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Osama bin Laden

 

Terrorism is becoming more and more of a threat to Americans worldwide. One of the leaders of this revolution is a welthy Saudi exile, Osama bin Laden. He has proved genocidal by killing Americans throughout the world from the destruction of the World Trade Center to the embassy bombings in Africa. According to Newsweek, the FBI and CIA "[t]hough they had bin Laden's profile down cold, they still couldn't predict--or prevent--the Africa blasts, which killed more than 250 people" (Vistica 1). While the CIA and FBI have been tracking Osama bin Laden for more than four years, they still couldn't stop him from striking Americans abroad and can't stop him now after bombing Afghanistan back to the stone age.

 

Bin Laden is a wealthy Saudi exile who has had his citizenship revoked. He feels that all Christians and Jews worldwide need to be exterminated because of the evil that they represent. He thinks that the Jihad is necessary to combat the Christians and Jews who are considered the heretics of the world; therefore, it is justified to use terrorism to exterminate them because of their degraded moral standards and also to raise the Muslim world over the Christian world. To accomplish his goals of eliminating all Christians and Jews, he founded the International Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders. This organization this year, published a "fatwa" (religious ruling) proclaiming the "Jihad against the heretics who conquer Muslim lands," which bin Laden considers a duty of all Muslims (Schweiter 1). Bin Laden was trained and equipped by the CIA during the Afghan War of 1979-89, so he is very capable of carrying out his goals. He also has had the money to continue funding these operations that have proved to be deadly to Americans throughout the world.

 

The special station that was created over two years ago by the government's counterterrorist centers has not been successful in disrupting bin Laden's operations. Even though the FBI and the CIA has had an increase in funding especially in the FBI's funds from $118 million to $286 million today and has had its number of employees devoted to this area doubled over the same period of time, the Washington Post asserts that the CIA despite this increase in funding resulting in more attention being paid to bin Laden that it "was not able to foresee the bombings of two U.S. embassies," four months ago "in East Africa, allegedly by bin Laden operatives " (Loeb 2,1).

 

In May 1997, CIA Director George J. Tenet told the Senate Apporpriations Committee that the CIA was ready for the war against terrorism; however, he was wrong. Terrorism expert and former CIA official Vincent M. Cannistraro, who from 1988 to 1990 served as the Counterterrrorist Center's director of operations and analysis, wonders "why the CIA, having pursued bin Laden for years, was unable to prevent the attacks Aug. 7 against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 12 Americans and 250 Kenyans and wounded hundreds of others in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam." He said puzzled, "[if] you were so on top of Osama, why didn't you see that coming? Given the kind of focus, you have bin Laden carrying out operations at two embassies--I would not find that occasion to brag," as the CIA has done about arresting 40 alleged terrorist operatives many with bin Laden ties (Loeb 3,1). Newsweek depicted a CIA that knew everything about bin Laden's profile but still couldn't predict the African blasts (Vistica 1).

 

The cruise-missile strikes that were launched against bin Laden will prove ineffective in stopping his terrorist operation. Though the American counterstrikes may have admonished bin Laden, his vast financial resources and network will remain intact (Loeb 4). The thing that bin Laden still has is his vast wealth regardless of what damage was inflicted on his operation by the cruise-missile strikes. Bin Laden has his resources hidden in several countries in what many call front companies, and this is going to make it difficult to track down bin Laden's assests some government officials worry ("Costly" 6)(Kelley 2). Cannistraro said, "while we've aggressively targeted his financial flows of money, which is the lifeblood of the organization a lot of it is still out of reach. We're not going to be able to put him out of business" (Kelley 2).

 

After such strikes against bin Laden, it is important to understand what consequences have occurred and could occur because of the American strikes. The first factor of a terrorist attack is the terrorist's motivation to carry out their attacks, and the second being their capability to carry out their attacks. The director of The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Boaz Ganor, asserts that often such retaliation against a terrorist group will "by its very nature," increase the terrorist's motivation "to take revenge for the damage to their capabilities and to their 'image.'" However, "such strikes won't increase their ability to carry out more attacks; and at best, will greatly damage their capabilities to do so." But bin Laden's organization and bin Laden himself, along with his followers from around the world seem to still be able to mass extensive terrorist attacks. Ganor insists, "now their motivation to carry out such attacks will be greater than ever, as they will feel they must avenge themselves and restore their image," so if the American strikes accomplished anything it put even more people at harm's way (Ganor 1). An immediate consequence from the strikes was the release of two bombing suspects by Pakistani officials who were prepared to turn the suspects over to the United States before the strikes took place. Newsweek asserts that the attcks on bin Laden may "have cost investigatos a major breakthrough in tying the African attacks to bin Laden." The reason that Pakistan decided to release the suspects instead of turning them over to the United States was because several Pakistani intelligence officers were among those killed in the cruise-missile attack ("Costly" 6).

 

Americans everywhere are being slaughtered. Every time an American is slaughtered by a terrorist, another piece of America dies with them. This must not be allowed to continue to happen; therefore, we must stop further attacks on Americans. To do this, Daniel Johnson insists that we must not merely strike back at these terrorist organizations that dare slaughter Americans, but we must destroy them (Johnson 21).

 

Works Cited

 

"Costly Missile Strikes." Newsweek 7 Dec. 1998: 6.

Ganor, Boaz. "The Consequences of the American Strikes." The International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism. 4 Dec. 1998 http://www.ict.org.il/articles/results.

Johnson, Daniel, "The Impotence of Omnipotence." The Washington Post National Weekly Edition 30 Nov. 1998: 21.

Kelley, Jack. "Pressure Mounts on Saudi Terrorism." 11 Oct. 1998. Online posting. The Detroit News, Inc. 30 Nov. 1998 http://lexis-nexis.com/universe.

Loeb, Vernon. "Where the CIA Wages Its New World War." 9 Sep. 1998. Online posting. The Washington Post. 30 Nov. 1998 http://lexis-nexis.com/universe.

Schwitzer, Yoram. "Osama Bin Laden: Wealth Plus Extremism Equals Terrorism." The International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism. 4 Dec. 1998 http://www.ict.org.il/aricles/bin-laden.

Vistica, Gregory L., and Daniel Klaidman. "Tracking Terror." Newsweek. 30 Nov. 1998 http://www.Newsweek.com.