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| World News AntiWar Movement The most feared man in the US, long trained by the CIA... 9/14/01 Peter Dale Scott site on Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden
Bin Laden sought nuclear matter, 9/16/01 Boston Globe Bin
Laden's Finances National Security Archives: Sep 11th Source Books
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Bin Laden, Narcoterrorism, the CIA,
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| Abstracted from LE MONDE 9/14/01 www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3216--221921-,00.html Oussama bin Laden, member of a wealthy Saudi family, graduated from the University of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as a civil engineer, and was recruited by the CIA in 1979 as someone to work in Istanbul and take charge of funneling volunteers to Afghanistan. Today at age 43, he runs a multinational of terrorism and traffics in arms and morphine base, using covert CIA financial and money laundering techniques. He started out in logistics and personnel in Istanbul and moved on to large scale arms smuggling financed in equal share by the US and the Saudis, reaching an annual turn over of $1.2 billion. In 1980, he moved to Afghanistan, where he remained until the Soviets leave in 1989. He was entrusted with the distribution of funds to the various Afghan groups engaged in the resistance, a key political role. He benefited back then from the complete support of the Americans and of the Saudi regime in the person of his friend prince Turki Bin Fayçal, brother of the king and head of the Saudi secret services. Accoding to Richard Labévière, of Radio France Internationale (author of Les Dollars de la terreur, Grasset), the budding terrorist set up an opium trafficking network with his friend Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, in the province of Helmand, the country’s prime location for poppy cultivation. He continued this trafficking in Khartoum, the Sudan, where he took refuge in 1992 with a good part of "the Afghans," described by a CIA director as a secret army of 10,000 men. He supplied his friend Hekmatyar with men and arms. He creates a conglomerate, "Oussama Holdings," with interests in finance, cars, machine tools, chemical plants, and public works. Thanks to the Banque du Nord (Bank Ach-Chamal), he leads a nebulous group of companies and NGOs supporting the Sunni Islamic revolution in Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Asia and other places. At that time, his fortune is estimated at $2 billion. But he becomes too visible, and the Saudis withdraw their overt support, stripping him of his nationality without withdrawing their covert financial support. He maintained his ties with the head of the Saudi Secret Services, prince Turki, even after 1998, when he became US public enemy number one and a bounty is placed on him. His extremely wealthy family renounced him, at least officially. It is not known how his relations with the CIA evolved, experts disagree on that point. He moved back to Afghanistan in 1998 and became counselor and friend of the Taliban’s main spiritual leader, Mohammed Omar, whom he helps with his financial know-how, working through a bank in Khartoum managed by his son . He also re-organizes the Afghan opium networks. Based out of a luxury villa in Kandahar, bin Laden continued to build his terrorism multinational. His organization, Al-Quaida, manages 12 training camps and has subsidiaries in 50 countries. He travels to London in his private jet where he sometimes meets with journalists. His front men in the City covertly invest in electronics, construction, and import-export. For the past year, he has had to keep a lower profile and his transactions have become more convoluted, taking place through a cascade of front companies in Pakistan, the Gulf States, and in off-shore financial havens. In addition to income generated through investments and drug-trafficking, his organizations benefit from donations made via islamic ONGs. The ONG support stopped 3 weeks ago when an important event ocurred, modifying his relations with the Saudis. Prince Turki, his long time friend and head of the secret services, was replaced by another prince, Naouaf, a retainer of crown prince Abdallah. The reasons for this are unknown, but the ties with the Saudi royal family now seem broken. The pseudo renegade is now a pariah and all the more dangerous. In London as elsewhere, increased central bank surveillance on money laundering operations and counter espionage investigations have constrained activists to shun well known firms, arab or otherwise, in favor of funds transfer agencies, such as Western Union, or money changers of Middle Eastern origin. The NCIS, the British bureau in charge of fighting money laundering, describes two other networks used by islamic extremists for managing their investments: law firms and accounting offices. Large English law firms manage "islamic" investments according to Coranic principles and are less stringent than banks as to the source of funds. |
Russia's
"Lost" Luggage Could Be Deadly, 11/1/98
