by Ann Williams
All of the terrorists had been trained by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, some of them forming a cell in Hamburg, Germany, and fleeing from there before the attacks. The attacks had been planned in detail by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a leading figure in al-Qaeda until his eventual capture in Pakistan in 2003. He was also responsible for other atrocities. The plan had the full approval and backing of Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.
OSAMA BIN LADEN
The shadowy figure of Osama Bin Laden has continued to haunt the West since he was identified as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. He is also believed to have been involved in several other major terrorist attacks, including many US embassy bombings, Bali nightclub bombings and the Madrid bombings. However, to date the FBI does not have enough hard evidence to link him to the events of September 11, and he has not been captured. His whereabouts are unknown, although he is thought to be living in rural Afghanistan. There have also been reports of his death, though these are unsubstantiated.
Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 10, 1957. His father, Muhammed Awad bin Laden, worked for the Saudi royal family in construction, amassing a huge fortune in the 1950s. Muhammed had many wives, and Osama was one of 55 children. His mother was a Syrian-born woman who divorced his father shortly after his birth, marrying a man who worked for Muhammed. Osama became part of a new step-family, and was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. At school and university, he came under the influence of religious dissidents, some of whom preached a philosophy of anti-Western ‘jihad’. As a young man, he married several times, divorcing once, and fathered more than 20 children. Described as soft-spoken, gentle and polite, he nevertheless aligned himself with the most militant elements in the Muslim world.
TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP
Bin Laden was a strong supporter of the Muslim fundamentalist regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, who had ousted the Shah from the throne in Iran, and he also supported the Muslim guerrillas, or ‘muhajideen’ fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He set up an organization known as Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) to channel funds, arms and trained soldiers into Afghanistan. He then broke away from MAK and set up a new group, al-Qaeda, publicly denouncing the Saudi government for allowing US military bases in the country. Eventually, in 1991, the Saudi government expelled Bin Laden to Sudan, where he established a base for his future terrorist activities, training Islamic militants in all aspects of terrorist warfare.
In May 1996, Bin Laden was expelled from Sudan, and went to Afghanistan, befriending leaders of the Taliban government there. He then masterminded a series of terrorist attacks around the world, including the failed ‘Bojinka’ plot, a 9/11-style multi-target attack involving hijacked aeroplanes. He also issued a ‘fatwa’ declaring a holy war against all Americans for crimes committed against Arab peoples, in particular criticizing American support for Israel.
CAVE HIDEOUT
In response, the US government ordered the arrest or assassination of Bin Laden and froze all assets linked to him. They also sent over cruise missiles to kill him, but he escaped – however, many other people were killed. Sanctions against Afghanistan were imposed, but the Taliban refused to give up Bin Laden, even when he became the prime suspect in the 9/11 attacks. Since then, despite strenuous attempts to link Bin Laden directly to the events of September 11, no conclusive evidence has been found against him.
Today, Bin Laden is still in hiding. His large extended family have disowned him, and he is thought to be living in caves on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is also believed that Bin Laden has serious health problems and suffers from a kidney disease that needs to be treated with advanced medical equipment. Over the years, several sightings of him have been reported, but none of them have yet led to his capture. Some accounts even suggest that Osama Bin Laden is in reality dead, and that it is a continuing myth that he is hiding in the rugged landscape of Afghanistan. But whatever the truth, the mastermind behind the atrocities has still not been caught, and it seems unlikely that he will be brought to justice.
THE HUNT FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN
Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Osama bin Laden became the world’s most wanted man. How then, despite his face being on every front page and being pursued by elite military units, did this man evade capture for so long? Undoubtedly he had the backup of not only a fiercely loyal band of followers who moved him secretly from place to place, but many believe he slipped across the border into neighbouring Pakistan aided, by a select few law enforcement officers. An instantly recognizable figure, bin Laden, with no real home country, remained at large for nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks.
Just three months after the September 11 attacks, it was reported that bin Laden was hiding out in a cave complex in the mountains of Tora Bora. The US air force launched an aerial bombardment, but the al-Qaeda chief survived the attack and is thought to have moved to the remote area of Kunar in north-east Afghanistan. Kunar was a rough area that had little in the way of governmental control, which meant he could move about without much fear of being discovered, although he always kept at least 40 bodyguards to cover his every move. It is not clear when he crossed the border into Pakistan, but it is believed to have been in late 2002.
News surfaced from time to time that the fugitive had made another video tape threatening further attacks in an effort to get military personnel off his territory, and yet mysteriously George Bush and later Barack Obama, seemed to get no closer to finding this elusive man. Reports suggest that US troops came very close to his hideout on more than one occasion, but it seems for a decade they never came close enough. Rumours suggest that bin Laden may have paid a lot of money to local tribesmen to assist him in his exile, and they did a good job in keeping his whereabouts a secret.
