What Peter Arnett requested Osama bin Laden

[ad_1] It was a bitterly chilly evening in March 1997 in a mud hut excessive within the mountains of jap Afghanistan and we had been surrounded by well-armed al-Qaeda fighters.

Peter Arnett requested their chief a easy query: “What are your future plans?”

Osama bin Laden replied, “You’ll see them and listen to about them within the media, God prepared,”

It was bin Laden’s first TV interview, and he and his crew had chosen Arnett and CNN to conduct it, an interview I produced.

Within the following yr, bin Laden made good on his chilling risk with al-Qaeda’s near-simultaneous <a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Fworld%2Fafrica%2Fafrica-embassy-bombings-fast-facts&data=05%7C02%7CThomas.Lumley%40cnn.com%7C253447376f474c354c4008de3e7ce0b4%7C0eb48825e8714459bc72d0ecd68f1f39%7C0%7C0%7C639016903222881698%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xeTyqZTfFE1DpG7OaQoCGNj1KWFK6hN2T86aFM2wbYc%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">attacks on two US embassies in Africa that killed greater than 200 individuals. In 2000, his males <a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Fworld%2Fuss-cole-bombing-fast-facts&data=05%7C02%7CThomas.Lumley%40cnn.com%7C253447376f474c354c4008de3e7ce0b4%7C0eb48825e8714459bc72d0ecd68f1f39%7C0%7C0%7C639016903222901840%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=759fXObG4dYjnoRwAho666VTOsv43EyhMp9kX4Tigvs%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">bombed the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 American sailors. Then, after all, there have been the 9/11 assaults which killed virtually 3,000 individuals and resulted in a “International Battle on Terror.”

I first acquired to know Arnett, who died on Wednesday, in 1993. He was then one of many world’s most well-known individuals and positively its most well-known international correspondent. It was solely two years after the primary Gulf Battle and Arnett’s courageous determination to stay in Baghdad after different Western reporters left, whereas American bombs had been raining down on Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, reworked CNN’s standing amongst viewers all over the world. And it turned Arnett into a worldwide celeb.

You usually heard Arnett earlier than you noticed him coming; a stocky man with a booming New Zealand-accented voice that might reduce thorough glass. And you then noticed the person himself: Bigger than life doesn't do him justice; Arnett was a newsman’s newsman, stuffed with tales of derring-do in Vietnam and lots of different wars across the globe.

I used to be thirty once I first met Arnett and I’d by no means been to a battle zone. And shortly , we had been flying into Afghanistan in the course of the civil battle there. Kabul, the capital , was in ruins resembling Dresden after World Battle II; numerous warlords had been preventing block to dam. Baby troopers had been a typical sight. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Afghan prime minister, had the excellence of seemingly being the one prime minister in historical past to shell his personal capital each day.

Arnett interviewed all the foremost gamers within the civil battle for CNN together with Hekmatyar, Hekmatyar’s fundamental opponent Ahmad Shah Massoud — who can be assassinated by al-Qaeda two days earlier than 9/11 — and Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani who was killed by the Taliban in 2011.

In the course of the Afghan civil battle, shells had been dropping continuously on Kabul and numerous ethnic and sectarian militias had been battling one another in steady firefights, but Arnett appeared fully content material. He needed to be the place the motion was and Afghanistan in 1993 had motion aplenty.

One piece of recommendation Arnett gave me then has stayed with me: “By no means do something for enjoyable in a battle zone,” which struck me as smart counsel.

We had been in Afghanistan as a result of we had been monitoring the bombers of World Commerce Middle in 1993, a gaggle of males – a few of whom had fought in Afghanistan in opposition to the Soviets within the Eighties or had supported that effort – who had parked a van full of explosives within the basement aiming to carry down the Twin Towers. They failed to take action however six individuals had been killed.

In 1997, I spent weeks negotiating with a gaggle of bin Laden associates residing in London to try to safe an interview with the al-Qaeda chief. We believed that bin Laden may need had a job within the 1993 Commerce Middle bombing. (We didn’t understand it then, however Ramzi Yousef who masterminded the 1993 bombing, was the nephew of Khalid Shiekh Mohammed, al-Qaeda’s operational commander of the 9/11 assaults.)

Different networks had been additionally pursuing an interview, together with the BBC, and CBS “60 Minutes”. I imagine that Arnett’s repute for equity in protecting the Gulf Battle was essential in CNN securing the interview.

Again on the Afghan mountaintop, Arnett requested bin Laden why he was declaring a jihad, holy battle, in opposition to america.

Bin Laden gave an extended reply critiquing American assist for Israel and US allies within the Center East akin to Saudi Arabia.

This reply undercut President George W. Bush’s frequent later claims after 9/11 that america was attacked due to its “freedoms.”

In his CNN interview 4 years earlier than 9/11, bin Laden mentioned his rationale for jihad in opposition to america was American international coverage within the Center East.

It was a privilege to spend many weeks in Afghanistan with Arnett in 1993 after which once more 4 yr later producing the primary TV interview with bin Laden.

Arnett was a person who worry appeared to haven't any maintain over. And I’ve by no means achieved something for enjoyable in an energetic battle zone since.