How real is al-Qaeda?
There is much misunderstanding regarding the true nature and background of al-Qaeda. In fact, prior to September 11, many people had never even heard of al-Qaeda. Eric Margolis, a well-informed foreign correspondent, had the following to say about Bin Laden and al-Qaeda: “Osama Bin Laden has become the modern version, the evil twin, of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy’s rescuer of French aristocrats from the guillotine. Lately, not a bomb explodes without it being blamed on Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization. In recent weeks, Washington has accused al-Qaeda of an attack on a French tanker, the killing of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait and the frightful bombing of a Bali discotheque.” “Given these alarms,” he continues, “one would imagine al-Qaeda to be a vast, octopoid organization whose tentacles span five continents. But this view, heavily promoted by the Bush administration and the U.S. media, is as wrong as George Bush’s claim that terrorists are ‘on the run.'” Speaking about the real
