osama bin laden
Laden.jpg
Usāmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin Lādin (born March 10, 1957 or July 30, 1957) (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عود بن لادن), commonly known as Osama bin Laden (أسامة بن لادن), is the head of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization that has been involved in terrorist attacks against civilians and military targets around the world.
He is a member of the immensely wealthy bin Laden family. The bin Laden family publicly disowned Osama bin Laden in 1994, shortly before the Saudi Arabian government revoked his citizenship, and several years before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The government of the United States named Osama bin Laden the prime suspect in the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed at least 2,992 people, although he has not been formally charged. Bin Laden did not explicitly admit responsibility for the attacks until October 2004, just days before the US Presidential election, when he stated that he was behind the September 11 attacks in a videotaped speech that was played on Qatar's al Jazeera television channel.[http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/bin.laden.transcript/index.html] Prior to October 2004, some evidence already suggested that he was behind the attacks. In a videotape purportedly discovered in Afghanistan in 2001, a person resembling bin Laden appeared to discuss the attacks using language suggesting that he participated in planning the attacks. For more information, see (*****) below.
Bin Laden is widely proclaimed to be the "most wanted man in the world." On March 18 2004, the United States House of Representatives unanimously voted to double the reward for information leading to his capture from US$25 million to US$50 million. His current whereabouts are unknown, although some believe he is hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border or in the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan.
Osama bin Laden speaks and writes Arabic, and possibly knows Pashto.
Names
Osama bin Laden's name can be
transliterated in several ways. The form used here,
Osama bin Laden, is used by most
English-language mass media, including
CNN and the
BBC. The second most common English-language form of the name is
Usama bin Laden (used by the
FBI and
FOX News). Less common renderings include
Ussamah Bin Ladin and
Oussama Ben Laden (used in
French-language mass media). The latter part of the name can also be found as
ibn Laden,
Binladen or
Binladin.
Strictly speaking, under the
Arabic naming convention, it is incorrect to use "bin Laden" as though it was a Western surname. His full name means "Osama, son of Mohammed, 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. The family company is known as the
Binladin Brothers for Contracting and Industry and is one of the largest corporations in Saudi Arabia. For this reason, although the Arabic convention would be to refer to him either 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.
Osama bin Laden has several
aliases and
nicknames, including
the Prince,
the Emir,
Abu Abdallah,
Mujahid Shaykh,
Hajj, and
the Director.
Appearance and manner
Bin Laden is often described as lanky — tall and thin, the
FBI describes his height as 6' 4" (193 cm) to 6' 6" (198 cm) and his weight as about 160 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.
He reportedly suffers from
kidney disease (see below). There has also been speculation in the Western media that he might have
Marfan syndrome.[http://dir.salon.com/people/feature/2001/11/09/marfan/index.html]
Childhood
Osama bin Laden was born in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, to
Muhammad Awad bin Ladin, a wealthy businessman involved in construction and closely tied to the
Saudi royal family. There is no definitive account of the number of children Mohammed bin Laden had, but the number is generally put at 54. In addition, various accounts place Osama as his seventeenth son, while others say he was the last of 25 sons.
The large number of bin Laden siblings is the result of
polygyny; his father was married ten times, although to no more than four women at a time per
Islamic law. Osama bin Laden is the only son of the elder bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, who is reportedly of Syrian descent. A woman who in
1971 had attended an English language course with Osama recalled him saying with some sadness that his mother was a
concubine[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1595000/1595205.stm].
His family originally came from
Hadhramaut,
Yemen. He was raised as a devout
Sunni Muslim and in interviews he frequently invokes
Allah (
God). After his graduation from secondary school in
1973, bin Laden went to
Beirut, the capital of
Lebanon, and allegedly frequented bars and nightclubs. As a college student, he studied business and project administration. He also earned a
degree in
civil engineering from
King Abdul Aziz University in
Jeddah in
1979, possibly in preparation for taking over parts of his father's extensive construction and civil engineering business.
After his father died, bin Laden inherited what was first estimated to be a fortune of US$300 million; more recent estimates put his holdings at about US$25 million.
In 1974, at the age of 18, bin Laden married his first wife (and first cousin), Najwah Ghanem. Islam permits men to take as many as four wives at one time and Bin Laden reportedly married four other women, divorcing one. He has fathered at least 24 children. Najwah, a Syrian and his mother's niece, reportedly had 11 children by bin Laden, seven of them sons, including Abdallah, Omar, Saad, and Muhammad. Saad, born in 1979, is reportedly active in an Iran-based al-Qaida network. Omar and Abdallah were reportedly organizing the U.S. branch of the World Congress of Muslim Youth in
Falls Church, Virginia during the 1990s.
Afghan Jihad
His wealth and connections permitted him to pursue his interest in supporting the
mujahedeen, Muslim
guerrillas fighting the
Soviet Union in
Afghanistan following the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
1979. (
See: the History of Afghanistan.) By 1984 he 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.
MAK was supported by the governments of Pakistan, the
United States[http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1#BODY] and Saudi Arabia, and nurtured by
Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence.
Formation of al-Qaeda
By
1988, Osama bin Laden had split from the MAK and established a new militant group, later dubbed
al-Qaeda by the U.S. government, which included many of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in
1989 and bin Laden was lauded as a
mujaheddin hero in Saudi Arabia. After
Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bin Laden offered to aid in the defense of Saudi Arabia but he was rebuffed by the Saudi Arabian government. Bin Laden publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S. military and demanded an end to the presence of foreign military bases in Saudi Arabia. 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 profoundly shocked and revolted bin Laden and other Islamist militants because the Saudi Arabian government claims legitimacy based on their role as guardians of the sacred Muslim cities of
Mecca and
Medina. After the Gulf War, the establishment of permanent bases for non-Muslim U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia continued to undermine the Saudi Arabian rulers' legitimacy and inflamed anti-government Islamist militants, including bin Laden. Bin Laden's increasingly strident criticisms of the Saudi monarchy led the Saudi Arabian government expel him to
Sudan in 1991.
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 of mujaheddin operations in 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 government figure
Hassan al Turabi. The funding from these ventures was used to run several training camps on his farmland, where Islamist militants could receive instruction in firearms use and the use of explosives from former Afghan mujaheddin.
Around this time, bin Laden and his associates began developing and executing a series of meticulously-planned terrorist attacks. In 1995, the Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship after he claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. and Saudi military bases in
Riyadh and
Dahran.
Sudanese officials claim that they offered to extradite bin Laden to either the United States or Saudi Arabia in the mid-
1990s but former U.S. counter-terrorism officials, including
Richard Clarke, deny the claim. Whether the offer was made or not is still disputed - various Republican media outlets claim the offer was there. [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/9/165600.shtml] In May
1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, Sudan expelled bin Laden. He chartered a plane and flew to
Kabul before settling in
Jalalabad,
Afghanistan. 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. Bin Laden supported the Taliban government with financial and paramilitary assistance and, in 1997, he moved to
Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold.
Bin Laden is suspected of funding the
1997 massacre of 62 tourists in
Luxor,
Egypt conducted by
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an 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.
Terrorist attacks on the United States
Osama bin Laden's first strike against the United States was the December 29, 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in
Aden,
Yemen that killed a Yemeni hotel employee, an Austrian national and seriously injured his wife. About 100 US soldiers, part of
Operation Restore Hope, had been staying at the hotel for two weeks but had left two days earlier for
Somalia. Some sources believe that Osama bin Laden funded and/or directed the
World Trade Center bombing in
1993. Bin Laden and the
Indonesian militant known as
Hambali allegedly funded the aborted
Operation Bojinka conspiracy until police discovered the plot in
Manila,
Philippines on
January 6,
1995.
In
1998, bin Laden and
Ayman al-Zawahiri (a leader of
Egyptian Islamic Jihad) co-signed a
fatwa, (binding religious edict), in the name of the (*****) , declaring, "The 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.'" (See
Osama bin Laden Fatwa).
Osama bin Laden is officially wanted by the United States in connection with the
August 7, (*****) in
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania and
Nairobi,
Kenya, that killed 225 people and injured more than 4000. Since June 1999, bin Laden has been listed as one of the (*****) and
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. Al-Qaida was allegedly involved in several unsuccessful conspiracies, including the
2000 millennium attack plots to bomb Los Angeles airport, several tourist sites in
Jordan and the
USS The Sullivans, and well as the subsequent
Paris embassy terrorist attack plot. The al-Qaida organization is allegedly responsible for the successful
USS Cole bombing in October, 2000.
In response to these attacks, President
Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets linked to bin Laden. Clinton also signed an
executive order authorizing bin Laden's arrest or
assassination. In August
1998, the U.S. military launched an assassination attempt using cruise missiles. The attack failed to harm bin Laden but killed 19 other people. The U.S. offered a US$25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's apprehension or conviction and, in
1999, convinced the
United Nations to impose sanctions against
Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.
Osama and the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
Immediately after the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the
United States, the United States government named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect. At first he denied this accusation, suggesting the attacks were the fault of Jews or of the CIA. But in subsequent statements and interviews he expressed admiration for whoever was responsible. He took credit for "inspiring" what he calls the "blessed attacks" of September 11th in several public statements.
In December
2001 U.S. forces in
Afghanistan captured a videotape during a raid on a house in
Jalalabad, in which a man who looks like bin Laden is seen and heard discussing the September 11 attacks with a group of followers. According to the official U.S.
translation of this tape—which has been disputed—bin Laden says:
:
We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...)
Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for. (
full text of the tape transcript)In December 2001 there was disagreement whether the tape should be released or not. Some in the Bush Administration believed the tape would provide decisive evidence for bin Laden's involvement in the September 11th attacks; other feared allegation that the tape was fabricated, taking into account the poor quality of the tape. The tape was finally released on
December 13. Already on the 14th, allegation arose from the Pakistani political party JUI that the tape was doctored, the photographic quality of the video being so low that a fake bin Laden would be indistinguishable. Others claimed that the video could have been doctored using digital technology and computers.
In January
2002 CNN reported the U.S. spread leaflets of doctored photographs of
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, portraying him shaved and in western clothing, aiming to lead the Al-Qaida fighters to believe that Osama had deserted them.[http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/04/ret.bin.laden.leaflets/] Some argued that if the U.S. was willing to fabricate photographs to achieve their goals then they would probably also be willing to fabricate videos.
United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked
"...whether the leaflet could be used by some to say the United States is willing to doctor or make up things -- as has been alleged about the videotape found in Afghanistan by the United States..." (quoting the above cited article), he is reported to have replied that he had not thought about the possibility.
In January 2002 a
German expert in Middle Eastern studies, Gernot Rotter, as well as two other independent translators of Arabic, reported in German television (ARD) and newspapers (Netzeitung and Der Spiegel) that several serious mistakes could be found in the official American translation of the tape.
Over the course of time after the attacks September the 11th several other videotapes which were at the time presented as evidence for bin Laden's involvement was presented in the media (11.11.01 Sunday Times /
Al-Jazeera 26.12.02 / 04.02 Al-Jazeera/AP / Sunday Times 19.05.02 / 09.02 Al-Jazeera etc). The video found in
Jalalabad in December 2001 is still the most often cited as evidence for bin Laden's participation, suggesting that this video presents the strongest case for a bin Laden involvement in the September 11th attacks.
As early as October 2001, the U.S. presented evidence to
NATO, behind closed doors, of Osama bin Laden's involvement in the 11th of September attacks. NATO's general secretary
George Robertson reported to AP that the U.S. had presented clear and decisive evidence of Osama bin Laden's participation, causing him to invoke article 5 in the NATO pact. The evidence presented to NATO was never presented to the public nor in the open press; according to American officials, the reason for this was fears that terrorists might find out secrets about American intelligence. The nature of this evidence thus still remains uncertain. The U.S. -- because of its unwillingness to show the evidence that NATO found so compelling -- has had to resort to low quality videos (like the 2001 Jalalabad video) when presenting evidence to the public.
If this tape is authentic and its transcripts correctly translated, it shows at the very least that bin Laden claimed to some that he had advance knowledge of the attacks on the
World Trade Center, including the precise nature of the attacks. One leading al-Qaida member,
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, claims (according to his interrogators) that the idea for the attacks came from him and not from bin Laden. Khalid has been in United States custody since September
2003. The extent to which bin Laden was involved in funding or overseeing the operation is unknown. Despite this, and despite the fact that bin Laden's assumed involvement in the 9/11 attacks has never been publicly, transparently and conclusively established, it has, as of 2004, become the mainstream opinion ("world opinion") that bin Laden was responsible for and/or masterminded the attacks, argued by some to have been a consequence of the continued assertions from U.S. officials that he was responsible. Whether it will even be possible in light of such overwhelming public opinion to objectively establish the truth about his involvement in the attacks (eg. in the event of his capture) remains to be seen. However, there is more substantial evidence for bin Laden's involvement in other, pre-9/11 attacks. It is for this reason that the
FBI's most wanted poster of bin Laden only makes reference to bin Laden being sought for pre-9/11 terrorist activity.
Nevertheless, bin Laden has publicly praised the 9/11 attacks in several instances and has taken credit for being their "inspiration." It is clear in many of his public statements that he views himself as an active participant in the attacks, whether or not he deserves the credit the West gives him as their "mastermind." A good example is this passage from his October 2001 interview with Al-Jazeera:
:''As for the World Trade Center, the ones who were attacked and who died in it were a financial power. It wasn't a children's school! And it wasn't a residence. And the general consensus is that most of the people who were in there were men that backed the biggest financial force in the world that spreads worldwide mischief [ta`ithu fil ardi fasaadaa]. And those individuals should stand for Allah, and to re-think and re-do their calculations. We treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they stop from doing so.[http://www.religioscope.com/info/doc/jihad/ubl_int_1.htm]
In October of 2004, a videotape was released of Bin Laden directly admitting that he had ordered the September 11 attacks:
:...as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.''
