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Osama bin Laden

 
Who2 Biography: Osama bin Laden, Terrorist
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  • 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 ("the base"). 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. (Bin Laden was added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitive" list after the embassy attacks.) 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 American efforts in the years since that attack, bin Laden has not been captured.

Some sources, including the FBI, spell his first name "Usama"... 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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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Osama bin Laden
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(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.

Biography: Osama bin Laden
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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).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Osama bin Laden
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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, and by mid-2008 was no longer believed to be overseeing Al Qaeda's everyday operations. 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), S. Coll (2004 and 2008), J. Randal (2004), and L. Wright (2006).

History Dictionary: bin Laden, Osama
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(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: Osama bin Laden
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"Osama" redirects here. For other uses, see Usama (name).
"bin Laden" redirects here. For other uses, see bin Laden (disambiguation).
Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin `Awaḍ bin Lādin
(Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎)
Born March 10, 1957 (1957-03-10) (age 52)
Bin Laden Poster2.jpeg
Osama bin Laden on an al-Qaeda propaganda poster captured by US forces
Place of birth Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Battles/wars Soviet war in Afghanistan
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Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (with numerous variations; Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʾAwaḍ bin Lādin) (born 10 March 1957) is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the alleged founding leader of the organization al-Qaeda. Bin Laden is on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives for his possible involvement with the circa 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya[1].

Contents

Variations of bin Laden's name

There is not a universally accepted standard in the West for transliterating Arabic words and names into English, so bin Laden's name is spelled in many different ways. The version translation most often used by 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 last two words of the name can also be found as "Binladen" or (as used by his family in the West) "Binladin". The spelling with 'o' and 'e' comes from a Persian-influenced pronunciation used in Afghanistan where he was for a long time.

Strictly speaking, Arabic linguistic conventions dictate that he be referred to as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden," as "Bin Laden" is not used as a surname in the Western manner, but simply as part of his name, which in its long form means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of 'Awad, son of Laden". Still, "bin Laden" has become nearly universal in Western references to him.

Bin Laden's admirers commonly use several aliases and nicknames, including the Prince, the Sheikh, Al-Amir, Abu Abdallah, Sheikh Al-Mujahid, the Lion Sheik,[2] the Director, Imam Mehdi and Samaritan.[3]

Childhood, education and personal life

Main article: Childhood, education and personal life of Osama bin Laden
See also: Bin Laden family

Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[4] In a 1998 interview, he gave his birth date as 10 March 1957.[5] His father Muhammed Awad bin Laden was a wealthy businessman with close ties to the Saudi royal family.[6] Osama bin Laden was born the only son of Muhammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas.[7] Osama's parents divorced soon after he was born; Osama's mother then married Muhammad al-Attas. The couple had four children, and Osama lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.[7]

Bin Laden was raised as a devout Wahhabi Muslim.[8] From 1968 to 1976 he attended the "élite" secular Al-Thager Model School.[9] Bin Laden studied economics and business administration[10] at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest bin Laden earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979,[11] or a degree in public administration in 1981.[12] Other sources describe him as having left university during his third year,[13] never completing a college degree, though "hard working."[14] At university, bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work.[15] He also writes poetry.[16]

In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married his first wife Najwa Ghanem at Latakia.[17] According to CNN national security correspondent David Ensore, as of 2002 bin Laden had married four women and fathered roughly 25 or 26 children.[18] Other sources report that he has fathered anywhere from 12 to 24 children.[19]

Beliefs and ideology

Main article: Beliefs and ideology of Osama bin Laden
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Bin Laden believes that the restoration of Sharia law will set things right in the Muslim world, and that all other ideologies—"pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy"—must be opposed.[20] These beliefs, along with violent expansive jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism.[21] He believes Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world.[22] Bin Laden has consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believes are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states,[23] the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East. He has also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication (and) homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury," in an October 2002 letter.[24]

Probably the most infamous part of Bin Laden's ideology is that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad.[25][26] Bin Laden is antisemitic, and has delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next."[27] Shia Muslims have been listed along with "Heretics,... America and Israel," as the four principal "enemies of Islam" at ideology classes of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization.[28]

In keeping with Wahhabi beliefs,[29] bin Laden opposes music on religious grounds,[30] and his attitude towards technology is mixed. He is interested in "earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants" on the one hand, but rejects "chilled water" on the other.[31]

His viewpoints and methods of achieving them have led to him been designated as a "terrorist" by scholars,[32][33] journalists from the New York Times,[34][35] the British Broadcasting Corporation,[36] and Qatari news station Al Jazeera,[37] analysts such as Peter Bergen,[38] Michael Scheuer,[39] Marc Sageman,[40] and Bruce Hoffman[41][42] and he was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.[43]

Militant activity

Main article: Militant activity of Osama bin Laden

Mujahideen in Afghanistan

Bin Laden with a Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir in 1997

After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam to fight the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan[44] and lived for a time in Peshawar.[45]

By 1984, with Azzam, bin Laden established Maktab al-Khadamat, which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the Arabic world into the Afghan war. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune[46] paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. He moved to Peshawar in 1994.[citation needed] Osama established a camp in Afghanistan, and with other volunteers fought the Soviets.

It was during his time in Peshawar that he began to wear camouflage-print jackets and carrying a captured Soviet assault rifle, which urban legends claimed he had obtained by killing a Russian soldier with his bare hands.[47]

Formation and structuring of Al-Qaeda

By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat, while Azzam acted as support for Afghan fighters, Laden wanted a more military role. 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.[48] Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as a hero of jihad, who along with his Arab legion, "had brought down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union.[49] However, during this time Iraq invaded Kuwait and Laden met with Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and told him not to depend on non-Muslim troops and offered to help defend Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed and after the American offer to help was accepted he publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the US military. Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led that government to attempt to silence him.

Balkan wars

One of the former State Department officials has described Bosnia and Herzegovina of that time as a safe haven for terrorists, after it was revealed that militant elements of the former Sarajevo government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Osama bin Laden.[50] In 1997, Rzeczpospolita, one of the largest Polish daily newspapers, reported that intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish SFOR Brigade suspected that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries was located in the Bocina Donja village near Maglaj in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, hundreds of volunteers joined an "all-mujahedeen unit" called El Moujahed in an abandoned hillside factory, a compound with a hospital and prayer hall. According to Middle East intelligence reports. Bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was Karim Said Atmani who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the USA.[51] He is a former roommate of Ahmed Ressam, the man arrested at the Canadian-U.S. border in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials.[52][53] He was convicted of colluding with Osama bin Laden by a French court.[54] A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former mujahideen who are linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists who have lived in this area 60 miles (97 km) north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. Khalil al-Deek, was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites; a second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Osama Bin Laden. In its 26 June 1997 Report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the New York Times noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslims forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Osama Bin Laden. In 1999 it was revealed that Osama bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and Bosnian passport in 1993 by the Government in Sarajevo. This information was denied by Bosnian government following the 9/11 attacks but it was later found out that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation new explanation was given that bin Laden "did not personally collect his Bosnian passport" and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who bin Laden was at the time.[55][56][57] The Bosnian daily Oslobođenje published in 2001 that three men, believed linked to be linked to Osama Bin Laden, were arrested in Sarajevo in July 2001. The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, were Egyptian nationals. The paper said that two of the suspects were holding Bosnian passports.[55]

In 1998 it was reported that bin Laden was operating his Al Qaeda network out of Albania. The Charleston Gazette quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama Bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Confirmation of these activities came from Claude Kader, a French national who said he was a member of Bin Laden's Albanian network.

By 1998 four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) were arrested in Albania extradited to Egypt at the urging of CIA. (It is believed that the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Africa occurred as retaliation for these arrest.)[58]

Sudan

Bin Laden moved to Sudan in 1992 and established a new base for Mujahideen operations in Khartoum. Due to bin Laden's continuous verbal assault on King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, on 5 March 1994 Fahd sent an emissary to Sudan demanding bin Laden's passport. His family was persuaded to cut off his monthly stipend, the equivalent of $7 million a year.[59] By now bin Laden was strongly associated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which made up the core of al-Qaeda. In 1995 the EIJ attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The attempt failed and the EIJ was expelled from Sudan.

