Hamid Mir Interview with Bin Laden

Mr. Hamid Mir, The News International, Jang Group and GEO TV Falsely claim that first Pakistani Journalist was Hamid Mir who interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1997 - Osama bin Laden is history now but Al-Qaeda is still determined to make some new history. US officials have rightly claimed many times that Al Qaeda has become weaker after the death of Osama bin Laden but they cannot deny the fact that bin Ladenism is still a source of inspiration for the militants fighting from Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iraq to Palestine. Dead Osama is as dangerous as living Osama. The Obama administration has foiled at least 8 terrorist plots on the US soil since the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. President Obama can take credit of bin Laden’s death but he is not aware that actually bin Laden got the death of his own choice. It was his old dream not to be captured by enemy but to be killed by enemy and no burial in any grave. Osama bin Laden always prayed to become a martyr like his old friend Shafiq-al Madni. I heard the name of Shafiq from bin Laden first in 1997. I was the first Pakistani journalist to meet Osama bin Laden in March 1997 and I was the last journalist to interview him seven weeks after 9/11. I started writing his biography in 1998 and once I asked him about the people who impressed him a lot and created big impact on his life. Osama said that he was lucky to have brave friends like Shafiq-al Madni who always loved martyrdom. Shafiq from Madina was a very good player of soccer but he joined the Jihad against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden. He remained on the frontline during the battle of Jalalabad in 1989

The question here is that I mentioned that I would go somewhat into the story of Bin Laden, the Saudi in Afghanistan and didn’t do so, could I go into some detail? The point about Bin Laden would be roughly the same as the point between Sheikh Abdul Rahman, who was accused and convicted of encouraging the blowing up of the World Trade Center in New York City. The New Yorker did a long story on him. It’s the same as that of Aimal Kansi, the Pakistani Baluch who was also convicted of the murder of two CIA agents. Let me see if I can be very short on this. Jihad, which has been translated a thousand times as “holy war,” is not quite just that. Jihad is an Arabic word that means, “to struggle.” It could be struggle by violence or struggle by non-violent means. There are two forms, the small jihad and the big jihad. The small jihad involves violence. The big jihad involves the struggles with self. Those are the concepts. The reason I mention it is that in Islamic history, jihad as an international violent phenomenon had disappeared in the last four hundred years, for all practical purposes. It was revived suddenly with American help in the 1980s. When the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan, Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator of Pakistan, which borders on Afghanistan, saw an opportunity and launched a jihad there against godless communism. The U.S. saw a God-sent opportunity to mobilize one billion Muslims against what Reagan called the Evil Empire. Money started pouring in. CIA agents starting going all over the Muslim world recruiting people to fight in the great jihad. Bin Laden was one of the early prize recruits. He was not only an Arab. He was also a Saudi. He was not only a Saudi. He was also a multimillionaire, willing to put his own money into the matter. Bin Laden went around recruiting people for the jihad against communism.