[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm]
Current status
Osama bin Laden's current location is unknown. After the September 11 attacks, the United States asked the
Taliban government of Afghanistan to "hand him over," but declined to provide any evidence implicating Osama in the attacks. The Taliban counter-offer to try bin Laden in an Islamic court or extradite him to a third-party country was deemed unacceptable by the U.S. government. The
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the death or arrest of numerous militiamen, but bin Laden was not found. In September 2003, a videotape of
Ayman al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, accompanied by an audiotape, were released to the al-Jazeera network in Qatar, purporting to prove that both men are still alive. Bin Laden appeared in a mountainous region wearing traditional Pathan attire. The date of the videotape recording could not be ascertained.
There had been suggestions that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, Afghanistan, or he that may have died of natural causes. The U.S. military had reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly
kidney dialysis.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, also an
FBI Most Wanted Terrorist, is a physician and may have provided medical care to bin Laden. Although Osama has been publicly disowned by his family, an estranged family member, Carmen Binladin, speculates (without providing evidence) that unnamed family members may be providing financial support to Osama bin Laden.
A Spanish court indicted Osama bin Laden and 34 others on charges related to terrorism on
September 17,
2003.
Iranian news agency
IRNA reported on
February 27,
2004 that bin Laden had been caught some time earlier in
Pakistan. The news was spread by
Asheq Hossein, director of the state-sponsored radio station, who mentioned two sources. The first source was a reporter of the Pakistani newspaper "The Nation,"
Shamim Shahed, who denied ever telling this to Hossein. The second source was "someone closely related to intelligence agencies and Afghan tribal elders." Both
the Pentagon and a spokesperson of the Pakistani armed forces have denied the capture of bin Laden. Similar rumours have appeared from time to time since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan but none have been confirmed.
On
October 21,
2004,
John Lehman, a member of the
9/11 Commission, reported that Osama bin Laden is indeed alive, and that
the Pentagon knows exactly where he is. According to Lehman, bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the
Baluchistan Mountains of the
Baluchistan region, surviving from donations from outside countries such as the
United Arab Emirates and high-ranking ministers inside
Saudi Arabia. "There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops," Lehman said. "If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now."[http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerry200410221447.asp]
On
October 29,
2004, the Arab television network
Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of Osama bin Laden addressing citizens of the
United States, discussing the reasons behind the
September 11, 2001 attacks. This release came just four days before the
2004 U.S. presidential election. See
2004 bin Laden videoSee also
-
Terrorist incidents-
Videos of bin Laden-
Worldwide perception of Osama bin Laden-
Osama bin Laden's Declaration of War-
Osama tapes-
Steven EmersonExternal links
News
-
BBC:Transcript of Osama bin Laden video aired by al-Jazeera-
Who is Osama bin Laden? BBC report
-
BBC News: 'I met Osama bin Laden' - March 26, 2004 - a short profile of bin Laden's life
-
Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement from bin Laden, 23 February 1998
Interviews
-
Transcript of interview by CNN (PDF file) - Correspondent
Peter Arnett (March 20, 1997). The interview was first broadcast on
CNN on May 10, 1997. This was Osama bin Ladin's first sit-down with a Western TV journalist.
-
Interview with Osama bin Laden - Questions partly by some of his followers and partly by
ABC reporter
John Miller, (May 1998)
-
Alleged interview - Transcription from Pakistani Newspaper of questions answered via written correspondence with the Taliban, who supposedly passed them to bin Laden
-
Interview printed in the January 11, 1999 issue of Time MagazineOther
-
Interpol Profile-
FBI's Usama bin Laden "Most Wanted Terrorists" poster-
BBC News profile-
Bin Laden comes home to roost - By Michael Moran, MSNBC, August 24, 1998. Alleges a CIA/bin Laden relationship
-
Who Is Osama bin Laden? - By
Michel Chossudovsky-
CNN story about the interview-
Picture of bin Ladin and two brothers on a visit to Oxford in 1971 - Story on BBC News
-
$US 40 billion sponsorship of islamic fundamentalist training program - Carter + Brzezinski-
Summary of medical information, mostly speculative-
Bin Laden's wealth not the force behind 9/11 (
AP/
CNN)
-
Osama bin Laden at the
Internet Movie Database- Emerson, S. (2002),
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Free Press; 2003 paperback edition, ISBN 0743234359
Bin Laden, OsamaBin Laden, OsamaBin Laden, OsamaCategory:CriminalsBin Laden, OsamaBin Laden, OsamaBin Laden, Osamaar:اسامة بن لادنcs:Usáma bin Ládinda:Osama bin Ladende:Osama bin Ladenes:Osama bin Ladeneo:Usama BIN LADENfr:Oussama Ben Ladenid:Osama bin Ladenit:Osama bin Ladenla:Osama bin Ladennl:Osama bin Laden
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "osama bin laden".
osama bin laden
Laden.jpg
Usāmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin Lādin (born March 10, 1957 or July 30, 1957) (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عود بن لادن), commonly known as Osama bin Laden (أسامة بن لادن), is the head of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization that has been involved in terrorist attacks against civilians and military targets around the world.
He is a member of the immensely wealthy bin Laden family. The bin Laden family publicly disowned Osama bin Laden in 1994, shortly before the Saudi Arabian government revoked his citizenship, and several years before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The government of the United States named Osama bin Laden the prime suspect in the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed at least 2,992 people, although he has not been formally charged. Bin Laden did not explicitly admit responsibility for the attacks until October 2004, just days before the US Presidential election, when he stated that he was behind the September 11 attacks in a videotaped speech that was played on Qatar's al Jazeera television channel.[http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/bin.laden.transcript/index.html] Prior to October 2004, some evidence already suggested that he was behind the attacks. In a videotape purportedly discovered in Afghanistan in 2001, a person resembling bin Laden appeared to discuss the attacks using language suggesting that he participated in planning the attacks. For more information, see (*****) below.
Bin Laden is widely proclaimed to be the "most wanted man in the world." On March 18 2004, the United States House of Representatives unanimously voted to double the reward for information leading to his capture from US$25 million to US$50 million. His current whereabouts are unknown, although some believe he is hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border or in the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan.
Osama bin Laden speaks and writes Arabic, and possibly knows Pashto.
Names
Osama bin Laden's name can be
transliterated in several ways. The form used here,
Osama bin Laden, is used by most
English-language mass media, including
CNN and the
BBC. The second most common English-language form of the name is
Usama bin Laden (used by the
FBI and
FOX News). Less common renderings include
Ussamah Bin Ladin and
Oussama Ben Laden (used in
French-language mass media). The latter part of the name can also be found as
ibn Laden,
Binladen or
Binladin.
Strictly speaking, under the
Arabic naming convention, it is incorrect to use "bin Laden" as though it was a Western surname. His full name means "Osama, son of Mohammed, 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. The family company is known as the
Binladin Brothers for Contracting and Industry and is one of the largest corporations in Saudi Arabia. For this reason, although the Arabic convention would be to refer to him either 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.
Osama bin Laden has several
aliases and
nicknames, including
the Prince,
the Emir,
Abu Abdallah,
Mujahid Shaykh,
Hajj, and
the Director.
Appearance and manner
Bin Laden is often described as lanky — tall and thin, the
FBI describes his height as 6' 4" (193 cm) to 6' 6" (198 cm) and his weight as about 160 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.
He reportedly suffers from
kidney disease (see below). There has also been speculation in the Western media that he might have
Marfan syndrome.[http://dir.salon.com/people/feature/2001/11/09/marfan/index.html]
Childhood
Osama bin Laden was born in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, to
Muhammad Awad bin Ladin, a wealthy businessman involved in construction and closely tied to the
Saudi royal family. There is no definitive account of the number of children Mohammed bin Laden had, but the number is generally put at 54. In addition, various accounts place Osama as his seventeenth son, while others say he was the last of 25 sons.
The large number of bin Laden siblings is the result of
polygyny; his father was married ten times, although to no more than four women at a time per
Islamic law. Osama bin Laden is the only son of the elder bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, who is reportedly of Syrian descent. A woman who in
1971 had attended an English language course with Osama recalled him saying with some sadness that his mother was a
concubine[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1595000/1595205.stm].
His family originally came from
Hadhramaut,
Yemen. He was raised as a devout
Sunni Muslim and in interviews he frequently invokes
Allah (
God). After his graduation from secondary school in
1973, bin Laden went to
Beirut, the capital of
Lebanon, and allegedly frequented bars and nightclubs. As a college student, he studied business and project administration. He also earned a
degree in
civil engineering from
King Abdul Aziz University in
Jeddah in
1979, possibly in preparation for taking over parts of his father's extensive construction and civil engineering business.
After his father died, bin Laden inherited what was first estimated to be a fortune of US$300 million; more recent estimates put his holdings at about US$25 million.
In 1974, at the age of 18, bin Laden married his first wife (and first cousin), Najwah Ghanem. Islam permits men to take as many as four wives at one time and Bin Laden reportedly married four other women, divorcing one. He has fathered at least 24 children. Najwah, a Syrian and his mother's niece, reportedly had 11 children by bin Laden, seven of them sons, including Abdallah, Omar, Saad, and Muhammad. Saad, born in 1979, is reportedly active in an Iran-based al-Qaida network. Omar and Abdallah were reportedly organizing the U.S. branch of the World Congress of Muslim Youth in
Falls Church, Virginia during the 1990s.
Afghan Jihad
His wealth and connections permitted him to pursue his interest in supporting the
mujahedeen, Muslim
guerrillas fighting the
Soviet Union in
Afghanistan following the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
1979. (
See: the History of Afghanistan.) By 1984 he 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.
MAK was supported by the governments of Pakistan, the
United States[http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1#BODY] and Saudi Arabia, and nurtured by
Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence.
Formation of al-Qaeda
By
1988, Osama bin Laden had split from the MAK and established a new militant group, later dubbed
al-Qaeda by the U.S. government, which included many of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in
1989 and bin Laden was lauded as a
mujaheddin hero in Saudi Arabia. After
Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bin Laden offered to aid in the defense of Saudi Arabia but he was rebuffed by the Saudi Arabian government. Bin Laden publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S. military and demanded an end to the presence of foreign military bases in Saudi Arabia. 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 profoundly shocked and revolted bin Laden and other Islamist militants because the Saudi Arabian government claims legitimacy based on their role as guardians of the sacred Muslim cities of
Mecca and
Medina. After the Gulf War, the establishment of permanent bases for non-Muslim U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia continued to undermine the Saudi Arabian rulers' legitimacy and inflamed anti-government Islamist militants, including bin Laden. Bin Laden's increasingly strident criticisms of the Saudi monarchy led the Saudi Arabian government expel him to
Sudan in 1991.
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 of mujaheddin operations in 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 government figure
Hassan al Turabi. The funding from these ventures was used to run several training camps on his farmland, where Islamist militants could receive instruction in firearms use and the use of explosives from former Afghan mujaheddin.
Around this time, bin Laden and his associates began developing and executing a series of meticulously-planned terrorist attacks. In 1995, the Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship after he claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. and Saudi military bases in
Riyadh and
Dahran.
Sudanese officials claim that they offered to extradite bin Laden to either the United States or Saudi Arabia in the mid-
1990s but former U.S. counter-terrorism officials, including
Richard Clarke, deny the claim. Whether the offer was made or not is still disputed - various Republican media outlets claim the offer was there. [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/9/165600.shtml] In May
1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, Sudan expelled bin Laden. He chartered a plane and flew to
Kabul before settling in
Jalalabad,
Afghanistan. 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. Bin Laden supported the Taliban government with financial and paramilitary assistance and, in 1997, he moved to
Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold.
Bin Laden is suspected of funding the
1997 massacre of 62 tourists in
Luxor,
Egypt conducted by
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an 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.
Terrorist attacks on the United States
Osama bin Laden's first strike against the United States was the December 29, 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in
Aden,
Yemen that killed a Yemeni hotel employee, an Austrian national and seriously injured his wife. About 100 US soldiers, part of
Operation Restore Hope, had been staying at the hotel for two weeks but had left two days earlier for
Somalia. Some sources believe that Osama bin Laden funded and/or directed the
World Trade Center bombing in
1993. Bin Laden and the
Indonesian militant known as
Hambali allegedly funded the aborted
Operation Bojinka conspiracy until police discovered the plot in
Manila,
Philippines on
January 6,
1995.
In
1998, bin Laden and
Ayman al-Zawahiri (a leader of
Egyptian Islamic Jihad) co-signed a
fatwa, (binding religious edict), in the name of the (*****) , declaring, "The 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.'" (See
Osama bin Laden Fatwa).
Osama bin Laden is officially wanted by the United States in connection with the
August 7, (*****) in
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania and
Nairobi,
Kenya, that killed 225 people and injured more than 4000. Since June 1999, bin Laden has been listed as one of the (*****) and
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. Al-Qaida was allegedly involved in several unsuccessful conspiracies, including the
2000 millennium attack plots to bomb Los Angeles airport, several tourist sites in
Jordan and the
USS The Sullivans, and well as the subsequent
Paris embassy terrorist attack plot. The al-Qaida organization is allegedly responsible for the successful
USS Cole bombing in October, 2000.
In response to these attacks, President
Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets linked to bin Laden. Clinton also signed an
executive order authorizing bin Laden's arrest or
assassination. In August
1998, the U.S. military launched an assassination attempt using cruise missiles. The attack failed to harm bin Laden but killed 19 other people. The U.S. offered a US$25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's apprehension or conviction and, in
1999, convinced the
United Nations to impose sanctions against
Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.
