Has the British Government Aided Bin Laden's Sect?
Al-Qaeda, Qutbism, and Britain

How real is al-Qaeda?

There is much misunderstanding regarding the true nature and background of al-Qaeda. In fact, prior to September 11, many people had never even heard of al-Qaeda.

Eric Margolis, a well-informed foreign correspondent, had the following to say about Bin Laden and al-Qaeda: "Osama Bin Laden has become the modern version, the evil twin, of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy's rescuer of French aristocrats from the guillotine. Lately, not a bomb explodes without it being blamed on Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. In recent weeks, Washington has accused al-Qaeda of an attack on a French tanker, the killing of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait and the frightful bombing of a Bali discotheque."

"Given these alarms," he continues, "one would imagine al-Qaeda to be a vast, octopoid organization whose tentacles span five continents. But this view, heavily promoted by the Bush administration and the U.S. media, is as wrong as George Bush's claim that terrorists are 'on the run.'"

Speaking about the reality of this group, Margolis says: "Al-Qaeda, to repeat what this column has been saying since 9/11, is a small, tightly knit organization of about 300 hardened jiHaadees, or holy warriors, created as a role model, rallying point and ideological beacon for militant Islamic resistance movements around the globe."

Referring to the true nature of the training camps in Afghanistan, Margolis states: "A small number of al-Qaeda-run paramilitary camps in Afghanistan served as a training ground and social centre for thousands of young Muslim men from many nations who came to fight for the Taliban or in a variety of jihads, or holy struggles, against what they viewed as oppression. All these groups were branded "al-Qaeda terrorists" by U.S. government and media, though they were not part of al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with the 9/11 outrages. The largest group was some 5,000 jiHaadees being trained by Pakistani intelligence for combat in the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir, and a similar number of volunteers who had joined the Taliban to fight the Northern Alliance, which was the old Afghan Communist party under a new name."

"There were 3,000 Uzbek fighters battling to overthrow Uzbekistan's brutal, communist dictatorship, and smaller numbers of jiHaadees from Indonesia, the Philippines, Muslim western China, North Africa, Bangladesh and other Islamic nations," states Margolis. "They were either killed, captured, or scattered by U.S. and Russian-backed forces."

Hence, al-Qaeda is in fact a small group. Margolis believes them to be approximately 300 in number. Regardless of their exact amount of members, many of the people who were training with them in Afghanistan were not actual members of a group called "al-Qaeda." However, all of them share in common their collective ideology of Qutbism, albeit at different levels of radicalism.

Margolis refers to the simplistic understanding which is fed to the people so as to enable them to become affected with mass hysteria: "Washington would like to blame all violent anti-western incidents on al-Qaeda. Doing so is convenient and affords Americans a simple black-and-white image. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda reinforce this erroneous view by applauding every anti-western attack, no matter how heinous or ineffective."

"In reality," he says, "the U.S. now faces scores of violent anti-American groups from Morocco to Indonesia, inspired by Osama Bin Laden's defiance, and enraged by the suffering of the Palestinians and Iraqis."

The Qutbists are in actuality serving the interests of the neo-conservative right. Most of them believe they are doing good, and are thus unaware of the true effects of their actions. Likewise, there are from amongst them those who are in direct co-operation with intelligence agencies. Al-Qaeda, a greatly exaggerated entity, is the instrument that is being used to subjugate the Islamic lands. Without them and their Qutbist sympathizers, this would be a difficult task in today's age of information.

As a consequence of their extremism in their methodologies and their departure from the way of the Prophets, the plethora of Qutbist groups in existence today are subject to infiltration by intelligence organizations. For example, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that "Egyptian intelligence infiltrated the [Egyptian Qutbist] groups at every level, and made frequent mass arrests in Cairo's slums, where Muslims found broad support."

Likewise, U.S. intelligence officials told the United Press International that "local and federal law enforcement officials are using sophisticated infiltration and disinformation campaigns to expose and neutralize al-Qaeda sleeper cells operating in the United States."

Not only do Western intelligence agencies have a history of infiltrating these groups, they are also known to manipulate them at times. On November 1, 2002, The Moscow Times printed an editorial by Chris Floyd entitled "Global Eye - Into the Dark," which outlined how the Pentagon would be amassing secret armies described as "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" that will "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception."

Commenting on an October 27, 2002 Los Angeles Times' article written by military analyst William Larkin, Floyd states: "This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large." Continuing, he asserts: "We know, as does the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large? Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary."

Referring to the means of these future provoked acts of terrorism, Floyd quotes from the Los Angeles Times' article "The Secret War": "According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization -- the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)" -- will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces."

Stressing the significance of this classified Pentagon document, Floyd states: "In other words -- and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan -- the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people..."

Eric Margolis, West Overestimates al-Qaida's Reach, The Toronto Sun, October 20, 2002.

Mohamad Bazzi, How Radicals Hijacked the Muslim Brotherhood, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 15, 2001.

US Goes After al-Qaida Sleeper Cells In Major Cities, UPI, January 11, 2002.

Chris Floyd, Global Eye - Into the Dark, The Moscow Times, November 1, 2002.