Usama bin Ladin’s “Father Sheikh”:

I heard something incredible from Yunis Khales … during a meeting […] He
said to Abu Abdallah [Bin Ladin], in his thickly accented but proficient Arabic,
“I have nothing but myself, and it is very dear to me. However, you are more
precious to me, and your well‐being is more important than my own. You are
our guest, and no one can get to you. If anything happens with the Taleban, tell
me. Though there is little I can do after they reach you, I will do all I can.” 178
At first glance this text can be seen as proof that Yunus Khalis was making an
extraordinary offer of protection to Usama bin Ladin, which might support an assertion
that the relationship between the two men was close enough to extend into ideological
or operational cooperation. However, cultural and historical clues about the context of
the conversation and signals in Khalis’s wording argue against such a clear‐cut
interpretation.
The Context of Bin Ladin’s Stay with Khalis in 1996
When the aforementioned conversation occurred, Bin Ladin had recently arrived in
Nangarhar as an exile from Sudan. It is worth asking at the outset why he chose
Jalalabad as his safe haven instead of returning to the camps al‐Qa`ida maintained near
Jalaluddin Haqqani’s Zhawara facility in Khost Province. 179 The most likely answer is
that by the time Bin Ladin was under pressure to flee Sudan, Haqqani’s territory in
Paktia and Khost had come under Taliban control. 180 Since the al‐Qa`ida leader was
initially uncertain whether the Taliban were friends or foes, 181 he chose to relocate to
Nangarhar where his contacts were still operating outside the Taliban’s authority.
However, Nangarhar would not remain outside the Taliban’s reach much longer.
Although Khalis apparently extended his aegis to Bin Ladin in the above quotation by
al‐Suri, Khalis also stated that “there is little I can do after they reach you.” 182 By 1996 it
is questionable whether Khalis was in a position to defend the al‐Qa`ida leader against
178 Scheuer (2011), 106.
179 Brown and Rassler (2012).
180 The Taliban took Loya Paktia in early 1995, over a year before Bin Ladin left Sudan for Jalalabad.
181 Omar bin Laden, 159; Linschoten and Kuehn, 139–140; Brown and Rassler, 101.
182 Scheuer (2011), 106.
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