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TechnoratiBin Laden and Me
Freedom Fighters, Terrorists, and History
The headquarters and international nerve centre of what was to become the world's most dangerous terrorist organization was a tiny storefront in a dilapidated, two-storey building in the teeming bazaar of Peshawar, Pakistan.
Known as the Mujahedin Service Bureau, I was told by my Pakistani hosts, with more than a touch of sarcasm, it was the official voice of the Afghan resistance, or mujahedin, charged with telling the outside world of the then little-known struggle being waged against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The year was 1986.
At one end of the crowded room was a flimsy desk, behind which sat a small, scholarly-looking middle-aged man in a tattered sweater. He rose as I came in, introduced himself as Abdullah Azzam -- one of the leading advocates of unrelenting jihad to liberate the Muslim world.
Azzam had assigned himself two daunting missions: To tell an uncaring, heedless world the story of the bloody struggle to liberate Afghanistan, and to keep track of the growing numbers of men coming to Peshawar from the four corners of the Muslim world who were seeking to go north and fight the Soviets in the Great Jihad.
Azzam also ran a dingy little rooming house next to his office for Muslim mujahedin headed for Afghanistan that came to be known as "the base" or "the centre," and in Arabic, "al-Qaida." Rarely in history has an international revolutionary movement sprung from such modest origins.
I vividly recall the moment when Azzam stood, paused, took a deep breath, pointed at a large school map on the office wall, and then said slowly, and with the deepest certitude, "We the mujahedin are going to defeat the godless Soviet Communists and their Afghan Communist dogs."
His next statement stunned me. "When we have finished driving the Soviet imperialists from Afghanistan, we mujahedin will then go and drive the American imperialists from Arabia, and then liberate Palestine."
Such epic ambitions from a little man armed only with some ballpoint pens and mimeographed pamphlets seemed preposterous. At the end of the Afghan war, Abdullah Azzam was killed near Peshawar by a car bomb. Azzam's quixotic cause appeared to have been buried with him.
But no. Among the tens of thousands of young men of the Muslim International Brigades who came to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan -- the Communists branded them Islamic terrorists -- was a young engineer from one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, the bin Ladens.
Unlike his youthful contemporaries who went off to Europe to drink, whore, and squander their princely allowances, Osama bin Laden, who had always been a serious, intense young man, went to wage the Great Jihad in Afghanistan.
EARNED ADMIRATION
Bin Laden joined the mujahedin in their fight against the Soviets and puppet Afghan Communist army. Bin Laden was wounded six times in combat, earning wide renown and deep admiration in Afghanistan and Pakistan for his courage, tenacity, and Islamic modesty. It was during this period of combat that bin Laden developed what was to become one of his hallmarks, emulation of the ansar.
The tall, thin Saudi multimillionaire earned respect for his virtuous, ascetic lifestyle that included subsisting on beans and bread, sleeping on the ground or in insect-infested caves, and deporting himself with genuine modesty, self-restraint, and respect for his companions.
Bin Laden spent much of his personal fortune importing bulldozers and Arab engineers into Afghanistan. His men and machines dug deep caves for the mujahedin and their supplies that sheltered them from incessant Soviet air strikes. Bin Laden's "cave war" played an important role in the final Islamic victory. The young Saudi's renown soared as a sort of new Arab, the antithesis of the image of the timid, debauched, lazy Saudis whom Bin Laden and his men sneeringly dismissed as "fat women."
ARDENT DISCIPLE
In the late 1980s, bin Laden fell under Abdullah Azzam's spell, and became one of his most ardent disciples. It was from Sheik Abdullah that Osama bin Laden adopted his strategy and world view of a trans-national jihad to drive American and British influence from the Muslim world. The dreamer and the engineer joined forces, turning a rundown guesthouse into an organization that would come to profoundly challenge the might of the United States and its allies.
I crossed paths once with bin Laden. It was during fighting outside Jalalabad, the Afghan city that commands the route from Peshawar to Kabul. I had been in battle with mujahedin against Afghan Communist troops, backed by armour and artillery. As is the Afghan custom, the battle ended before dusk and all sides repaired to their homes or camps. I was taken to the sprawling, mud-walled compound of my host, local warlord Hadji Abdul Qadeer, who later became vice-president of U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and was assassinated in Kabul in 2002.
AFTER THE BATTLE
We were about 20 men in a long, rectangular room covered in colourful Persian and Afghan carpets, reclining on round bolsters set against the wall. After about 30 minutes of smoking, drinking tea, and chatting, we all rose and prepared to go our various ways. I later recalled one man from the group because he was much taller than the others, remarkably thin, even gaunt, and did not look Afghan. He exuded an aura of profound calm and dignity, as well as an almost religious solemnity. The warrior smiled at me gently. He offered me traditional greetings in Arabic and I replied in the same tongue.
I asked one of my companions who he was.
"Ah, Mr. Eric, he is a Saudi mujahid who has come from far away to perform his jihad with us, Allah be praised." At the time, I took no further notice of him and soon left the group.
Why should I have? He was then only one of tens of thousands of foreign mujahedin who had come to fight the Communists.
At that time, these Islamic militants were hailed by the Reagan administration and the western media as freedom fighters. It was only when Osama bin Laden and other veteran mujahedin freedom fighters undertook Sheik Abdullah Azzam's goal of liberating Arabia, Palestine, and North Africa from western domination that they came to be reviled by the West as terrorists.
14 Comments so far
Show AllThose who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John F. Kennedy
The down trodden the masses and the proletariat have began to erect and sharpening the guillotines
The Bourgeoisies in this New immerging World are ignoring them at their peril
It will be David and Goliath , Gulliver and the Lilliputians and Finally the storming of the Bastille
For they the down trodden masses and the proletariat, will not eat cake
"Rarely in history has an international revolutionary movement sprung from such modest origins. Such epic ambitions from a little man armed only with some ballpoint pens and mimeographed pamphlets seemed preposterous"
Sounds like Benjamin Franklin. ooooh..the Irony. Bin Laden as the TRUE sucessors of the US Founding Father's ideals?
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
What a crappy article. And after all these years this is the drivel deemed 'worthy' by CD editors?
OSAMA BEEN FORGOTTEN! The first step is to tell people what is already known and established about OBL as of September 12, 2001.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
Fossil Fooled,
Thanks for the link. It was awesome!
One step in the right direction to bring peace in the middle east certainly and very long overdue, would be to fairly settle with the Palestine people.
"riddimboy September 28th, 2008 10:46 pm
If there is a single article Margolis has written that hasnt mentioned Reagan, i would love to read it. Margolis has this fascination with the 'bearded ones' that he clearly hasnt gotten over."
WELL, the Reagan administration certainly was not an honest, honourable, ... one, including internationally and nationally. There's nothing of good that's really noteworthy from that administration, which, besides its international crimes, really chopped away at U.S. jobs and employment rights (and dignity of workers); in addition to surely other dishonourable acts or decisions by that presidential administration.
Margolis certainly isn't the sole "conservative" to discredit or criticize the Reagan administration; enough other "conservatives" also have do this and continue to do it.
I won't fault President Reagan himself, but certainly his administration; YES! How much he actually knew and was responsible for in terms of all of the crap from his administration is not something that I can speak about; definitely not having been a witness or 'fly on the wall(s)' in that or any other presidential administration, just as also applies with respect to corporate offices, and so on. If I'm not witness, then I [know] that I'm not and am not going to pretend to be; the only thing I can do is state what we can deduce based on ..., f.e., "connecting dots", what can be assessed by learning of and analyzing events, including statements.
With a v.p. like GHW Bush, it's certainly possible that Pres. Reagan was kept uninformed about even plenty of things, too. I read an article at a website a few or more years ago, maybe 2004, or 2006, I believe, and it was a domain name something like LibertyThink. The piece or compilation of excerpts of news reports was about the attempted assassination of Pres. Reagan shortly after he was elected, and when reading the reports, it becomes at least credible that GHWB was involved ... in the dark sense. That piece also includes a reference to Ronald Reagan's refusal to accept GHWB as v.p. running-mate, and Reagan was threatened, being told that he would definitely not get the election unless he accepted GHWB for v.p. The name of the issuer of that threat is included in the LT piece, and it's easy to find by searching with the keywords of, "Reagan dead" "dead 23" "bush cabal", quoted and separated as just shown, f.e.
