Circle Around the Sun

by M. D. Johnson

  “Excuse me, Emily,” interrupted Liam Nevan, “Will this not send him back to issuing financial instructions to messengers for disbursement or even in person?”

  “Yes, Liam, it might well do that. But we have a ‘mole’ on his Financial Chief’s staff, and another one who’ll be training at a local hospital near his hideout which sends an ambulatory lab to bin Laden so that he can get medical checkups for an alleged liver or kidney problem. I have not verified all of this yet, but I can say that there is an information source near the place alleged to be his headquarters. He has, we have confirmed, several contact points in the mountains. We understand he alternates days and times and that he assumes many disguises, which is where you come in Sinead. Our objective is to scare him, as we hear he does not respond well to stressful situations, that’s Susie Malek’s role. She will plot that particular plan and hopefully he will be coerced into making a mistake and leaving the cave, so to speak.”

  “Is the plan to assassinate him?” Dana Johnson questioned.

  ”I can’t answer that Dana. I don’t want to speculate.”

  “Emily, I’ll field that, if I may,” Weldon Jackson raised his hand. Emily concurred.

  “Dana, the last thing we want to recommend or even consider is the termination of bin Laden. That simply isn’t our job. We know him, we know his methods. All we want at this time is to curb the growth of his organization. There’ll be plenty of time for us to nail him later. We want at present to see where his funds are coming from, to monitor his health and to make sure he doesn’t die and leave a petulant and more lethal successor.”

  “Wait a minute, Weldon. We need to bring him to justice.” Dana responded.

  “Hell no!” Weldon responded, “We need him to stay where he is. If he is taken into custody, where can he be safely housed pending a trial? He can’t stay there, he’d be freed! The man is considered God in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi, and Yemen. Who wants that responsibility? We don’t! It’s better that he stays where he is, but under our surveillance. I mean, it would cost millions to keep the man safe. We can’t kill him or we risk making him a martyr. It’s safer for us to keep him alive and well. But we do need a hidden asset in there with him. A confidante of his who talks to us!”

  Liam Nevan joined in without hesitation, “I agree with everything you’re saying Weldon, but hypothetically, what happens if he’s not there at all? Supposing he developed the Trade Center strategy, delegated it totally and then just split?”

  Emily looked at him curiously, “You know, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Let’s run with that as well. Here’s the game plan. We will develop this research on two levels of organizational structure. The first conventional and the second unconventional, because it will operate outside the control and policy established in the first. In other words, we have a Plan B. Plan A will review every action as if bin Laden were still in Pakistan while Plan B takes into consideration that he could have left well before 911 took place. We will then look for any method he may have used to get out while at the same time determining how he has remained safe and alive in Afghanistan. I’d like to turn your attention to a book on organizational structure called, “The Consultant’s Calling” by Geoffrey M. Bellman. If you have the opportunity to get to this while you’re here please do so. Bellman believes that organizations are only capable of performing to a certain level of mediocrity! They don’t work well because they don’t fit the human creatures who work in them. He maintains that organizations are more mechanical than ‘organic’. In other words, a structure that works like a machine, sharply defined and inflexible has inherent weaknesses when imposed on humans. We will therefore attempt to understand bin Laden’s organization based on its limitations and we will determine accurate estimates of success relative to their limitations. We’ll use logic and rationale as a support, not as a strategy. We have to remember who we are dealing with and why we are dealing with him. Bin Laden’s activity cannot be stopped or even passably regulated if we view him by our western standards, strategy and guidelines. We must envision him, assess him and remain one step ahead of him without his knowing. As a team, we have no bureaucrats directing or controlling this project. We simply gather information and disseminate it. Any conclusions we draw will be reported, no matter how bizarre or far-fetched they seem.”

  “You all have your information packets. Your offices are small cubicles situated in a circle surrounding this room. You’ll note that there is administrative support available. We’ll meet again at 2 p.m. after you’ve read the material. We do not each have the same information, only what is relevant to our particular skills. Those of you familiar with the structure of terrorist cell groups will have by now noticed that we will operate in similar manner in as much as we all have parts of the “whole” but not all of it. If one of us is abducted, held hostage or at worse terminated, there is little collateral damage that could be done to the group. Any questions?

  “Why are we called ‘The ISIS Project’? Isn’t that the name of your company?” Dana asked.

  “Actually Dana, the name of my company is “International Security Investigative Systems, Inc. and while it is abbreviated ISIS Inc., that’s not reason for the project name. This stands for ‘I Should Investigate Something’. Just kidding! Do you remember the legend of the Egyptian Goddess Isis who sought her husband’s remains? Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have it on good authority that my former husband, now a Jihadist, is an advisor to Osama bin Laden and the Militia in Afghanistan. Our job is to validate that, and in doing so ensure that the penetration of his organization is successful!

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN

  Within the next five days the group had information determining that bin Laden had been alerted to the monitoring of his satellite phone. He was now issuing all financial instructions in person, making all electronic surveillance next to impossible. The ISIS Project verified information gathered by Frank Pezzone that money was still flowing in to al-Qaeda from members of the extended Saudi Royal Family. The sheer size of the family outside of the Saudi inner sanctum made this an arduous investigative task. Holding companies were identified in Amsterdam, Holland and Luxembourg. Backers in the Saudi Arabian auto industry were uncovered. Bin Laden had formed a symbiotic business relationship with Sudan’s Islamic Front using his personal finances to support civil infrastructure development. These alliances provided networks of laundered money and included the Al-Hijrah for Construction and Development Ltd., the Wadi Al Aqiq Company, and Taba Investment Company, one of the worlds leading supplier of gum arabic, corn, sunflower and sesame products. Knowing of the use of gum arabic in soft drinks, Emily insisted that the group switch to bottled water for refreshment.

  Frank Pezzone and Bibi Gupta tracked 50 million dollars of bin Laden’s money in the Al-Sharmal Bank of Khartoum and verified that his financial network now employed 17 staffers, headed by a man named Abu-al-Haq. They followed the trail further to commercial firms in Kenya dealing in electrical appliances and making transferable profit to concerns in Europe. There were also trading companies and ceramic manufacturing companies, as well as several investment firms in Sudan. One striking issue came up in a conversation with a former DEA official, consulting to the group at Emily’s special request, who advised that while most criminal money is laundered to become clean, al-Qaeda reverses the procedure and takes clean money to make it dirty.

  But by far the biggest investigative obstacle in locating the al-Qaeda and bin Laden fortune were the wealthy Gulf families who had sponsored efforts during his Afghan-Soviet days and who were still very impressed with what he did to assist the people of Afghanistan. Unfortunately they were continuing to financially support him to the tune of millions. Bin Laden, in turn, was a known financial backer of any Islamist cause with the potential of uniting the Arab world and his commitment to the Jihad, even in places like Bosnia, knew no boundaries.

  Pazzone and Gupta discovered that the bin Laden cache already in European banks remained un
affected by U.S. economic sanctions. As al-Qaeda did not deal in U.S. dollars, bin Laden’s finances were almost impossible to trace. The group estimated his personal net worth to be in the 300-500 million dollar range but determined that al-Qaeda as a separate entity was now self-sufficient. Bin Laden’s alliance with the Taliban assured al-Qaeda of part of the profits from the sale of Afghani heroin and the yield from this was an anticipated one hundred and fifty to one thousand million dollars annually. The group did not forget that if Osama bin Laden were completely without funds, Islamic code of honor would prevent fundamentalist Muslims from turning him away. He and his family would forever be protected, housed, clothed and fed. By the beginning of the second week, the group’s combined effort had completed a colossal commentary of significant events for review by Tony Shallal.

  Liam Nevan began his presentation, “The umbrella project of al-Qaeda began in 1978. By the following year bin Laden had formulated his jihad against Russia. It is already well known that he fought in 1980 alongside the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and received help from the American CIA to further his cause. Meanwhile in Britain, the SAS, I’m sad to say,” he cleared his throat and then continued, “my own unit, under special orders from Prime Minister Thatcher, provided weapons training to Mujahideen who were secretly flown in to hidden bases in Scotland. They were such honored guests that great care was taken to provide these fighters with “halal” meat brought in by Muslim butchers throughout Great Britain for their dietary restrictions.”

  “This is unbelievable. The Brits did this? Let’s invite Yasser Arafat to lunch tomorrow,” Dana Johnson sniggered.

  “Dana, he’s already eaten at the White House. When was the last time you got an invite?” Weldon Jackson snapped back.

  “Can we please pay attention?” Emily chided her two colleagues. “For your information in 1980, Osama bin Laden, now known to us a ‘Sweet Sam’ was our golden boy. He was young, rich, handsome and committed to pushing the Russians out of Afghanistan.”

  “Actually Emily, I’m getting to that,” Liam Nevan continued, “By 1986 bin Laden had co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat, also known as MAK. This service office established recruitment centers worldwide to fight the Soviets. He set up training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and began his initiative against the Russians. By 1987, sixty-five thousand tons of weapons were supplied to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan by the United States and bin Laden became disgusted when, at the end of the war a few years later, the United States wished to install a puppet government led by General Najibullah whom the Soviets had put in power. Bin Laden declared, ‘The United States has no principles.’ Clearly neither did he, as in 1988 he initiated and received help from both the CIA and SAS. By 1989 al-Qaeda had been redefined and Osama bin Laden returned in glory to Saudi Arabia.”

  Nevan, continuing with his visual aids, now played a video of a newsreel in Arabic while Emily translated. The tape showed the remarkable effect of westernization in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. American soldiers were shown swaggering down streets, throwing their Coke and Pepsi cans around, blowing cigarette smoke in the faces of Arabs they spoke with, cat-calling to women who scurried away like rodents. The scene switched to 1940 American “Popeye” cartoons with the commentary, “This is how they think of us. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Genies in Lamps. They degrade us by watching cartoons like this.” The scene switched to “I Dream of Jeannie” with a similar message of America’s demeaning Arab women and their culture.

