Osama bin-Laden interview, June 1999: entering the mind of an adversary

Military Review, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Youssef H. Aboul-Enein

Bin-Laden's Views on Petro-Politics

Ismail describes Bin-Laden's belief that America robs Saudi Arabia of its oil wealth. Bin-Laden explains that during the reign of King Faisal, the United States paid only 70 cents per barrel [of oil]. In the 1973 oil crisis, the Muslims asserted their economic power using oil as a weapon, and prices began to rise to $40 per barrel. When the [oil] prices leveled off to $36, the United States pressured Gulf countries to increase their production to lower prices. Bin-Laden labels this "the great swindle." Doing basic math, Bin-Laden explains that from $36 the price was lowered to $9 per barrel, he relates the retail price at $144 per barrel, or a loss of $135. He multiplied $135 by the 30 million barrels produced in the Islamic world daily, totaling a loss of $4.5 billion per day for Muslim nations. He breaks down the loss over 25 years to $30,000 for every Muslim man, woman, and child. Although this is an oversimplification of petroleum production and evolution of agreements between oil companies and oil-producing nations, it is highlighted to demonstrate the skill with which Bin-Laden panders to the disenfranchised, giving them an alternate history.

Aside from exporting atrocities around the world, Bin-Laden exports alternative messages that must be discredited. He has a skill at taking World War II history out of context and packaging Quranic verses, prophetic sayings, and Islamic militant writings from the 13th through the 20th century and passing them off as theology. In a post-11 September 2001 world, the United States must find the logic behind Bin-Laden's diatribe to begin the process of discrediting it Islamically and intellectually. In the end we will capture the likes of Bin-Laden and Al-Zawahiri, but their writings, commentaries, and speeches will outlive them. Dismantling their arguments is an important aspect in this war on terrorism.

Fifty years from now when young Muslims read Bin-Laden and Al-Zawahiri's works, they will hopefully reflect on how not to lapse into Islamic militancy, much like Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf is viewed as a lesson on how not to lapse into fascism. (6) From a military education perspective, the United States has spent hours discussing the ideology and military tactics of the Vietnamese; a new corpus of literature must be developed for this new adversary.

NOTES

(1.) Bin Laaden wa al-Jazeerah wa Ana (Bin Laden, Al-Jazeera. and I) (Casablanca, Morocco: Dar-al-Nalaah Al-Jadeedah, 2001).

(2.) Ayman al-Zawahiri "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner," Al-Shanq al-Awsat, London, 2 December 2001.

(3.) For more information about Operation Olympic, see online at <www.ibiblio.org/pha/war.term/Olyrnpic.html>, accessed 23 June 2004.

(4.) Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahab, Kitab al-Tawheed (Miscellaneous Pakistani Publisher). Kitab al-Tawheed is an 18-century tanets of faith book.

(5.) Salman bin Fahed al-Auda, The End of History (No publishing data given.)

(6.) Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My struggles)(Boston, Ma: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).

Lieutenant Commander Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, U.S. Navy, is a Middle East-North Africa Foreign Area Officer. He received a B.B.A. from the University of Mississippi, an M.B.A. and M.H.S.A from the University of Arkansas, and an M.S. from the Joint Military Intelligence College. He is the Director for North Africa and Egypt, and the Assistant Director for the Arabian Peninsula, at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He has served in various command and staff positions in the continental United States, Bosnia, Liberia, and the Middle East.