So, again, Pres. Reagan may've been kept ignorant of ... much. And I think that Pres. GW Bush may also have been kept ignorant of much; his brain was Karl Rove, many analysts and critics have written; when Bush began to seem to soften up with respect to the war on Iraq, Cheney came charging forward to reverse this softening, [again]; etcetera. And the President does not really lead in the U.S., but is made to seem to be the leader. And so on.
Both administrations still have been very or extremely rotten though.
So, you believe that both Reagan and Bush may have been kept ignorant. It’s hard to believe. That’s where the proverbial buck is supposed to stop. If not the president, then who is (are) running the country?
However, about the only thing that keeps people ignorant is lack of intelligence, aka, stupidity.
Interesting story. Now, how much of it is true, how much is romanticized drama, ...? I wonder. If it's entirely true, then I believe that it still likely is incomplete; not 100% thorough. For one thing, Margolis does explain, at all, why the Soviets were invading Afghanistan, and why the Soviets were allied with the drug-and-war-lord[s]' Northern Alliance of Afghanistan, about which I've additionally read were not all led by actual Afghans, but, in one case anyway, a leader who was really Uzbek (I believe it's Uzbekistan he was from anyway). Another thing I've read from enough different analysts and/or storytellers is that the Northern Alliance's various drug-and=war "lords" have always been and continue to be even much worse than the Taliban. So, why was the USSR invading Afghanistan and fighting with the Northern Alliance? Margolis leaves out this interesting (surely anyway) bit of history.
Another thing he omitted mention of is the relationship that the CIA, very much, if not entirely, through the Pakistani ISI had in terms of forming, arming, training, etcetera (in case there's more to this) the mujahedin fighters or army for freeing Afghanistan from the USSR and Northern Alliance. Many enough people have said that Osama Bin Ladin and others were trained by the CIA, although maybe this was done indirectly, through use of the Pakistani ISI.
Omitting all of these additional elements may possibly be why Margolis was able to write this romantic story about the history of the formation of Al Qaida and how it was first befriended or praised by the U.S., and then became 'terrorists', according to the U.S. Maybe Margolis is truthful in what he's provided, but he's omitted what seems (to me) to be important related history and I don't think that this is a good approach that he employed.
If there is a single article Margolis has written that hasnt mentioned Reagan, i would love to read it. Margolis has this fascination with the 'bearded ones' that he clearly hasnt gotten over.
There is no way to deal with fanaticism, and I include Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Roberts, Scalia along with bin Laden, Amadinajhad and the rest. The way to rescue the world fromt he clutches of such agenmdised and introverted fools, liars and psychopaths is to deny them the succor of the people. Only desperate, hungry, fearful people with little or no hope fall for such lines as they utter.
By bringing fairness, justice and morality to bear you make the crazies irrelevent.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
It is obvious that you are elevating Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Roberts, and Scalia when you compare them with Dr Ahmadinejad.
interesting story
sad to see the empire is still preoccupied with its phantom war against shadows
too late to turn back now
cheers, b
We in the West, with our tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee politicians, go along to get along legislators, infotainment news media, and culture of materialism, have forgotten how charismatic leaders have risen among the people and changed the course of history over the centuries. Maybe that is no longer possible, with saturation propaganda and targeted assassination; but who kmows what may happen during the chaos of financial collapse or global conflict? Maybe in a small college, a back-alley storefront, a church, temple, or mosque...what rough beast?
It is so easy to vilify someone, marginalize them as a human being so you can justify killing them.
And while I don't support bin Laden's views or the violence he commits, I realize that he isn't the complete monster that people make him out to be.
But of course, our country is on of the few western countries that still has the death penalty, so that is our version of compassionate justice.
I remember reading about a murderer who raped and killed two boys and everyone was yelling and screaming, give him the death penalty. He seemed like a hideous monster (and his acts certainly were hideous).
Did he deserve the death penalty? It later came out that he was born when his father kicked his pregnant mother in the stomach and that is how he came into the world. And it was downhill from there. Did he really become a murderer of his own choosing?
We need to start embracing peace and justice as a way of life. Until we do, this cycle of violence will continue unabated, and it is the innocents who get hurt.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John F. Kennedy
www.NotOneMore.US