| by Eric Margolis November 1, 1998 Call it the ultimate missing luggage story. Last year, Gen. Alexander Lebed, Russia's former National Security Advisor, claimed more than 100 suitcase-sized nuclear weapons had `disappeared.' Another senior Russian security official, Alexei Yablokov, backed Lebed's allegations. Lebed, now a presidential candidate, asserted Russia's military had lost track of the portable nuclear weapons, each of which can produce a 1 kiloton explosion, equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT. A single suitcase nuke, placed in an urban area, could kill up to 100,000 people and cause enormous physical damage. Russian security officials scoffed at Lebed's claims, blaming poor record keeping rather than theft or diversion. US officials claimed Libya, Iraq and Iran were the real nuclear danger, not mini-nukes. In fact, these nations pose a potential threat only to Israel. By contrast, Russia's missing nukes are a very real menace to US security. Two months ago, the highest ranking officer ever to defect from GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, testified in closed hearings before Congress. The former GRU colonel, who defected in 1992, said he had personally identified locations in the US for suitcase nuclear devices that would be used in case of war. The colonel admitted he had no knowledge any devices had actually been smuggled into the US, but said `it was possible,' because many of the weapons had disappeared from Russia's inventory. Meaning the mini-nukes are either missing - and possibly in the hands of terrorists - or secreted in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The Soviet mini-nukes, described as the size of a golf club bag, were designed to destroy vital targets, such as military command and control centers, air defense headquarters, missile bases, communications nodes, power stations, bridges, dams, airports, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. If one such weapon, hidden in the back of a delivery van, were detonated outside the Pentagon, America's military leadership would be decapitated. The GRU colonel explained the mini-nukes were to be smuggled into the US the same way drugs were - by speedboat, light aircraft, or landed on the coast by Soviet subs. Soviet special force `Spetsnaz' units would retrieve the weapons and conceal them close to their intended targets. One key hiding place was Northern Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley, located a short drive from Washington. The colonel also revealed that during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets stockpiled suitcase nuclear weapons in Cuba without the knowledge of Castro, ready for use by special forces troops. KGB sources also recently told me that at the height of the crisis, Soviet commanders in Cuba were authorized to launch intermediate range ballistic missiles against the US and Canada if communications links with Moscow were broken or jammed. The US also developed a 1-kiloton nuclear suitcase bomb designed for the same tactical demolition role as the Soviet version. If the Warsaw Pact attacked westward, US Special Forces were tasked to employ the mini-nukes for behind-the- lines sabotage of Soviet command, logistics and communications. US Army field commanders were given release authority over hundreds of tactical mini-nukes in Europe, independent of NATO. Some House Republicans claim the Soviets may have actually hidden a number of nuclear devices near Washington and New York City, where they remain. Some could still be active. Such simple, pure-fission nuclear devices may have a shelf- life of up to 8-10 years without refurbishing. US security officials, who have been nonchalant about hidden suitcase nukes, should bear in mind the stranger- than-fiction case of a GRU `sleeper' agent who settled in Edmonton, Canada, the late 1940's as a supposed refugee from Ukraine. A decade ago, he turned himself into the RCMP, and showed them a large, trunk-bomb he had hidden in his basement. His orders: when a coded signal comes in from GRU, transport the conventional bomb in his truck to a main oil pumping station north of Edmonton, and destroy it. He had been waiting nearly 40 years. How many other such sleepers are out there? How many have nuclear devices? This is pretty scary stuff. Not just for North America, either. Rumors have circulated for years that Israeli agents may have hidden suitcase nukes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastapol, and Kharkov, not to mention Arab capitols, Tehran, even Pakistan. The danger of terrorists getting their hands on a suitcase bomb is real, but lower. Arming the mini-nukes takes 30 minutes, the colonel revealed, and can only be done by trained specialists. The weapons are designed to self- destruct if improperly opened. Unless, of course, terrorists or the Russian mafia manage to buy a nuclear specialist, or open the weapon's locks.A suitcase nuke attached to a drum of anthrax or botulism would be a hellish terror weapon, ideal for political fanatics or blackmailers. Defenses against such weapons are currently minimal, though the US is trying to develop sensors that will detect hidden nuclear weapons. We shouldn't panic about reds under our beds with suitcase nukes, but we shouldn't ignore this very real threat, either. Given the number of Soviet suitcase nukes still hidden, or unaccounted for, it seems probable at least one will eventually be used somewhere. Copyright Margolis, November 1998 |
Hand-held Neutron BombsHand-held Neutron Bombs: The
inventor says we're helpless against them! The inventor of the neutron bomb, and the so-called
mini-neutron bomb believes the United States is in eminent danger of a
terrorist nuclear attack. When I first interviewed him on my national
radio talk show last April he was given little attention by the press.
Now that top Russian military are confirming Sam Cohen's claims, maybe
now people will listen to what he has to say.
After a 40-year career in nuclear weapons development,
Sam Cohen is now retired. During World War II he was assigned to the
Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. After the war Cohen went to work for
the Rand Corporation as a nuclear weapons analyst. In 1958 he developed
the technical and military concept of the neutron bomb. He has continued
to serve as a consultant to the Los Alamos and Livermore, the U.S. Air
Force, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Cohen had long been an advocate of discriminate use of
mini-nuke battlefield weapons. He proposed their use time and time
again, but politicians refused to back his suggestions.
Cohen to this day makes a strong argument for rapid
victory in Korea and Vietnam through the use of grapefruit sized neutron
bombs. "If we had a sizable stockpile of discriminate mini-nukes,
it the war would have ended very quickly in our favor," Cohen says
of the controversial military conflicts. His proposal to the Johnson
administration was turned down very firmly.
When the U.S. began preparations for the Persian Gulf
War, Cohen presented his proposal again. This time it was the Bush
administration that turned a deaf ear. Cohen even published an article
about his proposal for use of mini-nukes in the Los Angeles Times.
"It was clear to me that we should stop the massive buildup of
conventional weapons and instead use mini-nukes," explained Cohen.
He claims his article won the support of a handful of
congressmen who spoke in support of his proposal. However, the Bush
administration strengthened itAEs determination to accomplish the task
with conventional weapons alone.
"Nuclear weapons, no matter how low-yield and
discriminate they may be, have been politically ruled out for use on the
battlefield. Better that we might suffer hundreds of thousands of
casualties in a conventional war, and maybe even fail in our objectives,
than to use mini-nukes to win in short order. This may be politically
correct, but morally something seems to be sadly lacking," Cohen
concluded.
He pointed out that Congress passed legislation during
the Bush administration, with continued endorsement by the Clinton
administration, that forbids the testing, development, or stockpiling of
mini-nukes. He also insists that Congress and the President are well
aware that other countries as well as anti-American terrorists have an
ample supply.
Cohen says he has numerous contacts in the intelligence
community who are as concerned as he is. He claims they have confirmed
to him that the spread of nuclear capabilities in potential enemy areas
of the world is growing rapidly. His greatest concern is a new class of
very small, very cheap, extremely effective warheads, based solely on
nuclear fusion (thereby circumventing the monitoring terms of the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty). These weapons are in effect
mini-neutron bombs whose use would render our high-tech conventional
forces useless.
"These warheads were developed during the Soviet
era but work has continued under the Russian regime. There is an
abundance of evidence that the underlying technology and ingredients for
these devices have been smuggled out of Russia and sold to a number of
nations, including terrorist ones," claims Cohen, who is upset that
the U.S. is ignoring this intelligence data. Over 100 missing mini-nukes
were recently reported on 60-minutes, and Cohen claims this has happened
with the complicity of the Russian government, including Boris Yeltsin,
and the assistance of the Russian mafia.
A terrorist could easily hand carry one of these
mini-nukes in a suit case or even a paper bag. According to Cohen, it
could be placed in the park across the street from the White House, or
other strategic target, and detonated by timer or remote control. This
type of neutron bomb would destroy every living thing for a radius of
500 yards, yet physical objects and buildings would be undisturbed.
