Osama bin Laden by Elaine Landau

Author:Elaine Landau [LANDAU, ELAINE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761388784
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Chapter Eight

EXPANDING

OPERATIONS

Prior to the fighting in Somalia, Western intelligence sources had known of Osama bin Laden, but he was not considered a serious threat. That had changed. Pleased with his performance in Somalia, Turabi, along with other Islamic fundamentalist leaders, arranged for bin Laden to become a substantially more powerful component in fomenting an international jihad. For his next assignment, Osama bin Laden was asked to set his sights on Europe.

Osama would not disappoint his backers as he turned his attention toward bolstering the Islamic fundamentalist movement in the Balkans. War-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, where the oppression of Muslims had resulted in both discrimination and bloodshed, were ripe targets. Bin Laden began by enlarging and enhancing his already substantial network of charitable and social-service agencies. These also served as fronts for clandestine terrorist activity.

While these were part of a broader terrorist network, bin Laden made sure that each outlet operated independently. That way if Western intelligence detected terrorist activity in one location, it could not be traced to the others. To further deflect the authorities, bin Laden would arbitrarily close these agencies and open new ones under different names. He also made a point of transferring personnel from region to region. The idea was to make things as confusing as possible for Western intelligence agents. Osama bin Laden also expanded the financial avenues he had established in Eastern Europe, ensuring that the jihadists had an adequate supply of cash at their disposal.

By 1994 the Islamic fundamentalists had decided to extend their network’s reach to Western Europe and the United States. Osama bin Laden was called upon to assist in launching this venture as well. It was his responsibility to saturate Muslim communities in Europe and the United States with pro-Islamic, anti-Western propaganda. Bin Laden developed an effective format for the data and had it translated into numerous languages. The materials were distributed at various meetings and agencies. Bin Laden also relied heavily on the Internet and e-mail to get the word out. He proved to be quite adept at communications. Before long, the information network he created became global and remained in high gear for a number of years.

Bin Laden frequently went to Europe to expand his array of contacts as well as to oversee the trafficking of information. He stayed in Britain for a time and even purchased property in a London suburb. While there, he established several small organizations whose sole purpose was to find safe havens for Islamic militants hiding from the authorities.

By 1994 Osama bin Laden had become a wanted man himself and traveling to Europe as well as many other locations had become extremely dangerous for him. Due to his role in the terrorist activity in Somalia, the United States had pressured Saudi Arabia to take action against him. Therefore, on April 7, 1994, the Saudi government revoked bin Laden’s citizenship, citing that he had “committed acts that adversely affected the brotherly relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some other countries.”¹

There was also a warrant out for his arrest.

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