The Power Behind Bin Laden: Behind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda lie the true masters of terror — the states that sponsor terrorism — many of which the U.S. now considers "allies" in the war against terrorism

New American, The, Dec 31, 2001 by William F. Jasper

As we go to press, Osama bin Laden is on the run. The terrorist and his al-Qaeda troops have gone into hiding, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that sheltered and supported him has been almost completely overthrown. Yet the elusive bin Laden looms larger than life. Although he has at most several thousand men under his command, he has put the world's most powerful superpower on a full-scale war footing.

The September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., have had their intended effect: There is widespread -- and justified -- fear that bin Laden's global network of terrorists might retaliate anywhere. Possibly with another attack as deadly and spectacular as we witnessed on Black Tuesday. Possibly with biological or chemical weapons. Possibly with a nuclear weapon. After the devastation of "9-11," none of these possibilities seem farfetched.

If, however, bin Laden and al-Qaeda were to be captured or destroyed today, would the terrorist threat be eliminated? Unfortunately and most assuredly not.

Consider these somber facts:

* Osama bin Laden is only one of many leaders of terrorist groups throughout the world.

* Virtually all terrorist groups, including bin Laden's al-Qaeda, are state sponsored, and the level of danger they present is dependent upon the arms, training, supplies, funding, and support infrastructure they receive from state intelligence services.

* Russia, China, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, and other states we are embracing as "allies" against terrorism have been the prime sponsors of terrorism for decades and have been key supporters of bin Laden and his extended network up to the present time.

* In sharing intelligence, military training, and technology with these "allies," we are guaranteeing that they will be able to keep a steady stream of "bin Ladens" rolling off the assembly line and better assist them in carrying out even more sophisticated and more deadly acts of terror against us.

Genesis of a Terrorist

Osama bin Laden is not your run-of-the-mill terrorist. His immense personal wealth alone makes him unusual. Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, around 1957, he is the son of Muhammad bin Laden, reputedly the biggest construction magnate in the Middle East. Osama's militant Islamic activities put him at odds with the ruling House of al-Saud and caused his family publicly to disown him. Some observers believe the disinheritance was purely for show; at any rate, it didn't seem to preclude Osama from making off with a reported $200 million.

Personal wealth, even of that magnitude, however, is not sufficient -- by itself -- to establish and provide for all the needs of an international terrorist operation. Like every other terrorist organization, bin Laden's al-Qaeda has been dependent upon sponsoring states -- for training camps, sanctuary, arms, intelligence, technical expertise, logistical support, passports, and funding. Revolutionary Iran and the Afghan Taliban have been his chief sponsors, though Sudan, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq have also played important roles.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 apparently struck young bin Laden hard, as it did many Muslim youths. He left immediately for Pakistan and Afghanistan to help the Afghan mujahideen drive out the Soviet atheists. Ironically, like so many other Afghan volunteers, he has since ended up completely co-opted by the same Communist forces he originally went to fight. Although the Iranian regime to which he has been so closely tied for many years is commonly referred to as an "Islamist" government, it is more accurately described as a Marxist-Leninist one.

Incredibly, the Establishment foreign policy "experts" in the Bush administration are dispensing the same patently false line on Iran adopted by their predecessors in the Clinton administration. Iran's President Mohammed Khatami, they insist, against overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is a "moderate" with whom we can cooperate in the war against terrorism.

Thankfully, not all have adopted this outrageous and demonstrably fraudulent position. According to Iranian scholar Dr. Azar Nafisi, a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins University, "It is worth noting that the Iranian mullahs are not purely Islamic. Many of their ideas are based in Marxism." "The idea of a decadent Western culture, the division of the world between the imperialists and their internal agents and their colonial victims -- between the oppressed and the oppressor -- and even many of the plans, economic and otherwise, for the creation of an ideal state were lifted out of Marxist dictums," Dr. Nafisi told a forum of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in February 1999. "Many of President Khatami's supporters were ardent Islamist leftists who actively participated in the taking of the American hostages."

It's actually much worse than that, of course. Khatami's thugocracy is run not by mere "ardent Islamist leftists," but full-fledged, Moscow-directed terrorists in clerical garb. The authoritative, London-based Soviet Analyst and its sister publication, Arab-Asian Affairs, have provided many documented, detailed reports over the past several years showing precisely that.