Fellow College (I assume) Student: I, too, am a procrastinator. : ) I feel your pain. This should hopefully help--it is lots of info on his life, including a fairly good description of his earlier life. I am totally not writing pages, but if you need info, this should help. In the future, check out Answers.com. It is an awesome site that will hook you up with all kinds of info--that's where all this is from.
P.S. LAY OFF HIM, GUYS! I'M SURE HE KNOWS THAT HE NEEDS TO DEVELOP TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS. WHY EVEN ANSWER IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO COMPLAIN? THAT STUFF DRIVES ME UP THE WALL!
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Osama bin Laden
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Osama bin Laden, Terrorist
* Born: 1957
* Birthplace: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
* Best Known As: Mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks
Also known as: Usama bin Laden, Ussamah bin Laden
The U.S. government considers Osama bin Laden to be the most dangerous terrorist in the world. Bin Laden joined the Afghanistani resistance in 1979 and became a commander in the guerilla wars against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. After that war ended, bin Laden founded a loose organization of pro-Islamic terrorists known as al-Qaeda. He then joined with the Egyptian militants led by Ayman al-Zawahiri to form an international group whose goals included driving the United States out of the Middle East and overthrowing the government of Saudi Arabia. Attacks which bin Laden is believed to have plotted or inspired include the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 1995 truck bombing of a Saudi National Guard training center, and the 1998 explosions at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Along with captured suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he is considered responsible for the September 2001 attacks that crippled the Pentagon and destroyed New York's World Trade Center. Despite an intensive manhunt by the U.S. government in the years since that attack, bin Laden has not been captured.
Bin Laden's supporter Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. bomb strike in Iraq on 7 June 2006... There is no truth to the e-mail rumor that Osama bin Laden was identified as a terrorist by Oliver North during the Iran-Contra hearings of 1987... Osama bin Laden was one of 52 children fathered by Muhammad bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian construction magnate... bin Laden's neice, Wafah Dufour, is an aspiring pop musician who posed for a photo shoot in the January 2006 issue of GQ magazine.
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Osama bin Laden
The Islamic fundamentalist leader Osama bin Laden (born 1957), a harsh critic of the United States and its policies, is widely believed to have orchestrated the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, as well as the October 2000 attack on the "USS Cole" in the Yemeni port of Aden. But it is his role as the apparent mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that have made bin Laden one of the most infamous and sought-after figures in recent history.
The 6-foot-5, lanky, bearded leader - soft-spoken and effeminate, even when he rails against America - is a man of tremendous wealth, and makes an unlikely spokesman for the poor and oppressed people of Islam whom he claims to represent. Nevertheless, his call for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States and Israel, has been heeded by like-minded fundamentalist Muslims.
Raised in Great Wealth
Born in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden was the son of Mohammad bin Laden, one of the country's wealthiest business leaders. Some sources state that he is the seventh son, while others claim that he is the seventeenth of some 50 children born to the construction magnate and his various wives. Young bin Laden led a privileged life, surrounded by pampering servants and residing in air-conditioned houses well insulated from the oppressive desert heat. He may have heard tales of poverty from his father, who started his career as a destitute Yemeni porter. He moved to Saudi Arabia and eventually become the owner of the kingdom's largest construction company.
Mohammed bin Laden's success was in part due to the strong personal ties he cultivated with King Saud after he rebuilt the monarch's palaces for a price much lower than any other bidder. Favored by the royal family, Mohammed served for a time as minister of public works. King Faisal, who succeeded Saud, issued a decree that all construction projects go to Mohammed's company, the Binladin Group. Among these construction projects were lucrative contracts to rebuild mosques in Mecca and Medina. When Mohammed died in a helicopter crash in 1968, his children inherited the billionaire's construction empire. Osama bin Laden, then 13 years old, purportedly came into a fortune of some $300 million.
A Passion for Religious Politics
Young bin Laden attended schools in Jedda, and was encouraged to marry early, at the age of 17, to a Syrian girl and family relation. She was to be the first of several wives. In 1979 he earned a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul-Aziz University. He seemed to be preparing to join the family business, but he did not continue on that course for long.
Former classmates of bin Laden recall him as a frequent patron of Beirut nightclubs, who drank and caroused with his Saudi royalty cohorts. Yet it was also at the university that bin Laden met the Muslim fundamentalist Sheik Abdullah Azzam, perhaps his first teacher of religious politics and his earliest influence. Azzam spoke fervently of the need to liberate Islamic nations from foreign interests and interventions, and he indoctrinated his disciples in the strictest tenets of the Muslim faith. Bin Laden, however, would eventually cultivate a brand of militant religious extremism that exceeded his teacher's.
Joined the Afghan War
As a student in the late 1970s, bin Laden was galvanized by events that seemed to pit both the Western world and communist Russia against Muslim nations. One of these was the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel; another was the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. In December 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, bin Laden, like many other Muslims, rose to join the jihad declared against the attackers. He did not initially enter the fray as a soldier, but instead channeled his efforts into the organization and financing of the mujahedeen, or Afghan resistance. Over the next ten years, he used his tremendous wealth to buy arms, build training camps, and provide food and medical care. He was said to have occasionally joined the fighting, and to have participated in the bloody siege of Jalalabad in 1989, in which Afghanistan wrested control from the Soviet Union.
The United States, then embroiled in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, provided help to bin Laden and his associates. Although in many respects he worked side by side with the Americans to defeat the Soviets, bin Laden remained wary of the Western superpower. "To counter these atheist Russians, the Saudis chose me as their representative in Afghanistan," bin Laden later told a French journalist in an interview quoted by the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS) Frontline. "I did not fight against the communist threat while forgetting the peril from the West. … [W]e had to fight on all fronts against communist or Western oppression."
