Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:14 am Post subject: Excerpt: The Osama bin Laden I know |
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By Peter Bergen
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The founding of al Qaeda marked an irrevocable split between bin Laden and his former mentor Abdullah Azzam. This split would have fateful consequences. Azzam advocated a concept of jihad that was essentially a traditional fundamentalist interpretation of the nature of jihad; the reclamation of once-Muslim lands from non-Muslim rule in places such as Palestine, what was then the Soviet Union, and even southern Spain, which had been under Muslim rule five centuries earlier.
The predominantly Egyptian militants who surrounded bin Laden at the end of the '80s advocated something more radical: the violent overthrow of governments across the Muslim world they deemed "apostate", a concept of jihad that Azzam and many of his followers rejected as they wanted no part in conflicts between Muslims. The split between Azzam and the ultra-jihadists around bin Laden may have even cost Azzam his life; he was assassinated by unknown assailants in November 1989, a year after al Qaeda had been secretly founded.
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All of these assertions are nonsense. There is overwhelming evidence that al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by bin Laden and a small group of like-minded militants, and that the group would eventually mushroom into the secretive, disciplined, global organization dominated by bin Laden that implemented the 9/11 attacks. That evidence can be found in the documents in this chapter, which were recovered in Bosnia in 2002, and can also be found in the interviews throughout this book.
What follows are excerpts of a key document: The minutes of the first meeting about the establishment of al Qaeda on August 11, 1988. This document outlines the discussion between bin Laden, referred to as the "the Sheikh," and Abu Rida, or Mohamed Loay Bayazid, to discuss the formation of a "new military group," which would include "al Qaeda (the base)." Abu Rida refers to a disagreement with Abdullah Azzam, with whom bin Laden had founded the Mektab al Khidmat (Services Office). |
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2006/1/18/13810/7770 |
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