When word flashed to Washington of enormous explosions two weeks ago outside U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Pentagon officials scrambled to locate the whereabouts of one man: Osama bin Laden.
The mysterious Saudi millionaire-turned-militant warrior had all but proclaimed himself the culprit, promising just days before the explosions to wage war to drive Americans from the Middle East.
Through his unique combination of bombast, money and successful networking among militant Islamic organizations, bin Laden has emerged as the modern terrorist leader, with the reach and apparent conviction to carry out his threats.
Now that he has been targeted but reportedly not eliminated by U.S. cruise missiles, “he’s probably going to dust himself off and start planning retaliatory attacks,” said Ken Katzman, who compiles an annual report on terrorism for the Congressional Research Service.
It is a long way to have come for the son of a Saudi construction magnate who began by trying to raise money for Islamic causes.
Bin Laden’s emergence, most experts agree, has more to do with money than militancy. He became a known figure in militant Islamic activities in the late 1970s after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“He was involved right from the outset,” said Edward Juchinewicz, a former CIA official who worked with the mujahedeen forces that opposed the Soviets. “He was raising money and raising volunteers for one of the factions.”
In the early days of the war, bin Laden was viewed less as a fighter than a financier. Experts say it’s not clear whether he took up arms, though in his portraits an automatic rifle is usually hanging in the background.
Katzman said bin Laden mainly aided the war effort through his business expertise. “He was a major player, doing construction back then, helping the mujahedeen build roads, defensive positions, combat construction. And he did recruiting, of course.”
Bin Laden emerged from the war with plenty of money and a loyal band of troops. His statements criticizing the Saudi royal family for its close relations to the U.S. made him no longer welcome there. He moved his money and operations to Sudan.
Bin Laden started companies and organized terrorism training bases, making money on the one hand, spending it on the other.
“The trainers in most of the bases were Afghanistan veterans,” said David Halevy, an author and terrorism expert. “No mujahedeen, but volunteers from all over the Muslim world who had volunteered once to fight in Afghanistan.”
Over time, those trained in Sudan began to appear at pressure points throughout the Muslim world. On several occasions, befuddled Bosnian officers found themselves with small units of Muslim fighters who had turned up in the Balkans war. Bin Laden, U.S. officials say, also was responsible for providing arms to the Bosnians in their fight against Serbian troops.
Bin Laden claims to have dispatched men to fight against Americans during their mission to Somalia in 1992.
While bin Laden’s influence in war zones has long been clear, terrorist experts were, until recently, less certain about his involvement in a raft of car bombings and other incidents in the Middle East and beyond. Those found guilty of planting a bomb beneath the World Trade Center, for instance, have ties that extend to bin Laden.
U.S. investigators believe he also is responsible, in part, for the bombing of U.S. military facilities in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996. Bin Laden was foiled, law-enforcement officials say, from carrying out a 1992 plot to kill 100 U.S. servicemen in Yemen.
In addition, through his financial support of other terrorist organizations, bin Laden seems to have bankrolled and supplied troops for attacks against other Arab nations. Last spring, he concluded a meeting of terrorist organizations with the announcement that he was the leader of a new terrorist alliance that would wage attacks on American interests in the Middle East.
“He is a money guy, but also a guy, given the influence that money buys in that part of the world, who is almost a spiritual leader,” Juchniewicz said. “He’s not a religious zealot, but he’s a zealot who is unalterably opposed to the United States. He considers the U.S. his archenemy.”
