Copyright 2001 Omaha World-Herald

Reprinted with permission

September 16, 2001, Sunday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
HEADLINE:
Bin Laden once supported
The Saudi exile - the prime suspect in Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington - had American help in backing Afghan rebels against their Soviet
invaders in the 1980s.
By Stephen Buttry and Jake Thompson
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS
As America fought wars around the globe in the 20th century, one principle
guided U.S. alliances: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
In the war against Hitler, the United States found common cause with Stalin.
In the war against Japan, America aided Vietnamese rebel Ho Chi Minh. In Third
World struggles, America helped Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein.
And as Afghan rebels fought Soviet invaders in the 1980s, the United States
gave aid from afar while Saudi exile Osama bin Laden provided support from
within Afghanistan.
Bin Laden emerged quickly after last week's attack on America as the prime
suspect, directing a global network of terrorists from camps in Afghanistan.
His apparent role in the attacks and the possibility of retaliation
generated acute interest in Omaha, home to about 300 former Afghan refugees and
the nation's only Center for Afghanistan Studies.
Before most of the world knew who bin Laden was, Thomas Gouttierre, director
of the Afghan program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, spent several
months studying him for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan
in 1996 and '97.
Gouttierre, who has 37 years experience dealing with Afghanistan, used his
sources to confirm for then-U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that
bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan after leaving Sudan.
In his office, Gouttierre still has his bin Laden file, including maps
showing the locations of his training camps in the mountainous Central Asian
nation.
The UNO scholar never met bin Laden but saw his compound in the city of
Kandahar and once saw his motorcade pass as the terrorist leader traveled

protected by security vehicles.

Gouttierre also spent part of his U.N. duty meeting and studying the
Taliban, radical Muslim clerics who were and still are fighting for control of
Afghanistan. The Taliban reportedly control about 95 percent of the country now.
Even before last week's attack, the United States and the United Nations had
called for the Taliban to turn bin Laden over to face trial for previous
terrorist bombings.
Such a demand is unrealistic, Gouttierre said.
"The Talibs are not as powerful as Osama bin Laden," he said. "It's more
likely that he could throw them out."
When Gouttierre was in Kandahar in 1999, he said, Afghans told him that most
advisers to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's top leader, were Pakistanis.
Since then, he said, Arabs tied to bin Laden have gained influence with Omar.
The rural clerics of the Taliban have little education or sophistication, he
said, and rely heavily on the outsiders in their fledgling efforts to govern.
"The Taliban have kind of become almost a junior partner in the strategic
plans of Osama bin Laden and the Pakistani extremist elements," Gouttierre said.
Abdul Raheem Yaseer, an Afghan native who is campus coordinator of UNO's
Center for Afghanistan Studies, described the situation in his homeland bluntly:
"Osama bin Laden is the master. How could a servant hand in his master?"
Western outrage toward Afghanistan has taken on new meaning in the wake of
Tuesday's attack, but Americans were outraged at the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan 22 years ago. The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
President Jimmy Carter embargoed exports to the Soviet Union. And the CIA
funneled arms and other support to the mujahedeen, Afghanistan's "freedom
fighters."
Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, saw Afghanistan as a potential Vietnam
for the Soviets' "Evil Empire."
Thousands of Muslim radicals joined the CIA and mujahedeen, including bin
Laden, the wealthy son of a Saudi road builder. Though he didn't actually take
up arms, he helped build roads and arms depots, using his own funds and CIA
money.
"We funded him, we and the Saudis," said Glynn Wood, professor of
international policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "He was

not seen as any kind of threat until Desert Storm."

Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid reported recently that the
CIA funded an underground arms depot, training facility and medical center that
bin Laden helped build in 1986 near the Pakistan border. There bin Laden set up
his first training camp.
Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., likened the situation to the Iran-Iraq war of
the 1980s, where the United States aided a future adversary, Hussein. American
policies contributed to the environment that exists today, he said, "but it was
an inadvertent action."
The United States provided many of the arms used today by all the forces in
Afghanistan.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said
blaming U.S. policy for today's troubles is too simplistic. The region is
incredibly complex politically and socially, the Nebraska Republican said, as
were the Cold War calculations that drove foreign policy.
"It's always easy to look back at a policy 20 years ago and say we made a
mistake," Hagel said.
"I suppose you could make a case we made an error to support the mujahedeen
to drive out communism in Afghanistan," he said. But allowing communism to
control the country also would have been bad, considering its proximity to
Pakistan and Iran.
"The reality in those days," Hagel said, "was anything that hurt the Soviets
we did."
Rogues' gallery
Joseph Stalin: Soviet dictator allied with U.S., Britain and France to defeat
Germany in World War II.
Ho Chi Minh: Leader of Vietnamese Communist guerrillas worked within US.
Office of Strategic Services to defeat Japan in World War II.
Saddam Hussein: U.S. aided Iraqi dictator in his war with Iran in the 1980s.
Manuel Noriega: Panamanian dictator and drug smuggler was a CIA ally
throughout Latin America before falling out of favor.

GRAPHIC: Color Photos/3 Kiley Christian/1 The Associated Press/2 Thomas

Gouttierre, left, of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at UNO, compiled a file
on Osama bin Laden, inset. Above, Afghanistan bears the scars of a 1980s war
that saw the United States and bin Laden support rebels against the Soviet
Union. The Associated Press/4 Mugs/4; KILEY CHRISTIAN/THE WORLDHERALD/1sf THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS/6