OSAMA DIN LADEN IS DEAD

[Joescoundrel]

(Cont'd from above)

The next May, when the men accused of the Riyadh bombing were beheaded in Riyadh’s main square, they were forced to read a confession in which they acknowledged the connection to bin Laden. The next month, June 1996, a truck bomb destroyed Khobar Towers, an American military residence in Dhahran. It killed 19 soldiers.

Bin Laden fled to Afghanistan that summer after Sudan expelled him under pressure from the Americans and Saudis, and he forged an alliance with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban. In August 1996, from the Afghan mountain stronghold of Tora Bora, bin Laden issued his “Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques.”

“Muslims burn with anger at America,” it read. The presence of American forces in the Persian Gulf states “will provoke the people of the country and induces aggression on their religion, feelings, and prides and pushes them to take up armed struggle against the invaders occupying the land.”

The imbalance of power between American forces and Muslim forces demanded a new kind of fighting, he wrote, “in other words, to initiate a guerrilla war, where sons of the nation, not the military forces, take part in it.”

That same month in New York City, a federal grand jury began meeting to consider charges against bin Laden. Disputes arose among prosecutors and American law enforcement and intelligence officers about which attacks against American interests could truly be attributed to bin Laden — whether in fact he had, as an indictment eventually charged, trained and paid the men who killed the Americans in Somalia.

His foot soldiers, in testimony, offered differing pictures of bin Laden’s actual involvement. In some cases he could be as aloof as any boss with thousands of employees. Yet one of the men convicted of the bombings of the embassies said that bin Laden had been so involved that he was the one who had pointed at surveillance photos to direct where the truck bomb should be driven.

Bin Laden was becoming more emboldened, summoning Western reporters to his hideouts in Afghanistan to relay his message: He would wage war against the United States and its allies if Washington did not remove its troops from the gulf region.

“So we tell the Americans as a people,” he told ABC News, “and we tell the mothers of soldiers and American mothers in general that if they value their lives and the lives of their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after their interests and not the interests of the Jews. The continuation of tyranny will bring the fight to America, as Ramzi Yousef and others did. This is my message to the American people: to look for a serious government that looks out for their interests and does not attack others, their lands, or their honor.”

In February 1998, he issued the edict calling for attacks on Americans anywhere in the world, declaring it an “individual duty” for all Muslims.

In June, the grand jury convened two years earlier issued its indictment, charging bin Laden with conspiracy to attack the United States abroad, for heading Al Qaeda and for financing terrorist activities around the world.

On Aug. 7, the eighth anniversary of the United States’ order sending troops into the gulf region, two bombs exploded simultaneously at the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Nairobi bomb killed 213 people and wounded 4,500; the bomb in Dar es Salaam killed 11 and wounded 85.

The United States retaliated two weeks later with strikes against suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, which officials contended— erroneously, it turned out — was producing chemical weapons for Al Qaeda.

Bin Laden had trapped the United States in an escalating spiral of tension, where any defensive or retaliatory actions would affirm the evils he said had provoked the attacks in the first place. In an interview with Time magazine that December, he brushed aside President Clinton’s threats against him, and referred to himself in the third person, as if recognizing or encouraging the notion that he had become larger than life.

“To call us Enemy No. 1 or Enemy No. 2 does not hurt us,” he said. “Osama bin Laden is confident that the Islamic nation will carry out its duty.”

(Cont'd)

[Joescoundrel]

(Cont'd from above)

In January 1999, the United States government issued a superseding indictment that affirmed the power Bin Laden had sought all along, declaring Al Qaeda an international terrorist organization in a conspiracy to kill American citizens.

The Aftermath

After the attacks of Sept. 11, bin Laden did what had become routine: He took to Arab television. He appeared, in his statement to the world, to be at the top of his powers. President Bush had declared that the nations of the world were either with the Americans or against them on terrorism; bin Laden held up a mirror image, declaring the world divided between infidels and believers.