  “Bin Laden’s rag tag army was now hosting members from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Tajikstan, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Tunisia, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. They were joined by legions of Europeans of Muslim descent,” Liam Nevan pointed out. “In many cases bin Laden’s grassroots advertising included paying subsidiaries to family’s whose sons were joining the Mujahideen to ensure that the family did not lose out because of their absence. By this time he had developed valuable allies in Egyptian Industrialist Ayman al-Zawahiri and the founding member of the Taliban, who would become its Commander in Chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar. These men in turn introduced bin Laden to Mohammed Atef, Abu Ubaidah Bashir and a man as yet unidentified, known only as the ‘Soldier of Monks’ who would become his closest friends and advisors. Bin Laden by then had predicted the waning of United States’ interest in Afghanistan. The icing on the cake was when his friend Abdallal Azzam was assassinated by a remote controlled car bomb attack in Peshawar. The upside of this was an alliance formed with an Algerian militant of some repute known as ‘Abdallah Anas’, whose organization GIA or Group Islamic Army had attempted to topple the Algerian Government and replace it with a fundamentalist regime.”

  “It is said that bin Laden financed the group’s bombing spree in Paris in 1995,” Nevan went on, his audience taking in every word. “Afghanistan during 1990 in the aftermath of Soviet withdrawal was devastated by tribal in-fighting and bin Laden left for the Pakistan border with 150 of his most trusted warriors. They settled into what would become a nucleus of religious based training camps. His reputation enhanced by the release of his books and the mega sales of his cassettes, his return became a media event of messianic proportion. When he returned to Saudi it was as the conquering hero and society darling. This was the foundation of what is now al-Qaeda. By this time bin Laden was angry with what he termed, “The glaring western cultural imperialism and moral degradation, with women disobeying Islamic law and dress and westerners flaunting themselves on the streets and drinking alcohol. It is like an American colony.” Nevan inserted a bin Laden tape which had been dubbed in English and bin Laden, resplendent in turban and military jacket said what translated to, “When we buy American goods we are accomplices in the murder of Palestinians. American companies make millions in the Arab world with which to pay taxes to their government. The United States uses that money to send $3 billion annually to Israel. Israel uses this to kill Palestinians.”

  “Fate intervened at this juncture,” Nevan continued, “with the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s regime and Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan refused to take in any way seriously a plan to send in bin Laden’s Afghan-Arab army for what he considered an Arab only problem and subsequently sent him packing. Bin Laden took this very badly indeed. He was now intent on pleading his case to train Saudis as he had the Afghan militia and to do so without western intervention. American troops were sent to Dharan with warships patrolling the gulf. Bin Laden was incensed; under his authority al-Qaeda intervened and began funding Saudi opposition groups. In 1991, bin Laden was accused of smuggling weapons into Saudi in an attempt to destabilize the country. The Saudi government expelled him in 1991 and revoked his citizenship in 1994. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden moved to Sudan. In the meantime,” Nevan continued, pointing to a flowchart, “five hundred warriors were placed inside Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they were trained and organized by his friend Ali Mohammed, an Afghan war veteran with U.S. Special Operations training. Al-Qaeda members were handled very carefully, as this was a transitional point in membership; any negative impression would spread like wildfire among potential recruits. This group of trainees had no other purpose than Jihad or Holy War. We have it on good authority from one of the people deep inside the group that there are only three types of trainees suitable for al-Qaeda membership, and this is a quote, Ladies and Gentlemen, ‘People who have no success in life, who literally have nothing in their heads and want to join to keep from falling on their noses, people who love their religion but have no idea what it means and people with nothing in their heads at all but to fight and solve the problems of the world.’ In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, like any other tin pot dictator, bin Laden recruits the poor and the under-educated, rejecting and eliminating all those who can think.”

  “That’s nothing new, Liam. We call it the all-volunteer army. So what happened then?” asked Weldon Jackson who was frantically taking notes.

  Nevan kept going, “They settled in Khartoum and sta
rted preaching a hard-line version of Islam to the working class who had no hope. The Sudanese named them, ‘Hilabi’. It means, ‘Light-skinned Arabs’ and for the most part they pretended they weren’t there at all.”

  “Ah yes, ‘Hilabi’. I remember the word. It has the same effect that ‘nigger’ has on us,” Jackson spoke up as Nevan added, “Al-Qaeda’s finances and a great deal of bin Laden’s personal wealth had been transferred to bank accounts in Khartoum by this point and three new training camps were created for Algerian, Egyptian, Palestinian and Tunisian recruits on a twenty acre tract near Soba on the banks of the Nile. There’s backup documentation in your package which states that bin Laden spent the equivalent of 415 million on Chinese, Iranian and Czech weapons as well as Semtex and other explosives. It was time for his private war to begin and with the patience and tenacity that comes with being an Arab, bin Laden waited until the anniversary of the date when American Soldiers landed in Saudi Arabia, August 7th, 1998 and attacked the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It was a calling card and a prelude to the tragedy of September 11th. All my indications are that this man has no sense of real time, he works on some sort of vendetta time, a kind of, ‘This is my letter of introduction, here’s my calling card, don’t forget who did this and why.’ It’s the constant element of surprise. I’m working on a theory that perhaps he’s not just a militant motor mouth, but an evil genius”