#6026
#15
Report Cites Russian 'Documents' on Bin Ladin's Past
London's Al-Majallah in Arabic
23-29 December 2001
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Murad Ahmad from Moscow
Who is Usama Bin-Ladin? What is the truth about his role in the Islamic movement? A lot of questions have been raised about this mysterious personality by the leadership of the former Soviet Union. Of course, the Russian intelligence services were the first to try to find answers to these questions. Over more than 20 years, these services have been following the tracks and news of their enemy number one and came up with good conclusions.
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the radical change in the policies and trends of the Kremlin, the mission the Soviet intelligence or KGB (State Security Commission) had sought to carry out is still on the agenda as one of the most vital missions for the new Russian intelligence service or the FSB (Federal Security Service). This mission is to hunt down and destroy Usama Bin Ladin, since he is enemy number one of Moscow because of the battles in which he took part in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Moscow's conflict with Usama Bin Ladin, and the policies and trends he represents, started at the end of the 1970s when the Soviet forces entered Afghanistan to strike the religious opposition forces, whose effect and influence on Afghan society had increased to a degree that threatened the successive pro-Soviet governments.
That period witnessed the arrival of volunteers in Afghanistan to fight alongside the religious opposition. The reconnaissance and intelligence gathering operations carried out by the Soviet intelligence revealed that a millionaire called Usama Bin Ladin was behind the call for jihad in Afghanistan. It was said then that a special committee was formed whose sole mission was to track down and monitor Bin Ladin to find out the parties that supported him. This committee collected all the information about this young millionaire, who appeared all of a sudden at the center of international events and conflicts.
Between Finance and Leadership
The documents possessed by Moscow indicate that Bin Ladin began his activities in the early 1980s when he appeared as a religious preacher while the Afghan war was raging after the entry of the Soviet forces. His religious call was based on struggling against the Soviet unbelievers and supporting the Muslims of Afghanistan. The Russian reports confirm that Usama was not thought of then as a religious leader and that his role was confined to financing the jihad. Russian researchers say that Bin Ladin began to develop into a hard-line religious fighter at that time. He started to change from a businessman and financier to a leader of religious groups, especially after he had set up the "Islamic Salvation Fund" in Pakistan to support and finance the mujahidin.
At the end of the 1980s, and based on this fund, al-Qa'ida organization was established. Al-Qa'ida managed to benefit from the relations and connections of the Islamic Salvation Fund. In fact, al-Qa'ida was the heir to all the establishments that had operated then in Pakistan, such as the services office and its establishments--Bayt al-Ansar and Bayt al-Qai'da. Some of these had branches in the United States, specifically in Brooklyn. Al-Qa'ida was not a large organization. Russian security agencies believe that this organization was careful at the beginning of its operation to focus on quality, and not quantity. Therefore, it was a closed organization with limited membership. Most of its members were from the relatives and acquaintances of Usama Bin Ladin, such as his son and his son's father-in-law, Abu-Hafs al-Masri, who commanded the military wing. The members of this organization also came from different countries. They included Egyptians, such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Sudanese, such as Muhammad Salim, who is considered one of the intellectual leaders of the organization.
Russian circles believe that Bin Ladin tried afterward to set up connections and formations in Russia. In 1991, a Saudi businessman visited Russia to finance the building of a mosque in the city of (Ulyanov). The Saudi businessman had brought with him a large amount of money for this purpose. In Ulyanov, the man met with a number of Russian Islamic leaders, including Shaykh Tal'at Taj-al-Din, mufti of the European section of the Muslims of Russia. These leaders were supposed to play a role in the building of a mosque in the Russian city of Ulyanov.
After the man left Russia, the mosque was not built and the huge amounts of money he left in Ulyanov for the mosque disappeared. There were conflicting stories. Some people openly accused the mufti of seizing the funds, while others asserted that these funds were seen with the Chechen groups in the city of Ulyanov, led by (Zorab Bata Jaf), in order to send them to the Chechen opposition.
Conflict of Interests
Russian official circles believe that Bin Ladin's relations were with Chechen opposition circles after that period, specifically after Aslan Maskhadov assumed power in the Chechen Republic. If this proves to be true, it agrees with the logic of things, since the stage of the first Chechen war during the rule of President Djokhar Dudayev was characterized by two aspects:
1. The religious view did not control the policy of the Chechen leadership, in light of the assertions of the Chechen foreign minister in the Dudayev government that the Chechen leader had maintained his Communist convictions.
2. During the first stage of the war, Chechnya had included the largest depots of Russian weapons and military hardware. Trading in these weapons was done by a group of Soviet army generals, through an agreement with Dudayev. Some people argue that the reason for the first war was the disagreement between Dudayev and his partners--the generals--over splitting of shares, which means that Chechnya was in no need of weapons or military hardware. On the contrary, Chechnya was the source of these weapons for whoever pays the price.
In Sudan
The Russian intelligence had been monitoring and observing the enemy of the Soviet Union. It followed his activity in Sudan when he arrived in Khartoum in late 1991. He was received in the country as an important guest. At the outset, his activity was focused on construction and investment. At that period, Sudan witnessed a flood of investment by Bin Ladin in the fields of construction and medicine. Some Russian circles say that Bin Ladin's activities in these countries were free of any military actions, based on two points:
First, Usama Bin Ladin was careful to build Sudan and solve its crisis, since it was a model of Islamic rule, which reflects his conviction.
Second, Bin Ladin, at that stage, had not been deeply involved in the grand political game; he only played the role of financier.
