DATE=7/31/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=NUMBER ONE TERRORIST NUMBER-5-43987 BYLINE=ED WARNER DATELINE=WASHINGTON CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: At rallies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, demonstrators have warned the United States not to mount another attack on Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist held responsible for last year's bombing of two U-S embassies in Africa. The U-S State Department has offered a five-million-dollar reward for information leading to his arrest, and dozens of his operatives have been arrested in various parts of the world. But his network continues to grow, and as VOA's Ed Warner reports, the United States considers him the number- one terrorist threat. TEXT: There is a halo effect to Osama Bin Laden, says Khalid Duran, editor of "Trans-Islam" magazine. He is a pure bred Arab from the Arabian peninsula, land of the Prophet Mohammed. If he came from anywhere else, he would not have the same standing among Muslims. Mr. Duran says he also has enormous determination to accomplish nothing less than bringing down the last remaining superpower, a task that wins some sympathy in the Muslim world: // DURAN ACT // Since now there is only one superpower, the United States is considered a bully. There is of course, also a kind of fury in the third world - I mean the have's and have-not's. Nowadays because of the communications media, they always see the rich life in the United States. So there is an automatic hatred that is very widespread. Osama has made himself the spokesman of that anti-superpower mood. // END ACT // Milt Bearden, who led CIA efforts to aid the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, told the "Washington Post" -- One should go to the refugee camps throughout Pakistan and find out how many boy children have been named "Osama" since last August. It is scary. Last August, Bin Laden's group bombed two U-S embassies in Africa, killing 224 people and injuring more than five-thousand. Khalid Duran says the U-S pro-Israel posture and its continued bombing of impoverished Iraq adds to Bin Laden's support. No question about this support, says Congressional Research Service senior Middle East analyst Kenneth Katzman: // KATZMAN ACT // While we may have constrained his organizational operational capabilities, he is getting more popular at the street level, because he is taking on this aura that I think Ayatollah Khomeini had - a sort of last holdout, the uncompromising revolutionary figure. // END ACT // He could change, says Mr. Katzman, as other onetime terrorists have changed. The Palestinian organizations "Hamas" and "Hezbollah" have become more moderate. State-sponsored terrorism has subsided in Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan. Bin Laden seems to be going against the tide, says Mr. Katzman, while he has been in Afghanistan, he has given more help to the Taleban than they have to him. Though supported by no state, Bin Laden has an extensive network of his own: // KATZMAN ACT // It is several thousand spread out among at least 20 to 30 countries, maybe more by now - the Far East, Africa, parts of South America, the United States itself, the Middle East, of course. I am becoming increasingly concerned about his ability to strike in the United States. // END ACT // Kenneth Katzman says the F-B-I and C-I-A have closely followed Bin Laden's activities and so far prevented further attacks, but sustained vigilance is needed for a terrorist ever in search of opportunities. (SIGNED) NEB/EW/RAE 31-Jul-1999 13:44 PM LOC (31-Jul-1999 1744 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .