The new jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism

Abstract

On 26 February 1993 a massive bomb hit New York's World Trade Center, creating more hospital casualties than any event in American history since Civil War. Ramzi Yousef, young British-educated terrorist who masterminded attack, had been seeking to topple twin towers and cause tens of thousands of fatalities. An intensive FBI investigation into crime quickly developed into a man-hunt that took top FBI agents across globe. But even with FBI on his trail, Yousef continued with his campaign of terror. He bombed airplane and Iranian shrine. He tried to kill Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister, and planned to assassinate Pope, President Clinton and simultaneously destroy 11 airliners over Pacific Ocean using tiny undetectable bombs. He also plotted attack on CIA headquarters with a plane loaded with chemical weapons. His pursuers dubbed Yousef an evil genius. During their investigation, FBI agents discovered that Yousef was funded and sent on some of his attacks by Osama bin Laden, a mysterious Saudi millionaire. By mid-1990s they realized bin Laden had become most influential sponsor of terrorism in world, and agents now conclude that since early 1990s a small group of terrorists supported by bin Laden have dominated international terrorism. These Afghan Arabs helped defeat Soviets in Afghanistan before killing thousands of people in campaigns against governments in West, Africa, Middle East and Asia. When bin Laden's followers attacked American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on 7 August 1998, killing 224 people, U.S. finally launched cruise missile strikes in attempt to destroy his secret organization. Drawing on unpublished reports, interrogation files, interviews with senior FBI agents who hunted Yousef, intelligence sources and government figures including Benazir Bhutto, Simon Reeve gives a harrowing account of Yousef's bombings, offers a revealing insight into his background, and details FBI's man-hunt to catch him. Reeve explains how Yousef was one of bin Laden's first operatives and documents bin Laden's life and emergence as leader of a potent terrorist organization, giving fascinating insights into man President Clinton has called the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in world today. Highly detailed and yet immensely readable, The New Jackals sheds new light on two of world's most notorious terrorists. Reeve warns that Yousef and bin Laden are just first of a new breed of terrorist, men with no restrictions on mass killing. Reeve also offers evidence that bin Laden's organization may already have chemical and nuclear weapons and explains why world could soon face attacks by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.