Osama and the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
Immediately after the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the
United States, the United States government named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect. At first he denied this accusation, suggesting the attacks were the fault of Jews or of the CIA. But in subsequent statements and interviews he expressed admiration for whoever was responsible. He took credit for "inspiring" what he calls the "blessed attacks" of September 11th in several public statements.
In December
2001 U.S. forces in
Afghanistan captured a videotape during a raid on a house in
Jalalabad, in which a man who looks like bin Laden is seen and heard discussing the September 11 attacks with a group of followers. According to the official U.S.
translation of this tape—which has been disputed—bin Laden says:
:
We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...)
Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for. (
full text of the tape transcript)In December 2001 there was disagreement whether the tape should be released or not. Some in the Bush Administration believed the tape would provide decisive evidence for bin Laden's involvement in the September 11th attacks; other feared allegation that the tape was fabricated, taking into account the poor quality of the tape. The tape was finally released on
December 13. Already on the 14th, allegation arose from the Pakistani political party JUI that the tape was doctored, the photographic quality of the video being so low that a fake bin Laden would be indistinguishable. Others claimed that the video could have been doctored using digital technology and computers.
In January
2002 CNN reported the U.S. spread leaflets of doctored photographs of
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, portraying him shaved and in western clothing, aiming to lead the Al-Qaida fighters to believe that Osama had deserted them.[http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/04/ret.bin.laden.leaflets/] Some argued that if the U.S. was willing to fabricate photographs to achieve their goals then they would probably also be willing to fabricate videos.
United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked
"...whether the leaflet could be used by some to say the United States is willing to doctor or make up things -- as has been alleged about the videotape found in Afghanistan by the United States..." (quoting the above cited article), he is reported to have replied that he had not thought about the possibility.
In January 2002 a
German expert in Middle Eastern studies, Gernot Rotter, as well as two other independent translators of Arabic, reported in German television (ARD) and newspapers (Netzeitung and Der Spiegel) that several serious mistakes could be found in the official American translation of the tape.
Over the course of time after the attacks September the 11th several other videotapes which were at the time presented as evidence for bin Laden's involvement was presented in the media (11.11.01 Sunday Times /
Al-Jazeera 26.12.02 / 04.02 Al-Jazeera/AP / Sunday Times 19.05.02 / 09.02 Al-Jazeera etc). The video found in
Jalalabad in December 2001 is still the most often cited as evidence for bin Laden's participation, suggesting that this video presents the strongest case for a bin Laden involvement in the September 11th attacks.
As early as October 2001, the U.S. presented evidence to
NATO, behind closed doors, of Osama bin Laden's involvement in the 11th of September attacks. NATO's general secretary
George Robertson reported to AP that the U.S. had presented clear and decisive evidence of Osama bin Laden's participation, causing him to invoke article 5 in the NATO pact. The evidence presented to NATO was never presented to the public nor in the open press; according to American officials, the reason for this was fears that terrorists might find out secrets about American intelligence. The nature of this evidence thus still remains uncertain. The U.S. -- because of its unwillingness to show the evidence that NATO found so compelling -- has had to resort to low quality videos (like the 2001 Jalalabad video) when presenting evidence to the public.
If this tape is authentic and its transcripts correctly translated, it shows at the very least that bin Laden claimed to some that he had advance knowledge of the attacks on the
World Trade Center, including the precise nature of the attacks. One leading al-Qaida member,
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, claims (according to his interrogators) that the idea for the attacks came from him and not from bin Laden. Khalid has been in United States custody since September
2003. The extent to which bin Laden was involved in funding or overseeing the operation is unknown. Despite this, and despite the fact that bin Laden's assumed involvement in the 9/11 attacks has never been publicly, transparently and conclusively established, it has, as of 2004, become the mainstream opinion ("world opinion") that bin Laden was responsible for and/or masterminded the attacks, argued by some to have been a consequence of the continued assertions from U.S. officials that he was responsible. Whether it will even be possible in light of such overwhelming public opinion to objectively establish the truth about his involvement in the attacks (eg. in the event of his capture) remains to be seen. However, there is more substantial evidence for bin Laden's involvement in other, pre-9/11 attacks. It is for this reason that the
FBI's most wanted poster of bin Laden only makes reference to bin Laden being sought for pre-9/11 terrorist activity.
Nevertheless, bin Laden has publicly praised the 9/11 attacks in several instances and has taken credit for being their "inspiration." It is clear in many of his public statements that he views himself as an active participant in the attacks, whether or not he deserves the credit the West gives him as their "mastermind." A good example is this passage from his October 2001 interview with Al-Jazeera:
:''As for the World Trade Center, the ones who were attacked and who died in it were a financial power. It wasn't a children's school! And it wasn't a residence. And the general consensus is that most of the people who were in there were men that backed the biggest financial force in the world that spreads worldwide mischief [ta`ithu fil ardi fasaadaa]. And those individuals should stand for Allah, and to re-think and re-do their calculations. We treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they stop from doing so.[http://www.religioscope.com/info/doc/jihad/ubl_int_1.htm]
In October of 2004, a videotape was released of Bin Laden directly admitting that he had ordered the September 11 attacks:
:...as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.''
