Hah, you spoke too soon! From today' New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/international/asia/17DOCU.html
"The oath, found in a house in Kabul used by a Pakistani Islamist group, was part of an extensive paper record that fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters left behind last fall at sites across Afghanistan. Reporters for The New York Times collected over 5,000 pages of documents from abandoned safe houses and training camps destroyed by bombs.
It is a rare collection, the raw, unmediated stuff of the jihadis' lives. Individually, the documents are shards — as mundane as a grocery list and as chilling as notes for the proper positioning of a truck bomb. But taken together, they tell a rich inside story of the network of radical Islamic groups that Osama bin Laden helped assemble in Afghanistan. "
And, lest you think it's mere propaganda:
"The documents show that the training camps, which the Bush administration has described as factories churning out terrorists, were instead focused largely on creating an army to support the Taliban, which was waging a long ground war against the Northern Alliance.
An estimated 20,000 recruits passed through roughly a dozen training camps since 1996, when Mr. bin Laden established his base of operations in Afghanistan, American officials say. Most received basic infantry training that covered the use of various small arms, as well as antiarmor and antiaircraft weapons and, in some cases, basic demolition, the documents show.
"The vast majority of them were cannon fodder," a United States government official said.
A smaller group of recruits was selected for elite training that appeared to prepare them for terrorist actions abroad. "Observing foreign embassies and facilities," was the subject of one Qaeda espionage course. Another taught "shooting the personality and his guard from a motorcycle."
Above all, the documents show how far Mr. bin Laden progressed in realizing his central vision: joining Muslim militants, energized by local causes, into a global army aimed at the West. From the mid- 1990's on, recruits came to Afghanistan from more than 20 countries, as varied as Iraq and Malaysia, Somalia and Britain."
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"The abandoned houses and camps were strewn with inspirational pamphlets, books, videos and CD's, all sounding the call to arms. Central to their message was the re-establishment of the Caliphate, the era of Islam's ascendancy after the death of Muhammad in the eighth century."
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"There was a publication for every count in Mr. bin Laden's indictment of the West.
The cover of a magazine called The Window shows a woman weeping as a cobra bearing the Star of David looms over Muslim protesters at the Dome of the Rock, the holy Islamic site in Jerusalem. A pamphlet with an American soldier superimposed over the holy city of Mecca urges readers, "Fight until there is no discord and all of religion is for God." A yellow paperback book, "Announcement of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Holy Places," shows a map of Saudi Arabia encircled by American, French and British flags. Its author was "Sheik Osama bin Laden."
Diverse Muslim groups joined Mr. bin Laden's global jihad. Sometimes, they also came seeking help in pressing their own causes back home.
In a Qaeda house in Kabul, there was a public statement from the "Islamic Battalion, Kurdistan, Iraq," dated Nov. 20, 1999, calling on "the movement for Islamic unity" to help in the jihad against President Saddam Hussein. There was also a handwritten letter to Mr. bin Laden from an unidentified Russian who said his group needed training for two attacks in Russia."
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"Documents from Rishkhor — where Afghans, Pakistanis and Arabs trained — along with records, notebooks and manuals found elsewhere in Afghanistan, show that recruits received the kind of regimented, demanding basic training that infantry soldiers get in much of the world, but with steady infusions of Islamic fervor. This is reflected in the "Rules for the Day" found at a Harkat house. It declares: "Follow all Islamic principles. "Pray five times a day. "Punctual for food. "No ammunition training without the permission of the teacher. "Cleanliness. "Clean beds and tents once a week. "Clean the environment. "Do not leave compound. "No political discussions. "No arguments. "No drugs. "Go to bed early." ------------------------- Sounds sorta fascistic. I'll take the U.S. Constitution and the separation of church and state, thank you very much.
Peter