MY LAST QUESTION TO USAMA BIN LADEN
Source/Publisher: The Friday Times (Lahore, Pakistan) http://www.TheFridayTimes.com
The writer, Editor of Ausaf, Pakistan’s influential
Urdu-language daily newspaper, says that Usama’s poems will live
after his death and spread hatred against America. http://www.TheFridayTimes.com/news7a.htm
HAMID MIR
LAHORE, Pakistan, September 21-27, 2001 (The Friday Times): I
first met Usama bin Laden in Jalalabad in March 1997. I was
there to interview him. Instead, he started interviewing me. He
seemed to have done his homework; for instance, he knew that I
had interviewed Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Perez in
Switzerland, Nelson Mandela in New Zealand, Yasser Arafat in the
United States and Laila Khalid, the famous Palestinian woman
hijacker, in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Obviously, he had a file on me. That made me nervous. I couldn’t
hide my discomfiture and he enjoyed my unease. “I even know that
Asif Zardari (husband of former premier Benazir Bhutto) does not
like you and the (then) present Prime Minister of Pakistan,
Nawaz Sharif, is also against you. It proves that you are a good
journalist and will not distort my views. I gave an interview to
CNN but their editing created problems for me.” He hoped that I
would not create problems for him.
I realised that this was not going to be an ordinary interview
and that I was in big trouble. However, within an hour of the
interview, I felt relaxed. Usama was very friendly, which
encouraged me to even ask him odd questions. “You have 25
brothers, do you remember the names of all the brothers?” I
asked him. The question prompted him to talk about his father,
the late Muhammad bin Laden. Usama’s father owned a construction
company that took part in the renovation of the Madina and
Al-Aqsa Mosques. He wanted to liberate Al-Aqsa from Jewish
control. One day, he summoned his engineers and ordered them to
convert the 200 bulldozers of his company into tanks. When the
engineers told him that it was not possible, Usama’s father was
disappointed. He wanted to attack Israel with the 200 tanks. “My
father (then) decided to produce many sons, as many as he could
and to convert them into mujahids.”
And narrating this, Usama began to laugh. Responding to another
question, he said: “I have three wives and 16 children. All of
my sons are ready to sacrifice their lives in the name of Allah
Almighty.”
This interview was published in “Daily Pakistan”. It was the
first time that Pakistanis got to know Usama and the fact that
he demands the expulsion of American troops from Saudi Arabia
and the expulsion of Jews from Palestine in light of the Holy
Quran and the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). “Until we
leave our faith, the Jews and Christians can never become
friends of the Muslims. So expel them from Arab lands. This is
not what I say; this is what the Holy Quran and Allah’s Prophet
[PBUH] says. Do you agree with me or not?” This is Osama’s
famous argument. The main strength of his arguments lies in
contradictory American policies. “Americans wants to implement
the UN resolutions against Iraq, Libya and Iran but not against
Israel because America is Islam’s enemy.”
In many of the Islamic countries, Usama is a hero by default.
While moderate Muslims do not share some of his extremist ideas,
he is the main beneficiary of the growing hatred in the Islamic
World against America.
I did my second interview with him for Daily “Ausaf” in May
1998. This time he threw some light on his differences with the
Saudi Government. He said that he opposed the Saudi support for
Iraq against Iran throughout the Gulf War. “The Saudi Interior
Minister, Prince Naif, was my opponent in the ruling
establishment. When Iraq attacked Kuwait, my government asked
for my help but I left my country because I was not ready to
fight against Iraq with the help of the Americans who ditched us
in Afghanistan.”
In the second meeting, he invited me to his press conference,
which was to be held in Khost some weeks later. I refused to
attend the press conference and said that he would invite too
many journalists and the information about his hideout would be
leaked. “That information would be vital to the Americans and
they could get a chance to bomb you,” I told him. This is what
happened in Khost in August 1998. The Americans attacked his
camps with cruise missiles.
My refusal to attend the press conference was a surprise for
Usama. He liked my careful attitude and asked me if I would
write his biography. I agreed after some deliberation with the
condition that I would not take dictation. He also agreed with a
condition that I would have the rights to only the Urdu and
English Editions and I would not publish his biography in any
other language without his prior approval. A written agreement
was signed between us. I gave him a long list of questions.
After some weeks I received his answers through a messenger.
Initially, Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, Khateeb of Red Mosque in
Islamabad, was my contact with Usama. The Maulana was killed
mysteriously in October 1998 in Islamabad.
I lost contact with Usama for a long time. At the time he was
also facing some restrictions from the Taleban. After a year,
some non-Pakistani colleagues of Usama began to visit me. Some
of them I had met earlier in Afghanistan. Even as I was writing
the last chapter of the book, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, an ex-Senator
and leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulma-e-Islam revealed to me that
Usama had give millions of Dirhams to Nawaz Sharif in 1989, with
the promise that Sharif would use this money for promoting jehad
[war against terrorism] in Pakistan if he became the Prime
Minister.
I delayed the book and sent my last question to Usama. I wanted
to know if it was true that he had given money to Sharif? Where
had this money gone? Why had Sharif allowed the Americans to
launch a ground operation against him in October 1999? Had he
(Usama) met Sharif personally at the Green Hotel in Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, with one Khalid Khawaja?
I never received the answers of my last question. Ms. Bhutto
says that this money was used against her in a no-confidence
move in 1989.
I received Usama’s last massage late at night on Tuesday,
September 11, 2001. It was a written statement in which he
denied that he was involved in the terrorist attacks in New
York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, USA. Millions of people in this
world are waiting for credible evidence against Usama bin Laden.
If there is no legal proof, America’s war against the Taleban
could easily become a clash of Islamic and Western
civilizations.
Very few people know that Usama bin Laden is also a poet. Most
of his poems are about Palestine. The United States can
eliminate him physically but his poems cannot be eliminated.
These poems will spread more hatred against America after Usama
is killed.
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
My Last Question To Usama bin Laden http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1070
Peter Arnett’s Interview of Usama bin Laden http://www.flinet.com/~politics/jihad/jihad.htm
Robert Fisk Talks with Osama bin Laden http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=archive&s=fisk_wtc_19980921
Latest News About Usama bin Laden http://www.al-bab.com/arab/news/laden.htm
Usamah Bin Ladin Interview With Nida ul Islam http://www.islam.org.au/articles/15/LADIN.HTM
Usamah bin Ladin - The Holy Warrior - Hero of Afghan War http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/3606/binladen.html
Ussamah Bin Laden - MSA News http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/Laden
Daily Ausaf http://www.dailyausaf.com
U.S. State Department ‘Fact’ Sheet on Usama Bin Laden http://www.state.gov/www/regions/sa/bin_laden_charges.html
http://usembassy.state.gov/afghanistan/wwwh0001.html
U.S. Government ‘Fact’ Sheet on Usama Bin Ladin http://usembassy.state.gov/afghanistan/wwwhtr01.html
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives - Usama Bin Laden http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
Fatwah Urging Jehad Against U.S. Government http://www.ict.org.il/articles/fatwah.htm
NOTE: A pro-America scholar of Islam has pointed out that there
is absolutely NO legal evidence to prove that Usama bin Laden
issued and signed the fatwa or Islamic edict against the U.S.
Government and Americans which was published on February 23,
1998 in the newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He says that real
Islamic fatwas are issued in the Arabic, Persian/Farsi, Dari,
Urdu and several other languages in the world, but he has never
seen any fatwa originally written in the English-language.
Therefore, he has urged the U.S. Government to release the
so-called original Arabic-language fatwa document containing the
actual signature of Usama bin Laden to the American press and
American public so that the Islamic scholars could determine its
authenticity. He pointed out that there are many evil criminals
who are in the illegal business of issuing false, fabricated and
malicious fatwas to malign a Muslim, an Islamic organization,
all Muslims or all Arabs. He also pointed out that everyone in
the whole world is innocent until proven guilty in an
independent court of law after a fair and just trial which must
be held under just and fair laws.
[Publisher: Information Times http://www.InformationTimes.com
America’s international daily Internet newspaper
Chief Editor: Syed Adeeb - Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Copyright © 2001 Information Times. All Rights Reserved.]