Waged on fictitious ground against a shadowy enemy, the great military campaign of the twentieth century was not a war on terror at all, it was a war of terror. The Corbett Report: False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda III
Its agents uncanny ability to cross borders illegally, evade capture repeatedly, and generally slip through intelligence agencies’ dragnets unimpeded. ibid.
There were no high-tech cave fortresses. No multi-tiered offices and bedrooms on the top, no secret exits on the side, no ventilation systems or computer systems … ibid.
Bin Laden was also reported dead on several occasion in the ensuing years. ibid.
The confusing confluence of lies, obfuscations, cover-ups and contradictions that surrounded the [bin Laden] raid. ibid.
Al Qaeda was now widely recognised as a convenient ally of the US in Syria. ibid.
Al Qaeda cells flourished in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, and in Afghanistan the Taliban was tightening its grip. Breaking History: New Age of Terror I, History 2018
In 2009, Pierre and Yolande Korkie left South Africa with their two children to begin a new life doing charitable work. Captive VII: Al Qaeda Hostages, Yemen, caption, Netflix 2016
Yolande and Pierre did not know that their children had been returned safely to South Africa a week after the kidnap. ibid.
Yolande returned home to South Africa in 2014. ibid.
Later it emerged that Pierre and Luke had been moved just days before the American raid. ibid.
Six Al-Qaeda fighters were reportedly killed in the raid. Two of the tribal negotiators were later killed by Al-Qaeda who suspected they had cooperated with the Americans. ibid.
July 2000: The chief of the FBI’s counter-terrorism section Agent John O’Neill attends a meeting in Orlando, Florida. But he makes a grave error. He takes his eye off the ball. His briefcase is stolen: it contains top-secret documents. It’s a critical mistake. And carries fatal consequences for O’Neill and the preamble to 9/11. Because O’Neill is on to something. He is hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden. Alone Against Al Qaeda, PBS 2019
O’Neill’s private life begins to unravel. ibid.
His new job as security chief at the World Trade Centre. ibid.
9/11 still haunts us all. The events of that day have defined much of the world ever since. The hunt for Bin Laden drove the West to invade Afghanistan. Now they’ve left, a new reign of terror begins. Bin Laden: The Road to 9/11 I, Channel 4 2021
We know Bin Laden as the terrorist, the world’s most evil man. For those once close to him, this story is more complex. ibid.
When Bin Laden was 9, his father died in a plane crash, leaving a vast fortune. ibid.
In 1979 when Bin Laden was 21, the communist Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a Muslim country. ibid.
It was six to eight months, I don’t remember, but he was living there like an normal Mujahideen fighter … And he had guts. ibid. early fighter
They wanted to take their struggle to the rest of the world … In May 1988 Bin Laden and other extremists began to sketch out a new organisation. ibid.
In August 1988 when Bin Laden was 30 he formally founded Al-Qaeda, ‘The Base’. ibid. caption
The Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan left the door open for the Taliban to seize control. Bin Laden: The Road to 9/11 II
‘At the time Sudan was led by an Islamic party. So it was natural that all of us went to Sudan; it became a destination for people like us back then.’ ibid. colleague of Osama
According to US intelligence analysts, Bin Laden was financing several training camps in Afghanistan and Sudan. ibid.
Bin Laden escaped from Sudan with his life but little else: he had lost his Saudi citizenship, his family and most importantly his fortune. But his conviction that America was the mortal enemy of Islam was undiminished. ibid.
Afghanistan 1997: Bin Laden is 39 years old. Bin Laden: The Road to 9/11 III
As Bin Laden’s operations ramp up, so did his level of threat against the United States. ibid.
On 23rd February 1998 Bin Laden publishes a fatwa calling for the killing of Americans accompanied by a chilling network interview. ibid.
On 7th October 2001 American special forces land in Afghanistan. ibid.
One week after 9/11 an FBI special agent interviewed a prisoner in a New York city jail. Immediately after the terrorist attacks, authorities placed the prisoner in twenty-four-hour lockdown; for a week he’d been in total isolation with no access to TV, radio or newspapers … ‘What he laid out was the attack as if he knew every detail. It was just kind of eerie’ … The prisoner was this man [Ali Mohamed]. He was Osama bin Laden’s spy in America. He worked for and betrayed three arms of the US government. Bin Laden’s Spy in America, National Geographic 2021
On September 26th 2001 a small team of CIA officers arrives in Afghanistan. They are the first American’s deployed in what will become a long war against Al Qaeda. Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden, History 2023
Driven by the potential costs of the failure to find bin Laden, intelligence officers accept greater personal risk in the intensifying hunt. ibid.
‘Our relationship with Pakistan was complicated.’ ibid. Obama
The Black Hawks have 169 miles to cover in a flight of about 90 minutes. ibid.
‘You are to hunt down Bin Laden and his lieutenants, and then when you kill Bin Laden you cut his head off …’ Spy Ops I: Operation Jawbreaker, Ops dude, Netflix 2023
They were having to carry it out inside of Pakistan, a sovereign nation where the US was not supposed to be, added an immense level of complexity to this. Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror V: Graveyard of Empires, Netflix 2021
A populist revolution in Iran, hostage crisis at an embassy, in Mecca the assassination of an Egyptian head of state, a military invasion in Afghanistan, a series of terrorist attacks in the Philippines, an official reception in Washington DC. All these events are pieces of a giant puzzle scattered around the world. The Terror Routes I: 1979-1993: They Were On the Side of the Angels, Amazon 2011
We should attempt to follow that road: it winds through a transforming Arab world, a crumbling Soviet empire, and an American nation at the hands of would-be sorcerers, the object of mounting hatred. ibid.
Kabul, Afghanistan, 24th December 1979: Operation Storm 333 has just begun. That is the codename given by the Soviets for the invasion of Afghanistan. ibid.
All along the road leading to September 11th are a number of men who are part of an Islamic galaxy. ibid.
Ayman al-Zawahiri is released after three years spent in Egyptian jails. Under torture, he reveals the names of a number of underground Islamist leaders. There years are crucial in al-Zawahiri’s evolution. They only served to reinforce his radicalism. ibid.
Peshawar near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan is now a strategic hub in the war against the Soviets. Support for Afghan rebels, the Mujahideen, is organised with the help of western powers led by the United States. ibid.
‘Ali Muhammad created the encyclopaedia of jihad, the training syllabus that was used extensively in Afghanistan.’ ibid. US man in the know
‘Reagan openly supported jihadists, including some that are now fighting us.’ ibid.
‘Everybody took credit for it but they all forgot that there was this Islamic muscle which took credit for Allah. And nobody thought of devising some sort of a strategy or policy to contain this muscle. Indeed, they did the opposite.’ ibid.
‘I don’t know why the blind sheikh was issued with a visa to come to the United States.’ ibid.
The Towers held but the countdown to their demise was launched. The Terror Routes II: 1993-2001 The Countdown
Americans and jihadists lose their common enemy. Exhilarated by their victory against the Soviet Union, Islamists turn against their former protectors. ibid.
During the same period, in the middle of the ’90s, Saudi Arabia is facing an important surge of Sunnite extremism. ibid.
‘Bin Laden had come to our attention because his money was increasingly linked to people that the US was worried about.’ ibid. man in the know