With A Little Help From The Big Bin

On February 11, 2003, AlJazeera TV station broadcast a specialmessage to the Iraqi people purported to have been from Osama bin Laden. The message, which coincided withthe end of the holy fasting period  of Ramadan, sought to pep up the morale of the Iraqi people and guidethem as to how they should face the coming American invasion of their country and defeat them.

In an attempt to convince the Iraqis that the US is not invincible, bin Laden explained howhe and his followers, numbering only about 300, had frustrated the American action against them at Tora Borain Afghanistan.  He stressed the importance of the Iraqi people fighting unitedly against the Americans,irrespective of whether they were Arabs or non-Arabs (Kurds) or Sunnis or Shias. He said that the Americanstrategy would be focussed on psychological warfare (Psywar) and aerial action and assured the Iraqis thatthey should be able to defeat them if they adopted the right strategy and tactics.

He explained the right strategy as follows:

"We are following  with great interest and extreme concern the crusaders'preparations for war to occupy a former capital of Islam, loot Muslims' wealth, and install an agentgovernment, which would be a satellite for its masters in Washington and Tel Aviv, just like all the othertreasonous and agent Arab governments.

"We realized from our defence and fighting against the American enemy that, incombat, they mainly depend on psychological warfare.  This is in light of the huge media machine theyhave. They also depend on massive air strikes so as to conceal their most prominent point of weakness, whichis the fear, cowardliness, and the absence of combat spirit among US soldiers.

"We also realized that one of the most effective and available methods of renderingthe air force of the crusader enemy ineffective is by setting up roofed and disguised trenches in largenumbers.

"I had referred to that in a previous statement during the Tora Bora battle lastyear.  We were about 300 mujahideen. We dug 100 trenches that were spread in an area that does not exceedone square mile, one trench for every three brothers, so as to avoid the huge human losses resulting from thebombardment.  Since the first hour of the US campaign on 20 Rajab 1422, corresponding to 7 October 2001,our centres were exposed to a concentrated bombardment.  And this bombardment continued untilmid-Ramadan.  On 17 Ramadan, a very fierce bombardment began, particularly after the US command wascertain that some of al-Qaeda leaders were still in Tora Bora, including the humble servant to God [referringto himself] and the brother mujahid Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri.The bombardment was round-the-clock and the warplanescontinued to fly over us day and night.

"The US Pentagon, together with its allies, worked full time on blowing up anddestroying this small spot, as well as on removing it entirely.  Planes poured their lava on us,particularly after accomplishing their main missions in Afghanistan.  The US forces attacked us withsmart bombs, bombs that weigh thousands of pounds, cluster bombs, and bunker busters.  Bombers, like theB-52, used to fly over head for more than two hours and drop between 20 to 30 bombs at a time.  Themodified C-130 aircraft kept carpet-bombing us at night, using modern types of bombs.  The US forcesdared not break into our positions, despite the unprecedented massive bombing and terrible propagandatargeting this completely besieged small area.

"This is in addition to the forces of hypocrites, whom they prodded to fight us for15 days non-stop.  Every time the latter attacked us, we forced them out of our area carrying their deadand wounded.

'To sum it up, the battle resulted in the complete failure of the international allianceof evil, with all its forces, [to overcome] a small number of mujahideen - 300 mujahideen hunkered down intrenches spread over an area of one square mile under a temperature of -10 degrees Celsius.  The battleresulted in the injury of 6% of personnel - we hope God will accept them as martyrs - and the damage of twopercent of the trenches, praise be to God.

"If all the world forces of evil could not achieve their goals on a one square mileof area against a small number of mujahideen with very limited capabilities, how can these evil forces triumphover the Muslim world? This is impossible, God willing, if people adhere to their religion and insist on jihadfor its sake.

"O mujahideen brothers in Iraq, do not be afraid of what the United States ispropagating in terms of their lies about their power and their smart, laser-guided missiles.  The smartbombs will have no effect worth mentioning in the hills and in the trenches, on plains, and in forests. They must have apparent targets. The well-camouflaged trenches and targets will not be reached by either thesmart or the stupid missiles.  There will only be haphazard strikes that dissipate the enemy ammunitionand waste its money. Dig many trenches.

"The [caliph] Umar, may God be pleased with him, stated: "Take the ground as ashield because this will ensure the exhaustion of all the stored enemy missiles within months. "Their daily production is too little and can be dealt with, God willing.

'We also recommend luring the enemy forces into a protracted, close, and exhaustingfight, using the camouflaged defensive positions in plains, farms, mountains, and cities.  The enemyfears city and street wars most, a war in which the enemy expects grave human losses.

"We stress the importance of the martyrdom operations against the enemy - operationsthat inflicted harm on the United States and Israel that have been unprecedented in their history, thanks toAlmighty God.

"Needless to say, this crusade war is primarily targeted against the people ofIslam.  Regardless of the removal or the survival of the socialist party or Saddam, Muslims in generaland the Iraqis in particular must brace themselves for jihad against this unjust campaign and acquireammunition and weapons. There will be no harm if the interests of Muslims converge with the interests of thesocialists in the fight against the crusaders, despite our belief in the infidelity of socialists.

"The fighting, which is waging and which will be waged these days, is very much likethe fighting of Muslims against the Byzantine in the past. And the convergence of interests is notdetrimental. The Muslims' fighting against the Byzantine converged with the interests of the Persians. And this was not detrimental to the companions of the prophet.

"Before concluding, we reiterate the importance of high morale and caution againstfalse rumours, defeatism, uncertainty, and discouragement. The prophet said: "Bring good omens and do notdiscourage people." During the Al-Yarmuk Battle, a man told Khalid bin-al-Walid [an Islamic commander]:"The Byzantine soldiers are too many and the Muslims are few."

"So, Khalid told him: "Shame on you. Armies do not triumph with large numbersbut are defeated if the spirit of defeatism prevails.""

Thousands of copies of this message have been got made in the Binori madrasa of Karachi and in the Akora Khattak madrasa of Peshawar in Pakistan and sent to Iraq via Jordan for distribution amongstthe Iraqi people and soldiers to counteract the effect of the anti-Saddam Hussein pamphlets being disseminatedby the coalition forces.

In the sermons delivered in many  mosques of Pakistan after the Friday prayers on March28,2003, God and bin Laden were thanked for going to the help of the Iraqi people in their hour of trial. Thesandstorms, which swept across the deserts from March 25 slowing down the advance of the coalition troopstowards Baghdad, were described by the Mullahs as sent by God to protect the Iraqi people and to teach theAmericans a lesson.  The credit for the resistance put up by the Iraqi soldiers was attributed to theinspiring example of bin Laden and his message to the Iraqi people. Appeals were also made to the Shias ofIraq not to fall a prey to what was described as the Anglo-American machinations to create a split between theShias and the Sunnis and use the former against the latter.

Whatever be the outcome of the war, it is likely to give a further fillip to pan-Islamicterrorism across the world. If the US-led coalition wins, the resulting Muslim anger would swell the ranks ofterrorists and result in more acts of punishment terrorism.  Any coalition defeat would be viewed asindicating God's blessing for the pan-Islamic jihad and re-double their Islamic zeal and determination tospread terrorism in the name of jihad.

The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and,presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Convenor, Advisory Committee, ObserverResearch Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter