FRANCE:Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan spoke to Lara Marlowein Paris about his fears over the ongoing fallout from the war on terror
Back in 1996 Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan spent 72 hours with Osama bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora. It seems unimaginable now, but at the time bin Laden had offices in Oxford Street, London, where Atwan works as editor-in-chief of Al-Quds al-Arabi, one of the Arab world's most respected newspapers.
Bin Laden's group was then known as the Islamic Organisation. "The Americans chose the name al-Qaeda (the base) in 1998," Atwan said yesterday.
"Bin Laden began using it later. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda is now as famous as Coca Cola or 7-Up. American policy saw to that."
Atwan was in Paris to launch the French translation of The Secret History of al-Qaeda. Since it was published by the University of California and serialised by the Sunday Times last year, the book has been translated into 15 languages.
The central thesis of Secret History - that US policies are the best recruiter for al-Qaeda - was supported by Michael Scheuer, the former CIA agent who founded the agency's bin Laden unit. "US leaders," Scheuer wrote in a favourable review of Atwan's book in the Washington Post, "will leap on any explanation for Muslim anti-Americanism except our invasion of Iraq, unqualified support for Israel and protection for tyrannies that rule Muslims across the Islamic world."
Bin Laden recently celebrated his 50th birthday - if a man who subsists on dates and water can be said to "celebrate" anything. Atwan is convinced he is still alive, because traditionalist Salafi Islam demands that the family announce a death.
"We know bin Laden had four wives, the youngest of whom was 16," Atwan explains. "If he died, there would be an announcement, for the inheritance to be distributed and the wives to be able to remarry." Atwan also believes that bin Laden is not in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan where US and Pakistani intelligence search for him. The al-Qaeda leaders captured by the US were found in large Pakistani cities.
Secret History tells how the Americans arrested Abu Zubeida in Faisalabad only three days after bin Laden left Abu Zubeida's home.
During their three-day interview in the caves of Tora Bora, Atwan asked bin Laden what he would do if he were driven out of Afghanistan, the way he was expelled from Sudan. "I thought of going to the mountains of Yemen, because they are very similar to Tora Bora," bin Laden replied.
When Atwan met bin Laden, "all he wanted was to get the Americans out of Saudi Arabia". The al-Qaeda leader said he didn't have the means to fight the US, but wanted to set a trap for them. Atwan says: "160,000 US soldiers are now in the region. Apparently they fell into the trap . . . In 70 years, the Soviet Union didn't hurt the US as much as al-Qaeda has. The 'war on terror' has cost $600 billion and the lives of 3,500 US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan." Bin Laden has also achieved his goal of creating anarchy in the region and war between Sunni and Shia Muslims, Atwan said.
He blames the US and friendly Arab regimes for quashing all leftist, secular and nationalist opposition, leaving Islam as the only means of protest.
Saudi Arabia spent $21 billion to help the mujahideen fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, he notes. "The US is reaping what it sowed."
Nor is Atwan optimistic for the future. He feels certain the US will attack Iran, spawning an underground Shia extremist movement that could be even more vicious than the Sunni al-Qaeda. And he fears that divisions with the Palestinian group Hamas will end with the most radical members splintering off into an al-Qaeda-like organisation.