The 9/11 Commission Report concludes,

"In February 1996, Sudanese officials began approaching officials from the United States and other governments, asking what actions of theirs might ease foreign pressure. In secret meetings with Saudi officials, Sudan offered to expel bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. US officials became aware of these secret discussions, certainly by March. Saudi officials apparently wanted bin Laden expelled from Sudan. They had already revoked his citizenship, however, and would not tolerate his presence in their country. Also bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, or both."

The 9/11 Commission Report further states,

"In late 1995, when Bin Laden was still in Sudan, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned that Sudanese officials were discussing with the Saudi government the possibility of expelling Bin Laden. CIA paramilitary officer Billy Waugh tracked down bin Ladin in the Sudan and prepared an operation to apprehend him, but was denied authorization.[60] US Ambassador Timothy Carney encouraged the Sudanese to pursue this course. The Saudis, however, did not want Bin Laden, giving as their reason their revocation of his citizenship. Sudan’s minister of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Laden over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Laden. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding."[61]

In May 1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States on Sudan, bin Laden returned to Jalalabad, Afghanistan aboard a chartered jet and forged a close relationship with Mullah Mohammed Omar.[62][63] In Afghanistan, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda raised money from "donors from the days of the Soviet jihad", and from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).[64] When Bin Laden left Sudan, he and his organization were significantly weakened, despite his ambitions and organizational skills.[65]

Early attacks and aid for attacks

It is believed that the first bombing attack involving bin Laden was the 29 December 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden in which two people were killed.[66]

It was after this bombing that al-Qaeda was reported to have developed its justification for the killing of innocent people. According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find their proper reward in death, going to Paradise if they were good Muslims and to hell if they were bad or non-believers.[67] The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.

In the 1990s bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993 bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded but the war that followed killed 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with Islamist surrender to the government. Another effort by bin Laden was the funding of the Luxor massacre of November 17, 1997,[68][69][70] which killed sixty two civilians, but so revolted the Egyptian public that it turned against Islamist terror. In mid-1997, the Northern Alliance threatened to overrun Jalalabad, causing Bin Laden to abandon his Nazim Jihad compound and move his operations to Tarnak Farms in the south.[71]

A later effort that did succeed was an attack on the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped cement his alliance with his hosts the Taliban by sending several hundred of his Afghan Arab fighters along to help the Taliban kill between five and six thousand Hazaras overrunning the city.[72]

In 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders which declared the killing of the North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to "liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip".[73][74] At the public announcement of the fatwa bin Laden announced that North Americans are "very easy targets." He told the attending journalists, "You will see the results of this in a very short time."[75]

At the end of 2000, Richard Clarke revealed that Islamic militants headed by bin Laden had planned a triple attack on January 3, 2000 which would have included bombings in Jordan of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman and tourists at Mount Nebo and a site on the Jordan River, the sinking of the destroyer USS The Sullivans in Yemen, as well as an attack on a target within the United States. The plan was foiled by the arrest of the Jordanian terrorist cell, the sinking of the explosive-filled skiff intended to target the destroyer, and the arrest of Ahmed Ressam.[76]

September 11, 2001 attacks

See also: September 11 attacks

"God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed -- when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."

– Osama bin Laden [77]

See also: Videos of Osama bin Laden

After initial denial, in 2004 Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.[78][79][80] The attacks involved the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, and American Airlines Flight 77; the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York; severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia;[81] and the deaths of 2,974 people excluding the nineteen hijackers.[82] In response to the attacks, the United States launched a War on Terrorism to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's Special Activities Division was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.[83]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable.[84] 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.[85] Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks. On 16 September 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.[86]

In a videotape recovered by US forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge.[87] The tape was broadcast on various news networks on 13 December 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."[88]

In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he stated he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers.[79][89] In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President George W. Bush of negligence on the hijacking of the planes on September 11.[79]

