"Author of bin Laden's "Mein Kampf" Russian-born?" (Asimov Novel Series Inspired Terrorist?)

Johnson's Russia List from The Center for Defense Information ^ | Sat, 13 Oct 2001 23:39:15 -0400 | Dmitri Gusev

[anymouse]

A couple of weeks ago I asked a friend of mine, Russian writer and Afghan war veteran Vladimir Grigoriev to find out if "The Foundation", a 1951 sci-fi bestseller by Isaac Asimov, a well-known American author and scientist, was translated and published in Arabic, and if so, under what title? Yesterday, I learned that my friend contacted his former professor Olga Frolova, currently the Chair of the Arab Philology Department, School of Oriental Languages, St. Petersburg State University, and she confirmed that the book was published in Arabic as "Al Qaeda", the title matching the name of the international terrorist network founded and headed by Osama bin Laden. (The Western media usually translates "Al Qaeda" back as "The Base", as if a base of terrorists were been referred to.)

This peculiar coincidence would be of little interest if not for abundant parallels between the plot of Asimov's book and the events unfolding now. The central character of "The Foundation" named Seldon, the pioneer of a new scientific discipline called "psychohistory", predicts that the Galactic Empire is about to fall. While the process of disintegration cannot not be stopped, Seldon decides to send an expedition to a remote place on the outskirts of the Galaxy and establish The Foundation, which is to become the nucleus of the next Empire. Even though the Old Empire tries to destroy The Foundation with its superior military might, Seldon's plan eventually works despite many predicted difficulties and occasional random hiccups. Seldon does not live long enough to see the triumph of his cause, but he leaves videotaped messages at a machine timed to broadcast them to his followers and instruct them at the turning points of The Foundation's history, as his forecasts are coming true.

I think the public would be relieved to realize that the internationally feared Terrorist No. 1 is trying to mimic a scenario from his favorite science fiction novel. I also believe that the study of "The Foundation" (along with its sequels and prequels) can help the decision makers around the globe to better understand what they're up against and what the ultimate objectives of Osama bin Laden are, much in the same way a study of "Mein Kampf" would have benefited Adolf Hitler's counterparts a great deal if they bothered to read the book and paid attention to what it said.

Isaac Asimov, a famous Jewish-American author and researcher, was born January 2, 1920, in Petrovichi, Russia, on the territory of the present day Belarus. He died April 6, 1992, in New York, New York, several months before the first attack struck the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993.

[anymouse]

Coincidence? Surely so, but it is worth pondering the implications.

[Arkinsaw]

Al Qaeda can be translated as "The Foundation". That makes more sense, "The Base" never sounded likely to me. As for the rest, I can't imagine Osama reading Asimov for some reason.

[Cicero]

I'm quite familiar with the Foundation Trilogy, and I don't see any resemblance whatever. If "Al Qaeda" means "foundation" in Arabic, then the name pretty well explains itself. Yes, Bin Ladin thinks he's laying the foundation for a new world. But he is hardly likely to have drawn this very obvious thought from Asimov. Asimov not only was Jewish, but was basically an Enlightenment rationalist, who thought that religion was nothing but superstition, or more cynically a tool by which priests could control the people.

All enthusiasts think they are helping to build a new world.

[Cicero]

PS: But as Arkinsaw points out, your suggested translation seems much likelier than "base." Maybe the Arabists should go back to their drawing boards and have another look.

[eclectic]

bin laden speaks Russian

[isom35]

"all your foundation are belong to us"

[not-an-ostrich]

Didn't Robert Redford and his co-workers in the Condor movie sit around and read books looking for info for CIA?

[Dan Day]

Hmm, it's been so long since I read the "Foundation" trilogy that my copies are old enough to vote and buy alcohol, but...

I recall that Seldon's Foundation was a benevolent organization, which did not attempt to rule, but only to gently make an influential nudge here and there in a way that would cause the inevitable Dark Ages after the collapse of the Empire to be as short and mild as possible before the next civilization arose. They looked only to safeguard humanity, not run it or dictate to it.

That doesn't sound at all like bin Laden's goals *or* methods.

[Cool Guy]

Foundation Series? LOL! Looks like, Bin Laden is smoking a lot of strong stuff.

[steve-b]

bin laden speaks Russian

Er... so?

[KellyAdmirer]

Things are getting weirder and weirder when terrorists hiding in the mountains fancy themselves progenitors of new empires. Perhaps he also fancies himself as Khan, as in "The Wrath of...."?

[Dan Day]

Didn't Robert Redford and his co-workers in the Condor movie sit around and read books looking for info for CIA?

Yup. :-)

Great old movie. For those who have never seen it, rush out and rent a copy.

Without giving away too much, Robert Redford works for the CIA, but only as a researcher. His job is to read everything he can get his hands on, scouring books almost at random in search of any tidbits that might be somehow useful or relevant to the work of the CIA.

