Not only was al-Qaida clueless about how hard the U.S would retaliate after the Sept. 11 attacks, but a former associate of Osama bin Laden tells WTOP al-Qaida was not respected by its peers when it was planning the attacks. "Al-Qaida at that time, for all the people and not just for me, was just a joke," says Noman Benotman, who was leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. "The LIFG, during the war against the Soviet Union until 1992, used to run like five main spots on the frontline." The war was almost over before al-Qaida appeared on the scene in August 1988, Benotman says.
Benotman says not only were al-Qaida's leaders in the dark about America's response to an attack, but "they didn't even understand the meaning of 'jihad.'" He says the group only saw the religious element of jihad and did not prepare a military strategy to go with it.
Benotman did not just become a lightning rod with his harsh criticism when he left the LIFG, he confronted al-Qaida's leaders personally. During a large gathering of jihadist leaders in 2000, he said al-Qaida's ideology was a "total failure." A shocked Ayman al Zawahiri took him aside and tried to persuade him to change his tune. According to Benotman, "He {Zawahiri} said, 'It's a bit harsh, that word {failure} -- and can you use a more soft word or term to describe the outcome?'" Benotman says he told Zawahiri, "Whatever you like, but at the end of the day, strategically it's a total failure. It's still there because you've achieved nothing."
Benotman was able to speak with such guile because he'd earned his stripes in the Soviet-Afghan war. "Every day, 24/7, we engaged with the enemy with anything you would imagine." He says that's something no al-Qaida leader could claim.
Mike Scheuer, former CIA chief of the Osama Bin Laden unit, doesn't believe Benotman's statements are his own. "I think Benotman is probably in the employ of the Libyan government. I think he's a free man because he's agreed to speak out against the people he used to be associated with."
During his 20-year association with jihadist militants, some of whom were terrorists, Benotman's group fought against the government of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi seeking to convert Libya into an Islamic state. Scheuer, suggesting that Qaddafi would retaliate if Benotman stopped bashing bin Laden, says Benotman is a free man because "he's agreed to speak out against the people he used to be associated with, which makes Qaddafi look like he's against terrorism."
During the 1980s Qaddafi's intelligence operatives proved formidable to those who challenged him. Fred Burton, a former State Department counterterrorism agent who spent years investigating Qaddafi-sanctioned terror attacks on Americans, says Qaddafi's agents were "cunning and brutal." Burton investigated the terror attacks on Americans in the 1980s in Sanaa, Yemen; in Khartoum, Sudan; and the Pan AM 103 bombing.
"The Libyan intelligence service used the diplomatic pouch to ship weapons, identify documents and explosives in support of operations. They also used Libyan diplomatic missions as safe houses for terrorists. The Libyan government used the power of a nation-state in support of terrorism because they knew that doing so could tactically and operationally be overwhelming for counterterrorism authorities," Burton says.
In the late 1990s, Qaddafi made an about-face to escape crippling sanctions on Libya, according to United Nations documentation. However, Scheuer believes Qaddafi is still a threat to Benotman. But a former CIA officer, who was active in the fight against al-Qaida and who requested anonymity, says Benotman is not making it up and says he's "the real McCoy."
"I've heard from other Muslim fundamentalists as well, who say al-Qaida was not taken seriously at the time, because they were not the real heroes in Afghanistan. It was those Muslims from around the world who went to Afghanistan on their own and fought and later disbanded or declined to pledge allegiance to Bin Laden," the officer says. "In Afghanistan, bin Laden really was a joke," the officer adds.