HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023377.jpg

In re: TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001., 2012 WL 257568 (2012) The Origins of al-Qaeda As alleged in plaintiffs’ pleadings and confirmed by countless governmental investigations, al-Qaeda has its origins in the jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which served as a rallying point for *25 Islamic extremists in the Middle East.” In 1980, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan to participate in the jihad, and gained prominence for his role in establishing the financial and logistical infrastructure that sustained the mujahedeen fighters. Bin Ladin understood better than most of the volunteers the extent to which the continuation and eventual success of the jihad in Afghanistan depended on an increasingly complex, almost worldwide organization. This organization included a financial support network that came to be known as the “Golden Chain,” put together mainly by financiers in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states. Donations flowed through charities or other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).° Together with Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden founded the Maktab al Khidmat (“Office of Services”) to facilitate the provision of financial and logistic support to the mujahedeen.’ Throughout the Afghan jihad, Maktab al Khidmat worked in concert with a network of purported charities and relief organizations, including the Muslim World League (“‘MWL?”), International Islamic Relief Organization (“IIRO”), Rabita Trust, Al Haramain Islamic Foundation (“Al Haramain’), Muwafaq Foundation *26 (“Muwafaq”), and the Saudi Red Crescent Society, to provide travel documents, funds, transportation, training facilities, arms, physical assets and other support to the mujahedeen.'° Fueled by donations from wealthy supporters in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, this network of ostensible charities established a vast infrastructure to support the mujahedeen opposition to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan." At the conclusion of the Afghan jihad, bin Laden determined that the network that supported the mujahedeen in Afghanistan should not be abandoned, but rather adapted to serve as a foundation for waging a global jihad against all of the perceived enemies of Islam, and in particular, the United States.'!? As the 9-11 Commission explained: *27 April 1988 brought victory for the Afghan jihad. Moscow declared it would pull its military forces out of Afghanistan within the next nine months. As the Soviets began their withdrawal, the jihad’s leaders debated what to do next. Bin Ladin and [Abdullah] Azzam agreed that the organization successfully created for Afghanistan should not be allowed to dissolve. They established what they called a base or foundation (al Qaeda) as a potential general headquarters for future jihad. Once al-Qaeda was established, bin Laden turned its focus towards the United States. This was not done secretly, but rather publicly, in a series of fatwas. “Bin Ladin began delivering diatribes against the United States before he left Saudi Arabia [in 1991]. He continued to do so after he arrived in Sudan. In early 1992, the Al Qaeda leadership issued a jihad against the Western ‘occupation’ of Islamic lands...[s]pecifically singling out U.S. forces for attack.”“ In a 1996 fatwa, tellingly entitled “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places,” bin Laden asserted that “the occupying American enemy is the principle and the main cause of the situation. Therefore efforts should be *28 concentrated on destroying, fighting and killing the enemy until, by the Grace of Allah, it is completely defeated.” In 1998, bin Laden proclaimed to the world: The ruling to kill Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do. These fatwas ensured that those who provided support to al-Qaeda knew and understood that al-Qaeda was directing its conduct at the United States. WESTLAW HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023377