The BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares is often quoted by 9/11 researchers, in particular for its analysis of al Qaeda. One of the claims it makes is that there is "no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it". Here's the context to that:
JASON BURKE , AUTHOR, “AL QAEDA” : During the investigation of the 1998 bombings, there is a walk- in source, Jamal al-Fadl, who is a Sudanese militant who was with bin Laden in the early 90s, who has been passed around a whole series of Middle East secret services, none of whom want much to do with him, and who ends up in America and is taken on by—uh—the American government, effectively, as a key prosecution witness and is given a huge amount of American taxpayers’ money at the same time. And his account is used as raw material to build up a picture of Al Qaeda. The picture that the FBI want to build up is one that will fit the existing laws that they will have to use to prosecute those responsible for the bombing. Now, those laws were drawn up to counteract organised crime: the Mafia, drugs crime, crimes where people being a member of an organisation is extremely important. You have to have an organisation to get a prosecution. And you have al-Fadl and a number of other witness, a number of other sources, who are happy to feed into this. You’ve got material that, looked at in a certain way, can be seen to show this organisation’s existence. You put the two together and you get what is the first bin Laden myth—the first Al Qaeda myth. And because it’s one of the first, it’s extremely influential.
VO: The picture al-Fadl drew for the Americans of bin Laden was of an all-powerful figure at the head of a large terrorist network that had an organised network of control. He also said that bin Laden had given this network a name: “Al Qaeda.” It was a dramatic and powerful picture of bin Laden, but it bore little relationship to the truth.
[ EXCERPT, CNN EXCLUSIVE VIDEO : BIN LADEN AND SOLDIERS ]
VO: The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organisation. These were militants who mostly planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it.
[ CUT TO MANHATTAN SKYLINE ]
VO: In reality, Jamal al-Fadl was on the run from bin Laden, having stolen money from him. In return for his evidence, the Americans gave him witness protection in America and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many lawyers at the trial believed that al-Fadl exaggerated and lied to give the Americans the picture of a terrorist organisation that they needed to prosecute bin Laden.
SAM SCHMIDT , DEFENCE LAWYER EMBASSY BOMBINGS TRIAL: And there were selective portions of al-Fadl’s testimony that I believe was false, to help
support the picture that he helped the Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organisation was. It made Al Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to prosecute any person associated with Al Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden—who talked a lot.
BURKE : The idea—which is critical to the FBI’s prosecution—that bin Laden ran a coherent organisation with operatives and cells all around the world of which you could be a member is a myth. There is no Al Qaeda organisation. There is no international network with a leader, with cadres who will unquestioningly obey orders, with tentacles that stretch out to sleeper cells in America, in Africa, in Europe. That idea of a coherent, structured terrorist network with an organised capability simply does not exist.
http://www.durodie.net/pdf/PowerOfNightmares3.pdf
There is "no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it"?
Here’s a comment bin Ladin made from an October 2001 interview:
When was the name first established? Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower points to a document called the "Tareek Osama", "a collection of memos, letters, and notes that were taken from an al Qaeda computer captured in Bosnia and entered into evidence in United States v Enaam Arnout". One of these documents details a meeting on August 11, 1988, "when the name al-Qaeda first surfaces", and includes snippets like the following:
Read the United States v Enaam Arnout evidentiary proffer for more.
Wright is sceptical about parts of the document, and its poor translation, but reports communicating with one of the meeting participants (through an intermediary) and receiving confirmation that it happened, and that a vote was taken at the end of the meeting on the formation of al Qaeda.
"Special forces and CIA legend" Billy Waugh reports first hearing the name al Qaeda in 1992:
When I arrived in Khartoum, I was told by our chief of station that bin Laden was one of our targets. "Keep an eye on him," he told me. "We don't know what he's up to, but we know he's a wealthy financier and we think he's harboring some of these outfits called al Qaeda. See what you can find out." I was familiar with bin Laden from agency traffic, but this was the first time I had heard the term al Qaeda.
