The Big Manhunt

By

Goodluck Ebelo

Until the multiple attacks, no one thought the wiry man who prefers the outback and had tentacles around the globe could be so choosey in inflicting harm. Osama bin Laden struck and a panic-stricken world is in a rush to neutralise him.

The American administration has been on a diplomatic offensive, building a broad based coalition of its allies, rivals and Islamic states in order to isolate countries on its enemy list and have them dealt with. And beyond Egypt, its number one strategic partner in Africa , the Bush administration has reached out to Nigeria and South Africa for help to flush out bodies linked with any of the terrorist groups. The South Africans confirmed that the Americans had given them a list of persons and organisations to be targeted but declined to name them. Ray Lalla, an intelligence officer told the Sunday Times of South Africa that the American list has over 200 names. "Our role is to assist in the verifications of information emanating from inquiries received in the regard". The authorities there had helped the Americans in the1999 capture of Khalfan Khaims Mohammed, accused of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya and Tanzania. 

While the search in South Africa would largely be through government documents and airline records, that of Nigeria would be far much more than that. This may not just be unconnected with our poor record keeping habits but is related to more dangerous reality. The vast northern borders of the country are porous, and coming and going, either for trade, emigration or religious purposes are largely undocumented. The ease with which Chadian rebels infiltrate the country either to rob or participate in the sectarian strifes in the north simply drives home the reality. Nigeria has always been a bride of the Islamic world. While in some Islamic circles in the Middle-East the country is regarded as an Islamic nation, a few still rue the fact that the Islamization project hasn't been the success it is touted to be. So many groups in the north, from the caliphate,to groups and individuals have at different times received vast amounts of money from governments and donor organisations in the Middle-East.Just as Christians have received from the West. How much of these funds have actually been funneled into converting the infidels of the Middle-Belt and the South remains to be seen. What is sure is that donor fatigue is yet to set in. While some of these funds can easily be traced back to Islamic foundations in Saudi Arabia, others can't easily be traced. 

The Americans are convinced that large chunks of the money available from these sources are from terrorist organisations. President Bush was said to have reiterated this to President Obasanjo in a telephone conversation last week and Obasanjo was said to have given Bush his word to make everything- from intelligence stuff to any refugee of American justice, available in the American led global fight against terrorism. Haz Iwendi, police spokesman told a Nigerian daily that a massive manhunt was on to identify and arrest all terrorists operating from cells in Nigeria. "All the security agencies are involved in it. In-house, we've been brainstorming on the incidents in the United States and its implications for Nigeria. We are putting a number of measures in place. We have beefed up security around the various embassies. We are also working on theories that the terrorists may have links in Nigeria. We are also trying to find out if the terrorists have any associates in Nigeria. We are focusing all over the country. Terrorism is a job that involves a lot of networking. Terrorists have a lot of sympathisers all over the world and they have a lot of money to throw around". He reiterated that the operations at home are part of a vast global crackdown." We are working with Interpol to see if we can get any information.

All our men are at alert." Iwendi only confirmed a covert operation that had begun when the Sharia fire swept across the northern states. Indeed before America lost its towers and asked for Nigerian help, the federal government had identified Islamic fundamentalism as a real source of instability. The head of one of the security agencies had confided in some guests earlier in the year that the greatest security problem the country faced was not the bickering that characterised political differences but Islamic fundamentalism. It was many months before two planes rammed their human cargo into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And much earlier, the president had sent his National Security Adviser, Mohammed Aliyu Gusau to Libya to get Mohammed Gadaffi to help rein in the fundamentalist brand of Islam that was spreading across the northern states with the launch of Sharia. Gusau made repeated trips. Gadaffi, with his heart more on the African Union project he was promoting, and quite aware of how Obasanjo's objection would impair the project may have given the delegation proper reception. 

The militant El-Zak Zaky led Shiite group is on the watch list of the Nigerian government. Though the leader has denied any external influences, TEMPO can confirm that the body is linked to the Shia group of Iran. Despised by the elite and viewed with strong suspicion by other Islamic groups, the Shiites are quite a formidable presence in Kano where they have successfully warded off official and rival groups attempt at dislodging them. So could El-Zakzaky had received funding from the bin Laden group? This is bound to be strenuously denied in Kano. But as will be shown, bin Laden has never made a virtue of divisions among Islamic sects. And in July, security forces arrested Yakubu Musa for habouring a fundamenalist of Middle Eastern extraction for eight months. Yakubu Musa is a popular Islamic scholar who leads the Izala sect based in Katsina. Sects like this, maintain more than just donor-recipient relationship - they exchange members, especially sending expatriates from their home bases to Nigeria and recruit young men to the fundamentalists network. His guest was also arrested. 