According to the tapes, 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.[90]

In two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announces,

I am the one in charge of the nineteen brothers … I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers … with the raids [5 minute audiotape broadcast 23 May 2006],[91]

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 7 September 2006).[92]

Criminal charges

On 16 March 1998, Libya issued the first official international Interpol arrest warrant against Bin Laden and three other people for killing two German citizens in Libya on 10 March 1994, one of which is thought to have been a German counter-intelligence officer. Bin Laden is still wanted by the Libyan government.[93][94] Osama bin Laden was first indicted by the United States on 8 June 1998, when a grand jury indicted Osama bin Laden on charges of killing five Americans and two Indians in the 14 November 1995 truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh.[95] 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 fighters worldwide.[95] 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 US Nationals Outside the United States, Conspiracy to Murder US Nationals Outside the United States, and Attacks on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death[96] 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.[97]

Bin Laden became the 456th person listed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, when he was added to the list on 7 June 1999, 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 prior to the bombing of Afghanistan in October 2001.[98] In 1999, US 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 10 October 2001, bin Laden appeared as well on the initial list of the top 22 FBI 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.

Despite the multiple indictments listed above and multiple requests, the Taliban refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden. It wasn't until after the bombing of Afghanistan began in October 2001 that the Taliban finally did offer to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third-party country for trial, in return for the US ending the bombing and providing evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This offer was rejected by George W Bush stating that this was no longer negotiable with Bush responding that "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty."[99]

Attempted capture by the United States

US leaflet used in Afghanistan.

Clinton Administration

Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton.[100] Shortly after the September 11 attacks it was revealed that President Clinton had signed a directive authorizing the CIA (and specifically their elite Special Activities Division) to apprehend bin Laden and bring him to the United States to stand trial after the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa; if taking bin Laden alive was deemed impossible, then deadly force was authorized.[101] On August 20, 1998, 66 cruise missiles launched by United States Navy ships in the Arabian Sea struck bin Laden's training camps near Khost in Afghanistan, narrowly missing him by a few hours.[102] In 1999 the CIA, together with Pakistani military intelligence, had prepared a team of approximately 60 Pakistani commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan to capture or kill bin Laden, but the plan was aborted by the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état;[102] in 2000, foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one bin Laden was in.[101]

In 2000, prior to the September 11 attacks, Paul Bremer characterized the Clinton administration as "correctly focused on bin Laden", while Robert Oakley criticized their "obsession with Osama".[76]

Bush Administration

According to The Washington Post, the US government concluded that 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 US to commit US ground troops to hunt him led to his escape and was the gravest failure by the US 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.[103]

The Washington Post also reported that the CIA unit composed of their special operations paramilitary forces dedicated to capturing Osama was shut down in late 2005.[104]

US and Afghanistan forces raided the mountain caves in Tora Bora between 14–16 August 2007. The military was drawn to the area after receiving intelligence of a pre-Ramadan meeting held by al Qaeda members. After killing dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban members, they did not find either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri.[105]

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, US government officials named bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda organization as the prime suspects and offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to his capture or death.[3][106] On 13 July 2007, this figure was doubled to $50 million.[107]

The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association are offering an additional $2 million reward.[108]

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.

An 11 December 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 United States 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.[109][110]

In 2009 a research team led by Thomas W. Gillespie and John A. Agnew of UCLA used satellite-aided geographical analysis to pinpoint three compounds in Parachinar as likely hideouts of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.[111]

In March 2009, the New York Daily News reported that the hunt for bin Laden had centered in the Chitral district of Pakistan, including the Kalam Valley. According to the report, author Rohan Gunaratna states that captured Al Qaeda leaders have confirmed that Chitral is where bin Laden is hiding.[112]

Reports of his death

December 2001 Quoting an unnamed Taliban official, the Pakistan Observer reported that Bin Laden died of untreated lung complications and was buried in an unmarked grave in Tora Bora on December 15.[113] This report was picked up by Fox News in the United States on December 26.[114] Also on December 26, the Egyptian newspaper AlWafd - Daily carried a short obituary by a prominent official of the Afghan Taliban, who was allegedly present at the funeral, stating Bin Laden had been buried on or about December 13:[115]