Hunting the Jackal, Billy Waugh with Tim Keown, page 183
Wright tells us that the French mentioned al Qaeda in 1993:
There is an Agence France Presse article, "Jordanian Militants Train in Afghanistan to Confront Regime", dated May 30 1993, in which a "27-year-old militant" admits that he has been trained by a wealthy Saudi businessman who owns a construction firm in Jeddah, Osama ibn [sic] Laden."
Page 410, "The Looming Tower", Lawrence Wright
Another early reference to al Qaeda came in this US State Department statement on bin Ladin from August 14th 1996:
This information came from a State Department report summarised in Mideast Mirror:
Mideast Mirror, August 16, 1996
The misguided U.S. war on Arab and Islamic "terror" -- al-Quds al-Arabi
BIN-LADEN: Also on Wednesday, a report released by the State Department said wealthy Arab businessman Usama Bin-Laden is one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world.
It said Ramzi Yousef, alleged mastermind of the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing, lived for three years at a guesthouse funded by Bin-Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Bin-Laden funded extremist groups in Egypt, Algeria and Yemen, as well as terrorist training camps in Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"On the general matter of private funding of terrorist acts, that is a serious problem and it's a matter of very serious concern to the United States," State Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies told reporters.
"It's difficult to track and it's difficult to counter because it is very secretive by nature, but we've made some progress," he said.
He argued the U.S. has been leading the fight against the problem, noting Clinton last year blocked assets in the United States of terrorists and terrorist groups and in April signed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which bans terrorist fundraising in the United States.
Bin-Laden, one of 20 sons of Saudi construction magnate Mohammad Bin-Laden, joined the Afghan resistance movement following the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the State Department report said.
He gained prominence during the Afghan war by financing recruitment, transportation and training of Arab nationals who volunteered to fight alongside the Afghan mujahideen.
In 1994, Riyadh revoked Bin-Laden's Saudi citizenship "for behavior that contradicts the kingdom's interests and risks harming its relations with fraternal countries," the report said.
But still Bin-Laden "is one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today... (His) support for extremist causes continues despite criticism from regional governments and his family."
By 1985 Bin-Laden had drawn on his family's wealth -- plus donations from sympathetic merchant families in the Gulf region -- to organize the Islamic Salvation Foundation, or al-Qaida, for this purpose, the report said.
Al-Qaida recruitment centers and guesthouses in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have enlisted and sheltered thousands of Arab recruits and his foundation has also funded camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the report said.
The report also made these charges:
-- Islamic extremists responsible for the December 1992 attempted bombings against some 100 U.S. servicemen in Somalia claimed Bin-Laden financed their group.
-- A joint Egyptian-Saudi investigation revealed in May 1993 that Bin-Laden "business interests helped funnel money to Egyptian extremists who used the cash to buy unspecified equipment, printing presses and weapons."
-- By January 1994, Bin-Laden "had begun financing at least three terrorist training camps in northern Sudan."
-- Bin-Laden remains "the key financier behind the 'Kunar' camp in Afghanistan which provides terror training to al-Gihad and al-Gama'a al-Islamiya members."
Bin-Laden has denied any role in terrorism. Britain's The Independent newspaper caught up with him last month in Afghanistan where it quoted him as saying the Saudi bombings marked the start of a war between Moslems and the United States.
"What happened in Riyadh and al-Khobar is clear evidence of the huge anger of Saudi people against America. The Saudis now know their real enemy is America," Bin-Laden said.
"I believe that sooner or later the Americans will leave Saudi Arabia and that the war declared by America against the Saudi people means war against all Moslems everywhere," Bin-Laden said in the interview with The Independent's Robert Fisk.
"Resistance against America will spread in many, many places in Moslem countries. Our trusted leaders, the ulema (Moslem scholars), have given us a fatwa (Islamic edict) that we must drive out the Americans. The solution to this crisis is the withdrawal of American troops... their military presence is an insult for the Saudi people."
There’s definitely evidence for widespread use of the name al Qaeda before 9/11, then, including confirmation from bin Laden himself. The Power of Nightmares claim simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny.