Who Made Bin Laden An International Terrorist? – OpEd

By

“Osama Bin Laden is dead”: this is what US President Barack Obama unexpectedly appeared in the East Room of White House on Sunday to announce to the world.

Now everyone has come to believe that the world’s most controversial terrorist whom CNN describes as the “face of terror” and the New York Times describes as the “most hunted man in the world” is killed and buried in the sea.

The New York Times reported on May 2 that the American nation is jubilantly celebrating as “the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times” has been killed by the American forces in Pakistan’s Abbottabad district: “The news touched off an extraordinary outpouring of emotion as crowds gathered outside the White House, in Times Square and at the ground zero site, waving American flags, cheering, shouting, laughing and chanting, “USA, USA!” In New York City, crowds sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. Throughout downtown Washington, drivers honked horns deep into the night.”

.President Obama has called the death of bin Laden “the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda,” and stated that justice has been administered against a terrorist who is “responsible for killing of thousands of innocent people.”

It is unquestionably true that bin Laden was a terrorist who should have been held accountable for the killing of innocent people around the world. It is also true that justice should have been administered about him and his comrades in al-Qaeda. But, has US President Barack Obama alluded to the whole truth with regards to bin Laden? Was bin Laden really responsible for carrying out the 9/11 attacks which laid the groundwork for the Bush administration to invade two sovereign nations and wage wars against the women and children of Iraq and Afghanistan, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians? Is there not any possibility that 9/11 was a false-flag attack carried out by Israel and with the foreknowledge of the FBI and the CIA?

First of all, we should admit that bin Laden, despite being a terrorist, had a firmly substantiated personality and was courageous enough to assume responsibility for the operations which he carried out. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he gave an interview to the Ummat Media Group and denied any involvement in 9/11 attacks. “I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle,” he stated.

Secondly, what should be taken into consideration is the identity of Osama bin Laden. Was he really an “Islamic militant leader,” as CNN claims? Was he a committed, devout Muslim at all? It does not seem to be so.

Let’s be precise and face the bitter reality. It was the United States who upheld Osama bin Laden and promoted him to the level of a dangerous and uncontrollable terrorist.

An article published on the India’s People March website points out the truth to some extent. “As the resistance against the Russian occupation was building up among the Afghan people [during the Soviet war in Afghanistan], the US stepped in to corrupt and hijack the movement as the Russian imperialists were doing the same thing with the national liberation movements of Africa. Osama [bin Laden] became a part of those CIA efforts to channel the movement along fundamentalist and obscurant lines and as part of the US strategy to thwart Russian advance towards influence in the Persian Gulf,” the article reads.

In an article published by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in Global Research on September 12, 2001, although all of the high-ranking officials of the US administration under President George Bush blamed bin Laden and al-Qaeda for carrying out the 9/11 attacks, they intentionally covered up the fact that it was the United States and the CIA which primarily supported bin Laden’s military junta and helped it confront the Soviet forces in Afghanistan: “In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166,…[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal.”

“The new covert US assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies — a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, … as well as a ‘ceaseless stream’ of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan’s ISI [intelligence agency] on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There, the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels,” the article added.

According to Abdel Monam Saidali, of the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, bin Laden and the “Afghan Arabs” had been imparted “with very sophisticated types of training that was allowed to them by the CIA.”

In a 2003 article, Michael Powelson of the Russian journal Demokratizatsiya wrote, “It is difficult to believe that the United States played no role in the operations of the son of one of the wealthiest men in Saudi Arabia. Indeed, it is much more likely that the United States knew full-well of bin Laden’s operation and gave it all the support they could.”

In a 2004 article entitled “Al-Qaeda’s Origins and Links,” the state-funded BBC wrote, “during the anti-Soviet jihad bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA.”

Former Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States Bandar Bin Sultan has also confirmed the fact that the United States supported bin Laden and equipped him to fight the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. In an interview with Larry King, he admitted that he brokered a deal between the United States and bin Laden and played the role of a peacemaker between them. “This is ironic. In the mid-80s, if you remember, we and the United — Saudi Arabia and the United States were supporting the Mujahideen to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviets. He [Osama bin Laden] came to thank me for my efforts to bring the Americans, our friends, to help us against the atheists, he said the communists. Isn’t it ironic?”

Yes, it is ironic! The United States, along with its traditional trajectory, upholds terrorists and dictators and then brings them down as soon as their expiration date comes.

However, the death of Bin Laden, who the former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said that had been killed in 2007, does not change anything. As long as the United States sponsors terrorists and dictators such as the regimes of Al Saud, Al Khalifa, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, the situation remains the same and the global terrorism will not be eradicated. The United States which labels other countries as being part of an ‘axis of evil’ or state sponsors of terrorism should not forget the fact that it has been the largest supporter of brutal and repressive regimes of the world throughout its history.

This article appeared in Press TV and is reprinted with the author’s permission

Kourosh Ziabari

Kourosh Ziabari is an award-winning Iranian journalist, writer and media correspondent.

One thought on “Who Made Bin Laden An International Terrorist? – OpEd

  • May 8, 2011 at 11:44 am
    Permalink

    I doubt anyone believes this suddenly means the Reign of Terror is over – he was but one man who inspired many.

    What’s ironic is Pakistani protests against the US while they were clearly giving Osama safe haven.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Srdjana Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *