Delanceyplace.com 7/29/08-Bin Laden and Reagan

In today's excerpt--in 1984, before his activities became overtly militant, Osama bin Laden was actively engaged in charitable work in support of the Afghani resistance against the Soviet occupation. In this excerpt, his half-brother Salem visits him at his Pakistani base:

"Osama visited Pakistan regularly from his home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but he had not settled down on the war front; he was a philanthropic commuter, encouraged by his religious teachers to fund charities and Arab volunteers who had just begun to arrive to join the fighting. ...

"[When his brother Salem arrived to visit], Osama led him on a tour of the charitable and humanitarian work that he was supporting in the Peshawar region to help the Afghans. They visited refugee camps where Afghan civilians and fighters displaced by Soviet bombing lived in primitive tents or shelters. They visited a hospital 'with people with amputated limbs,' and [were] amazed to hear tales of terrible atrocities carried out by the Soviets and how, nonetheless, the wounded rebels 'wanted to go back and fight for Afghanistan.' They visited an orphanage where the children lived in 'small blocks ... concrete blocks, and they were sleeping on the floor.' The children gathered together and sang songs for Osama's visitors. Salem recorded these scenes with a personal video camera, a large and awkward handheld device that he had brought with him. He appeared to be making a home movie to publicize Osama's work and to raise funds. ...

"The United States and Saudi Arabia each had already channeled several hundred million dollars in cash and weapons to the Afghan rebels since the Soviet invasion in 1979. It seems probable that when Salem reached Washington that winter [to assist with King Fahd's U.S. visit], he would have passed to King Fahd, if not directly to the White House, the video evidence he had just gathered documenting Osama's humanitarian work on the Afghan frontier. As he welcomed Fahd to the White House, [President Ronald] Reagan took pains to acknowledge Saudi Arabia's particular efforts to support Afghan refugees on the Pakistani frontier: 'Their many humanitarian contributions touch us deeply,' Reagan said. 'Saudi aid to refugees uprooted from their homes in Afghanistan has not gone unnoticed here, Your Majesty.'

"That February of 1985, in Pakistan, the leading Saudi provider of such assistance was Salem's half-brother, Osama. Reagan's language suggested that he had been given at least a general briefing about Osama's work. 'We all worship the same God,' Reagan said. 'The people of Afghanistan, with their blood, courage, and faith, are an inspiration to the cause of freedom everywhere.' "

Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens, Penguin, Copyright 2008 by Steve Coll, pp. 8, 12.