Formed "Al Qaeda"
During the war, bin Laden forged connections with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the militant group linked with the 1981 assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat. Under the influence of this group, bin Laden was persuaded to help expand the jihad and enlist as many Muslims as possible to rebel against so-called infidel regimes. In 1988 he and the Egyptians founded Al Qaeda, ("The Base"), a network initially designed to build fighting power for the Afghan resistance. Al Qaeda would later become known as a radical Islamic group with bin Laden at the helm, and with the United States as the key target for its terrorist acts.
After the war, bin Laden was touted as a hero in Afghanistan as well as in his homeland. He returned to Saudi Arabia to work for the Binladin Group, but he remained preoccupied with extremist religious politics. Now it was his homeland that concerned him. In 1990 Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, worried about a possible invasion by Iraq, asked the United States and its allies to station troops that would defend Saudi soil. Eager to protect its interests in the oil-producing kingdom, the United States complied. Bin Laden, euphoric after the Afghan victory and proud of the power of Muslim nations, was outraged that Fahd had asked a non-Muslim country for protection. He now channeled his energy and money into opposition movements against the Saudi monarchy.
As an outspoken critic of the royal family, bin Laden gained a reputation as a troublemaker. For a time, he was placed under house arrest in Jedda. His siblings, who had strong ties to the monarchy, vehemently opposed his antics and severed all ties - familial and economic - with their upstart brother. "He was totally ostracized by the family and by the kingdom," Daniel Uman, who worked with the Binladin Group, told an interviewer for the New York Times. The Saudi government, ever watchful of bin Laden, caught him smuggling weapons from Yemen and revoked his passport. No longer a Saudi citizen, he was asked to leave the country.
With several wives and many children, bin Laden relocated with his family to Sudan, where a militant Islamic government ruled. In Sudan, he was welcomed for his great wealth, which he used to establish a major construction company as well as other businesses. He also focused on expanding Al Qaeda, building terrorist training camps and forging ties with other militant Islamic groups. His primary aim had become to thwart the presence of American troops in Muslim countries.
Orchestrated First Terrorist Attacks
Bin Laden regarded even American humanitarian efforts as disgraces to Muslim countries. The first terrorist attack believed to trace back to bin Laden involved the December 1992 explosion of a bomb at a hotel in Aden, Yemen. American troops, en route to Somalia for a humanitarian mission, had been staying at the hotel, but they had already left. Two Austrian tourists were killed. Almost a year later, 18 American servicemen were shot down over Mogadishu in Somalia. Bin Laden initially claimed not to be involved in the attack, yet he later admitted to an Arabic newspaper that he had played a role in training the guerrilla troops responsible for the attack.
Several months later, on February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring more than 1,000. Though it has not been proven, bin Laden is widely suspected of being the mission's ringleader. Many believe it was the terrorist leader's first attempt to destroy the towers, which suicide hijackers succeeded in toppling in 2001. United States and Saudi leaders pressured the Sudanese government to expel bin Laden. In 1996 he left the country voluntarily, according to Sudanese officials.
Declared Holy War Against United States
That same year, bin Laden openly declared war on America, calling upon his followers to expel Americans and Jews from all Muslim lands. In a statement quoted by PBS's Frontline, he called for "fast-moving, light forces that work under complete secrecy." Interviewed by Cable News Network (CNN) in 1997, bin Laden said, "[The United States] has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous, and criminal, whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation." The following year he issued an edict evoking even stronger language: "We - with God's help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it."
After the Sudanese government asked him to leave, bin Laden operated out of Afghanistan. He is believed to have orchestrated at least a dozen attacks, some successful, some not. Among the worst of these were two truck bombings, both on August 7, 1998, of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Nairobi bombing killed 213 people (only 12 were Americans) and wounded 4,500. The Dar es Salaam attack left 11 dead and 85 wounded. This news, compounded by intelligence reports suspecting that bin Laden had been attempting to acquire chemical and biological weapons, prompted U.S. action. President Bill Clinton responded with cruise missile attacks on suspected Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. In November 1998 the U.S. State Department promised $5 million to anyone with information leading to bin Laden's arrest.
Despite attempts to apprehend him, bin Laden eluded the American government and continued plotting against it. Not all of his efforts were successful. A failed plan to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve, 1999 - suspected to be one of several failed attacks designed to correspond with the millennium - was linked to Al Qaeda. Bin Laden is also suspected of orchestrating a botched attack on the USS The Sullivans, a U.S. warship stationed off the coast of Yemen. "[I]n what seemed to us a kind of comic presentation of what happened," recalled New York Times reporter Judith Miller, "the would-be martyrs loaded up their boat with explosives and set the little dingy out to meet The Sullivans and the [dingy] was overloaded and sank."
The same group, with bin Laden at the helm, is widely believed to be responsible for the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, carried out in the same waters only a few months after the Sullivans failure. The terrorists had apparently learned from their mistakes. The attack killed 17 U.S. navy personnel and left many wounded. Yemeni officials later reported that five suspects in the incident had admitted to training in bin Laden's Al Qaeda camps.