To Afghanistan
In May 1996, Usama Bin Ladin had to leave Sudan because of US pressure, which was exercised on the Khartoum government. Russian intelligence reports say that Bin Ladin was prepared for such an eventuality. He had already started preparing a new position for himself in Afghanistan through reviving his contacts with the various Afghan factions.
The Russian intelligence services observed the beginnings of Chechen cooperation with Usama Bin Ladin. Russian documents, citing information obtained in Milan during a conversation between one of the commanders of al-Qa'ida, who is a Lebanese, and Sami Bin-Khamis al-Sayyid, the official in charge of its branch in Italy, indicate that Bin Ladin spent more than $10 million to establish the military forces of the Chechen opposition.
Bin Ladin obtained these funds from selling the American Tomahawk missiles, which were fired on al-Qa'ida camps in 1998 and did not explode. He sold these missiles to China, which wanted to know how these missiles work. In statements to the media, (Sergey Yasterjimbsky), assistant to the Russian president for media affairs, repeatedly said that Usama Bin Ladin extends great support to the Chechen opposition. He said that according to Russian intelligence reports, the commanders of al-Qa'ida organization made several visits to Chechnya to prepare and equip the Chechen fighters.
Ayman al-Zawahiri visited Chechnya and Dagestan in 1996. He returned to Dagestan in 1997 and stayed in it for several weeks. He supervised the preparation and training of fighters. (Sergey Yasterjimbsky) said that Usama Bin Ladin himself visited Chechnya several times, the last time was in late 1999 and early 2000. He extended huge funds to support the Chechen opposition forces after their defeat in the Grozny battles.
Participation in Chechnya
The assistant to the Russian president for media affairs said that Bin Ladin's support for the Chechen opposition movement was not confined to extending funds and preparing fighters; it went beyond that to actual participation in the battles against the Federation forces by sending volunteers to Chechnya.
The assistant to the Russian president asserts that the assistants to commander Khattab were from the most prominent personnel of al-Qa'ida organization. They include Abu-Umar, Abu-Ya'qub, Abu-Jar, Abu-al-Walid, in addition to hundreds of volunteers who were prepared at al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan.
Radioactive Uranium
The reports of the Russian intelligence indicate that prior to the qualitative shift in the policy and activities of Usama Bin Ladin, he had made several attempts to obtain radioactive uranium 235 to use it in manufacturing advanced weapons. Russian documents show that the Russian intelligence succeeded in foiling a deal, which a Pakistani company belonging to Bin Ladin tried to conclude to buy uranium 235. Experts note that following the collapse of the Soviet Union and when Kazakhstan declared that it is a nuclear-free country and delivered the nuclear weapons it had possessed during the Soviet rule, rumors spread then that during the transfer of nuclear weapons from Kazakhstan, some systems of exploding nuclear missiles had been stolen.
Terrorism and Nuclear Weapons
Russian researchers and experts think that Usama Bin Ladin is not a puzzle. They hold conflicting views about the truth of his political role. Professor (Alexander Ignatinko), a Russian researcher, says that Usama Bin Ladin called for a coup in religious concepts, based on abandoning tolerance and mercy in favor of violence and terrorism. This agreed with the US trends to associate Islam with violence and terrorism in the consciousness of the Western citizen.
Prof. Ignatinko thinks that Usama Bin Ladin is part of US interests. In other words, there are elements for benefiting from him and his political role anywhere on earth, since he will become a headline of all US campaigns against terrorism anywhere in the world. In this context, the Russian researcher refers to statements made last year by Richard Clark, White House adviser for anti-terrorism affairs, in which Clark said that the new strategy of the US Administration adopted the right of directing preventive strikes against military and civilian sites involved in supporting terrorism, wherever these sites may be.
Prof. Ignatinko adds that Bin Ladin is being used as a tool that allows Washington to interfere in the domestic affairs of many countries. This does not apply to Sudan alone. The same attempts could take place with Russia by promoting the idea that Bin Ladin managed to obtain nuclear weapons from some workers in this field in Russia. Irrespective of the truth of this information, this will start a discussion on the need to impose control on the Russian nuclear arsenal to keep terrorists away from it and protect the world from the danger of their possession of nuclear weapons. Ignatinko believes that the insistence of some people within the Russian authority on fighting terrorism in line with the American scenario has created tension in the atmosphere and relations within Russian society. Also, this has almost threatened Russian-Arab relations and Russian relations with Islamic states. This situation, which could weaken Russia, is in itself a goal for some international forces.
International Cooperation
Another trend of Russian strategic analysts believes that the US alliance with Bin Ladin has already been disrupted, contrary to the theory expressed by Prof. Alexander Ignatinko, and that Bin Ladin--just like the case with the Americans--had shared interests with Washington at one stage, but then parted ways with them. The makeup of US policy and US interests is based on liberal foundations that are completely opposed to the concepts of terrorism and suppression. The people who support this trend say that Russia currently has a chance to destroy its mortal enemy, Usama Bin Ladin, by joining the international campaign to hunt him down. This will make Russia win international support for its policy in Chechnya on the one hand and will destroy its most dangerous enemy over the past 20 years on the other. Against this background, Nikolay Patruchev, head of the Russian Intelligence Service, called on the US intelligence to cooperate to destroy Usama Bin Ladin and international terrorism.
[Description of Source: London Al-Majallah in Arabic -- London-based Saudi-owned weekly; sister magazine of Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper providing independent coverage of Arab and international issues]
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