Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi
legal heir to original litigant in Ayodhya
Sheik Sadalan andha
Sheik Shuaibi
Tawfiq al-Atash langda kenya bombing
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali
The war began in December 1979, and lasted until February 1989. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed, and about 35,000 were wounded. About two million Afghan civilians were killed. The anti-government forces had support from many countries, mainly the United States and Pakistan.
Bin Laden's Rise: An Early Glimpse Or Militant Forces
Shortly after Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990, Osama bin Laden approached Prince Sultan bin
Abdelaziz al-Saud, the Saudi defense minister, with an unusual proposition. Mr. bin Laden had recently
retuned from Afghanistan, heady with victory in the drive, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United
States, to expel the Soviet occupiers.
As recounted by Prince Turki bin Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief, and by another Saudi official,
the episode foreshadowed a worrying turn. Victorious in Afghanistan, Mr. bin Laden clearly craved
more battles, and he no longer saw the United States as a partner, but as a threat and ptential enemy to
Islam.
AITiving with maps and many diagrams, bin Laden told Prince Sultan that the kingdom could avoid
the indignity of allowing an arrny of American unbelievers to enter the kingdom, to repel Iraq from
Kuwait. He could lead the fight himself, hc said, at the head of an group of former mujahedeen that he
said could number 100,000 men.
Prince Sultan had received Mr. bin Laden warrnly, but he reminded him that the Iraqis had 4,000 tanks,
according to one account.
"There are no caves in Kuwait," the prince is said to have noted. "You cannot fight them from the
moultains and caves. What will you do when he lobs the missiles at you with chemical and biological
weapons?"
Mr. bin Laden replied, "We fight him with faith."
The response was evasive. For decades, a former senior Saudi official said, the Saudi approach has been
"to argue, and then to co- opt, in a way, and to act as if crimes weren't committed unless there were
actual calls for an uprising against the government."
In the case Of Mr. bin Laden, who by 1992 had in fact called fora toppling of the government, the
Saudis moved slowly. They stripped him of his citizenship in 1994. But their attitude still betrayed
uncertainty: for several years they relied on emissaries from Mr. bin Laden's family in the hope they
could persuade him to change, officials said.
Among a scries of shocks that brought extremism to the kingdom, the first came in November 1995,
with a bombing in Riyadh that killed 5 Americans and wounded 37. Within months, four Saudis had
confessed to thc crime, including one who had served in Afghanistan, saying they had becn inspired by
Mr. bin Laden's calls to oust the non believing forces from the kingdom.
Then in June of 1996 came a second attack. The bombing of an air base in the eastern city of A1 Khobar,
killed 19 American airmen and wounded hundreds more. Mr. bin Laden was long suspected of
involvement, but Saudi and American investigators ultimately discounted that theory, blaming Saudi
Shiite Muslims with ties to Iran.
Mr. bin Laden declared war against the United States in 1996, and two years later, he announced the
forging of his "Coalition Against Crusaders, Christians and Jews." Yet it was not until June 1998 that
http•J/ebird.dtic.milDee2001/
But the two sides still walk on eggshells, the Americans careful in their questions, and the Saudis
guarded in their answers, American officials said. Even in the post.Sept. II meetings, one senior Bush
administration official said, the Saudis "dribble out a morsel of insignificant information one day at a
time."
There are reasons for such caution, Saudi and American offcials say. The very idea of close ties
between the home of Islam's holy sites and the West remains alien to many Saudis. Since the Persian
Gulf war of 1991 , the partnership has come under increasing strain, because of differences over Israel
and Iraq, over the American troop presence, and over terrorism, on which American requests for
cooperation have often been perceived as insensitive to Saudi sovereignty.
