The Silent Neighborhoods

 Bin Laden
The circumstances leading to his killing and the subsequent disposal of his body in the sea has left everyone guessing on the authenticity of the story.

            The news report says that the operation to eliminate Osama took place at Abbotabad, a garrison- town very close to Islamabad. The report adds that the hide out , a three – storeyed  mansion , is only a stone’s throw from a Leading Military Academy.

            None in the Government of Pakistan , none in the Military , none in the civil administration or police were aware of the operation and yet , we, the so called intelligentsia , have to believe it.

            Okey, we concede the story. But let us look back into the history of this most dreaded personality, Osama.

Who is Osama bin Laden?

According to Ronald Reagan, Osama was a FREEDOM FIGHTER .

            This is what the  Wikipedia says on Osama.

            “After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam to fight the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and lived for a time in Peshawar.From 1979 through 1989 under U.S. Presidents Carter and Reagan, the United States Central Intelligence Agency provided overt and covert financial aid, arms and training to Osama’s Islamic Jihad Mujahideen through Operation Cyclone,and the Reagan Doctrine. President Reagan often praised the Mujahideen as Afghanistan’s “Freedom Fighters.”

            “Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm, train, and finance the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention. Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations.”

            Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa in his post Who is Osama bin Laden? dated 12 September, 2001, had this to say.

            “A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that “Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects”.

            “CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan “multiple attacks with little or no warning.”

            “Prime suspect in the New York and Washington terrorists attacks, branded by the FBI as an “international terrorist” for his role in the African US embassy bombings, Saudi born Osama bin Laden was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war “ironically under the auspices of the CIA, to fight Soviet invaders”.

            “In 1979 “the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA” was launched in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the pro-Communist government of Babrak Kamal.

            “With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI (Inter- Services Intelligence), who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan’s fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad.”

            “ The Islamic “jihad” was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia with a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade.”

            If according to USA , Osama is a Freedom Fighter, the world has to believe it. If according to USA , Osama is a Terrorist , the world has no option but to believe it, again.