There were constant rumours that his health was suffering and that there was a distinct possibility that the terrorist leader could already be dead. And yet, just when people started to believe these rumours could be true, his face popped up again on another video commenting on how the world was handling the ‘threat of terrorism’. He always threatened, he was always menacing …
‘America is a great power possessed of tremendous military might and a wide-ranging economy, but all this is built on an unstable foundation which can be targeted, with special attention to its obvious weak spots. If America is hit in one hundredth of these weak spots, God willing, it will stumble, wither away and relinquish world leadership.’
‘JIHAD WILL CONTINUE EVEN IF I AM NOT AROUND!’
Following intensive US attacks on remote tribal regions, bin Laden was eventually forced to flee to the town of Abbottabad in the northern area of Islamabad. Here, he was a little more in the open and it was harder for him to move about so freely. The hideout he chose – a specifically built compound – was close to a police station, a hospital and also a cinema, so the area was constantly busy. The CIA were suspicious that this concrete building with a secure perimeter fence was definitely hiding someone of importance and, by following the movements of a known al-Qaeda courier their suspicions were confirmed. The compound was built in 2004 and stood at the end of a narrow, dirt road about 21/2 miles outside of Abbottabad. It was much larger than any of the buildings in the vicinity and the fact that it was surrounded by a 12-foot-high concrete wall topped with barbed wire, indicated that whoever was inside did not want intruders. Although the compound had two security gates, it had no phone lines or internet connection for fear their security could be breached. Rubbish was burned rather than left out for collection as the other residents did. Osama bin Laden and his family remained interred within the compound for five years, scared to be seen in public, but determined to carry on his destruction right up to the end.
The CIA set up a safe house close by from which they could watch the compound over a period of several months, monitoring the comings and goings of the courier. The courier’s cargo turned out to be flash drives containing important emails so that bin Laden coul
d remain in contact with the outside world. Once the CIA were certain that the occupants of the compound had no intention of surrendering, they started planning their operation believed to be called ‘Operation Neptune Spear’. On 29 April 2011 at around 8.30 am, Barack Obama met with his security advisers and finally authorized the mission to go ahead on 1 May.
The raid on the compound was carried out by 24 specially trained US Navy Seal commandos, the most elite fighting force in the world. Trained alongside the men was a Seal dog who was kitted out with a bulletproof vest and a night-vision helmet which contained a camera so that the commandos could see exactly what the dog encountered. No doubt, it was the Seal dog that first penetrated the compound and gave them the confirmation that bin Laden was inside. The Seals entered Pakistan by means of Black Hawk helicopters. They were armed with M4 assault rifles, night vision goggles and handguns with strict instructions to KILL OR CAPTURE. The helicopters flew during the night so that they could land, hopefully undetected, making it harder for them to be picked up by radar. They managed to penetrate the compound by using ropes to obtain access via the rooftop and the courtyard. On the ground floor they encountered two adult males, but their prime target lived on the second and third floors with his family. The courier the CIA had been tracking, Al-Kuwaiti, opened fire on the first team of Seals from behind a door but he was killed, along with his wife, in the exchange of fire. Osama bin Laden, on the third floor, wearing a shalwar kameez, the local loose-fitting tunic and pants, fled into his bedroom as soon as he saw the Seals advancing up the stairs. They followed him into his room and shot him before he had time to reach for two weapons he had next to his bed. He was shot in the chest and also above his left eye. As they entered the room they had to grab two of bin Laden’s children and push them out of the way. One of bin Laden’s wives rushed at the Seals and she was shot in the leg.
The whole operation took 38 minutes and in total five of the compound residents were killed and two wounded. Those killed were al-Kuwaiti (bin Laden’s courier), an adult female (possibly one of his wives), Tareq Khan (the courier’s brother or cousin), Khaled bin Laden (the 22-year-old son of bin Laden) and Osama bin Laden himself. Wounded were Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah (the fifth wife of bin Laden) and Safia bin Laden (the 12-year-daughter of bin Laden).
After the attack the whole operation was shrouded in secrecy with bin Laden’s body being buried at sea following Muslim funeral rites on board the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The body was wrapped in a shroud and placed inside a weighted bag which was then dropped into the north Arabian Sea. The reason President Obama gave for this was he did not want bin Laden’s grave to become a shrine. This, along with the fact that the president refused to issue photographs of bin Laden’s body, brought about many conspiracy theories. Eventually al-Qaeda officials confirmed the death of their leader.
On 2 May 2011, President Obama confirmed to the world media that they had indeed killed the most wanted man on earth:
‘Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.’
