Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (March
10, 1957 – May 2, 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the Sunni militant
Islamist organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks
on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against
civilian and military targets. He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy
bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.
He was born in the bin Laden family to
billionaire Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden in Saudi Arabia. He studied there in
college until 1979, when he joined the mujahideen forces in Pakistan against
the Soviets in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the mujahideen by funneling arms,
money and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, also gaining
popularity from many Arabs. In 1988, he formed al-Qaeda. He was banished from
Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to Sudan, until US pressure forced
him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he
declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and
related attacks. Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of
Investigation's (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted
Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.
WHAT
MADE HIM POPULAR
Bin Laden was, after all, the man CIA director Leon Panetta called "the most infamous terrorist in our time," who devoured inordinate amounts of our collective cultural imagery for more than a decade. The number-one celebrity of evil.
Bin Laden was, after all, the man CIA director Leon Panetta called "the most infamous terrorist in our time," who devoured inordinate amounts of our collective cultural imagery for more than a decade. The number-one celebrity of evil.
From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a
major target of the War on Terror, as the FBI placed a $25 million bounty on him
in their search for him. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a
private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by members of the United
States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency
operatives in a covert operation ordered by United States President Barack Obama.
After
his initial denial, in 2004 Osama bin Laden finally claimed responsibility for
the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The attacks involved the
hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft[127]
and flying them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York
and The Pentagon
in Arlington, Virginia, destroying the former, and
severely damaging the latter. It resulted in the deaths of 2,973 people and the
nineteen hijackers. In
response to the attacks, the United States launched the War on Terror
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.
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified evidence linking
al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the September 11 attacks is clear and irrefutable.
The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding al-Qaeda and Osama bin
Laden's culpability for the September 11 attacks, although the government
report noted that the evidence presented is not necessarily sufficient to
prosecute the case.
Bin
Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin
Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera
satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack. In a videotape recovered by U.S. forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin
Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled
al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge. The tape was
broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 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.
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