Who is Osama bin Laden?
Osama Bin Laden is both one of the CIA’s most wanted men and a hero to many young people in the Arab world. He and his associates were already being sought by the US on charges of international terrorism, including in connection with the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Africa and last year’s attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Shadowy figure Born in Saudi Arabia Fought against Soviets in Afghanistan Ploughed inherited fortune into armed activities Rarely seen in public Reported to have at least three wives In May this year a US jury convicted four men believed to be linked with Bin Laden of plotting the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden, an immensely wealthy and private man, has been granted a safe haven by Afghanistan’s ruling Taleban movement. During his time in hiding, he has called for a holy war against the US, and for the killing of Americans and Jews. He is reported to be able to rally around him up to 3,000 fighters. He is also suspected of helping to set up
Bin Laden is thought to be in the Afghan-Pakistan border region Osama Bin Laden is top of US President Bush’s most wanted list. He is accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in East Africa and – most notoriously – the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Since then, his al-Qaeda network has been linked indirectly to bombings on the island of Bali in Indonesia and its capital Jakarta, as well as with devastating suicide attacks in Casablanca, Riyadh and Istanbul. President Bush said in his State of the Union address in January 2004: “We are tracking al-Qaeda around the world, and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed.” However, a US intelligence report released in July 2007 said al-Qaeda leaders had regrouped in Pakistani tribal areas, and that the network posed a greater threat than at any time since September 2001. US officials said they believed Bin Laden was in Pakistan, an
Osama Bin Laden (also – Usama bin Laden, Usama bin Ladin) who instigated the terror attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, is probably the most wanted man on earth. He carries on a crusade against the Americans for having troops in Saudi Arabia, and against the Zionists who occupy Al Quds (Jerusalem). Born in 1957 to a wealthy Saudi Arabian construction magnate, he joined the Afghan Moslem rebels fighting the USSR in 1979. He used his money to recruit an army from around the middle east. Throughout the 1980s, Bin Laden fought the Soviet backed regime, with CIA aid. However, he saw secular, powerful Washington as much an infidel as Moscow. After the war, he returned to Saudi Arabia, , but the Saudi government feared his brand of militant Islam, and stripped him of his Saudi citizenship in April 1994 for “irresponsible behavior.” In Sudan, the country’s Islamic ideologue, Hassan al-Turabi, gave him shelter. Bin Laden, with a fortune estimated at $300 million, helped build
A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that “Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects”. CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan “multiple attacks with little or no warning.” Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks “an act of war” and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would “make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them”. Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at “state sponsorship,” implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence Eagleburger, “I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution.” Meanwhile, parroting official statements, the Western media mantra has approved the l
