BEWARE A BIN LADEN BACKLASH
BRACED AFTER CHIEF’S DEATH
the SEAL’s raid and survived. Before being deported back to Saudi Arabia this female extremist lied to Pakistani intelligence officers that she did not know where Hamza was.
She knew she would never see him again and is under virtual house arrest in Jedda with other bin Laden family members deported from Pakistan.
Khairiah had been a steadfast supporter of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
Throughout the austere years living in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, she never complained about the lack of money and comfort, despite knowing he had once had access to billions.
Shortly after the SEAL’s mission to kill bin Laden, letters from the al-Qaeda leader revealed a burning wish for Hamza to be educated as a religious scholar in Qatar before taking over the network.
Perhaps he was smuggled to the Middle East. There are even rumours he fought with al-Qaeda in Syria.
But worryingly, when Hamza was about 19, he published a poem on an extremist website which said: “Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark.”
The western security source told the Sunday Mirror: “Europeans are far more cautious about celebrating. Hamza’s apparent enthusiasm for jihad did not die with him.
“There is a strong will still out there for another 9/11 so the bin Laden nightmare is far from over – even though it is likely the found e r ’ s only possible terrorist heir has been killed.”
But bin Laden’s legacy is more complicated than we in the west might realise.
British Former Army intelligence Colonel Philip Ingram MBE explained that al-Qaeda sees the world and its future in terms of generations of leaders, not fixed term democratic political figures or presidents, which dominate the western view.
He added: “Al-Qaeda is still very relevant and is clearly waiting for another opportunity to launch a big spectacular with impact, like a 9/11.
“But it can wait for generations before striking again.
“It is sitting in the background.
“It has a different ideology to Islamic State and it has watched its rise and fall with interest.
“IS was all about the caliphate and al-Qaeda about the cause, attracting people to it, building up a jihad and then building the caliphate later.
“But being prepared to wait.” Of concern is the possibility that Hamza and perhaps his blood mother spent many years after 9/11 hiding in Tehran, Iran. There the country’s predominant Shia faith is often at violent odds with their Sunni beliefs.
It is possible Tehran protected him out of the mischievous belief that the enemy of their enemy is their friend.
And even though he is dead, intelligence officers are still keen to discover the details of his time in Iran.
For like most dynasties the bin Laden legacy appears never to end. Nor may his extremist ambitions.
In Iran, Hamza wed the daughter of high ranking al-Qaeda military chief Abu Mohammed al Masri, linked to the 1998 American embassy bombings in Africa which killed 200.
She gave him a daughter...and a son.
COLONEL PHILIP INGRAM EX-ARMY INTELLIGENCE BOSS