BERGEN: I will talk generally perhaps about the future of Al Qaeda, the future of Osama Bin Laden. In my view, Osama Bin Laden has decided to die in the final battle of his holy war. He’s made a number of statements along this line that you Americans value life as much as we value death. He’s also made it clear that he’s willing to die. I don’t think that’s bravado. This is a man who fought against the Soviet Union on the front lines in 1986. He held off 200 Russian forces, including Russian Special Forces. This is at a place called Jaji, which is not far from Tora Bora, probably about 10 miles. It’s sort of central to bin Laden’s mythology of himself and also one of the reasons his followers admire him. The battle took place in 1986, and it was widely reported around the Middle East, and it was really a sort of the crystallization of the myth of Osama bin Laden. I spoke to numerous people to confirm the details of the battle, including eyewitnesses and this battle happened and bin Laden was, fought off this group for about a week. So, I think. He’s also said a really interesting thing. He came under a Russian missile attack and he said that he was so at peace with the notion of death that he actually fell asleep, despite the fact that these Russian missiles were falling within about 30 yards of his position.

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