Also, the death of Igbuku-Otu, an SSS informant while he was working on a matter directly related to an influx of fundamentalists plan to destabilise the Obasanjo regime, Igbuku Otu did not live to tell his story. As Colonel Tony Nyiam told the News earlier in the year, Otu had approached the Director General of the SSS with a story that a fundamentalist camp has been opened just across the borders to train them to destabilise the Obasanjo government. Though Col. Olu Are was said to have been very hospitable, he never acted on the story Otu told Nyiam. Otu tried seeing the president but he was disallowed. Nyiam tried seeing OBJ and even flew into South Korea when the president was visiting the country. He got the audience he sought for but OBJ insisted his NSA, Gusau must join the meeting. "I bluntly refused and walked out." His efforts to get the information to the president through people around the president paid off as Ambassador Okeke, the head of the foreign arm of the SSS, Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) was mandated to investigate the matter. 

In London, Okeke and Otu met two Kurds who briefed them. But as spies are wont to do, Okeke tried establishing contact with the next contacts directly and the trail went cold. The Kurds reportedly warned Otu to be careful as they were not very sure of Okeke's loyalty to the Obasanjo's government. A frustrated Otu returned to Lagos and travelled to Abuja to try establish direct contact with the president. The NSA was said to have disallowed him. Otu returned to Lagos and the following day his throat was slit. Otu had picked the lead that took him to his death from the head of Hez Bothariah, Sheikh Omar Bakri which is based in London. The Hez Bothariah is fully dedicated to the propagation of Sharia and considers systems like Western style democracy as evil. Otu also mentioned some persons, Ishayaku Ibrahim, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf and Bilikisu Yusuf had links to the London based organisation. One source of funds for the Hez Botheriah is Gadaffi of Libya.

Osama bin Laden, the bearded Saudi son of a construction magnate is a product of America's cold war politics. Some sources put his inheritance at over $250 million . He became the toast of the Saudi elite coordinating the Saudi and Americans response to the invassion of Afghanistan. Rather than making more money for himself, he built a wide and varied following with presence in over forty countries. When the Saudi authorities allowed America soldiers on its soil to fight Iraq, he not only became a bitter critic of the rulers but also of America. His brand of Islam is Sunni. Given the antagonistic history of the various sects in Islam it is remarkable how bin Laden builds his cross-sect coalition. He is for instance known to have cooperated with the Shia of sect that rules Iran.

His one abiding hate is crusaders and Jewish interest and every other difference is bridged to serve the greater need to sabotage them. The Americans believe that his al-Quaeda organisation had enjoyed the training facilities of the Hizbollah of Lebanon. The Hizbollah are satellites of Iran.

So many would-be fundamentalists have received training in camps he set up in Sudan as from 1996 and later in Afghanistan. And so his money and tactical support has been made available to fundamentalists as far afield as Chechnya and the embassy bombers of Kenya and Tanzania.

Given that his Saudi citizenship was revoked in 1994 and his accounts frozen, it beats many how bin Laden sustains his vast network. American sources say he has made more money from financial scams, active participation in the opium trade that the Taliban enjoy in Afghanistan and secret donations he gets from rich Muslims around the world. The bin Laden operations are described by a former associate who recanted as a wide but seamless tripartite of military, religious and financial departments.

The Al Shamal Islamic Bank, for instance, has relationship with many respected banks around the world. And US Inteligence community believes that the method the groups has deployed to move money around the world shows a kind of sophistication not common to terrorists groups. And because his operations easily bridges individual ego and ideological differences he has been able to unite the faithful around his fundamentalist goals of driving America out of the Middle-East, establishing a Palestianian State and the establishment of Islamist regimes in place of pro-American regimes. His Afghan veterans teamed up with Egyptian fundamentalist group to assassinate Anwar Sadat and an attempt to bomb the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. He is also known to have cooperated with Gamaa Islamiya whose leader, the cleric Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman has been locked away in an American jail. This same Egyptian group is said to have carried out the killing of 58 tourists in Luxor in 1997. And by 1998 bin Laden had built a coalition, the World Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. It was this group that placed a fatwa on America demanding of all Muslims to "kill the Americans and plunder their money".

Those who blame America for either creating or at least building up bin Laden to the monster he has become today, point to the conduit role he played for getting American and Saudi money, guns, and equipment to the Mujahideen during the Western backed anti-Soviet war to free Afghanistan. He emerged from the war as a hero who demanded no personal returns for his role but the continuation of the war against the enemies of Allah. And this draws lots of water with the large veteran population of Afghanistan and Pakistan and terrorist organisations further afield. The job the Nigerian authorities have taken up is a difficult one. For one, bin Laden's modus operandi ensures that many fundamentalist groups here in Nigeria may have received their training and funding from the pool provided by bin Laden without being able to trace the money to him. Hunting such groups is bound to provoke anti-Islamic feelings among groups in the north. But OBJ has given his word to America and the Americans will demand results not just efforts.

October, 2001