Prime Suspect in Attacks on America
Bin Laden's hatred for America had become well known, but nothing had prepared Americans for the most extravagant and heinous plot allegedly hatched by the terrorist leader: the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On the clear, late-summer morning, two hijacked commercial jets flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. About an hour later, another hijacked airliner slammed into the Pentagon in the nation's capital. A fourth hijacked jet did not reach its target, crashing in Western Pennsylvania instead. When the massive towers collapsed in flames, thousands perished. Among those lost in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania were the 19 hijackers, most of whom have been linked to Al Qaeda operations. Bin Laden denied involvement in the attacks, but he praised the hijackers for their acts.
The U.S. government nevertheless regarded the terrorist leader as their prime suspect. President George W. Bush demanded that Afghanistan's Taliban government turn him over or face war, but to no avail. In early October, U.S. forces began striking Afghan targets, declaring a war on terrorism and on the countries that harbor terrorists.
Bin Laden's followers, who support a radical fundamentalist brand of Islam, remain devoted to their leader and continue to heed his call for a holy war. Ever wary of the price America has put on his head, he has reportedly chosen a successor: Muhammad Atef, an Egyptian Muslim who married bin Laden's daughter in January 2001.
Periodicals
Anonymous, October 12, 2001.
Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2001.
New York Times, September 14, 2001; October 28, 2001.
Reuters, October 3, 2001.
Online
"Hunting bin Laden," Frontline,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen (October 24, 2001).
"Laden, Osama bin," Biography.com,http://www.biography.com (October 24, 2001).
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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Osama bin Laden
(born 1957, Riyadh, Saud.Ar.) Leader of a broad-based Islamic extremist movement implicated in numerous acts of terrorism against the U.S. and other Western countries. The son of a wealthy Saudi family, he joined the Muslim resistance in Afghanistan after the 1979 Soviet invasion of that country. Following his homecoming, he became enraged at the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War (1990 – 91) and, through a network of like-minded Islamic militants known as al-Qaeda, launched a series of terrorist attacks. These acts included the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the U.S. warship Cole in Aden, Yemen, in 2000. A self-styled Islamic scholar, bin Laden issued several legal opinions calling on Muslims to take up jihad (holy war) against the U.S., and in 2001 a group of militants under his direction launched the September 11 attacks, which led to the deaths of some 3,000 people. The U.S. thereafter demanded bin Laden's extradition from Afghanistan, where he was sheltered by that country's Taliban militia, and launched attacks on Taliban and al-Qaeda forces when that ultimatum was not met. With the collapse of the Taliban, bin Laden and his associates went into hiding.
For more information on Osama bin Laden, visit Britannica.com.
Columbia Encyclopedia
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bin Laden, Osama or Usama (ōsä'mə bĭn läd'ən, ŭsä'mə) , 1957?–, Saudi-born leader of Al Qaeda [Arab.,=the base], a terrorist organization devoted to uniting all Muslims and establishing a transnational, strict-fundamentalist Islamic state. The youngest son of a wealthy Yemeni-born businessman, bin Laden was trained as a civil engineer (grad. 1979, King Abdul Aziz Univ., Jidda), but following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (see Afghanistan War) he went to Pakistan where he helped to finance the mujahidin and to found Makhtab al Khadimat [services office] (MAK), which recruited and trained non-Afghani Muslims to fight in the war.
In 1987 he split with MAK to begin a jihad [holy war] against Israel and Western influence in Islamic countries; he founded Al Qaeda the next year. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, he returned to his family's construction business in Saudi Arabia. When U.S. troops were stationed (1990) on Saudi soil during Persian Gulf War he became violently opposed to the Saudi monarchy and the United States. After he was caught smuggling arms in 1991, he went to Sudan, where he began financing terrorist training camps while investing in businesses and increasing his fortune. His Saudi citizenship was revoked in 1994.
After the attempted assassination (1995) of Egyptian president Mubarak, to which bin Laden was linked, he was expelled (1996) from Sudan and reestablished himself in Afghanistan, where the extreme Islamic fundamentalist Taliban had come to power. That same year he issued a “declaration of war” against the United States. In its camps in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda trained a decentralized network of international terrorists that have been linked to the 1996 car bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Bin Laden also was reported to have financed or trained Islamic guerrillas operating in Kosovo, Kashmir, the Philippines, and elsewhere.
He has been indicted in the United States for the embassy bombings, and the United States launched retaliatory cruise missile attacks against his Afghanistan camps in 1998. Following the 2001 attacks the United States demanded the Taliban hand over bin Laden. When the Afghanis refused, U.S. forces began military action against Afghanistan, and in conjunction with opposition forces there largely defeated Taliban and Al Qaeda forces by Jan., 2002. Bin Laden, however, was not captured. He is believed to be in hiding in the Pashtun-dominated region that straddles the central Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Al Qaeda, now based mainly in parts of W Pakistan, has continued to function and launch terror attacks on a more limited scale while gradually rebuilding its capabilities, and also has provided support to and inspiration for other groups committed to a militant Islamic insurgency.
Bibliography
See his Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (2005); studies by P. L. Bergen (2001 and 2006), A. J. Dennis (2002), R. Jacquard (2002), J. Randal (2004), and L. Wright (2006).
History Dictionary
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bin Laden, Osama (lah-duhn)
An Islamic terrorist and the head of the Al Qaeda network of terrorists. Born into a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden went to Afghanistan to train Islamic warriors known as mujahideen after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. After the Soviets pulled out in 1989, he returned to Saudi Arabia. During the Persian Gulf War, he developed strong objections to the American presence in Saudi Arabia. He was expelled in 1991. Fleeing first to the Sudan and then back to Afghanistan in 1996, he orchestrated a series of attacks on American targets, including, it is believed, the destruction of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001 (see September 11 attacks).
