Osama's Bodyguard Speaks

Should we take Abu Jandan seriously? He claims to be Osama's former bodyguard, and is currently living in Yemen.

I think we'd be remiss if we didn't.

Abu Jandal remembers seeing Mohamed Atta in Afghanistan. But he was surprised when he learned that Atta was the leader on 9/11. Atta, Abu Jandal thought, was too inexperienced for such a big job.

"What’s your reaction when you see pictures on 9/11, when you see the video of the Twin Towers and the people falling out of the windows and people dying and shouting out in pain?" Simon asks Abu Jandal.

"I compare it to the images from the bombing of a shelter in Baghdad, to the killings of Muslims in Iraq by air strikes," he replies. "It reminds me of the pictures of those missiles fired on the Iraqi people with 'Happy Ramadan' written on them."

Abu Jandal says he admires American civilization, but will fight America until it gets out of the Middle East. He was released from prison in 2002. The Yemeni government made a deal with him: don't plot against Yemen, don’t try to leave the country and we'll leave you alone.

Why did he talk to 60 Minutes? Because he can. He's proud of what al Qaeda has done and, in Yemen, is out of America's reach.

Jandal doesn't care about killing civilians one bit. He also doesn't seem to mind the fact that Iraq wasn't even envisioned by the US until after the 9/11 terrorist attacks planned and perpetrated by Jandal's cohorts in al Qaeda woke the US up to the threat posed by Islamic terrorists and their state sponsors, including Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has been attacking US interests for years, and the US didn't respond with force and vigor until after the 9/11 terror attacks.

But that's not all. We get an appearance from Michael Scheuer who once again shows that he's all too enthralled with Islam - especially when he quips that he wonders whether God is on al Qaeda's side when the US just missed Osama and his minions in a cruise missile strike:

Abu Jandal says America’s best chances to kill bin Laden came and went before 9/11. Paramount among them, August 1998, right after bin Laden bombed two U.S. embassies in East Africa. The al Qaeda leaders knew the Americans would retaliate, so they left their compound at Tarnak Farms and drove north.

"There was a fork in the road. One road leading to Khost and training camps, and another one leading to Kabul," Abu Jandal recalls. "I was with Sheikh Osama in the same vehicle with three guards, so he turned to us and said, 'What do you think? Khost or Kabul?' We told him, 'Let’s just visit Kabul.' So Sheikh Osama said, 'OK, Kabul.' "

Kabul it was. The next evening, 75 American cruise missiles slammed into the training camp near Khost, the road not taken. The CIA had intelligence that bin Laden was going to be at the training camp that night.

"Kinda makes you wonder whose side God's on, doesn't it?" Scheuer says.

It makes you wonder about Scheuer too.

And yet Scheuer believes that Jandal should be apprehended and detained indefinitely given what he knows and who he has associated with. Scheuer also admits that the US had the best opportunity to catch Osama in 1998 and 1999, well before the 9/11 attacks.

So what about the possibility of future attacks? Jandal says the following:

Simon asked Abu Jandal for his take on bin Laden's last audiotaped message. In January, bin Laden offered the Americans a truce. If Washington doesn't take him up on it, he said, there will be consequences.

"He made a similar proposal to the Europeans. He warned them and gave them six months," Abu Jandal says. "When there was no response, he started with the Madrid bombing, then London. So I believe Osama bin Laden is planning a new attack inside the United States. This is certain."

Asked if he is sure Osama is preparing a new attack, Abu Jandal said, "When Sheikh Osama promises something, he does it."

This jibes with what many observers recognize as being a da'wa - not a truce. Either Bush accepted Osama's terms, or Osama would wage war and kill as many Americans as possible using all the means at his disposal. In other words, Osama and his minions will be limited only by their ingenuity and capabilities. I'd definitely honor this threat.