Billy Waugh on bin Laden

Speaking of the adulation of bin Laden's followers, here are Special Forces' legend Billy Waugh observations while surveilling the Saudi mastermind for the CIA in Khartoum in the early 1990s:*

As I sat across the street, watching and photographing him from the roof of my OP [Observation Post], I observed the way his followers treated him. . . . He sat cross-leged facing them, and they sat cross-legged facing him.  The followers -- twenty to twenty-five of them in this location -- sat there mesmerized, silent, mouths half-opened, listening to thier messiah as if it were Mohammed himself diong the speaking.  It was as if he cast a spell every day at this same time and they -- loyal followers all -- fell into a dutiful trance.

Waugh concludes:

My attitude toward bin Laden at the time was based on teh way his people responded to him.  The more I saw, the more concerned I became.  They came up to him like you wouldn't believe.  Watching them was enough to make you uncomforable, even a little disturbed. . . . They believed -- I watched them believe -- and the next step after believing is following.  To them, following meant doing whatever it took to make his wishes come true.

Again, this helps to explain why it was so difficult to obtain human intelligence on bin Laden, and hence why the strategic manhunt took thirteen years to successfully complete.

*From Billy Waugh, Hunting the Jackal, pp. 204-205.