Wikipedia
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Osama bin Laden
“Bin Laden” redirects here. For other uses, see Bin Laden (disambiguation).
“Osama” redirects here. For other people called "Osama", see Usama (name).
Image:Padlock.svg
Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden
(Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن)
March 10 1957 (1957--) (age 50)
AQ00100.jpg
Place of birth Flag of Saudi Arabia Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Allegiance Afghan mujahideen
Maktab al-Khadamat
al-Qaeda
Years of service 1979 - present
Rank Commander-in-chief
Battles/wars Afghan Civil War
War on Terrorism
Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن) ; born March 10, 1957[1]), most often mentioned as Osama bin Laden or Usama bin Laden, is a militant Islamist and is reported to be the founder of the organization called al-Qaeda.[2] He is a member of the prestigious and wealthy bin Laden family. In conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, bin Laden issued two fatwas—in 1996 and then again in 1998—that Muslims should kill civilians and military personnel from the United States and allied countries until they withdraw support for Israel and withdraw military forces from Islamic countries.[3][4]
He has been indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and is on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Although bin Laden has not been indicted for the September 11, 2001 attacks, he has taken responsibility for them.[5][6][7] The attacks involved the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77, and the subsequent destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, and severe damage to The Pentagon outside of Washington, DC.[8]
Family and childhood
Main article: Bin Laden family
Osama Muhammed bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[9] In a 1998 interview, later televised on Al Jazeera, he gave his birth date as March 10 1957. His father, the late Muhammed Awad bin Laden, was a wealthy businessman with close ties to the Saudi royal family.[10] Before World War I, Muhammed, poor and uneducated, emigrated from Hadhramaut, on the south coast of Yemen, to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he began to work as a porter. Starting his own business in 1930, Muhammed built his fortune as a building contractor for the Saudi royal family during the 1950s.
There is no definitive account of the number of children born to Muhammed bin Laden, but the number is generally put at 55. Various accounts place Osama as his seventeenth son. Muhammed bin Laden was married 22 times, although to no more than four women at a time per Sharia law. Osama was born the only son of Muhammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, nee Alia Ghanem,[11] who was born in Syria.[12]
The Al-Attas' served as a step family in Jeddah
Osama's parents divorced soon after he was born, according to Khaled M. Batarfi, a senior editor at the Al Madina newspaper in Jeddah who knew Osama during the 1970s. Osama's mother then married a man named Muhammad al-Attas, who worked at the bin Laden company. The couple had four children, and Osama lived in the new household with three stepbrothers and one stepsister.[13]
Education and politicization
Bin Laden was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. From 1968 to 1976 he attended the relatively secular Al-Thager Model School, the most prestigious secondary school in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, called "the school of the élite."[14] In the 1960s, King Faisal had welcomed exiled teachers from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, so that by the early seventies it was common to find members of the Muslim Brotherhood teaching at Saudi schools and universities. During that time, bin Laden was exposed to the Brotherhood's political teachings during after-school Islamic study groups.
Bin Laden may have studied economics and business administration[15] at the Management and Economics School of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. Some reports suggest bin Laden earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979,[16] or a degree in public administration in 1981.[17] Other sources describe him as never having graduated from college, though "hard working,"[18] or having left university during his third year.[19]
At university, bin Laden was influenced by Muhammad Qutb and Abdallah Azzam, professors with strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Qutb, an Egyptian, was the brother and publicizer of the late Sayyid Qutb, author of Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq, or Milestones, one of the most influential tracts on the importance of jihad against all that is un-Islamic in the world.[19][3] Azzam,[19] an Islamic scholar from Palestine, was instrumental in building pan-Islamic enthusiasm for jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and in drawing Muslims (like bin Laden) from all over the Middle East to fight there.[20]
Bin Laden has informal training in Islamic jurisprudence, is considered "well versed in the classical scriptures and traditions of Islam"[21] and has been mentored by scholars such as Musa al-Qarni[22]. Since bin Laden never studied Islam at a seminary (madrasa), he is criticized by Islamic scholars to have no standing to issue religious opinions (fatwa). However, it is possible to obtain scholarly credentials in Islam by learning with individual scholars and obtaining certificates (ijaza) from them.[citation needed]
Married life in Jeddah
In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married his first wife, his first cousin from Syria, Najwa Ghanem, his mother's brother's daughter. The marriage ceremony took place in Najwa's native land, at Latakia, in northwestern Syria.[23][24] After the birth of his first son, Abdallah, they moved from his mother's house to a building in the Al-Aziziyah district of Jeddah.
Bin Laden is reported to have married four other women[25] and divorced one, Umm Ali bin Laden (i.e., the mother of Ali). Umm Ali bin Laden was a University lecturer who studied in Saudi Arabia,[26][27] and spent holidays in Khartoum, Sudan, where Osama later settled during his exile in the years 1991 to 1996. According to Wisal al Turabi, the wife of Sudan's ruler Hassan Turabi, Umm Ali taught Islam to some families in Riyadh, an upscale neighborhood in Khartoum. The three latter wives of Osama bin Laden were all university lecturers, highly educated, and from distinguished families. According to Wisal al Turabi, he married the other three because they were "spinsters," who "were going to go without marrying in this world. So he married them for the Word of God."[28][24] According to Abu Jandal, bin Laden's former chief bodyguard, Osama's wife Umm Ali asked Osama for a divorce when they still lived in Sudan, because she said that she "could not continue to live in an austere way and in hardship."[29][24]
Children
Bin Laden has fathered anywhere from 12 to 24 children.[30] His wife, Najwa, reportedly had 11 children by bin Laden, including Abdallah (born c. 1976), Omar, Saad and Muhammad. Muhammad bin Laden (born c. 1983) married the daughter of the late alleged al-Qaeda military chief Mohammed Atef in January 2001, at Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Appearance and manner
Bin Laden is a particularly tall man. The FBI describes him as tall and thin, between 6'4" and 6'6" (193–198 cm) in height but weighing about 165 pounds (75 kg). He has an olive complexion, is left-handed, and usually walks with a cane. He wears a plain white turban and no longer dons the traditional Saudi male headdress, generally white.[31]
In terms of personality, bin Laden is described as a soft-spoken, mild mannered man;[32] and despite his rhetoric, he is said to be charming, polite, and respectful. According to Michael Scheuer, bin Laden claims to speak only Arabic, though others, such as Rhimaulah Yusufzai and Peter Bergen, believe he understands English.[33] However, in a 1998 interview, he had English questions translated for him into Arabic.[34]
Usage variations of bin Laden's name
Because there is no universally accepted standard in the West for transliterating Arabic words and names into English, bin Laden's name is transliterated in many ways. The version often used by most English-language mass media is Osama bin Laden. Most American government agencies, including the FBI and CIA, use either Usama bin Laden or Usama bin Ladin, both of which are often abbreviated to UBL. Less common renderings include Ussamah Bin Ladin and Oussama Ben Laden (French-language mass media). The latter part of the name can also be found as Binladen or Binladin.
Strictly speaking, under Arabic linguistic conventions, it is incorrect to use "bin Laden" in a similar manner as a Western surname. His full name means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of 'Awad, son of Laden". However, the bin Laden family (or "Binladin", as they prefer to be known) generally use the name as a surname in the Western style. Although Arabic conventions dictate that he be referred to as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", using "bin Laden" is in accordance with the family's own usage of the name and is the near-universal convention in Western references to him.
Bin Laden also has several commonly used aliases and nicknames, including the Prince, the Sheikh, Al-Amir, Abu Abdallah, Sheikh Al-Mujahid, the Director, Imam Mehdi and Samaritan.[35]
Military and militant activity
Jihad in Afghanistan
Group photo of Ayman Al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden & Abu Hafs.Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
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Group photo of Ayman Al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden & Abu Hafs.
Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
Bin Laden's wealth and connections assisted his interest in supporting the mujahideen, Muslim guerrillas fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. His old teacher from the university in Jeddah, Abdullah Azzam, had relocated to Peshawar, a major border city of a million people in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. From there, Azzam was able to organize resistance directly on the Afghan frontier. Peshawar is only 15 km (9.3 miles) east of the historic Khyber Pass, through the Safed Koh mountains, connected to the southeastern edge of the Hindu Kush range. This route became the major avenue of inserting foreign fighters and material support into eastern Afghanistan for the resistance against the Soviets, and also in later years.
After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Azzam[36][37] to fight the Soviet Invasion[38] and lived for a time in Peshawar.[39] According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, executive editor of the English-language daily The News International in 2001 "Azam prevailed on him to come and use his money" for training recruits, reported Yusufzai.[40] In the early 1980s, bin Laden lived at several addresses in and around Arbab Road, a narrow street in the University Town neighborhood in western Peshawar, Yusufzai said. Nearby in Gulshan Iqbal Road is the Arab mosque that Abdullah Azzam used as the jihad center, according to a Reuters inquiry in the neighborhood. Years later, in 1989, Azzam was blown up in a massive car bombing outside the mosque. Bin Laden is thought by some to be a suspect in that assassination, because of a rift in the direction of the jihad at that time.[41] Others doubt this claim; Ahmad Zaidan, for instance, author of the Arabic-language book Bin Laden Unmasked, told Peter L. Bergen in an interview, "I rule out totally that bin Laden would indulge himself in such things, after all, Osama bin Laden, he's not type of person to kill Abdullah Azzam. Otherwise, if he be exposed, he would be finished, totally." Bergen also cites Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who speculates that there were more likely candidates than bin Laden: "It could be Hekmatyar, it could be KHAD, it could be the Mossad, the Egyptians [around Ayman al Zawahiri].... I met with Hekmatyar, an arrogant, self-centered person. I think Hekmatyar had a secret organization to eliminate his enemies."[42]
By 1984, with Azzam, bin Laden had established an organization named Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK, Office of Order in English), which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the world into the Afghan war. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. In running al-Khadamat, bin Laden set up a network of couriers traveling between Afghanistan and Peshawar, which continued to remain active after 2001, according to Yusufzai.
Robin Cook, former leader of the British House of Commons and Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, wrote in The Guardian on Friday, July 8 2005,
Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.[43]
However, Peter Bergen, a CNN journalist and adjunct professor who is known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, rejected Cook's notion, stating on August 15 2006, the following:
that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden—is simply a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him.[44]
Bergen quotes Pakistani Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, who ran ISI's Afghan operation between 1983 and 1987:
It was always galling to the Americans, and I can understand their point of view, that although they paid the piper they could not call the tune. The CIA supported the mujahideen by spending the taxpayers' money, billions of dollars of it over the years, on buying arms, ammunition, and equipment. It was their secret arms procurement branch that was kept busy. It was, however, a cardinal rule of Pakistan's policy that no Americans ever become involved with the distribution of funds or arms once they arrived in the country. No Americans ever trained or had direct contact with the mujahideen, and no American official ever went inside Afghanistan.[45]
Other sources also dispute the notion that the CIA had any contact with non-Afghan mujahideen[46]
For a while Osama worked at the Services Office working with Abdullah Azzam on Jihad Magazine, a magazine that gave information about the war with the soviets and interviewed mujahideen. As time passed, Aymen Al Zawahiri encouraged Osama to split away from Abdullah Azzam. Osama formed his own army of mujahideen and fought the Soviets. One of his most significant battles was the battle of Jaji, which was not a major fight, but it earned him a reputation as a fighter.
