Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden, also know as Usama Bin Laden, born in 1957, Saudi Arabian multimillionaire suspected of planning terrorist attacks against the United States. In 1999 the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in connection with the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Little is known in the West about bin Laden's life. He inherited his great personal wealth from his father, whose construction company prospered through close connections with the Saudi royal family.

Bin Laden first came to international attention in the 1980s in Afghanistan for his role in the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation forces. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979. During his youth bin Laden had embraced fundamentalist Islamic teachings, and he regarded the Soviet invasion as an unforgivable assault on Muslim land. To aid the resistance, bin Laden provided funds and supplies, built guerrilla training camps, trenches, and roads, and recruited and transported large numbers of military volunteers from Arab nations. The United States also aided the Afghan rebels who fought the Soviet invaders. In 1988 near the end of the war, bin Laden established AlQaeda (Arabic for "the Base"), an organization that, according to U.S. officials, connects and coordinates fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups around the world.

After Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. In the following year Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the United States responded by organizing an international coalition against Iraq in what became the Persian Gulf War. During and after this war Saudi Arabia's ruling monarchy allowed the United States to station troops in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was angered by the presence of the U.S. military, which he considers an enemy of Islam, near Mecca and Medina, Saudi cities that are two of Islam's holiest sites. He led criticism of the Saudi monarchy and in 1992 left Saudi Arabia for Sudan, where a fundamentalist Islamic regime had taken power. Two years later, the Saudi government revoked his citizenship and froze his assets in Saudi Arabia.

Many veterans of the Afghan war, who had become known as Arab Afghans, joined bin Laden in Sudan. There he formed several businesses, including a road-construction company, and reportedly set up training camps and strengthened the international structure of AlQaeda with help from the Arab Afghans. In 1996, under pressure from the U.S. and Saudi governments, Sudan expelled bin Laden, and he went into hiding in Afghanistan.

In 1996 bin Laden issued the first of several calls for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States and its presence abroad. According to the U.S. State Department, AlQaeda has stated its goals as driving U.S. forces from the Arabian Peninsula, overthrowing the Saudi government, and supporting Islamic revolutionary groups around the world. Bin Laden denounces U.S. activities in the Middle East such as its leadership in the Gulf War and its support of Israel as a continuation of the Crusades. In that series of wars during the Middle Ages, Western Christians sought to capture the Holy Lands from Muslims. United States officials believe that AlQaeda funds and coordinates terrorist cells (small teams responsible for preparing and executing terrorist acts) in dozens of countries around the world.

Since 1993 bin Laden has been accused of involvement in a series of attacks targeting the United States and its presence abroad. These attacks include a bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993; a 1996 bombing of an apartment complex that housed U.S. servicemen in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998; and a suicide bombing in 2000 of the USS Cole. Officials of the U.S. government named bin Laden as the primary suspect behind the hijacking of airplanes that were deliberately crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001.

Whereabouts

As of 1 July 2005, bin Laden's location is unknown. After the September 11 attacks, the United States asked the Taliban government of Afghanistan to "hand him over." 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 many members of his organization, as well as many civilians, but bin Laden was not found.

There had been suggestions that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, or that he 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.

Bin Laden was rumored in the Pakistani press to have died in 2001 of pulmonary complications incident to catastrophic kidney failure in the absence of available hygienic dialysis. His death was speculated on by the Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. This speculation was later undercut by newly released videos of bin Laden, alive and referring to current events such as the 2004 US Presidential election.

Although he 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 bin Laden.

A Spanish court indicted bin Laden and 34 others on charges related to terrorism on September 17, 2003.

Rumours about his whereabouts 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 bin Laden was indeed alive, and that the Pentagon knew exactly where he was. According to Lehman, bin Laden was living in South Waziristan in the Toba Kakar Mountains of the Baluchistan region in Pakistan, 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."[16] On the other hand, as cited earlier, there has been more recent speculation emerging from sources within US intelligence community that points to the possibility that Iran may be harboring him.

On October 29, 2004, the Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of 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 and is subject to speculation by some political analysts as having affected the election's outcome.


Source: Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2003∞
See also: Wikipedia, Osama Bin Laden∞,Osama Bin Laden∞, A Biography of Osama Bin Laden∞, OsamaBinLadenHealth, AlQaeda, and TheTaliban.

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