Bin Laden had never before claimed or accepted responsibility for terrorist attacks. In a videotape found in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar weeks after the attacks, he firmly took responsibility for — and reveled in — the horror of Sept. 11.

“We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower,” he said. “We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all.”

In the videotape, showing him talking to followers nearly two months after the attacks, Bin Laden smiles, hungers to hear more approval, and notes proudly that the attacks let loose a surge of interest in Islam around the world.

He explained that the hijackers on the planes — “the brothers who conducted the operation” — did not know what the mission would be until just before they boarded the planes. They knew only that they were going to the United States on a martyrdom mission.

Bin Laden had long eluded the allied forces in pursuit of him, moving, it was said, under cover of night with his wives and children, apparently between mountain caves. Yet he was determined that if he had to die, he, too, would die a martyr’s death.

His greatest hope, he told supporters, was that if he died at the hands of the Americans, the Muslim world would rise up and defeat the nation that had killed him.

[5FootCarrot]

I'm not sorry that he's gone, and I certainly don't thank him for making air travel even more tedious/stressful than it already was before, but at the same time I hope that the world at large (especially, I guess, the US, who has so far taken the public lead in the war against terrorism) doesn't think that this is over by a long shot. In addition, events since 9/11 have made it very clear that there are many other things demanding policymakers' attention.

World leaders shouldn't use this as an excuse to rest on their laurels, but as motivation to keep going towards tackling everything on their respective socio-economic development agenda.

[Kid Cubao]

pakistan has a whole lot of explaining to do after osama was killed in that country. its leaders will need to explain why, despite earlier reports that he's always on the move, it was revealed he's residing in a palatial estate in a posh suburb 40 miles from islamabad, the capital, and that among his neighbors are the country's top generals. to think pakistan receives about seven billion dollars annually in military aid from the US. wait, now i see the point...

[abcdef]

I have this feeling that Osama was able to do what he is suppose to do. . . he has fulfilled his mission and his death is just nothing. . . he will still live in the hearts of the extremists and he will be considered a martyr for Allah. . . .

[Kid Cubao]

^^ well, if you've read half of the articles posted by joescoundrel, it was clear that his mission was far from over. also, while he's the most charismatic personality among muslim radicals, the rest of the muslim world regard him as an utter disgrace. because of him and his extreme views, many normal peace-loving muslims become victims of hate crimes and other forms of prejudice. truth is, the muslim community soured on him since 9/11.

martyr for allah he is... for poor, uneducated and misguided people who've been conditioned to believe that their life's mission is to be a suicide bomber and blow up as many lives as possible so they can meet their eternal reward of 40 virgins waiting in heaven.

ang usap-usapan na lang ngayon ay kung naaayon sa panuntunan ng islam ang paglibing sa dagat kay osama. there's now a raging debate over this.

[mangtsito]

I'm actually hoping that he's still alive and being tortured in some secret place in order for useful information to be extracted.

[Joescoundrel]

From the Inquirer - - -

Most Wanted Face of Terrorism

THE MOST intense manhunt in history finally caught up with Osama bin Laden, but his life’s story will be told many different ways by different people.

Reviled in the West as the personification of evil, Bin Laden was admired and even revered by some fellow Muslims who embraced his vision of unending jihad against the United States and Arab governments he deemed as infidels.

Bin Laden’s money and preaching inspired the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, and forever ripped a hole in America’s feeling of security in the world.

His actions set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and a clandestine war against extreme Islamic adherents that touched scores of countries on every continent but Antarctica. America’s entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.

Bin Laden was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said Sunday. A small team of Americans carried out the attack and took custody of Bin Laden’s remains, Obama said.

Bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization has also been blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

Inspiration for terrorists

Perhaps as significant was his ability—even from hiding—to inspire a new generation of terrorists to murder in his name. Most of al-Qaida’s top lieutenants have been killed or captured in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, and intelligence officials in Europe and Asia say they now see a greater threat from home-grown radical groups energized by Bin Laden’s cause.

Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1954. He became known as the most pious of the sons among his wealthy father’s 54 children. Bin Laden’s path to militant Islam began as a teenager in the 1970s when he got caught up in the fundamentalist movement then sweeping Saudi Arabia. He was a voracious reader of Islamic literature and listened to weekly sermons in the holy city of Mecca.

Thin, bearded and over 6-feet tall, Bin Laden joined the Afghans’ war against invading Soviet troops in the 1980s and gained a reputation as a courageous and resourceful commander. Access to his family’s considerable construction fortune certainly helped raise his profile among the mujahedeen fighters.

War against Soviets

At the time, Bin Laden’s interests converged with those of the United States, which backed the “holy war” against Soviet occupation with money and arms.

When Bin Laden returned home to Saudi Arabia, he was showered with praise and donations and was in demand as a speaker in mosques and homes. It did not take long for his aims to diverge from those of his former Western supporters.

“When we buy American goods, we are accomplices in the murder of Palestinians,” he said in one of the cassettes made of his speeches from those days.

A seminal moment in Bin Laden’s life came in 1990, when US troops landed on Saudi soil to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

Bin Laden tried to dissuade the government from allowing non-Muslim armies into the land where the prophet Mohammad gave birth to Islam, but the Saudi leadership turned to the United States to protect its vast oil reserves. When Bin Laden continued criticizing Riyadh’s close alliance with Washington, he was stripped of Saudi citizenship.

“I saw radical changes in his personality as he changed from a calm, peaceful and gentle man interested in helping Muslims into a person who believed that he would be able to amass and command an army to liberate Kuwait. It revealed his arrogance and his haughtiness,” Prince Turki, the former Saudi intelligence chief, said in an interview with Arab News and MBC television in late 2001.

“His behavior at that time left no impression that he would become what he has become,” the prince added.

Knack for staying alive

The prince, who said he met Bin Laden several times years ago in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, described him as “a gentle, enthusiastic young man of few words who didn’t raise his voice while talking.”

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, a London-based newspaper, spent 10 days with Bin Laden in an Afghan cave in 1996. He said Bin Laden “touched the root of the grievances of millions in the Arab world” when he presented himself as the alternative to Arab regimes that have been incapable of liberating Arab land from Israeli occupation and restoring pride to their people.

He said Bin Laden and his followers never feared death.

“Those guys spoke about death the way young men talk about going to the disco,” Atwan said. “They envied those who fell in battle because they died as martyrs in God’s cause.”

Still, Bin Laden had a knack for staying alive.

After being kicked out of Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden sought refuge in Sudan. The African country acceded to a US request and offered to turn Bin Laden over to Saudi Arabia in 1996, but his native country declined, afraid a trial would destabilize the country.

No. 1 US enemy

Back on familiar terrain in Afghanistan—allowed in by the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani—Bin Laden and his al-Qaida network prepared for the holy war that turned him into Washington’s No. 1 enemy.

When the Taliban—who would eventually give him refuge—first took control of Kabul in September 1996, Bin Laden and his Arab followers kept a low profile, uncertain of their welcome under the new regime. The Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called Bin Laden to southern Kandahar from his headquarters in Tora Bora and eventually through large and continual financial contributions to the isolated Taliban, Bin Laden became dependent on the religious militia for his survival.

In Afghanistan, he would wake before dawn for prayers, then eat a simple breakfast of cheese and bread. He closely monitored world affairs. Almost daily, he and his men—Egyptians, Yemenis, Saudis, among others—practiced attacks, hurling explosives at targets and shooting at imaginary enemies.

He also went horseback riding, his favorite hobby, and enjoyed playing traditional healer, often prescribing honey, his favorite food, and herbs to treat colds and other illnesses. In Afghanistan, Bin Laden was often accompanied by his four wives—the maximum Islam allows. Estimates on the number of his children range up to 23.