Nuclear radiation would also be quickly rendered harmless.
Because there is no mushroom cloud, or even an
explosion, Cohen claims testing of such weapons cannot be detected in
other countries. "So in effect we have legally denied ourselves the
ability to develop and stockpile these weapons while giving an open
hunting license to the rest of the world to acquire them if they so
wish, with little if any fear that they will be discovered, even for
countries that are party to the non-proliferation and test ban
tactics," said an obviously worried Cohen.
Have we then deliberately given our enemies and
potential enemies the capability to defeat our conventional ground
forces? Have we enabled terrorists and anti-American radicals the ideal
weapon to bring us to our knees? Cohen says very emphatically,
"yes!"
Cohen warns that the age of nuclear weapons has not come
to an end. Despite our arms control efforts, he believes mini-nuke
battlefield weapons already exist and will continue to proliferate
around the world. Cohen is warning that unless the U.S. takes immediate
action, the next major conflict will be decided by the army that is
first to use a mini-nuke on the battlefield. He also warns that evidence
is very strong that such weapons are already in the hands of terrorists
who are plotting an attack in a major U.S. city or cities.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/project024.html |
| The current trial of Usama Bin Laden and others for the
August 7, 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar
al-Salaam, Tanzania, has shed new light on the efforts of Bin Laden and
his terrorist organization, Al-Qa’ida (“The Base”), to acquire
weapons of mass destruction. Prosecution witness Jamal Ahmad al-Fadl
detailed his efforts to assist Bin Laden in an attempt to acquire
uranium, presumably for the development of nuclear weapons, from a
source in Khartoum, Sudan, in late 1993 or early 1994. Although Bin
Laden has made statements in the past regarding his interest in
acquiring weapons of mass destruction for a jihad (holy war)
against the West, Al-Fadl’s testimony—if it proves to be credible
and accurate—provides important evidence of his actions to do so.
For the rest, see http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/binladen.htm Extracted here: Significant Events Regarding Bin Laden’s Interest in Nuclear WeaponsSeptember 25, 1998 Bin Laden’s aide Mamdouh Mahmud Salim was arrested in Munich, Germany, and charged with acting on behalf of Bin Laden to obtain nuclear materials. In particular, Salim reportedly attempted to obtain highly enriched uranium in the mid-1990s.(6) August 16, 1998 Israeli military intelligence sources reported that Bin Laden paid over 2 million pounds sterling to a middle-man in Kazakhstan, who promised to deliver a “suitcase” bomb to Bin Laden within two years. In an attempt to prevent Bin Laden from obtaining such weapons from Kazakhstan, Israel sent a cabinet minister to the republic to persuade the Kazakh government to prevent such exchanges from occurring.(7) October 6, 1998 The Saudi-owned, London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat, declared that Bin Laden had obtained nuclear weapons.(8) November 13, 1998 Expanding on information in the October 6, 1998 article in Al-Hayat, the Arabic news magazine Al-Watan Al-Arabi reported that Usama Bin Laden was engaged in a comprehensive plan to acquire nuclear weapons. From information reportedly provided by sources that included the Russian intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the report stated that Bin Laden had forged links with organized crime members in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus.(9) The Al-Watan Al-Arabi article cited one particular meeting in which an agreement was negotiated by some of Bin Laden’s followers and Chechen organized crime figures in Grozny, Chechnya. It was referred to as “the nuclear warheads deal.” Bin Laden reportedly gave the contacts in Chechnya $30 million in cash and two tons of opium in exchange for approximately 20 nuclear warheads. Sources stated that Bin Laden planned to have the warheads dismantled by his own team of scientists, who would then transform the weapons into “instant nukes” or “suitcase nukes.”(10) Al-Watan Al-Arabi also reported that Bin Laden had tried a different route to acquisition before turning to Chechnya for nuclear weapons. According to the article, Bin Laden’s original strategy was to develop his own “in-house” nuclear manufacturing complex, in which small, tactical nuclear weapons would be manufactured from scratch. Beginning in 1993, Bin Laden instructed some of his aides to obtain weapons-grade uranium that could be used to develop small nuclear weapons.