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islamic
Groups
Bin Laden
How
is Bin Laden’s network, al-Qaeda, structured?
Bin Laden is the undisputed leader, called “emir” or “prince,”
by his followers, who must take a sworn oath to him. Any violation is
punishable by death.
Beneath him is the “shura al-majlis” or “consultative council,”
which includes his top lieutenants. His two aides are Egyptians: Ayman
al-Zawahiri, a physician and leader of al-Jihad, the violent Egyptian
group responsible for the Luxor tourist massacre in 1995, and Muhammed
Atef, his military commander, who also served in al-Jihad. A committee
of the council makes the decisions to carry out terrorist attacks.
Where does al-Qaeda operate?
Al-Qaeda is believed to have operations in 60 countries, and active
cells in 20, including the United States. It is also believed to operate
training centers in both Afghanistan and Sudan. The first were set up in
1994 with representatives from Egyptian, Algerian, Tunisian and
Palestinian extremist groups.
Among the countries identified as having active cells of al-Qaeda are
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Philippines, Egypt and
Tunisia.
How
long is an operation in the planning stages?
The minimum appears to be four to six months, but some plans evolve over
years. The surveillance of the East Africa embassies began in 1993, five
years before the bombings were carried out.
The contact poisons are among
“rudimentary chemical and biological stuff” bin Laden has obtained
recently. However, one official said the network’s efforts to obtain
such materials is “scattershot and unfocused ... all over the board”
without a pattern to indicate what he might be planning.
“He is looking for all sorts of stuff,” the official said, adding
that twice bin Laden operatives tried to obtain nuclear materials. Bin
Laden’s German operation was the victim of a sting operation in 1993
when it tried to buy highly enriched uranium on the Soviet black market.
A year later, another similar attempt failed. The Bin Laden operatives
in charge of those attempts, Mamdouh Salim and Ramzi Yousef, are in U.S.
custody. Russian intelligence has told the United States that it
believes bin Laden has been working with Chechen rebels to obtain
radioactive material for a “radiological dispersal device” or
“dirty bomb” that would spray the potentially deadly material over a
small area.
The
connections with Iran are described in recent Justice Department papers
filed in the embassy bombing case. The United States alleges that on two
occasions in the early 1990s, a senior religious leader from Iran met
with bin Laden’s representatives in Khartoum to discuss putting aside
religious differences — bin Laden is a Wahabi Muslim, Iran is
Shi’ite — and cooperate against Western interests. However, there is
no information to suggest any joint operations were ever planned or
carried out.
The link with Pakistan is more current. One issue that distresses U.S.
officials is intelligence that bin Laden, Kashmiri Muslim rebels in
India and Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence — a quasi-autonomous
military intelligence agency — are involved in “monkey business”
together. The United States used the Pakistan agency in the 1980’s to
fund, train and arm the Afghan mujahedeen, including bin Laden, in its
fight against the Soviet Red Army.
Calling it a “stew,” a “crazy soup” and a “cozy
relationship,” two officials noted that the key to the relationship is
Pakistan’s use of rebel insurgents in Kashmir, the troubled region
that has been the subject of three wars between Pakistan and India.
Muslim fighters, financed by the ISI but trained by bin Laden, have been
operating in the Indian part of Kashmir.
“The Paks have interest in working with people who can help them in
Kashmir. Bin Laden has an interest in helping Muslim fighters. It is a
cozy relationship.”
In fact, said the officials, the United States now believes that most of
those killed in last August’s attack on bin Laden camps in Afghanistan
were Kashmiri insurgents training to kill Indians. And that linkage,
they note, is critical to understanding both Bin Laden’s network and
the future of religious terrorism.
Robert Windrem is an NBC News
investigative producer based in New York.
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