| The chief of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, is not in Pakistan -- at least that is what a Pakistani army commander is reporting. He says that Bin Laden and his cohort could not go undetected in the rugged lands on the Afghanistan and Pakistan border. There are pockets of al Qaeda backed fighters battling forces from Pakistan in the area however.
Usama and Central Asia conflicts:
Since 1995, Osama bin Laden repeatedly held meetings with one of the leaders of Uzbek Islamites Tahir Yuldashev and “helped them in making contacts with the leaders of the "Taliban movement". The other leader of the Uzbek Islamites, Jumma Namangani, received financial assistance from bin Laden of up to 3 million dollars per year.
Association with Saddam Hussein:
The US government repeatedly charged Iraq's President Saddam Hussein for his links with "Al- Qaeda". In the press, it was written that Saddam Hussein met Osama bin Laden and is planning to pass on the weapons of mass destruction into the hands of terrorists. These charges became the core reason for initiating war in Iraq. Subsequently, on September 9, 2006, these statements were refuted in the published report of the Senate committee of the USA after the investigations. Also, it was found that Saddam Hussein had no association with "Al-Qaeda", but in fact, treated it as his enemy. This conclusion, refuting the statements of George Bush about the old associations of Saddam's government with the terrorist organizations, undermined the authority of the USA government in the role of international arbitrator and in addition, it compromised on the working quality of serious organizations like the CIA. Critics observed that such an attitude of unproved accusations of cooperation with terrorists can become the reason for intrusion into other countries, which is against the policies of the US government. Referring to the information, given in an FBI report, it has been written that Hussein has rejected Osama bin Laden's request to extend help in 1995.
The terrorist activities of September 11, 2001:
In November 2001, the US armed forces in Afghanistan found a video recording in a destroyed house in Jalalabad and the video tape contained a conversation of Osama bin Laden with Khaled al-Harbi. In this video tape, Bin Laden confirms that he knew about the attacks before and directly guided the terrorists. This video tape has been extensively broadcasted since December 13, 2001. Some dispute that it is really Osama Bin Laden in the video.
Osama bin Laden: “Our brothers who carried out this operation, knew that this will be suicidal and we had sent them to America, but they did not know anything about the operation, not a single word. They completed training and we did not disclose any details to them until they were on-board.”
On December 27, 2001, Bin Laden made one more video tape public. In this video, he declared that "Terrorism against America deserves high merit because it is an answer to injustice, aimed to compel America to stop supporting Israel, who is killing our people" and also mentioned briefly taking responsibility for September 11 attacks.
In March 2002, Osama's younger brother Sheikh Ahmed asserted in a CNN interview, that Osama could not be the organizer of September 11, terrorist attacks in USA: "He is my brother and I know him. I lived with him for many years and I know how much he is afraid of God".
Shortly before the presidential election in 2004 in the USA, in his next video clip, Osama bin Laden publicly confirmed the involvement of "Al-Qaeda" in masterminding the terrorist attacks of 2001 and also stated that he had a direct connection to it. He also said that the attacks have been carried out "because we are free people and do not accept injustice and we want to return freedom to our people". In this tape, which was delivered to "Al-Jazeera" on October 30, 2004, Bin Laden said that he had direct control over the 19 aircraft hijackers. He also informed: "I and commander-in-chief Mohammed Atta, may Allah be merciful to him, agreed that the entire operation should last no more than 20 minutes while Bush and his administration take notice of what is happening.
Counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan:
On October 7, the USA and Great Britain started rocket attacks on targets of the “Taliban” in Afghanistan, which marked the beginning of the "Operation Enduring Freedom” military operation. Qatar’s broadcasting company “ Al-Jazeera” telecasted Osama bin Laden's message. In this telecast, Osama stated: "Allah has hit America in one of its weak places. America is enveloped with fear from north to south and from West to east. I am very grateful to Allah for this".
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