World

Tracking A Terror Tycoon

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 19, 1998 / 7:21 PM EDT / CBS

Osama bin Laden is a Saudi millionaire whom U.S. officials call a major sponsor of terrorism.

Afghanistan's Taliban Islamic movement bin Laden was safe after the Aug. 20 attack, launched by the U.S. in retaliation for the embassy bombings in Africa.

Meanwhile, CBS News Chief European Correspondent Tom Fenton has reported that a London source linked to bin Laden says the Saudi millionaire was not directly responsible for the embassy bombings, but that he did provide "logistical" support. He said the attack itself was launched by an organization calling itself Egyptian Jihad. This claim was confirmed by another source.

Egyptian Jihad was also blamed for the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat after the Egyptian leader signed a peace deal with Israel. The head of Egyptian Jihad is now thought to be in Afghanistan, as part of a coalition of terrorist organizations around bin Laden.

Several hours before the U.S. raids Aug. 20, bin Laden spoke by satellite phone with a BBC reporter and disclaimed responsibility for the embassy bombings.

By singling bin Laden out as its chief antagonist, the United States may have actually bolstered his standing in the Muslim fundamentalist world, a source familiar with bin Laden told Fenton.

Until Aug. 20, bin Laden had not been officially called a suspect in the east African bombings. But his friends and supporters made it clear the day before the U.S. strike that, if the U.S. tries to come and get him for those crimes, it will mean war, CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports.

Afghanistan's ruling Islamic movement, which provides a safe haven for bin Laden, has said there is no link between the Saudi millionaire terrorist and the embassy attacks and warned, "Even if all the countries of the world unite, we will defend Osama with our blood."

Tom Gouttierre, who worked for the U.N. Special Mission in Afghanistan and knows people associated with bin Laden, has told CBS This Morning that bin Laden has thousands of followers from as diverse places as China. "He has cells throughout the world that he can work with and funnel money to," Gouttierre said.

Pakistani intelligence information indicates that bin Laden has a force of about 4,000 Muslim militants at his command. They are reportedly armed with everything from surface-to-air missiles to rockets and tanks.

Bin Laden has at least two base camps in Afghanistan, and active recruits in several surrounding countries who have pledged to obey his calls for attacks on America.

Bin Laden has already publicly bragged that it was his troops that inflicted some of the worst damage on American forces in Somalia in 1993. Four of his followers have confessed to a 1995 bombing in Riyadh that killed seven, and he is a prime suspect in the Kobar Towers explosion that killed 19 U.S. servicemen the following year.

On Aug. 7, the day of the bombings in Africa, U.S. intelligence sourcs noted unusual comings and goings around bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan that they don't think were a coincidence. However, there has been no sign of the millionaire militant himself. He hasn't been seen in public since the truck bombs exploded at the U.S. embassies.