Author: M. D. Nalapat
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 16, 2001
Osama bin Laden has several sympathisers
in the U.S. This became evident from two meetings with groups of individuals
(mostly from Pakistan, but including a few from India) staying in the New
Jersey, Bronx and Queens areas. They refused to accept that he may have
been responsible for Tuesday's acts of terror, saying that he was only
active in the jehad against "Indian military occupation" in Kashmir.
According to them, the bin Laden
family was among the most prestigious in Saudi Arabia, "and had even financed
King Abdul Aziz 80 years ago" when the founder of the Al-Saud dynasty was
consolidating his control. As a consequence "even today the Saudi monarchy
gives the first right of refusal to the bin Laden family for all major
construction contracts in the kingdom."
Osama bin Laden "saw the Al- Sauds
at close range and began to believe that they were not true followers of
the faith ... Indeed, that many of them had vices such as alcohol and (licentious)
living." One of the group, a Pakistani doctor on a visit to the city, claimed
that some of the Saudi ruling elite "even shared a taste for ham sandwiches
with their American friends." One named a prominent member of the Saudi
elite based in Washington as sharing this culinary taste.
According to them, Osama bin Laden
"only seeks to liberate Saudi Arabia" from this "ungodly" clan, and for
this he regularly gets funds from "business and other people in the kingdom
who have suffered at the hands of the Al-Sauds." These people share bin
Laden's "dislike of the U.S. for propping up the monarchy and stationing
unbeliever troops on Saudi soil."
And what about the jehadi volunteers?
Are they all Saudi dissidents or peaceniks? Apparently bin Laden attracts
"all those who feel victimised, whether by India in Kashmir or by Israel
in Palestine or Russia in Chechnya." They claim that about a third of his
volunteers are from Afghanistan, another fourth from Pakistan "and the
rest from believers worldwide."
The Taliban "will never betray him,
as he is the father-in-law of the Amir-e-Momineen (Mullah Omar) and has
been of great assistance to the Pashtuns in their dark days under Soviet
military occupation." According to these sources, only "retired" officers
of the Pakistan army help train the "volunteers" that are sent to India
and other locations.
Since the Gulf War, a chain of organisations
has mushroomed in the U.S. that seeks to create an inter-linked community
of those who support jehadi operations "though never in the U.S". as these
sources chorused. "We meet each week and exchange messages through telephone
and the internet. The suffering of our people worldwide creates pain in
us and we seek to do something to end this," a businessman based in Chicago
said. He added, "We operate fully in the open, with newsletters and e-groups.
There is nothing clandestine about our activities."
