Al-Qaeda bombs give world up call

By Peter Taylor
BBC Panorama reporter

FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME

The bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 10 years ago on 7 August 1998, in which more than 220 people died and 5,000 were injured, were a wake up call for America and the world.

Before then, few had heard of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

When I interviewed Steve Gaudin, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who interrogated the surviving suicide bomber from the Nairobi attack, he told me that it was only during the interview that he heard the words al-Qaeda for the first time.

Certainly the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had heard of Bin Laden and had set up a joint unit with the FBI codenamed "Alec Station" to track Bin Laden and find out as much as possible about him.

The blasts hit embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam

Before the embassy bombings, US intelligence services did not see Bin Laden as the operational head of al-Qaeda. They thought he was simply a Saudi multi-millionaire who was a financier of terrorism.

Alec Station even had a plan to kidnap him and bring him back to the US, but the plan was vetoed by the Clinton administration as it was thought to be too risky and might have violated Bin Laden's human rights.

That concern alone shows how far we have come. There would be no such worries today.

Al-Qaeda hallmarks

The embassy attacks bore the clear imprint of an al-Qaeda operation with which we all later became so chillingly familiar.

They took four years to plan and attacked two targets almost simultaneously - just like 9/11.

Both the attacks in East Africa and on New York and Washington were centrally directed by what the British intelligence agencies call "Core al-Qaeda" and what the Americans call "al-Qaeda Central".

Its organisational structure is now much more amorphous with a variety of semi-independent cells and acolytes stretching around the world if not directed by al-Qaeda then motivated by its philosophy.

Al-Qaeda is a resource for those cells with an ability to provide training and ideological confirmation - as happened with the 7/7 bombers.

Attacks being planned

However this does not preclude further al-Qaeda centrally directed attacks, which some intelligence agencies suspect are currently being gestated.

But the simple fact is that nobody knows. We will only find out if and when they hit us.

Al-Qaeda has changed and adapted in the 10 years since the East African bombings. Although it has suffered major setbacks at all levels as a result of the so-called War on Terror, its leadership has been replenished and has found a new sanctuary in the wild and remote Tribal Areas of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border where Bin Laden himself is believed to be hiding.

US President George W Bush would dearly love the Pakistan's new democratic government to give US special forces the go ahead to go in there and find him, but such a green light is unlikely given Pakistan's sensitivities.

No doubt Mr Bush would relish the capture of killing of Bin Laden to mark the end of his presidency to avenge the attacks that marked the beginning.