"(Osama bin Laden) suffered serious complications and died a natural, quiet death. He was buried in Tora Bora, a funeral attended by 30 Al Qaeda fighters, close members of his family and friends from the Taliban. By the Wahhabi tradition, no mark was left on the grave"

A videotape was released on December 27 showing a gaunt, unwell Bin Laden, prompting an unnamed White House aide to comment that it could have been made shortly before his death.[113] On CNN, Dr Sanjay Gupta commented that Bin Laden's left arm never moved during the video, suggesting a recent stroke and possibly a symptom of kidney failure.[116] According to Pakistani President Musharraf, Bin Laden required two dialysis machines, which also suggests kidney failure.[117] "I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a... kidney patient," Musharraf said.[117] If Bin Laden suffered kidney failure, he would require a sterile environment, electricity, and continuous attention by a team of specialists, Gupta said.[116] In April 2002, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated, "We have heard neither hide nor hair of him since, oh, about December in terms of anything hard....We are pretty sure he is either alive or dead."[118] FBI Counterterrorism chief Dale Watson and President Karzai of Afghanistan also expressed the opinion that Bin Laden probably died at this time.[119][120]

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."[121]

Late 2005 CIA disbands "Alec Station", unit dedicated to Bin Laden.[122]

September 2006: On 23 September 2006, the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) stating that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on 23 August 2006, after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs.[123] According to the newspaper, Saudi security services first heard of bin Laden's alleged death on 4 September 2006.[124][125][126] 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.[127] American authorities also cannot confirm reports of bin Laden's death,[128] with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying only, "No comment, and no knowledge."[129] 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.[130]

November 2007: In an interview with political interviewer David Frost taken on 2 November 2007, the Pakistani politician and Pakistan Peoples Party chairwoman Benazir Bhutto claimed that bin Laden had been murdered by Omar Sheikh. During her answer to a question pertaining to the identities of those who had previously attempted her own assassination, Bhutto named Sheikh as a possible suspect while referring to him as "the man who murdered Osama bin Laden." Despite the weight of such a statement, neither Bhutto nor Frost attempted to clarify it during the remainder of the interview.[131] Omar Chatriwala, a journalist for Al Jazeera English, claims that he chose not to pursue the story at the time because he believes Bhutto misspoke, meaning to say Sheikh murdered Daniel Pearl and not Osama Bin Laden.[132] The BBC drew criticism when it rebroadcast the Frost/Bhutto interview on its website, but edited out Bhutto's statement regarding Osama Bin Laden. Later the BBC apologized and replaced the edited version with the complete interview.[133] In October 2007, Bhutto stated in an interview that she would cooperate with the American military in targeting Osama bin Laden.[134]

March 2009: In an essay published in The American Spectator in March 2009, international relations professor Angelo Codevilla of Boston University argued that Osama bin Laden had been dead for many years.[135]

October 2009: An article in the conservative Daily Mail points out that the theory that Bin Laden died in 2001 "is gaining credence among political commentators, respected academics and even terror experts" and notes that the mounting evidence that supports the claim makes the theory "worthy of examination".[115]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Osama bin Laden

