America’s first family – the Bin Ladens
Steve Coll is the Pulitzer prize winning author of “Ghost Wars” (The Secret History of The CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion To Sept 10, 2001), and, now, “The Bin Laden’s — An Arabian Family In The American Century
Without America, there would be no Saudi Royal family or Bin Laden riches. The jet-setting internationalism of their champagne-strewn lifestyle wasn’t just paved with American customers; it was cultivated with custodial geopolitics.
American military protected Saudi royals and their confederates (the Bin Laden family being one of them), after the British stepped away from the Middle East post WW2. Since then, Prince Bandar, and various other Saudi Princes and businessmen have been in the Washington corridors of power more often than any other nation; more so even than the Israelis — because the Saudis write the cheques.
Because the Saudis don’t ask for money, like other American allies, they lend it and spend it and they have bought and paid for that access. They also don’t lobby the way others do either. The Saudis just open their wallets.
But the good times came to an end on Sept 11th 2001.
As Steve Coll writes, days after the event the Bin Laden family were gathered up and flown out of the U.S., crying and chain-smoking. It was a new world. It still is.
But had Osama’s older brother, Salem, not died prematurely in a plane crash, Author Steve Coll told me, there would probably never have been a 9/11. Salem was the family leader, the Patriarch following their Father’s passing. And while he flew arms and cash into Afghanistan to support Osama when he was fighting the Soviets, Salem would have prevented Osama’s extremism against America. Osama respected his brother. He looked up to him, even in disagreement.
Steve Coll also discussed this week the latest Al Qaeda terrorist plot that was thankfully foiled by British intelligence. Similar to the event planned from Manila by Ramzi Yousef (now in Colorado’s Super Max prison and considered the creepiest inmate, by the way), in the early nineties where many airliners were to be downed by high explosives in mid-flight simultaneously, a similar plan was being cooked up for transatlantic flights despite new airline security measures.
Al Qaeda’s method is to return to their old haunts: airlines, embassies, big buildings (they attacked the World Trade centre twice, the first time in 1993. So, the plan went like this: liquid explosive that looks like Gator Aid matched up to electronic detonators made from digital cameras and assembled mid-flight. Testing on the captured material from the foiled revealed a hell of a bang. The attack involved 15 planes.
Imagine, Steve Coll said, if 15 airliners were suddenly blown out of the sky in a span of 20 minutes.
At that point, the U.S. would invade the ungovernable tribal regions in Pakistan which house both Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden himself that border Afghanistan (and which only NATO recognizes, the tribesmen don’t care); and the area from which the Taliban in Afghanistan are also supplied.
The reaction within Pakistan to an American invasion would be horrific: riot, demonstrations, and martial rule – perhaps revolution. With nuclear weapons, a fanatical, angry, fundamentalist
Pakistan is not a good thing.
They would then all risk being martyrs.
Be careful what you ask for.
And the Bin Laden’s are chain smoking still.