Bin Ladin’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on Al-Qa’ida Strategies via Cryptome.org:
(Abu-Jandal) Most of my answers were on Al-Qa’ida ideology and structure and why it deals in this way. The answers were to the point. They used to put forth rather strange questions. One question said: As far as we are concerned, 80 percent of what you said is true, but does Al-Qa’ida have chemical plants and nuclear weapons? I recall that my answer to them was that Usama Bin Ladin has a weapon that is far superior to all the US weapons. What is this weapon, the asked? I told them: “Among the believers are men, who have been true to their covenant to God: of them some have completed their vow (to the extreme), and some (still) wait: But they have never changed (their determination) in the least.” (Koranic verse) The US arsenal is full of weapons, but it does not have the men. …
(Al-Hammadi) Do you believe that what is taking place in Iraq now is planned by Al-Qa’ida and carried out by its members and followers?
(Abu-Jandal) Al-Qa’ida elements had expected this thing. Al-Qa’ida had expected the fall of the Iraqi regime and that the United States could only control the region through Iraq. As the Americans said, the Saudis are an inhospitable people. Many Americans were killed in Saudi Arabia and the recent incidents confirmed that. Therefore, the Americans had no choice but direct occupation. This thing was expected. Indeed what is taking place inside Iraq now confirms that. Many Al-Qa’ida elements entered Iraq and are now fighting with the Iraqi resistance.
(Al-Hammadi) Do you believe that Abu-Mis’ab al-Zarqawi is indeed the Al-Qa’ida representative in Iraq?
(Abu-Jandal) The problem is Al-Qa’ida itself is now longer an entity but an ideology. It has become an ideology now. Many youths now carry Al-Qa’ida ideology against United States. Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi was in Afghanistan. He was also in Kabul and he used to often meet with Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin. But I don’t think that he is Al-Qa’ida’s number one man, because Al-Qa’ida has Iraqi cadres that exist in Iraq. So it can dispense with Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi.
(Al-Hammadi) Some people say that Al-Qa’ida has been penetrated by US intelligence and is now being used to serve US aims, as is happening in Saudi Arabia. What is your opinion on that?
(Abu-Jandal) This information is not correct, but it is disseminated by Arab intelligence services more than US services. The question of intelligence penetration of Al-Qa’ida does not take place by planting an agent or recruiting another. The question is merely the return of some persons to their country. A well-known figure had returned to Egypt and it was said that he was an intelligence man for 17 years within Al-Qa’ida. They said they penetrated jihadist organizations to the marrow! Now, let me ask them: How could you have penetrated jihadist organizations to the marrow when you could not stop the military operations? Your penetration of these organizations would have meant that you were informed of their operations and where there would take place so that you could stop them. What you say is not true. Still, there were attempts by US, Jordanian, and Saudi intelligence services to penetrate Al-Qa’ida, but they failed for one reason; namely, Usama Bin Ladin chooses his elements from the steel and fire. They are not political elements with official jobs and university diplomas. It is from within the battles that elements are chosen, and hypocrites and agents cannot join battlefronts. It is difficult for them. What they say is not true.
(Al-Hammadi) A final question, what is the future of Al-Qa’ida on the Arab and international levels in light of these universal wars against it?
(Abu-Jandal) Al-Qa’ida had sought right from the start to foster confrontation between the United States and the Islamic World. I recall Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin telling us: We as an organization cannot continue with the qualitative operations. So we have to draw the United States into a confrontation with all the Islamic peoples. This was the plan in the Somalia days. Bin Ladin had wished the capture of a single US soldier alive to make the United States withdraw and for the fighting to continue everywhere. Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin and the Al-Qa’ida have pursued this endeavor and succeeded in drawing the United States into an unequal confrontation, not from the military technology aspect, but from the ideology aspect. Muslims have now reached the point where they are fed up with the United States, which lives in prosperity off our nation’s resources. I believe that the United States is heading for its demise. As to the future of Al-Qa’ida, I believe that it has found what it wanted. It can now melt into a new caldron, and a new giant would be reborn, of which Al-Qa’ida would be a part. Many of the Islamic World leaders would join it and the confrontation with the United States would be inevitable. And, Al-Qa’ida would not be the leader but a vanguard army.
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