Dan Darling extracts this from the Iraqi "Sanussi" document:
ACCORDING TO A NEWLY-RELEASED DOCUMENT from the former Iraqi regime, during a February 1995 meeting with members of Iraqi intelligence in Sudan, one of bin Laden's first requests was for "the broadcasting of Sheikh Salman al-Ouda [who has influence both in Saudi Arabia and outside as a religious personality] and dedicate a program for them through the station directed inside the country." While bin Laden's desire to see a radical Saudi cleric broadcast on Iraqi TV has been known since the New York Times first reported on the existence of this document in the summer of 2004, the identity of that cleric has not been revealed until now.
Thing is, Awda never, to my knowledge, actually appeared on Iraqi TV, making the whole discussion - while interesting historically - a bit pointless. Heck, the fact that Saddam evidently turned down bin Laden's suggestion might even seem to directly refute the inference that Saddam was willing to work with someone like bin Laden. (Darling himself, it should be noted, carefully avoids such a direct inference in what is a perfectly fine piece, though others linking to his piece show fewer inhibitions.)
Beyond making that obvious but necessary point, I do find Salman al-Awda's appearance here a fascinating little footnote on that Islamist's biography. Awda was an extremely influential Islamist figure in Saudi Arabia, one of the leaders of the so-called Sahwa movement - fiercely critical of the Saudi royal family, infuriated by the American role in the first Gulf War, and one of the pioneers of the Islamist use of cassette sermons. For his efforts, he spent 1994-1999 in a Saudi prison (which incidentally would have made it hard for him to broadcast anti-Saudi propaganda on Iraqi TV in 1995-1996, the time at which bin Laden allegedly made the suggestion to the Iraqis). Still, Bin Laden by all accounts respected Awda tremendously, and it's not surprising that he might float such a suggestion (Peter Bergen's oral history of bin Laden quotes his biographer Hamed Nir as saying that "Salman Awdah is my ideal personality; a savior who was the first person to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Saudi." - p.149).
That history sheds some fascinating light on Awdah's latter-day rehabilitation. After the May 2003 Riyadh terror attack led to a ramped up public campaign against jihadism in the kingdom's media, Awda largely recanted his anti-regime and pro-jihadi views and has publicly denounced violent jihad (though he remains anti-liberal, hostile to America and ambivalent towards the Iraqi jihad). He has begun to appear on the the Saudi-financed Arab TV station al-Arabiya (and also here and many more here) and the Saudi-owned TV station MBC. As a result, according to at least some commentors, he's struggled to hold on to his popularity. Certainly, it appears unlikely that bin Laden is still a fan.
Salman al-Awda interviewed on al-Arabiya, December 7, 2005
Awda today isn't the Awda of ten years ago. But it's still rather remarkable that something that bin Laden allegedly unsuccessfully requested of Saddam Hussein ten years ago as a weapon against the Saudi regime - putting Salman al-Awda on the air - is now being done by the Saudis themselves.
The Sheikh oversees this site:
http://www.islamtoday.net/ (Arabic)
http://www.islamtoday.net/english/
Posted by: Rasheed | March 26, 2006 at 12:25 PM