60 Minutes II

60 Minutes II: In His Own Words

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 26, 2001 / 4:56 PM EDT / CBS

Osama bin Laden's picture is on the cover of Time Magazine and his name has world-wide recognition. But for all that, the world knows remarkably little about him.

In an interview he taped three years ago for Al Jazeera, the CNN of the Arab world, bin Laden spoke of his hatred for the United States and the Jews and spelled out his philosophy about bombing attacks that may include the killing of civilians.

When bin laden talks, it's often difficult for westerners to understand exactly what he means, , reports Mike Wallace for 60 Minutes II. So, Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a CBS News consultant, was asked to help read between the lines.

When bin Laden said “Every American man is our enemy," one might think that he was putting women and children in a different category, but Ajami says this is not so.

“Osama bin laden declared that all Americans, in whatever country, wherever they are - men, women and children, civilian and military - to be legitimate targets of brutal attacks,” says Ajami. So when 6,000 died at the World Trade Center, he didn't care whether they were young or old, female or male,. They were “part of the holy war between Osama bin Laden and the wicked infidel forces of the West, led by America.”

This elusive militant, who's been living in remote corners of Afghanistan since 1996, rarely talks to reporters. When he does, he invariably rages against the American troops sent to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. That event crystallized his hatred of the West, with whom he believes the Islamic world is locked in a deadly struggle, says Wallace.

“This pits international crusaders in alliance with Jewish Zionism, led by the U.S. Britain and Israel against the Muslim world,” bin Laden told Al Jazeera. “It's unacceptable that they commit aggression in our land, in our holy sites, plunder our oil. And if we resist, they label us as terrorists.”

That's a label virtually every Western leader would say bin Laden has earned. He has been linked to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, the 1996 bombing of an American barracks in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and to the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year.

But bin Laden is modest about claiming responsibility for those acts of terror. In the Al Jazeera interview, he was asked about the embassy bombings in East Africa.

“The bombing came as a grace from God to the Muslim world,” bin Laden says. “I am proud of the great men who have lifted the humiliation that had befallen our nation, be they those who carried out the bombings in Riyahd, in Al-Kohbar, in East Africa and our young brothers in Palestine, who have taught the Jews hard lessons.”

Ajami says bin Laden claims these attacks “in the hidden language of winks and nods.”

Arabs havbeen following bin Laden's exploits ever since he first went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to join the Mujahadeen, Islamic fighters who battled, and eventually beat, the Soviet invaders.

In many ways, he has emerged as the Che Guevara of the Islamic world. He's young – 44. He’s rich - heir to a merchant dynasty in Saudi Arabia. And now, he’s famous.

“We are duty-bound to prod our nation against the U.S. Israel and their allies,” bin Laden tells Al Jazeera. “Action at the grassroots level in recent months has been a good sign that things are on the right track to expel Americans from the Muslim world. We have formed an alliance with our brothers - the International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders.”

Ajami says Americans, who like to give terror a name, a return address, an organizational chart, want to see bin Laden as CEO of Terror International, but the reality is bin Laden’s organization is a loose world of drifters and conspirators. “He's found them everywhere,” Ajami says. “They don't really need bin Laden, but they will work with bin Laden.”

Three years ago, bin Laden said of Pakistan : “The people of Pakistan have set a clear standard for hatred of the U.S. and the way it bullies the Muslim world. There are in Pakistan pro-Muslim, anti-American wings. And there are a few who are collaborating with the enemy of Islam.”

Getting bin Laden almost certainly means targeting Afghanistan and bin Laden predicted that the country that's been sheltering him from American anger will never give him up:

‘It must be understood that any American attack on Afghanistan is in fact a virtual attack on Islam and all it stands for,” he told Al Jazeera, “Our relationship with the Taliban is strong and well-cemented in Islamic principles and not on self-interest. There have been all sorts of pressures on the Taliban, but to no avail.”

What bin Laden meant, says Ajami, is that as soon as bombs start falling on Afghanistan, there will be a tremendous sense of sympathy, particularly in Islamic regions, for the Afghans.

“We are going to wage war in distant lands which are not very friendly to us,” he said. “That's the dilemma of American power. And that's the dilemma of President Bush at this time.”