Osama bin Laden


Osama bin Laden (born March 10, 1957), full name Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad
Bin-Ladin (the name can be transliterated in several ways, including Usama
bin Laden (used by the FBI), Ussamah Bin Ladin and Osama ibn Laden) is a
wealthy Saudi Arabian-born Islamist leader, head of the Al-Qaeda, and
previously a US-sponsored mujahedeen guerilla leader.

The United States government named him as the prime suspect ultimately
responsible for the September FBI photo, unknown date11, 2001 Terrorist
Attack, which killed 3062 people and prompted the United States' "War on
Terror". Bin Laden has denied this accusation, though he has expressed
admiration for whoever was responsible. In December, 2001 the US state
department released what it described as direct evidence of his involvement:
a 'home video' of Osama bin Laden purportedly found in Afghanistan and
apparently showing that bin Laden had foreknowledge of the September 11th
attacks (for more, see videos of bin Laden). After the decision by
Afghanistan's Taliban government not to unconditionally extradite bin
Laden in 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban.

Bin Laden is also wanted by the United States in connection with the August
7, 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
and Nairobi, Kenya, in which over 200 people died. Due to this incident, he
is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Bin Laden's status among Muslims

Before the Sept 11th attacks, many Muslims had come to admire bin Laden for
his charity work and his defense of Islam. However, this support is not
unanimous or unwavering: he has been banned from his own country of Saudi
Arabia and disowned by his family (who use the English spelling Binladin).
Despite these moves, some of his relatives say he continues to receive
financial support from his family (See external links below).

Bin Laden's Personal History

Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1957, the 17th of 52 children
of Muhammad bin Laden, a wealthy man involved in construction and with close
ties to the royal family of Saudi Arabia. His family originally came from
Yemen. He was raised as a devout Muslim and in interviews he frequently
invokes Allah. As a college student, he studied business and project
administration, possibly as 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
$300 million; more recent estimates put his holdings at about $25 million.

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 in 1979. (See the History of
Afghanistan.) By 1984 he was running a front organization called Maktab
al-Khidamat (MAK), which funneled money, arms and fighters into the Afghan
war. MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state security services and the
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the United States
Central Intelligence Agency's primary mechanism for the covert conduct of
war against the Soviet occupation. By 1988, Bin Laden had split from the MAK
and established a new guerilla group, dubbed al-Qaida, which included many
of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union
withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.

Bin Laden was lauded as a hero in Saudi Arabia, but during the Gulf War
against Iraq he was critical of Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S.
military and demanded that all foreigners leave the country. It was the U.S.
support of what he viewed to be a corrupt, materialist, and irreligious
Saudi monarchy that turned him against the United States. He began to
criticize the monarchy and was forced to flee to Sudan in 1991, where he set
up a new base of operations. He lost his Saudi citizenship in 1994 after he
admitted his involvement in terrorist attacks in Riyadh and Dahran.

In 1996 Sudan made repeated overtures to the United States to extradite bin
Laden, arrest him, monitor him, and/or provide intelligence on the
activities of him and his associates, but the Clinton administration never
accepted their offers. The 1997 Luxor tourist massacres in Egypt are
believed to have been financed by bin Laden. In 1998 bin Laden left Sudan
for Afghanistan, where he had a close relationship with some of the leaders
of the Taliban government which had taken control in 1996.

Also in 1998, he was a co-signatory with Ayman Zawahiri (formerly of
Egyptian Islamic Jihad) to a fatwa, or religious/legal edict, put out in the
name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders,
declaring it the religious duty of all Muslims "to kill the Americans and
their allies - civilians and military ... in any country in which it is
possible." (statement linked below)

U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered his assets frozen in 1998, but none were
ever found. Clinton also admits authorizing bin Laden's arrest and/or
assassination while in office; one assassination attempt with cruise
missiles in August 1998 failed, while killing 19 other people. The U.S.
never apologized for these killings, since the attack was directed at what
they considered to be a meeting of terrorists. The U.S. offered a $25
million reward for information leading to his 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.

The UN Security Council, on January 16, 2002, unanimously established an
arms embargo and the freezing of assets of bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the
remaining Taliban.

His current location is unknown. Attempts to locate him in Afghanistan
during the US military campaign in Afghanistan failed.

The United States military has reported that bin Laden is believed to be
suffering from a kidney disorder, requiring him to have access to a doctor
and medical facilities.