Five myths about Osama revealed

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Almost a week after US Navy Seals shot and killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the Washington Post has sought to dismantle myths and clarify common misconceptions about him.

Here are five of those myths as revealed by Peter Bergen, the director of national security studies at the New America Foundation and the author of ‘The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda.’

1. The CIA created Osama bin Laden.

Common among conspiracy theorists is the notion bin Laden was a CIA creation and that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were blowback from an agency operation gone awry. In fact, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s, the CIA had no dealings with ‘Afghan Arabs’ such as bin Laden and had few direct dealings with any of the Afghan mujaheddin. Instead, all U.S. aid to Afghanistan was funneled through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

2. Bin Laden attacked US because of the freedom enjoyed by Americans

This is what former President George W. Bush projected nine days after Sept. 11. In an address to the US Congress, Bush said: “They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”

Yet, in all the tens of thousands of words uttered by bin Laden, he was strangely silent about American freedoms and values. He didn’t seem to care very much about the beliefs of the ‘crusaders.’

His focus was invariably on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

3. Al-Qaeda ideology has nothing to do with Islam.

Bush was quite firm that al-Qaeda represented a perversion of Islam, but members of al-Qaeda firmly believe that their struggle has everything to do with the defense of what they consider true Islam. And bin Laden found ammunition in the Koran to give his war some Islamic legitimacy, often invoking the ‘Sword’ verses of the holy book, which can be interpreted as urging attacks on those who won’t submit and convert to Islam.

4. Ayman al-Zawahiri, not bin Laden, the real brains of al-Qaeda.

The conventional view is that Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor and al-Qaeda’s longtime second in command, has been bin Laden’s ‘brain.’ But in making the most important strategic shift in al-Qaeda’s history identifying the United States as its key enemy, rather than Middle Eastern regimes bin Laden brushed aside Zawahiri’s obsessive focus on overthrowing the Egyptian government.

Noman Benotman, a Libyan militant who has spent considerable time talking with both of al-Qaeda’s leaders, told me in an interview that “Osama influenced Zawahiri with his idea: Forget about the ‘near enemy’; the main enemy is the Americans.”

Bin Laden also kept Zawahiri in the dark for years about al-Qaeda’s most important operation the planning for the 9/11 attacks cluing in his deputy only during the summer of 2001.

5. Bin Laden’s death symbolically important but irrelevant to war on terror.

Many commentators have asserted in the past week that the death of bin Laden won’t make much difference to the wider jihadist movement that he helped spawn. There is some truth to that, but balanced against this are the facts that al-Qaeda was bin Laden’s creation and he was the ultimate author of the 9/11 attacks.

When new recruits joined al-Qaeda, they pledged a personal oath of religious allegiance to bin Laden, rather than to the organization.

Similarly, when affiliated jihadist groups have attached themselves to al-Qaeda central, as al-Qaeda in Iraq did in 2004, their leaders pledge their fealty to bin Laden personally.

Bin Laden is one of the few men in recent decades who truly changed the history of the world. With him gone from the scene, there is no one of his stature and charisma to become not only the leader and strategic guide of al-Qaeda, but to inspire the group’s affiliates across the Middle East and North Africa and the wider jihadi movement around the globe. For that, we can all be grateful.