One day he steps out for coffee, and the CIA office where he works explodes, killing everyone there. Then he finds that he is being hunted by people who wish to make it a clean sweep. He has no "field" experience as a spy, but his decades of reading books gives him a lot of practical knowledge of all sorts of things, and he uses this to 1) evade being killed, 2) investigate who is after him and why, and 3) attempt to win out over them.

Lots of fun. Sample quote: Higgins: "Oh, you... you poor dumb son of a bitch. You've done more harm than you'll ever know." Turner: "I hope so..."

Another couple of fun "spooks on the loose" movies are "Sneakers" (again with Robert Redford) and "Hopscotch" (with the wonderful Walter Matthau).

"Sneakers" is the story of a bunch of talented misfits (including Redford as a retired government agent) working as a freelance security company. They are hired to obtain something from a hotel room, which they do, only to find that it is something so valuable that, as one line in the movie puts it, "there's not a government on the planet that wouldn't kill everyone in this room for this box..." Sample quote: "You know I could have been in the NSA, but they found out my parents were married."

"Hopscotch" is the delightful tale of an elderly CIA agent (Walter Matthau) who is insultingly demoted to a desk job by a snotty new manager (Ned Beatty). Disgusted, Matthau decides to retire and write a "tell-all" book about the agency's screwups. He disappears, and Beatty and Matthau's former co-workers go looking for him to try to stop him. The old fox (Matthau) proves too slippery for them and makes fools of them at every turn. Glenda Jackson is also great as his old girlfriend. Fun quote: Kendig: "Yours was gin and ginger ale, right?" Isobel von Schonenberg: "Mine was NEVER gin and ginger ale. Montrochet '69, right next to the beer."

[Huusker]

Asimov was a confirmed atheist and had nothing but contempt for religion. His background is jewish. He's about as far from fundalmentalist Islam as one can get.

In his first Foundation novel, the Foundationeers created a bogus religion to subjugate the Anacreons, a gulliable and warlike people. The purpose was to incite a revolt and overthrow the government. The viewpoint was completely cynical, where the religion was used simply a means to a political end.

Humm, on second thought...

[Clinton's a rapist]

Does that make GW Bush "The Mule," and does he have superhuman powers that Dick Cheney doesn't know about?

I actually think this is very interesting idea. It takes a little getting used to, because we are so used to thinking of the Arabs as a bunch of ignorant, jabbering savages. But, remember, from their point of view it's they who are the "keepers of the flame," not us.

[NovemberCharlie]

My parents had a cameo in Hopscotch.

[Dan Day]

Perhaps he also fancies himself as Khan, as in "The Wrath of...."?

Two quotes from that film seem relevant:

Spock: He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates 2 dimensional thinking.

And:

Kirk [transmitting to Khan]: Stand by to receive our transmission. [covers the microphone and whispers] Mr. Sulu, lock phasers on target.

[Dan Day]

Asimov was a confirmed atheist and had nothing but contempt for religion.

He was an atheist but I never saw anything from him in either his two-volume autobiography, nor his Treasury of Humor (in which he discussed a great number of topics and a lot about his own philosophies) that would indicate "nothing but contempt" for religion.

He even wrote the two-volume "Asimov's Guide to the Bible", in which I didn't see any "contempt" for religion either.

[KellyAdmirer]

I always liked the Mule. He was a broad, Napoleonic character who came the closest to disproving Seldon's somewhat Calvinistic and Tolstoyian theories of predestination. There's something essential said about free will in that character that I'm sure Bin Laden would never, in his wildest dreams and the arrogance of his self-assurance, understand. I bet Asimov had the most fun writing those portions of the series.

[Young Werther]

When Asimov was asked by his publisher to consider expanding the Trilogy Asimov said "No". However, he quickly changed his mind when, "They waved this obscene advance in my face!"

Asimov was a humanist, (no religion but a value system that displayed the best of mankind's aspirations.) As he evolved the Trilogy in his final days he wrapped the Robot Series into the Foundations Series to complete his "take" on mankind's future history. It was the "prescient Robot who was introduced in his novel, "Caves of Steel" that was the underlying force for good in mankind's universe. The Robot operating under the Three Robotic Laws plus one that he derived as a higher priority then the First Law. This higher law was enunciated ".. to insure that man did not come to harm or create harm for another human. I believe that this Robot would be on our side and would "nudge" O Sama and his ilk out of existence. (you see Asimov didn't believe in a God but could instill such goodness and mercy into a technological being that had been created by man, in man's shape, and contained man's best traits.

[tophat9000]

In his first Foundation novel, the Foundationeers created a bogus religion to subjugate the Anacreons, a gulliable and warlike people. The purpose was to incite a revolt and overthrow the government. The viewpoint was completely cynical, where the religion was used simply a means to a political end.

Now this starts to make since bin Laden was rich kid, quite westernize, educated and well read.

Not the type to become a throw back Islamic fundamentalist.

He in fact be a lot like Sadam, real not religious just power hungry and using Islamic fundamentalist as a tool.

But he didn't need to created a religion to subjugate the people, he already had one in place to hijack