Salafist Muslims have criticized bin Laden for adherence to Qutbism (the ideology of Sayyid Qutb), takfir and Khaarijite deviance. Critics are said to include Muhammad Ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee, Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz, Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan and Muqbil bin Haadi al-Waadi'ee.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ FBI.gov FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
  2. ^ In a New Video, Bin Laden Predicts U.S. Failure in Iraq - washingtonpost.com.
  3. ^ a b "Most Wanted Terrorist - Usama Bin Laden". FBI. http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-26. 
  4. ^ "frontline: hunting bin laden: who is bin laden?: chronology". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html. Retrieved 2006-08-21. 
  5. ^ "Osama bin Laden". GlobalSecurity.org. 2006-01-11. http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/osama_bin_laden.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-27. 
  6. ^ "Osama bin Laden infoplease". Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html. Retrieved 2006-08-21. 
  7. ^ a b Letter From Jedda, Young Osama, How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America, by Steve Coll, The New Yorker Fact, Issue of 2005-12-12, posted 2005-12-05.
  8. ^ Beyer, Lisa (2001-09-24). "The Most Wanted Man In The World". Time. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html. Retrieved 2008-04-27. 
  9. ^ Steve Coll, Young Osama. The New Yorker magazine, 2005-12-12.
  10. ^ Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, Verso, 2005, p. xii.
  11. ^ Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 22. Gale Group, 2002.
  12. ^ "Hunting Bin Laden: Who is Bin Laden?". PBS Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html. 
  13. ^ Gunaratna, Rohan (2003). Inside Al Qaeda (3rd ed.). Berkley Books. p. 22. 
  14. ^ Hug, Aziz (2006-01-19). "The Real Osama". American Prospect. http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10855. 
  15. ^ Wright, Looming Tower, (2006), p. 79.
  16. ^ Analysing Bin Laden's jihadi poetry, Michael Hirst, BBC News, 2008-09-24.
  17. ^ Michael Slackman (13 November 2001), Bin Laden Kin Wait and Worry, Los Angeles Times, http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/13/news/mn-3564, retrieved 2008-10-02 .
  18. ^ CNN.com - Transcripts.
  19. ^ Osama bin Laden - A profile of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
  20. ^ Messages, 2005, p. 218. "Resist the New Rome, audiotape delivered to al-Jazeera and broadcast by it on 2004-01-04.
  21. ^ Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism by Dale C. Eikmeier. From Parameters, Spring 2007, pp. 85–98.
  22. ^ Messages, (2005), p.143. from an interview published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi in London 12 November 2001 (originally published in Pakistani daily, Ausaf, Nov. 7.
  23. ^ Messages to the World, (2005), pp. xix, xx, editor Bruce Lawrence.
  24. ^ 6 October 2002. Appeared in Al-Qala'a website and then the London Observer 2002-11-24.
  25. ^ Messages, (2005) p. 70. Al Jazeera interview, December 1998, following Kenya and Tanzania embassy attacks.
  26. ^ Messages, (2005), p. 119, 21 October 2001 interview with Taysir Alluni of Al Jazeera.
  27. ^ Messages, (2005), p. 190. from 53-minute audiotape that "was circulated on various websites." dated 14 February 2003. "Among a Band of Knights."
  28. ^ from interview with Ali Soufan – a Lebanese Sunni FBI]agent – by Wright, Wright, Looming Tower (2006), p. 303.
  29. ^ Klebnikov, Paul (2001-09-14). "Who Is Osama bin Laden?". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2001/09/14/0914whoisobl.html. Retrieved 2008-04-27. 
  30. ^ Wright, Looming Tower (2006), p. 167.
  31. ^ Wright, Looming Tower (2006), p. 172.
  32. ^ Osama: The Making of a Terrorist John Randal I B Tauris & Co Ltd (2005-10-04).
  33. ^ A Capitol Idea Donald E. Abelson p. 208.
  34. ^ The New York Times, 2007-07-08.
  35. ^ The New York Times 2001-09-17.
  36. ^ BBC 21 May 2008 Is global terror threat falling?, BBC News, 2008-05-21.
  37. ^ "Osama bin Laden's operation" has "perpetrated the worst act of terrorism ever witnessed on US soil."
  38. ^ The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader, Peter Bergen Free Press 2006-08-08.
  39. ^ Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America Michael Scheuer Potomac Books Inc. 2006-01-15.
  40. ^ Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century Marc Sageman University of Pennsylvania Press 2008-01-03.
  41. ^ "...bin Laden himself is perhaps best viewed as a terrorist CEO."
  42. ^ A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons Of Mass Destruction, And Rogue States Peter Brookes Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