Formation of al-Qaeda
By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat because of strategic differences. While Azzam and his MAK organization acted as support for the Afghan fighters and provided relief to refugees and injured, bin Laden wanted a more military role in which the Arab fighters would not only be trained and equipped by the organization but also led on the battlefield by Arabic commanders. One of the main leading points to the split and the creation of al-Qaeda was the insistence of Azzam that Arab fighters be integrated among the Afghan fighting groups instead of forming their separate fighting force.[47]
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bin Laden offered to help defend Saudi Arabia (with 12,000 armed men) but was rebuffed by the Saudi government. Bin Laden publicly denounced his government's dependence on the U.S. military and demanded an end to the presence of foreign military bases in the country. According to reports (by the BBC and others), the 1990/91 deployment of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Gulf War upset Muslims because the Saudi government claims legitimacy based on their role as guardians of the sacred Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina. After the Gulf War cease-fire agreement left Saddam Hussein remaining in power in Iraq, the ongoing presence of long-term bases for non-Muslim U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia continued to undermine the Saudi rulers' perceived legitimacy and inflamed anti-government Islamist militants, including bin Laden.
Bin Laden's increasingly strident criticisms of the Saudi monarchy led the government to attempt to silence him. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, "with help from a dissident member of the royal family, he managed to get out of the country under the pretext of attending an Islamic gathering in Pakistan in April 1991."[48] Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the National Islamic Front, had invited bin Laden to "transplant his whole organization to Sudan" in 1989. Bin Laden's agents had begun purchasing property in Sudan in 1990. When the Saudi government began putting pressure on him in 1991, bin Laden moved to Sudan. The Saudi government revoked his citizenship in 1994.
Assisted by donations funneled through business and charitable fronts such as Benevolence International, established by his brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations in Khartoum, Sudan to disseminate Islamist philosophy and recruit operatives in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Bin Laden also invested in business ventures, such as al-Hajira, a construction company that built roads throughout Sudan, and Wadi al-Aqiq, an agricultural corporation that farmed hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum, gum Arabic, sesame and sunflowers in Sudan's central Gezira province. Bin Laden's operations in Sudan were protected by the powerful Sudanese NIF government figure Hassan al Turabi. While in Sudan, bin Laden married one of Turabi's nieces.[49]
Refuge in Afghanistan
Sudanese officials, whose government was under international sanctions, offered to expel Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1990s provided that the Saudis pardon him. The Saudis refused because they had already revoked his citizenship and would not accept him in their country.[50] Consequently, in May 1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, Sudan asked bin Laden to leave and he returned to Afghanistan. He chartered a plane and flew to Kabul before settling in Jalalabad after being invited by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, leader of the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan, a member of the Afghan Northern Alliance. After spending a few months in the border region hosted by local leaders, bin Laden forged a close relationship with some of the leaders of Afghanistan's new Taliban government, notably Mullah Mohammed Omar.[51] Bin Laden supported the Taliban regime with financial and paramilitary assistance and, in 1997, he moved to Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold.[52]
Bin Laden is suspected of funding the November 1997 Luxor massacre in Egypt conducted by Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the largest Egyptian militant Islamist group. The Egyptian government convicted bin Laden's colleague, one of the leaders of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and sentenced him to death in absentia for the massacre.[53][54]
Attacks on United States targets
It is believed that bin Laden was involved with the December 29 1992, bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen, which killed a Yemeni hotel employee and an Austrian national and seriously injured the Austrian's wife.[55]
In 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, (a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad), co-signed a fatwa (religious edict) in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, declaring:
“ [t]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'.[56][57] ”
In response to the 1998 United States embassy bombings following the fatwa, President Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets that could be linked to bin Laden. Clinton also signed an executive order, authorizing bin Laden's arrest or assassination. In August 1998, the U.S. launched an attack using cruise missiles. The attack failed to harm bin Laden but killed 19 other people.[58]
On November 4, 1998, Osama bin Laden was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury, and the United States Department of State offered a US $5 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's apprehension or conviction.[59]
In an interview with journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai published in TIME Magazine, January 11, 1999, Osama bin Laden is quoted as saying:
“ "The International Islamic Front for Jihad against the U.S. and Israel has issued a crystal-clear fatwa calling on the Islamic nation to carry on jihad aimed at liberating holy sites. The nation of Muhammad has responded to this appeal. If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans in order to liberate Al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka'aba Islamic shrines in the Middle East is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal."[60]
In May 2007 President George Bush released intelligence of Obama seeking to start an Iraq unit in 2005.
”
September 11, 2001 attacks
Main articles: Responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and Videos of Osama bin Laden
Taken from the 27 December 2001 Osama bin Laden video
Enlarge
Taken from the 27 December 2001 Osama bin Laden video
Immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, U.S. government officials named bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization as the prime suspects.[59] After the 9/11 attacks, the reward offered by the U.S. government increased to $25 million.[61][35] The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association are offering an additional $2 million reward.[62]
The FBI stated that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable.[63] The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks.[64]
Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks while praising them effusely, explaining their motivation, and dismissing American accusations of his involvement as an example of its hatred for Islam. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel saying:
I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation.[65]
God has struck America at its Achilles heel and destroyed its greatest buildings, praise and blessing to Him.[66]
Bin Laden claimed the Taliban were being attacked by American forces
because of their religion, not just because of the presence of Osama bin Laden ... It is a known fact that America is against the establishment of any Islamic state.[67]
In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In it Osama bin Laden discusses the attack with an old mujahideen friend Khaled al-Harbi in a way indicating foreknowledge of the attack. "We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy;" and "We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event [the 9/11 attack] would take place that day."[68] The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13 2001.
