Did George Bush Blink On Osama Bin Laden's Demand ?
Washington announced this week it intends to withdraw its military bases from Saudi Arabia.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the withdrawal of all combat forces from Saudi Arabia, ending a secretive 12-year arrangement that began with the 1991 Gulf War.
The end of the Gulf, however, had provided the circumstances for Washington to fulfill one of Bin Laden's demands upon which he led his terrorist attacks on US.
Since the 1991 Gulf War, Bin Laden spooked America with terrorism, aided by his followers and the Al-Qaeda movement that culminated with 9/11.
One of Bin Laden's key demands was the removal of foreign forces in Saudi Arabia, the land that Bin Laden says is sacred to Islam.He vowed since then to "eject the crusader forces" from Islam's holiest sites.
Bin Laden told his followers and the world:
"The latest and greatest of these aggressions....is the occupation of the land of the two Holy Places - the foundation of the House of Islam, the place of the revelation, the source of the message and the place of the noble Ka'ba, the Qiblah of Muslims, by the armies of the American Crusaders and their allies. We bemoan this and can only say 'No power and power acquiring except through Allah'."
He made the same call to remove foreign forces out of Saudi Arabia in "Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders"
Osama bin Laden offered his band of armed jihad fighters to the Saudi regime to help expel the Iraqis from Kuwait. The Saudi rulers spunned his offer, instead took Washington's offer and allowed foreign troops to be located in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to establish his base in Sudan and later in 1996 to Afghanistan
By which time, Bin Laden's popularity and influence had reached Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, the Philippines and beyond.
According to US sources, under the withdrawal arrangement, some of the 13,000 U.S. military personnel will return to the United States while other components will be transferred to U.S. bases elsewhere in the Persian Gulf, including the huge new al-Udeid air base at nearby Qatar. Some U.S. forces will remain to train Saudi personnel.
Saud Defence Minister, Prince Sultan welcomed the U.S. withdrawal. He said, the end of the Iraq war means " there is no need for (U.S. forces) to remain.... This does not mean that we requested them to remove their forces from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but they saw that their mission was over so they would leave."
Saudi officials have been uneasy about the presence of U.S. troops in their country since the 1991 war with Iraq, as shown by their attempts to stifle news that American commanders were running the Iraq air war from the Prince Sultan base.
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