From July 2001: In Bin Laden's Lair, Small Talk And A Warning

The Washington Post - Washington, D.C.
Author: Pamela Constable
Date: Jul 8, 2001
Start Page: A.16
Section: A SECTION
Text Word Count: 995

The car windows were blackened to hide the route and destination. The house was heavilyguarded, and the visitor could see only the mud-walled roomaround him, with several bearded, turbaned men sitting on low cushions. Oneof them was Osama bin Laden.

Bakr Atiani, a TV reporter with the Saudi-owned, London-based Middle East Broadcasting Center, received a phone call last month inviting him to Afghanistan to meet bin Laden, the Saudi fugitive wanted by U.S. officials on charges of planning the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and suspected of involvement in the attack on a U.S. warship in Yemen.

Bin Laden uttered only occasional pleasantries, letting aides do most of the talking during the rare three-hour meeting in his desert hideaway in southern Afghanistan, Atiani said. His reticence was apparently in keeping with hispledge to the Afghan authorities who harbor him that he will not use his Afghan base as a launching pad for political statements or foreign adventures. But his aides delivered a message that was direct, clear andchilling.

"They said there would be attacks against American and Israeli facilities within the next several weeks," recounted Atiani, who is based in Islamabad. "I am 100 percent sure of this, and it was absolutely clearthey had brought me there to hear this message."

The broadcast report of the meeting in late June came at a time when videotapes described as bin Laden-produced recruiting tapes were circulating inthe Middle East, and U.S. intelligence services were detecting evidence of suspicious activity around some U.S. embassies. As a result, all U.S. military forces in the Middle East were placed on high alert, andU.S. embassies and military facilities across the region were warned to expect attacks.

So far no such attacks have occurred, and officials of the Taliban, the Islamic militia that controls most of Afghanistan, have adamantly reiterated that bin Laden is under strict orders not to abuse the protection they provide for him.

"No matter what the United States' views are, the Afghan government has taken certain precautions for their own security as long as the presence of Osama continues on our soil," said a spokesman for Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's envoy to Islamabad.

Although Taliban officials have repeatedly refused U.S. requests to hand over bin Ladenfor prosecution in the United States, "the Taliban government has nevertheless ensured that Osama has no means of communication with the outside world," the spokesman said. "This is also to enhance ourown security."

Some American commentators have mocked the panic that such vague and unconfirmed threats have recently caused among U.S. officials. Washington is still smarting from the August 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 240 people, and the bombing last October of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17.

Reports of new threats by bin Laden, meanwhile, set off a flurry of speculation in Pakistan recently that the United States was planning a bombing raid or commando attack on Afghanistan. After the African embassy bombings, Washington retaliated with cruise missile attacks on military training camps allegedly operated by bin Laden inside Afghanistan.

American concerns about the threat bin Laden represents to U.S. interests remainthe major obstacle to improved relations between Washington and the military-run government of Pakistan, one of Afghanistan's fewallies and its major diplomatic channel to the world.

In the past several weeks, U.S. officials have attempted in vain to persuade Pakistani authorities to use their influence with the Taliban to rein in bin Laden. In Washington, officials met with Pakistan's foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, who reportedly told them Pakistan has little power over the Taliban and needs to maintain cordial relations with the group because of Afghanistan's strategic location and long-standing friendship.

In Islamabad, meanwhile, the departing U.S. ambassador, William B. Milam, said that he had reiterated American concerns about bin Laden in final courtesy calls on Pakistani officials and Taliban diplomats stationed there.

According to news agency reports in Pakistan, Zaeef said Milam had warned him that Washington would hold the Afghans responsible for any attacks by binLaden, but that Zaeef had "categorically" assured Milam "we would never allow anyone to use our soil for attacks against Americans."

In an interview, however, Milam said he was discouraged by the outcome of his meetings and suggested that Pakistan was locked into a relationship with its Afghan neighbors. The Taliban has collaborated with Pakistan in its support of Islamic insurgents in Kashmir, a disputed regionon Pakistan's border with India, and has close ties to conservative Islamic groups inside Pakistan.

"It was clear we still have a long way to go before coming to a meeting of the minds on this issue," Milam said.

Concerns about bin Laden's terrorist reach have also been raised recently in New Delhi, where a Sudanese man was arrested last month on suspicion of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy. Local police said the man told them he was acting on orders from a Yemeni man associated with bin Laden.

U.S. officials here have not commented on the case, and Atiani, the reporter, said bin Laden's aides did not seem to know about the alleged New Delhi operation when he raised the subject with them. Whether bin Laden and his followers have the means to carry out more spectacular attacks in the near future, they clearly want the world to believe they can and will.

During his meeting in the Afghan hide-out, Atiani said, the reclusive bin Laden, who has rarely granted interviews and has previously been reported to be in ill health, seemed healthy, calm and confident.

"He didn't say much, but I could feel his confidence. He smiled and he looked like he had put on weight," Atiani said.

Although the compound was clearly located in southern Afghanistan, the reporter said he saw only Arabs during his visit. "It felt like bin Laden had his own Arab kingdom in southern Afghanistan," he said.