Another bin Laden video was released on December 27, 2001, with much the same message as his first. America had accused him of organizing the attacks because of "Crusader hatred for the Islamic World.
On what basis does America accuse this group of emigrants who wage jihad for God's sake, against whom there is no evidence other than that of injustice, oppression and hostility?
and
Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to ... the continuous injustice inflicted upon our sons in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, southern Sudan, and ... Kashmir.[69]
Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, another taped statement was released and aired on Al Jazeera in which bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he told viewers he had personally directed the 19 hijackers,[7][70] and gave what he claimed was his motivation:
I will explain to you the reasons behind these events, and I will tell you the truth about the moments when this decision was taken, so that you can reflect on it. God knows that the plan of striking the towers had not occurred to us, but the idea came to me when things went just too far with the American-Israeli alliance's oppression and atrocities against our people in Palestine and Lebanon.[71][72]
Bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.[73]
In two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announces,
I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers .... I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers ... with the raids [5 minute audiotape broadcast May 23, 2006],[74]
and is seen with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two of the 9/11 hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks (videotape broadcast September 6, 2006).[75]
Criminal charges and attempted extradition
As a result of international pressure, Sudan asked bin Laden to leave the country in 1996. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, "Saudi officials apparently wanted bin Laden expelled from Sudan," but would not accept offers to extradite him to Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden chartered a plane and moved to Afghanistan that year.[76][77] There are conflicting claims as to whether Sudan offered to extradite bin Laden to the United States in 1996. President Clinton, his administration officials, and the 9-11 commission deny such an offer was made;[76][77] businessman Mansoor Ijaz, former Sudanese officials, and the former U.S. ambassador to Sudan, Tim Carney, claims that extradition offers were made "through unofficial channels" by Sudan.[78] Additionally, an audio recording of Clinton has since surfaced admitting that he did not take bin Laden since they would not be able to charge him with any crimes.[79]
Osama bin Laden, Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
Enlarge
Osama bin Laden, Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
On June 8, 1998 a United States grand jury indicted Osama bin Laden on charges of killing five Americans and two Indians in the 13 November 1995 truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh.[80] Bin Laden was charged with "conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States" and prosecutors further charged that bin Laden is the head of the terrorist organization called al Qaeda, and that he was a major financial backer of Islamic terrorists worldwide.[80] Bin Laden denied involvement but praised the attack.
On November 4, 1998 Osama bin Laden was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on charges of Murder of U.S. Nationals Outside the United States, Conspiracy to Murder U.S. Nationals Outside the United States, and Attacks on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death[81] for his alleged role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony by former Al Qaeda members and satellite phone records.[82][83]
On June 7, 1999, bin Laden became the 456th person listed on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, following his indictment along with others for capital crimes in the 1998 embassy attacks.
Attempts at assassination and requests for the extradition of bin Laden from the Taliban of Afghanistan were met with failure.[84] In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.
Years later, on October 10 2001, bin Laden appeared as well on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by the President of the United States George W. Bush, in direct response to the attacks of 9/11, but which was again based on the indictment for the 1998 embassy attack. Bin Laden was among a group of thirteen fugitive terrorists wanted on that latter list for questioning about the 1998 embassy bombings. Bin Laden remains the only fugitive ever to be listed on both FBI fugitive lists.
The U.S. Department of State currently offers a $25 million reward for information leading directly to his apprehension or conviction.[85]
Attempted capture by the U.S.
According to the U.S. government, Osama bin Laden was present during the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in late 2001, and according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge, failure by the U.S. to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him led to his escape and was the gravest failure by the U.S. in the war against al Qaeda. Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border.[86]
Current whereabouts
Main article: Location of Osama bin Laden
Claims as to the location of Osama bin Laden have been made since December 2001, although none have been definitively proven and some have placed Osama in different locations during overlapping time periods.
A December 11 2005 letter from Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicates that bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership were based in the Waziristan region of Pakistan at the time. In the letter, translated by the military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "Atiyah" instructs Zarqawi to "send messengers from your end to Waziristan so that they meet with the brothers of the leadership...I am now on a visit to them and I am writing you this letter as I am with them..." Al-Rahman also indicates that bin Laden and al-Qaeda are "weak" and "have many of their own problems." The letter has been deemed authentic by military and counterterrorism officials, according to the Washington Post.[87][88]
Alleged deaths
Main article: Location of Osama bin Laden
Reports alleging Osama bin Laden's death have appeared from time to time.
April 2005
The Sydney Morning Herald stated "Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year...'It's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgment one way or the other', Dr. Williams said."[89]
August 2006
On September 23 2006 the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (DGSE) stating that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23, 2006 after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs. According to the newspaper, Saudi security services first heard of bin Laden's alleged death on September 4, 2006.[90][91][92] The alleged death was reported by the Saudi Arabian secret service to its government, which reported it to the French secret service. The French defense minister Michèle Alliot-Marie expressed her regret that the report had been published while French President Jacques Chirac declared that bin Laden's death had not been confirmed.[93] American authorities also cannot confirm reports of bin Laden's death,[94] with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying only, "No comment, and no knowledge."[95] Later, CNN's Nic Robertson said that he had received confirmation from an anonymous Saudi source that the Saudi intelligence community has known for a while that bin Laden has a water-borne illness, but that he had heard no reports that it was specifically typhoid or that he had died.[96]
Cultural References
Television
* Osama bin Laden was featured in the South Park episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants", which was the first to air after 9/11.