  43. ^ "Wanted: Usama Bin Laden". Interpol. http://www.interpol.int/Public/Data/Wanted/Notices/Data/1998/32/1998_20232.asp. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
  44. ^ "Who is Osama Bin Laden?". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
  45. ^ "Photo: Zbigniew Brzezinski & Osama bin Laden"". http://fufor.twoday.net/stories/2302873/.  Retrieved on 2007-04-21.
  46. ^ Lawrence Wright estimates his "share of the Saudi Binladin Group" circa fall 1989 as "amounted to 27 million Saudi riyals - a little more than [US]$ 7 million." Wright, (2006), p. 145.)
  47. ^ Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002.
  48. ^ The Osama bin Laden I Know by Peter L. Bergen, pp.74–88. ISBN 0-7432-7892-5.
  49. ^ Wright, Lawrence, Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright, NY, Knopf, 2006 p. 146.
  50. ^ Bosnia — base for terrorism.
  51. ^ Smith, Jeffrey. Washington Post, "A Bosnian Village's Terrorist Ties", 2000-03-11.
  52. ^ Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Hassan Almrei, 2008-02-22.
  53. ^ Baravalle, Giorgio. "Rethink: Cause and Consequences of September 11", 2004.
  54. ^ Assyrian International News Agency, "Jihadists find convenient base in Bosnia", 2005-08-17.
  55. ^ a b Bin Laden’s Balkan Connections.
  56. ^ BIN LADEN WAS GRANTED BOSNIAN PASSPORT, Agence France Presse 1999-09-24.
  57. ^ Outsiders Bring Islamic Fervor To the Balkans.
  58. ^ Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Doubleday. p. 114.
  59. ^ Wright, Looming Towers (2006), p. 195.
  60. ^ Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism] 2004
  61. ^ "9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 4" (PDF). 9/11 Commission. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.pdf. 
  62. ^ Los Angeles Times, Fighters hunt former ally, 2001-12-06.
  63. ^ "Profile: Mullah Mohamed Omar". The 9/11 Commission Report. BBC. 2004-07-22. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550419.stm. Retrieved 2006-09-28. 
  64. ^ Wright, Looming Towers (2006), p. 250.
  65. ^ "9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 2" (PDF). 9/11 Commission. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch2.pdf. 
  66. ^ "who is bin laden?: chronology PBS". http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html. Retrieved 2006-09-06. 
  67. ^ testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, US v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
  68. ^ Jailan Halawi, `bin Laden behind Luxor Massacre?` Al-Ahram Weekly, May 20–26, 1999.
  69. ^ Plett, Barbara (1999-05-13). "Bin Laden 'behind Luxor massacre'". BBC online network. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/343207.stm. Retrieved 2006-09-24. 
  70. ^ "Profile: Ayman al-Zawahiri". BBC online network. 2004-09-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1560834.stm. Retrieved 2006-09-24. 
  71. ^ Testimony of Abdurahman Khadr as a witness in the trial against Charkaoui, 2004-07-13.
  72. ^ Rashid, Taliban, p. 139.
  73. ^ Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, Fazlur Rahman (1998-02-23). "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders: Initial "Fatwa" Statement" (in Arabic). al-Quds al-Arabi. http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-10. 
  74. ^ Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, Fazlur Rahman (1998-02-23). "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. World Islamic Front Statement". al-Quds al-Arabi. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-24.  English language version of the fatwa translated by the Federation of American Scientists of the original Arabic document published in the newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi (London, U.K.) on 1998-02-23, p. 3.
  75. ^ Van Atta, Dale (1998). "CARBOMBS & CAMERAS - The Need for Responsible Media Coverage of Terrorism". Harvard International Review (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard International Relations Council) 20 (4): 66. ISBN 9780895264855. ISSN 0739-1854. http://www.allbusiness.com/public-administration/national-security-international/709509-1.html. 
  76. ^ a b "Planned Jan. 2000 Attacks Failed or Were Thwarted; Plot Targeted U.S., Jordan, American Warship, Official Says", Vernon Loeb, The Washington Post, 2000-12-24 (mirrored at [1]).
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References

  • Peter L. Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know: New York: Free Press, 2006
  • Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies' Eyes, Washington, D.C. : Brassey's, c2002
  • Wright, Lawrence, The Looming Tower : Al-Qaeda And The Road To 9/11, New York : Knopf, 2006.

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