Within minutes of hearing the news, large crowds gathered at Ground Zero in New York, outside the White House, the Pentagon and in New York’s Times Square to celebrate, but the president was keen to point out that it was vital to remain vigilant. The leader of al-Qaeda was dead but evidence seized from within the compound proved that Osama bin Laden had been planning further attacks against the USA. Although some feel that it wasn’t humanitarian to kill an unarmed man, it is important to remember that this man had been responsible for the deaths and murder of thousands of citizens around the world. His death in the dusty compound in Abbottabad extinguished a major threat and is a serious setback to al-Qaeda’s jihad, but it is unlikely to end there. To many in the West, bin Laden became the embodiment of global terrorism, but to others he was a hero, a devout Muslim who fought world superpowers in the name of jihad.
Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis
Every nation has the right to their fate. Russia has taken away this right from the Chechens and today we want to reclaim these rights, which Allah has given us, in the same way he has given it to other nations. Allah has given us the right of freedom and the right to choose our destiny.
The Moscow Theatre Hostage crisis, in which Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theatre and held over 900 audience members hostage, is in many ways a tragic story. The hostages endured a three-day ordeal, and were then ‘rescued’ by Russian troops using a mystery gas, which unfortunately caused the deaths of a 130 of them. Afterwards, the Russian authorities refused to say what the gas was and were slow to administer an antidote, which meant that many died, and those who survived were, in many cases, left with memory loss and other damage. For these reasons, the Moscow Theatre Hostage crisis remains a controversial issue, and many questions surrounding the event remain unanswered.
HUMAN TIME BOMBS
The attack on the theatre, named the House of Culture and situated in the Dubrovka area of the city, began on October 23, 2002, during a performance of the popular Russian musical Nord-Ost. During the second act, 42 terrorists, 18 of them women, stormed the theatre and held up the audience at gunpoint. They were led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of a Chechen military leader who had died in combat. Barayev announced that the terrorists had placed mines around the theatre and would blow it up unless Russia withdrew troops from the rebel republic of Chechnya. Some of the terrorists were reported to have explosives strapped to their own bodies. It was also claimed that the women among them were widows of Chechen men killed by Russian forces.
Backstage, some of the performers who had been waiting to take part in the musical managed to escape through a window. They immediately called the police and informed them that the theatre had been taken over by force, mentioning that some of the terrorists were women. Inside the building, some hostages managed to phone family and friends on their mobile phones, but in many cases this simply added to the tension. One hostage, for example, described how he was sitting beside a bomb that one of the terrorists was threatening to detonate. Further anxiety was caused when the terrorists issued media announcements with a video, in which some of the gunmen swore that they were willing to die to avenge their country’s honour.
SUMMARY EXECUTIONS
During the first day, the terrorists released a man suffering from a heart condition and let several children go. They also freed all Muslim members of the audience. In addition, several hostages managed to slip out of the building, through open windows. However, the terrorists refused to release foreign (non-Russian) members of the audience, despite the authorities’ pleas to do so as soon as possible.
On the second day of the siege, a member of the public barged her way through the Russian soldiers surrounding the building, and berated the hostages, telling them to stand up to the terrorists. The gunmen pushed her into a side room and three shots were heard, which suggested that she had been executed. The following day, another member of the public fought his way into the building, claiming that he had come to fetch his son. He met with the same chilling fate.
For almost three days, the Chechen terrorists held the people inside the theatre to ransom. The producer of the musical, Georgy Vasilyev, later described what happened as a bardak, a slang Russian word meaning ‘utter chaos’. Naturally, the hostages feared for their lives, either at the hands of the gunmen, or through an explosion of one of the mines planted in the building. It seemed that the gunmen were not at all well organized or clear about their plans, and an atmosphere of panic prevailed.
KILLER GAS
Early on the Saturday morning, the Russian government decided to act. They sent in the ‘Spetsnaz’, a team of special forces, in a commando-style raid on the building. Unusually,
the soldiers sprayed an anaesthetic gas into the building before entering. Although many of the hostages and their captors fell asleep, some of them remained alert, and a terrifying gun battle between the security forces and the terrorists ensued, with the hostages in the auditorium caught in the crossfire.
In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, the situation did not seem to improve a great deal. Many of the hostages suffering from the effects of the gas were taken to hospitals around the city, but there were delays in finding antidotes for them, and some died of gas poisoning. Relatives were given little or no information as to what was going on, causing a great deal of ill feeling towards the soldiers and the authorities. Outside some of the hospitals, members of the public shouted, ‘Hostages again!’ as they waited for news of their loved ones. Their anger intensified when Moscow’s senior medical official announced that the 120 hostages who had died had all been victims of the gas, rather than dying of gunshot wounds.
