In evaluating Osama bin Laden's dubious legacy, it is important
to note that there was nothing new about religiously inspired
terrorism when this rich Saudi exile convened a small group of
jihadists in his Peshawar, Pakistan, home in 1988 to found al-
Qaida, or "the Base" — an organization designed to carry on the
war waged so successfully against the Red Army in Afghanistan.
Two of the earliest known terrorist groups — the Jewish Sicarii,
or "dagger men," who terrorized 1st century Judea, and the
Shiite Muslim Assassins, who terrorized the Middle East in the
Middle Ages — were known for pursuing religious rather than
strictly political agendas. More recently, Hezbollah, a Shiite
Muslim jihadist group, had already pioneered many of the
techniques — especially the use of suicide bombers and the
intensive manipulation of the news media — that would become al-
Qaida trademarks. Bin Laden's contribution was to take a global
approach. In earlier times, terrorist and guerrilla groups had
largely operated in one area.