Bin Laden has global reach

Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt — From his hideout in Afghanistan, terror suspect Osama bin Laden directs a global network that reaches to most corners of the globe: from the Comoros Islands to Jordan, from Canada to Australia.

The exiled Saudi billionaire can turn to experts in any of these places for tips, such as which countries have the most porous borders or the weakest security.

"When these people are captured … or when a suicide bomber kills himself, there are other volunteers to take their place," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of counterterrorism operations for the CIA.

U.S. administration officials say early evidence points to bin Laden’s involvement in Tuesday’s coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

If that’s the case, experts say, bin Laden would have easily had expert help in making the meticulous preparations needed.

It doesn’t take a large network, Cannistraro said, just believers willing to die for the cause.

"It’s the best kind of network you could have," he said.

Bin Laden has strong family ties and a group of supporters in Boston, where the two planes used in the World Trade Center attacks were hijacked. One of his brothers set up scholarship funds at Harvard, while another relative owns condominiums in Charlestown. Two bin Laden associates also once worked as Boston cabdrivers.

Experts say bin Laden oversees and is the inspiration for a loosely affiliated organization called Al-Qaida (The Base). Al-Qaida’s followers are united by their loathing of the United States.

The organization consists of cells that together make up the network, which includes the suicide bombers, the technical advisers and those who do the legwork.

They usually don’t know each other, the identity of the person they’re communicating with, or why they have been ordered to carry out a task.

Bin Laden’s rage against America began festering in 1990, when the United States sent its troops to Saudi Arabia. They had come to defend the Persian Gulf oil powerhouse against expansionist Iraq but ended up with a new foe who vowed to destroy them.

Bin Laden first achieved prominence in Afghanistan during an insurgency against the invading Soviet Union in the 1980s. It was led by Afghan Islamic rebels heavily bankrolled by the United States.

In 1989, when the fighting ended, bin Laden returned home to Saudi Arabia. There, in 1990, he began a confrontation with the Saudi monarchy over its decision to invite American troops into Saudi Arabia in response to Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

Hounded by Saudi intelligence officials, who arrested him for his criticism of the monarchy, bin Laden left in 1992 for Sudan. There, bin Laden’s Al-Qaida organization took shape, embracing a hard-line Islamic philosophy from northern African countries and the Persian Gulf states.

Since then, a whole string of terrorist attacks against U.S. targets has occurred at regular intervals, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 1996 bombing of U.S. military housing in Saudi Arabia and the 1999 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Bin Laden never claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but has been accused of playing a role in most of them.

In 1996, Sudan bowed to relentless pressure from the United States and asked bin Laden to leave. He moved to Afghanistan with 180 followers and three wives.

Bin Laden has urged young Muslims worldwide to wage a jihad, or holy war, against the United States, and operates several training camps in Afghanistan, where he is protected by the country’s hard-line Islamic Taliban government. The students include militants from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, China and most Arab countries.

"There are training camps in every province of Afghanistan," said a senior Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.