(11) December 24, 1998 In an interview with Time Magazine, Bin Laden asserted that acquiring weapons of any type was a Muslim “religious duty.” When asked whether he was seeking to obtain chemical or nuclear weapons, Bin Laden replied, “Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so.”(12) He responded similarly to the same question in an ABC News interview two days later, stating, “If I seek to acquire such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to us.”(13) The Al-Watan al-Arabi source stated that Bin Laden’s team of scientists was composed of “five nuclear scientists from Turkmenistan,” and that the leader of the team “used to work on the atomic reactor of Iraq before it was destroyed by Israel in the 1980’s.” The same source also stated that the scientists were working to develop a nuclear reactor that could be used “to transform the fissionable material into a more active source, one which can produce a fission reaction from a very small amount of material and be placed in a package smaller than a backpack.”(14) In addition, the source stated that Bin Laden had hired “hundreds of atomic scientists” from the former Soviet Union. Reportedly, Bin Laden paid the scientists $2,000 per month, an amount much greater than their wages in the former Soviet republics.(15) General 1997-1998 As a result of the revelations about Bin Laden’s alleged nuclear activities, intelligence agencies worldwide directed their attention to the apparent connection between opium production in Afghanistan and Al-Qa’ida’s interest in nuclear weapons. Opium farmers in Afghanistan produced approximately 3,269 tons of opium in 1997-98. In late 1998, Bin Laden reportedly sent interested parties to Afghanistan to buy large amounts of opium, probably to raise funds for Al-Qa’ida.(16) Significant Events Allegedly Linked to Usama Bin Laden and Al-Qa’idaFebruary 26, 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring 1,042 people.(17) October 3-4, 1993 Eighteen American servicemen killed—reportedly by Al-Qa’ida-trained fighters—in a firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia. November 13, 1995 Bombing outside Saudi Arabia’s National Guard Communications Centre in Riyad, killing two Indians and five American servicemen.(18) June 25, 1996 Bombing of the U.S. military housing complex, Khobar Towers, in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen. August 23, 1996 Bin Laden’s first stated fatwa (an opinion on civil or religious matters) identifying the United States as an enemy and urging Muslims to kill American military personnel abroad. February 23, 1998 Second fatwa against the United States issued by the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders, a Bin Laden-led Islamic consortium reportedly including radical Muslim leaders from Islamic Jihad, Bangladesh, the Egyptian Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, and the Pakistani Ansar: “For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbours, and turning its bases in the peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighbouring Muslim peoples . . . .“ Bin Laden called upon Muslims to fight against the United States and its people “‘in accordance with the words of Almighty God.’”(19) August 7, 1998 Near simultaneous bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar al-Salaam, Tanzania, killing a total of 224, including 12 Americans and 38 Foreign Service Nationals, and injuring more than 4,585.(20) August 20, 1998 In retaliation against Al-Qa’ida and Usama Bin Laden for the U.S. Embassy bombings, the United States conducted “Operation Infinite Reach,” the bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan, followed three hours later by the destruction of a suspected terrorist training camp in Khost, Afghanistan. Officials from the Clinton White House, the State Department, and U.S. intelligence agencies said that intelligence information indicated that the pharmaceutical plant and the training camp were linked to Usama Bin Laden. Moreover, officials claimed that the Al-Shifa factory was not a pharmaceutical plant but a chemical weapons manufacturing complex engaged in the production of the nerve agent VX.(21) October 12, 2000 Bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 American servicemen. |
On Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Links to KGB
http://rawa.hackmare.com/gul-kgb.htm
Bio
http://www.sigloxx.net/afganistan/biografias/hekmatyar.htm
en español
On Bin Laden
Special
Report: My Encounters with Osama bin Laden, 1998, Christian Science Monitor
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