Charles R. Smith
Friday, Sept. 28, 2001

Yet evidence uncovered from the paper trail created by bin Laden's organization does not support the holy warrior image. Bin Laden's attack on America is the greatest crime in history. It cannot be compared to Pearl Harbor because Osama bin Laden is more like Goldfinger than Imperial Admiral Isoruko Yamamoto.

Bin Laden did not attack America in the name of religion, politics or Palestine. It was all done for money. The attack on the United States generated vast sums of cash for the megacriminal through his manipulation of the global stock and investment markets.

In a single stroke, bin Laden engineered the greatest mass murder in history and made millions of dollars in the process. Bin Laden's effort took years of planning and execution. The trail of cash has led investigators on a global paper chase to track the money back to bin Laden. The trail has also led investigators to look hard at Sudan.

Focus on Sudan

Sudan clearly gave bin Laden safe haven. In fact, Sudan gave lucrative contracts to bin Laden's front companies. Bin Laden was able to set up business in Sudan. Of course, the business of terror requires weapons and training. The Sudanese not only helped to finance the criminal mastermind but also offered him an opportunity to set up military bases inside Sudan.

Bin Laden created banks and construction companies, and invested in local agricultural firms. One corporate shell identified in Sudan also served as a parent company, acting as a holding tank to accumulate funds from legitimate businesses and pass it on to bin Laden.

The network reportedly included Taba Investment, a currency trading firm, and Ladin International Company, an import/export business. One spin ff from Taba was also established in Kenya, where it traded on the gem market.

Many of bin Laden's investments in Sudan provide cash to his terror cells and kickbacks to the corrupt government in Khartoum to finance its civil war. For example, most U.S. soft drinks contain arabic, a chemical that prevents particles from forming inside the container. The Gum Arabic Company produces most of the world's arabic in Sudan, and is a firm reportedly part owned by Osama bin Laden.

The corrupt government in Khartoum also profited from the terror relationship. Bin Laden was able to build several military training bases inside Sudan. Sudan also used bin Laden's construction firms to build military airfields for its brutal and genocidal oil war. In fact, bin Laden trained soldiers from all over the world in the finer arts of terror at his elite camps erected inside Sudan.

According to an April 2001 report from the U.S. State Dept., "[In 2000) Sudan continued to be used as a safe haven by members of various groups, including associates of Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Islamic Jihad and Hammas. Most groups used Sudan primarily as a secure base for assisting compatriots elsewhere."

Yet Sudan has provided more than a safe haven to bin Laden. According to court records, the Sudanese government was directly named in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Of the 10 people convicted for the attack, four were reportedly Sudanese nationals. Two Sudanese embassy officials were implicated in the attack; one was expelled and the other escaped.

In addition, the court records on the terrorist attacks against the 1998 U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania detail the direct financial links between bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist groups and the Sudanese government.

What is bin Laden planning to do with his new money? Clearly, Sudan gave bin Laden the pick of any weapon he could buy. Sudan has Scud missiles, helicopter gun ships and MiG jet fighters.

The worrisome connection to Sudan is China. China backs the Khartoum government and provides much of its military equipment. China recently supplied Sudan with super-sonic jet fighters and shoulder fired surface to air missiles. China also trains the Sudanese air force pilots.

Chemical Weapons

Bin Laden reportedly wants a weapon of mass destruction. While all eyes are on Afghanistan, of greater concern is the fact that Sudan was the last known location of bin Laden's "Manhattan" project, an effort to create nerve gas. The chemical weapon information led to the ill-fated 1998 Tomahawk cruise missile strike that destroyed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.

If there is any one nation that has been used by Osama bin Laden as his home base, it is Sudan. Sudan helped finance, train, equip, arm and field the terrorists. The Sudanese banks, bases, factories, camps and weapons are all real.

The effort to find Osama bin Laden may end in Sudan. The last known location of the mega-terrorist crime boss was Sudan but the war to fight terrorism will not end with Osama bin Laden's capture or death. The organizations he helped build and the corrupt governments that he created must be eliminated as well.

It is wrong to think that the art of war is just for killing people. It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil. It is a strategy to give life to many by killing the evil of one.

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War on Terrorism