| Osama Bin Laden - in other transcriptions - Usama. Full name is Osama Bin Mohammed Bin Awad Bin Laden. Date of birth: March 10, 1957 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — terrorist, supposedly the leader of the Islamic terrorist organization “Al Qaeda”.
Appearance and character:
Usama Bin Laden is often described as a tall person; FBI describes him as tall and thin, between 193 cm to 195 cm in height and weighing about 75 kg. He has an olive complexion, is left-handed and usually walks with a cane. He wears a plain white turban, which is considered as the traditional male headdress in Saudi Arabia.
It is considered that Bin Laden speaks only Arabic.
Notes:
Several dates of birth of Bin Laden exist but the actual birth date is unclear.
Much information about this personality is issued by the American State Department. It’s difficult to check the authenticity of the information. It is noteworthy that the information about him usually appears sporadically. The ideology and theological views of Bin Laden can not be discussed since they are hardly mentioned.
Biography:
Osama Bin Laden was born in a rich Yemen-origin family. He was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim.
In 1979, Osama Bin Laden studied economics and business administration at the Management and Economics School of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. He started his career in a construction business.
After the invasion of the Soviet Army into Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden joined the Islamic resistance to fight the Soviets. He participated in fights against Soviet troops by leading a group of 2000 fighters (Many of them were mercenaries from Saudi Arabian countries. He maintained links with the American and Pakistan secret services and transferred the Saudi funds to Afghan militants. In 1989, he founded the underground organization “Al-Qaida” with the help of American specialists (The predecessor organization “Maktab-al-Khidmat” was founded by Osama Bin Laden along with Abdullah Azzam in 1984 to support diversionary actions against Soviet troops).
After the end of the Afghan war, Osama Bin Laden decided to continue Jihad, now against the USA. Osama sponsored the Somalia war against the USA in 1993 and masterminded the bombings on the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998.
In 1991, Osama was expelled from Saudi Arabia due to anti-Governmental activities and in 1994, his citizenship was forfeited.
After the failure of an attempt on the life of Egyptian President Mubarak in 1996, Osama had to leave Sudan and establish a base in Afghanistan.
Osama Bin Laden may have been responsible for terrorist attacks in USA on 11 September 2001. During the attack, several passenger airlines, captured in mid air, were flown into the World Trade Centre buildings and Pentagon. As a result, both the skyscrapers and adjacent buildings and one wing of the Pentagon were destroyed and approximately 3000 people died. Bin Laden himself categorically denied his involvement in the attacks but in 2004, a videotape was distributed in which Bin Laden described the planning and execution and attacks, though some dispute that it's actually Bin Laden in the video.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon made the USA unleash a global war on international terrorism – including Afghanistan and Iraq.
From after the time of the attacks on September 11, 2001, the death of Bin Laden was announced six times. The first time, the death of Osama Bin Laden was announced in December 2001, shortly after large-scale bombings in a region of Tora-Bora in the eastern part of Afghanistan by America. It is believed that Bin Laden, on whose head a reward of $50 million was announced, was still hiding in the places close to Afghanistan-Pakistan.
Nevertheless, Osama Bin Laden was not found either by the Americans or by allies. From time to time, his messages are passed onto his companions through mass information aids.
For example, on 23 April 2006, an audiotape was sent to television channel “Al-Jazeera” in Qatar. The audiotape contained a message from Bin Laden, in which, he once again reiterated the resoluteness to fight against the false, “Crusaders and Zionists, waging war against Muslims”.
On September 23, 2006, the French newspaper L’Est Republican published a document, presented as a report from French Secret Service. The report quoted that according to data provided by Saudi Arabian secret service, Osama Bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23, 2006 after contracting a case of typhoid fever. However, the death of Bin Laden was not confirmed. President of Pakistan Mr. Musharraf quoted that Bin Laden, possibly, is hiding in Afghanistan’s Province Kunar under the shelter of field commander Khekmatiar.
In an interview with David Frost in 2007, Benazir Bhutto mentioned in passing that Osama Bin Laden was killed by Omar Sheikh. |
Al Qaeda number 1 leader, Osama Bin Laden, has a new video tape, where he addresses his followers.
Intelligence sources say the video tape is likely authentic, and is a prove that America's most wanted terrorist is still alive. In the tape Osama Bin Laden, who is now 50, appears with a shorter beard which is black and has no grey hair - a clear sign that the beard must be fake and that Osama shaved his own beard. Intelligence says this can be a clue to the present whereabouts of Osama, and that his likely location may be southeast Asia, the Philippines, or Indonesia - the places where Muslim men do not wear beards. The tape is also studied for other clues to Bin Laden's current location.