First major strike

Al-Qaida’s first major strike after Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan was on Aug. 7, 1998, when twin explosions rocked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Most of the victims were African passers-by, but the bombings also killed 12 Americans.

Days later, Bin Laden escaped a cruise missile strike on one of his training camps in Afghanistan launched by the United States in retaliation. Bin Laden is believed to have been at the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr camp for a meeting with several of his top men, but left shortly before some 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles slammed into the dusty complex.

Since Sept. 11, Bin Laden stayed a step ahead of the dragnet—perhaps the largest in history for a single individual.

As the Taliban quickly fell under pressure of the US bombardment, Bin Laden fled into the inhospitable mountains in the seam that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan, keeping up a spotty stream of chatter—first in video tapes and then in scratchy audio recordings—to warn his Western pursuers of more bloodshed.

Just hours after the US assault on Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001, Bin Laden appeared in a video delivered to Al-Jazeera, an Arab satellite television station, to issue a threat to America.

“I swear by God … neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security before we live it in Palestine, and not before all the infidel armies leave the land of Mohammad, peace be upon him,” said Bin Laden, dressed in fatigues.

‘America can’t get me alive’

He reappeared in a video appearance broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Dec. 27, 2001, shortly after US forces apparently had him cornered in Tora Bora, a giant cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. Hundreds of al-Qaida suspects are believed to have escaped the massive US bombing campaign there, and Bin Laden is believed to have been among them.

During the past decade, Bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahri have appeared regularly in audio and video tapes to issue threats, and comment on a wide range of current events, although the appearances trailed off in recent years.

At several points in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Bin Laden’s capture or death had appeared imminent. After the March 2003 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials in Islamabad and Washington were paraded out to deny a consistent stream of rumors that Bin Laden had been captured.

Through it all, Bin Laden vowed repeatedly that he was willing to die in his fight to drive the Israelis from Jerusalem and Americans from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

“America can’t get me alive,” Bin Laden was quoted as saying in an interview with a Pakistani journalist conducted shortly after the US invasion of Afghanistan. “I can be eliminated, but not my mission.”

Associated Press

[oca]

Remember the military operations on local bandit Abu Sabaya and terrorist group Abu Sayyaf?

Did the Americans actually learned something from the operations to trace Abu Sabaya and applied in it their pursuit of Osama Bin Laden?

In one of the pursuit operations against Abu Sayyaf in the middle in the jungle, they found packaging of newly purchased underwear and deodorants and other vanity items for male. They figured out that someone must be delivering these items Abu Sabaya, as it is obvious those items can't be purchased in the jungle. So, instead of intensifying efforts in the jungle pursuit, AFP intelligence monitored suspected accomplices and sympathizers from the urban areas.

They zeroed in on individuals who had no business to go to remote and forested areas where Abu Sayyaf was said to be hiding but actually were traveling to this remote places. When they were able to identify a strong lead, they had a government operative plant a tracking device on the back pack that was used by the identified accomplice/ sympathizer.

They successfully traced Abu Sabaya and killed him in an encounter. A press release was issued to announce the death of Abu Sabaya, but there were reservations from some sectors as there was no body to prove that he was actually killed.

Here is now an operation on Osama Bin Laden that started when the intelligence operatives were able to trace the favorite courier of the founder of Al Qaida. Trailed him and found him to be visiting an address in a location that is considered a military community. What business does a suspected Osama courier doing in a known military community? Then, when they conducted the operation, they actually made an effort to possess the body of the dead Osama to have proof that he is actually dead.

-- accomplices/ sympathizers going to places they had no business to be at,
-- taking possession of the body of the target.

Coincidence?

All the while I had thought that the joint Philippine-US military operations was a lopsided arrangement for the AFP side. I wondered what the AFP and the operations here could offer the US. What benefit is there to gain for the Americans?

Well, based on the narratives on this operations, they benefited and did learned something.

[LION]

Osama Bin Laden is still alive.

It was Osama Din Laden who was killed in that raid.