Why Did Osama Bin Laden Hate America? Was It Because Of Israel?

By Alex Safian, PhD

Now that Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by US forces, it is important for the media and the general public to remember just what triggered his anti-American obsession – hint, it wasn't Israel.

In fact, as bin Laden made abundantly clear in his writings and statements, his primary grievance was with Saudi Arabia, the Islamic holy land, and the presence and influence there of infidels, namely the armed forces of the United States.

What really sent bin Laden over the edge was the Saudi decision to invite in U.S. troops to protect the Kingdom right after Saddam had invaded Kuwait. Bin Laden urged against what he saw as a deep sacrilege and betrayal – Saudi Arabia is the holy land of the Muslims, and non-Muslims are not even allowed to step foot in Mecca and Medina.

Rather than accept US troops, he implored Saudi leaders to depend on his Afghan mujahadin instead. But Secretary of State James Baker and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell visited the Kingdom and convinced Saudi rulers to turn him down and allow in the American army. For inviting in the infidels, the “Crusaders,” as bin Laden put it, the Saudi rulers would never be forgiven.

Indeed, in bin Laden’s famous Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places, August 23, 1996, the Israelis are given only a few mentions, while the Americans and the Saudis are the primary villains:

The latest and the greatest of these aggressions, incurred by the Muslims since the death of the Prophet (ALLAH'S BLESSING AND SALUTATIONS ON HIM) is the occupation of the land of the two Holy Places [Mecca and Medina] -the foundation of the house of Islam, the place of the revelation, the source of the message and the place of the noble Ka'ba, the Qiblah of all Muslims- by the armies of the American Crusaders and their allies. (We bemoan this and can only say: "No power and power acquiring except through Allah")...

Through its course of actions the regime has torn off its legitimacy:
(1) Suspension of the Islamic Shari'ah law and exchanging it with man made civil law. The regime entered into a bloody confrontation with the truthful Ulamah and the righteous youths (we sanctify nobody; Allah sanctify Whom He pleaseth).

(2) The inability of the regime to protect the country, and allowing the enemy of the Ummah - the American crusader forces- to occupy the land for the longest of years.

Now, bin Laden's deputy, who is likely to succeed him as the head of al Qaeda, is Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri. Dr. Zawahiri is really the operational leader and chief strategist of the organization, so it is crucial to understand his thinking as well.

Zawahiri is from Egypt, and was arrested there more than twenty five years ago for his involvement in the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Of course, the assassination of Sadat, who had so bravely made peace with Israel, failed to destroy the Egyptian government, and failed to achieve its goal, an Islamic revolution. Instead the Islamist plotters who were lucky got long prison sentences; the rest got their heads chopped off. Zawahiri was one of the lucky ones, and he concluded while in jail that the coup failed because Egypt was massively supported by the United States, and therefore that the Egyptian regime and the other infidel Arab states will only be overthrown after the US is humiliated and forced to withdraw from the Middle East. Then the corrupt governments can be toppled by the Muslims, the Arab states can be unified and the caliphate restored. With their control of the Arab world’s oil and wealth, and large populations, al Qaeda and its followers would then be poised to rule the world.

Realistic or not, that was Zawahiris' thinking. And America – not Israel – stood in the way of that goal.

That is, we were attacked on 9/11 not because of our support for Israel, but because of our support for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and Egypt and Jordan.

That's why through all the attacks by al Qaeda against the US up till 9/11 – the first WTC attack, Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the USS Cole in 2000 – there was not a single attack against Israel or Israeli interests. al Qaeda and bin Laden have much larger goals, and to them Israel is just a small sideshow. Or as the Iranians put it, the US is the “Great Satan,” Israel is the “Small Satan.”
[camera.org]

"There Goes The Neighborhood" The Guy Who Unknowingly Liveblogged The Osama Bin Laden Raid

Photo Credit:Reuters/Faisal Mahmood

Sohaib Athar: Accidental Witness To History as he sent out a stream of live updates on Twitter about the movement of helicopters and blasts outside his house, unaware the hunt for the world's most wanted man was coming to a bloody end in his sleepy hills

A computer programmer, startled by a helicopter clattering above his quiet Pakistani town in the early hours, did what any social-media addict would do: he began sending messages to the social networking site Twitter.

With his tweets, 33-year-old Sohaib Athar, who moved to the sleepy town of Abbottabad to escape the big city, became in his own words 'the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it'.

His first tweet was innocuous: 'Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).'

Soon the sole helicopter multiplied into several and gunfire and explosions rocked the air above the town, and Mr Athar's tweets quickly garnered 14,000 followers as he unwittingly described the U.S. operation to kill one of the world's most wanted terrorists.

The noise alarmed Mr Athar, who moved to the upmarket area of Abbottabad to get away from city life after his wife and child were badly injured in a car accident in the sprawling city of Lahore, according to his blog in July.

Nestled in the mountains around 60 miles north east of the capital, Abbottabad is a quiet, leafy town featuring a military academy, the barracks for three army regiments and even its own golf course.

As the operation to kill Osama bin Laden unfolded, Mr Athar 'liveblogged' what he was hearing in real time, describing windows rattling as bombs exploded.

He questioned whose helicopters might be flying overhead.
'The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani,' he tweeted.

Mr Athar then said that one of the aircraft appeared to have been shot down. Two more helicopters rushed in, he reported.

Throughout the battle, he related the rumours swirling through town. It was a training accident. Somebody was killed. The aircraft might be a drone. The army was conducting door-to-door searches in the surrounding area. The sound of an airplane could be heard overhead.

Mr Athar did not respond to media requests for comment - he explained in another tweet that a filter he set up to stop his email box from flooding could be culling out requests for interviews.

Soon, however, the rumbling of international events far beyond the confines of this quiet suburb began to dawn on Mr Athar, and he realised what he might be witnessing.

'I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected,' he tweeted.

Eight hours and about 35 tweets later, the confirmation came: 'Osama bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan,' Mr Athar reported.

'There goes the neighbourhood.' [dailymail.co.uk]