Gordon Thomas - Gideon's Spies

The nearest parallel in history of using violence to reclaim ancient lands was the Nazi dream of Aryan reclamation of those parts of Europe that had Germanic roots. The distinguished commentator Janet Daley has written that “the Wagnerian German romantic mythology of expulsion from homelands leading to a sacred Teutonic mission of rebirth has an uncannily similar ring to the new Islamic claims of Muslim displacement and injustice.”

As bin Laden sat in his cave in the Tora Bora Mountains on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, he was driven by the dream of creating a great caliphate that would stretch from Asia to southern Spain and beyond.

“That is the very real danger of this man. To try and achieve his aim, he will kill and slaughter on a scale that even the Mongols, Genghis Khan, the Crusaders, the Nazis, and the pogroms of Russia would pause to blink over,” said Dr. Merari.

It is now estimated by the CIA that over $100 million has been spent in these past two years on satellite tracking and the use of state-of-the-art electronic tracking equipment to locate bin Laden.

Unlike Saddam Hussein, bin Laden has vowed he will die a “martyr’s death” rather than face capture. His body is festooned with hand grenades, making him a pin pull away from eternity. At night he sleeps on a mat surrounded by explosives.

Al-Qaeda operatives—its suicide bombers who die on missions—do so knowing that the organization’s Pensions Department will take care of their families. No one knows where or when the organization meets. It has no offices. Its turnover is measured by the number of deaths it achieves, the buildings it destroys. Its assets—the explosives and cash that keep it running—are hidden from even the most prying satellite camera.

Bin Laden’s own personal assets—once estimated at £20 million from his share in the family construction business—were frozen in 2001. But he has managed to keep al-Qaeda fully funded from donations from Saudi Arabian princes, oil sheikhs, and wealthy Muslims in Asia.

“Bin Laden is the glue between terror groups that have little in common with each other but are united in a common hatred of the West,” said a U.S. State Department analyst in Washington.

In 2003, perhaps sensing the net was closing on him, bin Laden appointed “twenty regional commanders” to run al-Qaeda operations. There have been persistent reports that their funding reaches them through the diplomatic bags of rogue states like Iran and, until recently, Libya. In Britain, MI5 has spent months trying to track money earmarked for al-Qaeda.

“So far we have had only our suspicions confirmed, but no hard evidence,” said an MI5 source (to the author).

Whether he lives or dies is of little concern to bin Laden. To his millions of followers in the Muslim world he is a folk hero: the Saudi Arabian multimillionaire who feeds the poor, encourages their children to dance before him, and knows the verses of the Koran better than any Islamic preacher. To them all he is a living prophet come to cleanse the world of what he calls “Western decadence.” With his high cheekbones, narrow face, and gold-fringed robe, he is the classic mountain warrior of the tribesmen who now hide him. His distinct pepper-and-salt beard and sharp, penetrating eyes are the most recognizable image on earth. But his smile is only for his followers, who see him as a hell-storming advocate, living a personal life of such frugality that even they find it hard to match. He is also a man steeped in personal violence, having once driven a captured tank over Russian prisoners in the Afghan war.

Ironically, in those days he was armed by the CIA, who gave him an arsenal of Stingers. When he had helped drive out the Soviet occupiers, he turned against America and its “hamburger and Coca-Cola values.” He takes pride in being its most sought-after enemy. Everywhere he goes, so do his bodyguards: some fifty heavily bearded, taciturn figures. Every man is hand-picked. Each is ready to die for him. Little is known about his private life: his four wives remain at home in Jeddah in Islamic purdah.

When he awakens, he will brush his teeth in the Arab fashion with a stick of miswak wood. Then he will pray for the strength to destroy his enemies. Like a cancer they consume him, burrowing into his mind, even capable at times of making him weep. Then, real tears will fall down his cheeks, the crying of an unforgiving fanatic who hates with a passion that is awesome. Though they far outnumber him, he continues to outwit their vast electronic and human resources—because the forces arrayed against him cannot agree on a strategy that will capture Osama bin Laden.

In Tel Aviv, a senior Mossad analyst said (to the author), “Part of the problem is the old one of the Americans thinking putting up more satellites and pouring in electronic surveillance equipment is the answer. We have told them that the best solution is human intelligence.”

Rafi Eitan, who masterminded Mossad’s capture of Adolf Eichmann, identified the problem of capturing bin Laden. “There is a need for patience. Satellites can only tell you what is happening now —not what could be happening in the future. That can only come from having men on the ground. The greatest successes Mossad has had are through ‘humint’—human intelligence.”

Long realizing that the United States has the capability to electronically eavesdrop on his discussions, bin Laden writes his orders in a neat hand, then distributes them to trusted aides. They travel to neighboring countries and transmit them from there to bin Laden’s global network of some 2,500 terrorists. It was such an order that led to the Madrid massacre.

In 2003, via an Islamic Web site, bin Laden said, “We don’t consider it a crime if we try to obtain nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Our holy land is occupied by Israeli and American forces. We have the right to defend and liberate our holy land.”

Washington has doubled its bounty for bin Laden’s capture to $50 million. Meir Amit, a former director general of Mossad, has said such a tactic often does not work. “Betrayal for money is a hard thing to induce in someone committed to a terrorist leader. Part of the reason is fear of someone discovering the treachery. Part of the reason is that the leader has picked his men with care. No promise of a bounty will make them think about turning bin Laden in.”

However, in Tel Aviv a former Mossad katsa, Eli Cohen, said (to the author) that a weakness could be bin Laden’s strong family ties to his four wives, seven children, and forty grandchildren. “We know where they live and their movements. If a wife and some of his children were kidnapped it would certainly focus bin Laden’s mind. At minimum they could be held as hostages against him carrying out any further outrage. If he still did, then he should expect ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ policy to exist. In other words, his family would be executed.”

But no one knows if such a threat would be brushed aside by Osama bin Laden with the same indifference with which he treats all human life.

During the summer months of 2004, the world was shocked by the pictures and descriptions of Iraqi prisoners being abused by their U.S. military guards in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail. One of the most unpleasant images was of a naked Iraqi prisoner being held on a lead by a woman soldier. The consensus was that, horrific though the images were, they resulted from a toxic mixture of boredom, sadism, and a warped idea of entertainment by the guards. The Pentagon insisted it did not go beyond that. But action would be taken; severe punishment meted out to the guilty.

The prison commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, was relieved of her post. A damning report, which effectively ended her career in the military, accused her of lack of leadership during her tenure as prison governor.