"The United States sometimes expects Saudi Arabia to do publicly what they are willing to do only
privately," said David Mack, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served during the early
1990's as the top American diplomat in Riyadh. "They do not by inclination like to talk about what
they're doing, whether it's good or bad."
legal heir to original litigant in Ayodhya
Sheik Sadalan andha
Sheik Shuaibi
Tawfiq al-Atash langda kenya bombing
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali
The war began in December 1979, and lasted until February 1989. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed, and about 35,000 were wounded. About two million Afghan civilians were killed. The anti-government forces had support from many countries, mainly the United States and Pakistan.
Bin Laden's Rise: An Early Glimpse Or Militant Forces
Shortly after Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990, Osama bin Laden approached Prince Sultan bin
Abdelaziz al-Saud, the Saudi defense minister, with an unusual proposition. Mr. bin Laden had recently
retuned from Afghanistan, heady with victory in the drive, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United
States, to expel the Soviet occupiers.
As recounted by Prince Turki bin Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief, and by another Saudi official,
the episode foreshadowed a worrying turn. Victorious in Afghanistan, Mr. bin Laden clearly craved
more battles, and he no longer saw the United States as a partner, but as a threat and ptential enemy to
Islam.
AITiving with maps and many diagrams, bin Laden told Prince Sultan that the kingdom could avoid
the indignity of allowing an arrny of American unbelievers to enter the kingdom, to repel Iraq from
Kuwait. He could lead the fight himself, hc said, at the head of an group of former mujahedeen that he
said could number 100,000 men.
Prince Sultan had received Mr. bin Laden warrnly, but he reminded him that the Iraqis had 4,000 tanks,
according to one account.
"There are no caves in Kuwait," the prince is said to have noted. "You cannot fight them from the
moultains and caves. What will you do when he lobs the missiles at you with chemical and biological
weapons?"
Mr. bin Laden replied, "We fight him with faith."
The response was evasive. For decades, a former senior Saudi official said, the Saudi approach has been
"to argue, and then to co- opt, in a way, and to act as if crimes weren't committed unless there were
actual calls for an uprising against the government."
In the case Of Mr. bin Laden, who by 1992 had in fact called fora toppling of the government, the
Saudis moved slowly. They stripped him of his citizenship in 1994. But their attitude still betrayed
uncertainty: for several years they relied on emissaries from Mr. bin Laden's family in the hope they
could persuade him to change, officials said.
Among a scries of shocks that brought extremism to the kingdom, the first came in November 1995,
with a bombing in Riyadh that killed 5 Americans and wounded 37. Within months, four Saudis had
confessed to thc crime, including one who had served in Afghanistan, saying they had becn inspired by
Mr. bin Laden's calls to oust the non believing forces from the kingdom.
Then in June of 1996 came a second attack. The bombing of an air base in the eastern city of A1 Khobar,
killed 19 American airmen and wounded hundreds more. Mr. bin Laden was long suspected of
involvement, but Saudi and American investigators ultimately discounted that theory, blaming Saudi
Shiite Muslims with ties to Iran.
Mr. bin Laden declared war against the United States in 1996, and two years later, he announced the
forging of his "Coalition Against Crusaders, Christians and Jews." Yet it was not until June 1998 that
http•J/ebird.dtic.milDee2001/
But the two sides still walk on eggshells, the Americans careful in their questions, and the Saudis
guarded in their answers, American officials said. Even in the post.Sept. II meetings, one senior Bush
administration official said, the Saudis "dribble out a morsel of insignificant information one day at a
time."
There are reasons for such caution, Saudi and American offcials say. The very idea of close ties
between the home of Islam's holy sites and the West remains alien to many Saudis. Since the Persian
Gulf war of 1991 , the partnership has come under increasing strain, because of differences over Israel
and Iraq, over the American troop presence, and over terrorism, on which American requests for
cooperation have often been perceived as insensitive to Saudi sovereignty.
"The United States sometimes expects Saudi Arabia to do publicly what they are willing to do only
privately," said David Mack, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served during the early
1990's as the top American diplomat in Riyadh. "They do not by inclination like to talk about what
they're doing, whether it's good or bad."
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