[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm]
Current status
Osama bin Laden's current location is unknown. After the September 11 attacks, the United States asked the
Taliban government of Afghanistan to "hand him over," but declined to provide any evidence implicating Osama in the attacks. The Taliban counter-offer to try bin Laden in an Islamic court or extradite him to a third-party country was deemed unacceptable by the U.S. government. The
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the death or arrest of numerous militiamen, but bin Laden was not found. In September 2003, a videotape of
Ayman al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, accompanied by an audiotape, were released to the al-Jazeera network in Qatar, purporting to prove that both men are still alive. Bin Laden appeared in a mountainous region wearing traditional Pathan attire. The date of the videotape recording could not be ascertained.
There had been suggestions that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, Afghanistan, or he that may have died of natural causes. The U.S. military had reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly
kidney dialysis.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, also an
FBI Most Wanted Terrorist, is a physician and may have provided medical care to bin Laden. Although Osama has been publicly disowned by his family, an estranged family member, Carmen Binladin, speculates (without providing evidence) that unnamed family members may be providing financial support to Osama bin Laden.
A Spanish court indicted Osama bin Laden and 34 others on charges related to terrorism on
September 17,
2003.
Iranian news agency
IRNA reported on
February 27,
2004 that bin Laden had been caught some time earlier in
Pakistan. The news was spread by
Asheq Hossein, director of the state-sponsored radio station, who mentioned two sources. The first source was a reporter of the Pakistani newspaper "The Nation,"
Shamim Shahed, who denied ever telling this to Hossein. The second source was "someone closely related to intelligence agencies and Afghan tribal elders." Both
the Pentagon and a spokesperson of the Pakistani armed forces have denied the capture of bin Laden. Similar rumours have appeared from time to time since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan but none have been confirmed.
On
October 21,
2004,
John Lehman, a member of the
9/11 Commission, reported that Osama bin Laden is indeed alive, and that
the Pentagon knows exactly where he is. According to Lehman, bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the
Baluchistan Mountains of the
Baluchistan region, surviving from donations from outside countries such as the
United Arab Emirates and high-ranking ministers inside
Saudi Arabia. "There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops," Lehman said. "If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now."[http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerry200410221447.asp]
On
October 29,
2004, the Arab television network
Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of Osama bin Laden addressing citizens of the
United States, discussing the reasons behind the
September 11, 2001 attacks. This release came just four days before the
2004 U.S. presidential election. See
2004 bin Laden videoSee also
-
Terrorist incidents-
Videos of bin Laden-
Worldwide perception of Osama bin Laden-
Osama bin Laden's Declaration of War-
Osama tapes-
Steven EmersonExternal links
News
-
BBC:Transcript of Osama bin Laden video aired by al-Jazeera-
Who is Osama bin Laden? BBC report
-
BBC News: 'I met Osama bin Laden' - March 26, 2004 - a short profile of bin Laden's life
-
Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement from bin Laden, 23 February 1998
Interviews
-
Transcript of interview by CNN (PDF file) - Correspondent
Peter Arnett (March 20, 1997). The interview was first broadcast on
CNN on May 10, 1997. This was Osama bin Ladin's first sit-down with a Western TV journalist.
-
Interview with Osama bin Laden - Questions partly by some of his followers and partly by
ABC reporter
John Miller, (May 1998)
-
Alleged interview - Transcription from Pakistani Newspaper of questions answered via written correspondence with the Taliban, who supposedly passed them to bin Laden
-
Interview printed in the January 11, 1999 issue of Time MagazineOther
-
Interpol Profile-
FBI's Usama bin Laden "Most Wanted Terrorists" poster-
BBC News profile-
Bin Laden comes home to roost - By Michael Moran, MSNBC, August 24, 1998. Alleges a CIA/bin Laden relationship
-
Who Is Osama bin Laden? - By
Michel Chossudovsky-
CNN story about the interview-
Picture of bin Ladin and two brothers on a visit to Oxford in 1971 - Story on BBC News
-
$US 40 billion sponsorship of islamic fundamentalist training program - Carter + Brzezinski-
Summary of medical information, mostly speculative-
Bin Laden's wealth not the force behind 9/11 (
AP/
CNN)
-
Osama bin Laden at the
Internet Movie Database- Emerson, S. (2002),
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Free Press; 2003 paperback edition, ISBN 0743234359
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