LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Osama Bin Laden: Wars
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In August 1996, Osama bin Laden declared jihad against the U.S. The term "jihad" has been subject to a variety of interpretations. Most modern Muslims use it to mean "struggle" – in the sense of trying to stay true to Islam. But bin Laden and other fundamentalists use it to mean a holy war against those who they deem to oppose Islam.
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The London-based Advice and Reformation Committee (ARC) establishes a secure system for communications between Saudi Arabia and London for Osama bin Laden. The system is set up by Denver resident Lujain al-Imam, wife of London-based Islamic activist Mohammad al-Massari, at his request. The calls are routed from Saudi Arabia to Britain through Denver, Colorado, using toll-free lines established for US servicemen during the Gulf War, in order to stop the Saudi government from intercepting the messages. After the system is set up, bin Laden calls al-Massari to thank him. It is not known how long the phone system is used. However, in late 2001 al-Imam will say that some of the people involved in setting up the system are still in the Denver area, but she will not name them.
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UNTOLD STORY OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN: A presentation on Afghan Warlords, The Taliban, Osama bin Laden and the CIA will be presented at 6:30 p.m. at The Citadel, Bond Hall Room 165. Steven Coll, former managing editor of The Washington Post, will host. Book signing, reception follow.
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In 1987 or 1988, bin Laden dispatches his brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa to the Philippines to find more recruits willing to go to Afghanistan. It is estimated he finds about 1,000 recruits. One of them is Abdurajak Janjalani, who emerges as the leader of these recruits in Afghanistan. When the Afghan war ends in 1989 most of them will return to the Philippines and form the Abu Sayyaf group, still led by Janjalani (see Early 1991).
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Bin Laden ... has harsh words for the U.S. news media, which "lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires" with its early coverage of the Iraq war. That coverage, he says, was often worse than what was produced by news outlets under dictatorial regimes.
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Some sources allege that several meetings between top Iraqi operatives and bin Laden took place, but these claims have been disputed by many other sources, including most of the original intelligence agencies that investigated these sources in the first place. Many in the intelligence community are skeptical about whether such meetings, if they took place at all, ever resulted in any meaningful relationship. Many of the claims of actual collaboration seem to have originated with people associated with the Iraqi National Congress whose credibility has been impeached and who have been accused of manipulating the evidence in order to lure the United States into war on false pretenses. In addition, many of the raw intelligence reports came to the awareness of the public through the leaking of a memo sent from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,[48] the conclusions of which have been disputed by intelligence agencies including the CIA. Feith’s view of the relationship between Saddam and Osama differed from the official view of the intelligence community. The memo was subsequently leaked to the media.
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