Pope John Paul II and Bin Laden. Joseph Samahah, the best Arab columnist, began his article today this way: "Pope John Paul II never met Usamah Bin Laden. But the two men were in the 1980s in the same front. They were marching separately, and striking jointly. The commander of the front was indubitably Ronald Reagan. And the Pope and the Shaykh [Bin Laden] were supplying him with spiritual arsenal in the war that he had declared against the Evil Empire."