* He has also appeared in the Family Guy episodes "PTV" and "Road to Rhode Island."
* He stars in several episodes of 2DTV. Here, he is depicted (presumably) as a generic, megalomanical villain with a deep, abrasive and sinister voice.
Movies
* In Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's segment of the movie Grindhouse, Osama bin Laden oversaw the creation of a biological weapon that would turn the whole populace of America into zombie-like cannibals. He was killed by US forces before the virus could be released into the world, but the man that killed bin Laden was infected by the U.S. government as a punishment for killing bin Laden too soon, thus spreading the virus all over America.
Awards and Recognition
* In 2002 he was declared 'Newsmaker of the Year 2001' by India Today Magazine [97]
* In 2004 he was featured in Time Magazine's Time 100 as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the World in the Leaders and Revolutionaries category. [98]
* In 2007 he was featured again in Time 100 as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the World in the Leaders and Revolutionaries category.[99]
See also
* Afghan Civil War
* Al-Qaeda
* Ayman al-Zawahiri
* bin Laden family
* Clearstream scandal (Bin Laden's Bahrain International Bank used this clearing house for its financial activities).
* Bin Laden Issue Station (The CIA's bin Laden tracking unit, 1996-2005)
* FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
* FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
* The Golden Chain
* Islamic fundamentalism
* Islamist terrorism
* Islamofascism
* Ladenese epistle
* Mujahideen
* Saleh Abdullah Kamel
* September 11, 2001 attacks
* Responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks
* Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
* Taliban
* Tora Bora
* 1998 United States embassy bombings
* 2000 USS Cole bombing
* 2002 Bali bombing
* 2003 Istanbul bombings
* 2004 Madrid train bombings
* 2005 London Bombings
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* ^ "Chirac says no evidence bin Laden has died", MSNBC.com/AP, 2006-09-23. Retrieved on 2006-09-23.
* ^ "Information sur la mort de ben Laden: Washington ne confirme pas", Le Monde/AFP, 2006-09-23. (in French)
* ^ Anna Willard and David Morgan. "France, US, unable to confirm report bin Laden dead", Reuters, 2006-09-23. (in English)
* ^ The Age (2006). Doubts over bin Laden death. Retrieved September 24, 2006.
* ^ "Conflicting reports: Bin Laden could be dead or ill", CNN, 2006-09-23. (in English)
* ^ [2]
* ^ TIME 100: Osama bin Laden. Time Magazine.
* ^ Osama bin Laden - The TIME 100. Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
External links
* "Main Columns of the Osame Bin Laden Ideology"
* "Listening to Bin Laden" by Said Shirazi, an analysis of his collected speeches.
* Osama Bin Laden Videos
* Up to date article about bin Laden Guardian Unlimited, September 11 2006
* The Law of Legends: Osama bin Laden and Robin Hood
* Bin Laden's Home Video: The Missing Portion satire.
Profiles
* FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives poster
* America's Most Wanted Profile
* BBC News: 'I met Osama bin Laden' - March 26 2004 - a short profile of bin Laden's life
* Interpol Profile
* Who Is Osama bin Laden? - By Michel Chossudovsky
* New Yorker article on Osama's youth
* Osama Bin Laden at the Internet Movie Database
Other
* "Main Columns of the Usame Bin Laden Ideology", Journal of Turkish Weekly
* Al Qaeda's Evolution, March 2005
* Does Bin Laden still control Al Qaeda?, March 2006
* About.com's Is Osama bin Laden Dead?
* BBC News News about a new audio recording of Osama on the BBC UK website. Thursday, 19 January 2006
* CBC News video interview with Bruce Lawrence, editor of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (2005, ISBN 1-84467-045-7) from CBC News: The Hour, November 21 2005
* Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement from bin Laden, 23 February 1998
* BBC: Transcript of Osama bin Laden video aired by al-Jazeera
* Deborah Amos "Interview: Osama Bin Laden: The World's Most Wanted Man" January 30, 2006 Council on Foreign Relations
* Osama bin Laden at the Internet Movie Database
* Al-Watan al-'Arabi report from 1998 translated by Foreign Broadcast Information Service
* Emerson, S. (2002), American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Free Press; ISBN 0-7432-3324-7.
* Coll, Steve (2004), Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10 2001, Penguin Press; ISBN 1-59420-007-6
* Randal, Jonathan. Osama: The Making of a Terrorist. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-117-6
* Guardian article about the difficulty of romanizing Arabic, i.e., Usama vs. Osama
* Robin Cook The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means The Guardian, July 8, 2005
* Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton (Crown, September 1, 2006)
Persondata
NAME Bin Laden, Osama
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden (full name); أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن (Arabic); Laden, Osama bin (alternate form); Bin Laden, Usama (alternate transliteration); UBL (common referent); Bin Ladin, Ussamah (alternate transliteration); Ben Laden, Oussama (alternate transliteration); Binladen, Osama (alternate transliteration); Binladin, Osama (alternate transliteration); Al-Amir (alias); Abu Abdallah (alias); Mujahid, Sheikh Al- (alias)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Al-Qaeda leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH
pdc:Osama bin Ladenbat-smg:Osama bin Ladens
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