by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright October 14, 2001
All Rights Reserved.

nheriting $30 million at the tender age of 21, Osama bin Laden—the renegade Saudi extremist now fingered in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon—has a growing fortune, now estimated at more than $300 million. It’s no accident that he joined the Afghan resistance in 1979, becoming its key financier—along with the CIA—in the moujahedeen’s struggle to end Soviet occupation. For Bin Laden, the Afghan civil war turned into a euphoric windfall. Despite the parched earth and mountainous desolation, the astute Saudi quickly sized up how Afghan cash registers go ca’ching. He stumbled on Afghan’s biggest cash crop—opium poppies. Despite the drought, Afghanistan still produces 75% of the world’s opium, harvesting roughly 2,400 tons of the sticky narcotic. Afghan opium growers make no distinction between legitimate pharmaceutical companies and the illicit drug trade. Like any commodity, priority goes to the highest bidder. Bin Laden cleverly hides behind many fronts, despite the CIA linking Al Qaeda to global narco-trafficking.

       Bin Laden’s right when he scoffs at the U.S.’s best attempt to freeze his assets and choke off his income. Insiders know that as long as he controls the Taliban, he rakes in lucrative profits from opium sales—though no one knows exactly how much. “We act also because the Al Qaeda network and the Taliban regime are funded in large part on the drug trade—90% of all heroin sold in Britain originates from Afghanistan. Stopping that trade is again directly in our interests,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, making his case for joining President Bush’s war on terrorism. As long as Bin Laden and the Taliban control the global opium trade, they’ll have a blank check with which to finance his global Islamic revolution. Mullah Mohammed Omar—the titular head of the Taliban—has repeatedly claimed that Osama bin Laden is under his custody. By all reasonable accounts, it’s the other way around. With his deep pockets and well-armed security forces, Bin Laden actually owns and operates the Taliban.

       After his ouster from the Sudan and return to Afghanistan in 1995, Bin Laden essentially bought the Taliban—paying out over $100 million and buying a convenient façade for his global terror organization. Bin Laden’s Brigade 55—his well-equipped elite fighting force—not only trains terrorists, but it trains and equips the Taliban. Even the Taliban’s spiritual leader Omar appears to be one of Bin Laden’s clever props to legitimize Afghanistan’s ruling government. In reality, Omar’s Islamic credibility has about the same legitimacy as the Taliban regime. Hiding behind Islam, Bin Laden uses Omar and the Taliban as an elaborate smokescreen to hide his global terror network. When Taliban officials claim ignorance about Bin Laden’s whereabouts, it perpetuates the illusion that he’s independent of the Taliban. In reality, Bin Laden uses the Taliban as a convenient decoy, ignoring the calls of Afghanistan’s real clerics to have him leave the country. Controlling the purse strings, no one decides Bin Laden’s fate other than himself.

       Complicating the picture are billionaire Saudi oil sheiks sympathetic to Bin Laden’s cause, despite advocating the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy. Illustrating this point, New York mayor Rudolf W. Giuliani generated quite a buzz, rejecting prince Waleed ibn Talai ibn Abdulazis al Saud’s $10 million gift for relief efforts. “Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of the Israelis while the world turns the other cheek. At times like this one, we must address some issues that led to the criminal attack,” said Al Waleed, infuriating Giuliani but mirroring the sentiments of most Islamic countries. “There is no justification for it,” said Giuliani, dismissing Al Waleed’s sick rationale that the U.S. got what it deserved. With more than 5,000 Americans vaporized in New York and Washington, it’s hard to imagine the Taliban’s fury over recent collateral damage. Calling for a jihad, “Does your faith allow you to remain silent spectators or support America?” asked Omar, pointing to America’s crimes for accidentally leveling a few mud huts. Stating policy, the U.S. “does not target civilians,” said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, expressing regret over inadvertent civilian casualties. But the same certainly can’t be said for Al Qaeda.

       Even the CIA admits that it’s difficult to dent Bin Laden’s extensive financial apparatus. “We’re getting zero cooperation now,” said Vincent M. Cannistraro, former chief of counter-terrorism operations with the CIA, commenting about the Saudi’s refusal to freeze Bin Laden’s assets. “There is a whole pile of Saudi businessmen who have been providing regular contributions to Al Qaeda,” reinforcing the notion that Bin Laden enjoys plenty of financial support, despite his expatriation by the Saudis in 1994. Anti-Americanism also runs deep, though Saudis rely heavily on increased U.S. security since the 1991 Gulf War. With Qatar-based propaganda machines like Al Jazeera saturating the airwaves with anti-American and anti-Israeli images, it’s no wonder that the Islamic world oozes bottomless hatred. Al Jezeera provides a continuous infomercial to Bin Laden’s terror network, promising the West its comeuppance for imagined deeds against Islam. Bin Laden’s proven terrorist skills are only exceeded by his slick mastery of the propaganda game.

       Bin Laden possesses the lethal combination of prodigious business skills, bottomless deep pockets and a dangerous psychopathic personality. Raking in untold millions from philanthropic Saudi billionaires and narco-traficking, Bin Laden won’t be stopped by the best effort to strangle his multiples streams of income. Only military force will end Bin Laden’s reign of terror. It should be clear to almost everyone that Bin Laden owns and operates the Taliban as a front for his global terror network. At this point, Afghani customs have nothing to do with the Taliban’s refusal to turn over Bin Laden. His elite fighting force Brigade 55 not only serves as personal bodyguards, it guarantees that the Taliban remains loyal and obedient to Al Qaeda. For all practical purposes, the two organizations are indistinguishable, and only serve to camouflage Al Qaeda. Pretending that the Taliban operates independently only perpetuates the myth that Bin Laden’s nowhere to be found. Neutralizing Bin Laden must now go through Kabul and Kandahar—anything less won’t get it done.

About the Author

John M. Curtis is editor of OnlineColumnist.com and columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He’s director of a Los Angeles think tank specializing in political consulting and strategic public relations. He’s the author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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