Bin Laden, hounded by U.S, is reportedly dying and grooming successor
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Osama Bin Laden is reported variously to be near death and under siege with the arrests of close aides in Pakistan.
Diplomatic sources in Washington and Islamabad said the Saudi billionaire is dying and
seeking a successor to inherit his terrorist network. The sources agree that Bin Laden
suffers from kidney failure as well as other debilitating diseases and is
too ill to manage his Al Qaida terrorist network.
The sources said Bin Laden has been treated by visiting doctors,
including one from Baghdad. They assess that Bin Laden has only months to
live.
While such reports are difficult to confirm, the most likely successor to Bin Laden, U.S. counterterrorism officials
told Middle East Newsline, is an Egyptian wanted by Cairo for launching numerous attacks and who is
said to have been involved in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa.
The likely successor's name, the officials said, is Ayman
Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad, the Egyptian Islamic insurgency group.
Zawahiri, 49, is believed to be in Afghanistan with Bin Laden. He was a
key organizer of the Bin Laden ruling in February 1998 that called for the
death of Americans and their allies and has met with the Lebanese Hizbullah
group and others to plan attacks against U.S. interests.
Bin Laden has not been seen in more than a year amid heightened U.S. efforts
to press Pakistan and Afghanistan to capture and surrender him.
Jordan, a U.S. ally, has also joined the hunt and this week will start the trial of 28 Arabs linked
to Bin Laden and accused of planning attacks on American and Israeli tourists during millennium celebrations.
The trial opens on Thursday at the State Security Court in a hearing in
which the indictments will be read against the defendants. Fifteen are in
detention and the rest will be tried in absentia.
The detainees are all Jordanians, with the exception of an Algerian and
an Iraqi. The fugitives are also Jordanian and Palestinians.
Although all of the suspects are believed linked to Bin Laden, he was
not named in the indictment.
Meanwhile, Islamic sources in London report that aides to Bin Laden have been arrested by
Pakistan in the first demonstration that Islamabad is cooperating in efforts
to capture the world's most wanted terrorist. Bin Laden is accused of
masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998.
The London-based Islamic Observation Center said Pakistan has arrested
four men on suspicion of having links with Bin Laden. The center's director
Yasser Serri said the men were detained in Peshawar last month ahead of
U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to Pakistan.
Serri said one of the men was an Egyptian-born Dane who was sentenced to
death in absentia by a military court upon conviction for the 1993 attempted
murder of former Prime Minister Atef Sidki.
The arrests come as the United States wants Pakistan to impose trade
sanctions on Afghanistan to force the ruling Taliban militia to expel Bin
Laden. The demand came during a meeting between Pakistani military ruler
Gen. Pervez Musharraf and FBI director Louis Freeh last week, the Business
Recorder in Karachi reported.
Saudi Arabia has already acceded to U.S. demands to withdraw its support
from Taliban.
In a related development, Egypt seeks the extradition of an Islamic
insurgent, Jamal Tantawi, who was arrested in Lebanon. Diplomatic sources
said Tantawi is linked to Bin Laden and operated in Egypt, Bosnia and Yemen.
On Friday, the Afghan ruling Taliban movement said it did not give any
assurances to the United Nations regarding the world body's demand that Bin
Laden be expelled. The Security Council had threatened more sanctions on the
Taliban if it refuses to expel Bin Laden.
"We neither gave him full assurance nor showed our decline although the
issues of Bin Laden and ending of war came under discussions during
negotiations," Taliban spokesman Maulvi Abdul Hai Mutmaen told the British
Broadcasting Corp.
Bin Laden is said to have $300 million to operate his terrorist network,
including training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition, Bin Laden
controls projects in Afghanistan and Sudan. Bin Laden's family in Saudi
Arabia has an estimated fortune of $5 billion. Funds to the group is
believed to have been transferred by Bin Laden supporters in the Gulf.
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
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