
publications on terrorism. Michael S. Swetnam is a American intelligence
official and researcher. Both have a deep understanding of the methodology of
research and academic practices. However, the book contains no attempt at an
analytical understanding of the perceptions of either Usama or members of al-Qaida or what creates and sustains such organizations.
There is no hint of which U.S policies might have created resentment in the
minds of such people. Moreover, there is no mention of the role of state agents
and intelligence agencies of the world in creating or supporting such groups.
The information is very useful but we are not told how it was obtained. In view
of the fact that intelligence agencies, which appear to have provided most of
this information, do not reveal their sources this reticence is understandable.
The book also contains interviews with Usama bin Laden
and reproduction of his crucial anti-Western orders. The bibliography is far
too brief. It leaves out a number of relevant works and seems to have been
compiled in a hurry. However, despite being short on analysis and scholarly
insights into terrorism, the book is useful for anyone with interest in what is
going on in the world.
Dr. Tariq Rahman