I wrote in the first part of this review of the book by Lawrence Wright that I thought it should be required reading for any public official who refuses to use the term “war on terror.”The first part focused on the origins of the radical Muslim organization called al-Qaeda. This part will cover the many failures in initial attempts by bin-Laden to develop a fighting force of world Arabs to help the mujahideen combat the Soviets in Afghanistan. That is followed by his struggles to keep his ideas about combating the west and the U.S. in particular alive after the Soviets were defeated. However, Soviet defeat wasn’t expected in the early days after the invasion. The Muslim world was shaken by the invasion, and Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal travelled to Pakistan to gauge what was going on there. He and other visitors to follow were appalled at the conditions in the refugee camps. He believed Afghanistan was lost, and that the only hope was to delay the expected invasion of Pakistan. The U.S. was hoping that the Soviets now had their own “Vietnam war.”

The mujahideen standing against the Soviets were little more than disorganized mobs. The Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) insisted that they would only provide aid to six factions with a warlord at the head of each, and the estimated 3.27 million refugees had to sign up with one of those six parties to be eligible for aid. Turki insisted on a seventh party that would better represent Saudi interests. The seven mujahideen leaders became known to the CIA and other intelligence agencies as the Seven Dwarves. Bin Laden stayed away from the battlefield for years in “Fear of Bodily Participation,” a fact that caused him great shame. He also lost his business in Medina and forfeited about $2.5 million in profits. In 1984 he was taken to a mujahideen camp that was attacked by Soviet jets, but the missiles failed to explode. The Afghans had not even jumped into trenches with the frightened Arabs. Bin-Laden was so impressed by the bravery of the Afghans that he immediately returned to Saudi Arabia and raised millions of dollars to support efforts to help refugees. A fatwa was issued that required every able-bodied Muslim to support the jihad in Afghanistan, which was even to take precedence over the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Bin Laden was “paying the rent” for the Arabs who arrived to join the fight. Continue reading →

This book by Lawrence Wright should be required reading for anyone who thinks the term “War on Terror” is insensitive or politically incorrect. The book describes the history of al-Qaeda and the disturbing story of how the failure U.S. intelligence agencies to cooperate assured that they wouldn’t detect the plans to fly airplanes into the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and White House. I intend to do the review in at least four parts, and this part will focus on the origins of al-Qaeda. The doctrine of the modern Islamic movement was developed by Sayyid Qutb (pronounced “Kuh-tub”), who at the age of 42 was a student for six months at what was then the Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colorado. He was an Egyptian, a fervent nationalist, and anti-communist who was radicalized by the British occupation of Egypt. He and other Arabs admired how the immigrant nation of America was “…the anticolonial paragon…,” but felt betrayed when America supported the Zionist cause beginning with Harry Truman endorsing the transfer of a hundred thousand Jewish refugees into Palestine. Qutb was influenced to join the Muslim Brothers that had been founded by Hasan al-Banna, and he gained fame as an Islamic thinker by his writings. Qutb found Greeley to be beautiful, but he was scandalized by the behavior of the students and especially the open sexuality of the women.

Qutb withdrew from classes, but spent another eight months in America. He became even more radicalized, and wrote that “The white man crushes us underfoot…” Gamal Abdul Nasser had overthrown King Faruk after Qutb had returned to Egypt, and Nasser invited him to be an advisor. Qutb advocated that the country be controlled by religion, and Nasser believed in control by a strong military. Nasser eventually threw Qutb in prison, released him in three months to be the editor of the Muslim Brothers magazine, and then shut the magazine down after several critical articles by Qutb. The Muslim Brothers attempted to assassinate Nasser and he had six hanged and thousands of others, including Qutb, imprisoned in concentration camps. Qutb smuggled a manifesto titled Milestones that would have a major influence on radical Muslims, including Osama bin Laden. Qutb plotted from prison to overthrow Nasser with money and arms supplied by Saudi Arabia. He was released from prison, but his plots were revealed. He was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. He declared after the sentence, “Thank God, I performed jihad for fifteen years until I earned this martyrdom.” Nasser knew Qutb was more dangerous dead than alive, and offered to spare him if Qutb appealed his sentence. He told his pleading sister, “My words will be stronger if they kill me.” He was hanged on August 29, 1966. Continue reading →