Bin Laden, serving U.S. interests?
Courtesy Tom Fox's Paris blog, a fascinating interview in a Lebanese paper with French scholar Gilles Kepel, who says that bin Laden's effort to rally the Muslim masses against America has not only failed but backfired: "Kepel sharply criticized bin Laden, saying everything he did ultimately served US interests, whether during the Afghan war when he was America's 'puppet' or after Sept. 11 when he was on Washington's hit list. But Kepel said bin Laden may have won some popular Arab sentiment.
.. 'I toured here and Syria, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates between October and December 2001,' he said, adding he could measure the enthusiasm among youth, particularly young women, for bin Laden, who has become a type of Robin Hood or Che Guevara. Bin Laden's videos, broadcast on television and featuring his vows to destroy America, have fascinated many Arabs. Kepel, however, described them as 'only rhetoric, a symbol of (Arab) political impotence.' "
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