DUBAI: It took us about three hours to reach Kandahar. Caught up in my thoughts, I barely spoke with my travel companion Othman, the man assigned by Osama bin Laden — who would soon become the world's most infamous and wanted terorist — to handle logistics for my interview with him in June 2001.
It was dark when we entered the city. Our transport turned from the main road into a maze of semi-paved streets, then on to sand. Most of the houses in the area were built of mud and their condition spoke volumes about their owners’ financial circumstances.
Stopping overnight at a house in Kandahar, I struggled to sleep under the stress of the situation and the scorching heat of the city.
Around 6 a.m., Othman woke me up. It felt as if I had slept less than an hour. Another man entered the room. I did not recognize him at first, but when he introduced himself as Abu Hafs, I knew the name. This was Mohammed Atif, aka Abu Hafs, the military leader of Al-Qaeda.
He joined me and Othman for breakfast: Naan bread, butter, jam and eggs. While we ate, he said they now had enough trained fighters to fight the “coming battle” and were in full mobility mode. In any emergency, he explained, they could evacuate their bases and move to other battle-ready locations within half an hour. After 9/11, I remembered what Abu Hafs had said and how the Tora Bora caves were prepared to shelter Al-Qaeda’s leadership and soldiers.
We resumed our journey after breakfast. I could feel the terrain change from cracked road to rigid and wild track, over which the old rust-bucket bus bounced and juddered most of the way to our destination.
After three hours we stopped at a residence renovated in the form of a fortified compound, with unscaleable boundary walls and a massive gate. This was perhaps the lion’s den. I could see a small contingent of men inside. The compound was like the fortress of an “underground world.” There were enough weapons and ammunition to bring an entire city under siege. After a thorough security inspection and body pat down, I was pointed toward one of the rooms, and men turned monsters stared back as I made my way inside.
Dressed in a white-smoke colored traditional Arabic thobe, and with a typical bright white Middle Eastern turban on his head, a commanding personality stood in the center of the room waiting to greet me along with his trusted companion — a variant of the famous Russian AK-47. This was Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, a declared terrorist with a $5 million bounty on his head even then. Next to him was Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the second most-wanted terrorist in the world, who now leads the remnants of Al-Qaeda.
As I stepped farther into the room, Bin Laden moved forward and hugged me in the customary Afghan greeting style. The others followed suit. I was being hugged by the most notorious personality on the planet, surrounded by all his men, declared by the world as “terrorists with evil plans.” The thought of a laser-guided missile striking the compound and annihilating us all at any moment loomed large in my mind.
As we sat down on a cotton mattress on the floor, Bin Laden said: “The plan has changed, I will only give reserved comments.” He said he was restrained by an understanding with the Taliban not to talk to the media. Of course, I had no idea that the twisted statements he gave me later would materialize in the catastrophic attacks on the Twin Towers, which killed over 3,000 innocent people.
Bin Laden had been openly criticized by his followers and the leadership of Al-Qaeda for backtracking on his commitments. His promise to the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, that he would refrain from media statements and meeting journalists, was broken. But his pledge not to use Afghan soil as a base for attacks on any foreign country was the most vital of Bin Laden’s broken accords with the Taliban, a deceit that cost his hosts their fiefdom and led to a war with consequences that have been unfolding since 2001.
I asked him what news he wanted to give me. He repeated that the news was about some future attacks. Abu Hafs intervened, and said: “In the coming weeks, there will be a big surprise; we are going to hit American and Israeli installations.” Chillingly, he added: “The coffin business will increase in the United States.”
I looked at Bin Laden and asked if he was serious, seeking confirmation. He smiled at me and nodded in agreement. Bin Laden had few words, but Al-Zawahiri was anxious to talk. He said they would strike the head of the snake first, meaning the US, and confirmed that the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad had merged with Al-Qaeda in April of that year.
Tea was served, then Bin Laden’s personal photographer was ready to snap a few shots, and to film the three of us as I sat on the right of Al-Zawahiri with Bin Laden on his left.
Bin Laden shook hands with me and said he would be inviting me again after the success of their objective. His parting words to me were: “If something big happens, I will be hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan. That’s where you can come again to interview me.” He left the room, followed by Al-Zawahiri and Abu Hafs.
By “something big,” of course, he meant the 9/11 attacks. It felt odd to hear Bin Laden say this, since a fugitive of his stature, the most wanted man in the world, would surely not disclose his whereabouts or divulge operational secrets. To me, it felt misleading. Later, Abdullah, Bin Laden’s son, wrote that his father actually planned to settle in Kunar province in northeast Afghanistan, but when US forces took control of the province he moved to Peshawar city in Pakistan, then Haripur, before settling in Abbottabad, where he was eventually found and killed.
After the meeting, I was taken back to the same house in Kandahar where I had spent the previous night. I was anxious to get back to civilization and break this news to the world.
After crossing the border to Pakistan, I sat in the departure lounge in Quetta waiting for my flight to Islamabad, deep in thought, wondering about the dilemma I faced. Should I report the truth, the news, however bad? Or would I be projecting violence and terror?
In the end, the truth won, as it should. My story was broadcast on MBC on June 23, 2001. In my concluding remarks, I said the coming days would reveal who would attack first, and how big this attack would be. As we all now know, it was huge, catastrophic and terrifying, and it shook the world, but the ripple effect brought much chaos and disaster back to where it was planned. Southeast Asia in general, and Afghanistan in particular, still yearn for peace and stability 16 years on.
In November 2001, my phone rang again. It was Othman. “The person” was ready to meet me as promised, he said. “Will you?”
Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 terror hints ‘the coffin business will boom’
Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 terror hints ‘the coffin business will boom’
G7 agrees to exempt US multinationals from global minimum tax
- The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home
OTTAWA: The Group of Seven nations said Saturday they have agreed to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries — a win for President Donald Trump’s government, which pushed hard for the compromise.
The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home, on both domestic and foreign profits, the G7 said in a statement released by Canada, which holds the group’s rotating presidency.
The agreement was reached in part due to “recently proposed changes to the US international tax system” included in Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which is still being debated in Congress, the statement said.
The side-by-side system could “provide greater stability and certainty in the international tax system moving forward,” it added.
Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That agreement, deeply criticized by Trump, includes two “pillars,” the second of which sets a minimum global tax rate of 15 percent.
The OECD must ultimately decide to exempt the US companies from that tax — or not.
The G7 said it looked forward to “expeditiously reaching a solution that is acceptable and implementable to all.”
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had signaled that a “joint understanding among G7 countries that defends American interests” was in the works.
He also asked US lawmakers to “to remove the Section 899 protective measure from consideration in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill” — Trump’s policy mega-bill.
Section 899 has been dubbed a “revenge tax,” allowing the government to impose levies on firms with foreign owners and on investors from countries deemed to impose unfair taxes on US businesses.
The clause sparked concern that it would inhibit foreign companies from investing in the United States.
Tens of thousands rally in Serbia’s capital to back up their demand for an early vote
- The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students
- The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square
BELGRADE: Tens of thousands of opponents of Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, rallied on Saturday in Belgrade, backing up a demand for an early parliamentary election and declaring the government “illegitimate.”
The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.
Tensions were high before and during the gathering. Riot police deployed around government buildings and close to a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade.
“Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,” said one of the students, who didn’t give her name while giving a speech on a stage to the crowd. “Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.”
At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to “take freedom into your own hands.”
University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.
Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
“We are here today because we cannot take it any more,” Darko Kovacevic said. “This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.”
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify.
Vucic’s authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia’s striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations.
While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday’s anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests.
Serbian police, which is firmly controlled by Vucic’s government, said that 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday.
Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.
In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally on Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.” They were joining a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.
In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists.
“People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” Vucic told reporters on Saturday.
Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.
Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro.
Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.
Authorities made similar moves back in March, before what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Vucic’s loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters — an accusation officials have denied.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
Senior official says Home Office staff alarmed by ‘absurd’ Palestine Action ban
- A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department
LONDON: A senior British civil servant has described a “tense atmosphere” inside the Home Office department following Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s recent announcement that the protest group Palestine Action is to be banned under anti-terror laws, it was reported on Saturday.
Cooper on Monday confirmed plans to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act, a move that would make membership or support a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It would mark the first time a non-violent protest movement is classified alongside banned terrorist organizations such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda and some far-right groups.
A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department, The Guardian newspaper reported.
“My colleagues and I were shocked by the announcement,” they said.
“All week, the office has been a very tense atmosphere, charged with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as actual terrorist organisations like Isis (Daesh), and the dangerous precedent this sets.
“From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?
“It’s ridiculous and it’s being widely condemned in anxious conversations internally as a blatant misuse of anti-terror laws for political purposes to clamp down on protests which are affecting the profits of arms companies,” they added.
The decision to proscribe comes after four people were arrested following a break-in at RAF Brize Norton airbase, where Palestine Action activists sprayed red paint on two military aircraft.
The group said the protest was in response to Britain’s role in “sending military cargo, flying spy planes over Gaza and refuelling US and Israeli fighter jets.”
In a statement, Cooper said the protest was part of a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.”
Palestine Action responded by saying: “Proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws — it’s about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine.”
The move comes amid wider civil service unrest over UK policy on Gaza.
Earlier this month, more than 300 Foreign Office officials signed a letter warning the government risked complicity in Israeli war crimes.
In response, the department’s top civil servants told signatories: “If your disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service. This is an honourable course.”
The proscription order will be laid before Parliament on Monday and could come into effect by the end of the week.
When asked for comment by The Guardian, the Home Office referred to Cooper’s original statement.
Philippines’ financial center taps tourism department to become halal hub
- New agreement to help implement standards across city’s hotels, restaurants
- Makati City, perceived as trendsetter, aims to influence other regions
MANILA: Philippine business leaders in Makati City are collaborating with the Department of Tourism to make the country’s financial center an all-encompassing halal hub for both trade and tourism, the head of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Makati chapter said on Saturday.
Makati City in Metro Manila is popularly known as the Philippines’ central business district, hosting the highest concentration of banks and corporations in the country, as well as foreign embassies.
For the last few years, the predominantly Catholic Philippines — where Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population — has been working to raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate around 120,000 jobs by expanding its domestic halal industry by 2028.
The DoT signed on Friday a memorandum of agreement with PCCI Makati to pool efforts and encourage the implementation of halal standards across hotels and restaurants in the city, as part of an effort to attract Muslim tourists.
“The memorandum signed yesterday with DoT is really to encourage the local establishments in Makati City to participate or embrace the halal standards,” PCCI Makati President Nunnatus Cortez told Arab News.
“These are the initial steps to turn the city into a halal hub; that’s the main objective.”
PCCI Makati has been a leading figure in efforts to make the city a halal hub.
Friday’s agreement follows a memorandum of understanding the chamber signed last year with the Department of Trade and Industry, which sought to position the city as a central point for innovation and business in the halal sector.
“Halal, after all, is now a way of life. From the DoT’s point of view, this is how we complete the loop — the entire ecosystem required to support both halal trade and tourism,” Cortez said.
Earlier this month the Philippines was recognized as a rising Muslim-friendly destination at the Halal in Travel Global Summit, after having achieved a similar feat in previous years. The country’s halal drive has included efforts to cater to Muslim tourists, by ensuring they have access to halal products and services.
Cortez believes Makati City is at an advantage to boost halal travel as it is the location of many foreign missions, including that of Muslim nations.
“Almost all Muslim embassies are in Makati. We know that foreign delegates, embassy staff, and even their citizens often visit here — and Makati is usually their starting point,” he said.
“What we’re doing now is trying to capture the attention of all Muslim embassies. If their VIPs or citizens come to Makati and make it their base for activities, then everything else will follow.”
He believes that efforts to turn Makati into a halal hub will have a ripple effect across the archipelago nation, as the city is widely perceived as a trendsetter for other regions in the Philippines.
He added: “If we can begin by making places like malls and hotels halal-compliant, that would already be a meaningful first step. We believe that whatever Makati does, other cities will follow its lead. That’s our mindset.”
Irish rap group Kneecap set to play at Glastonbury despite criticism from politicians
- Mo Chara has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London
- Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence
PILTON, England: Irish-language rap group Kneecap is set to perform Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He is on unconditional bail ahead of a further court hearing in August.
The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements.
The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland’s decades of violence. Videos have emerged allegedly showing the band shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and calling on people to kill lawmakers.
Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence. They have accused critics of trying to silence the band because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza.
Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it would not be “appropriate” for the festival to give Kneecap a platform.
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC should not broadcast “Kneecap propaganda.”
The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, has not said whether it will show Kneecap’s set.
Some 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain’s most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii.
Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from UK rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome.
