Osama bin Laden | Biography

Osama bin Laden, identified in United States government documents as "Usama Bin Laden," was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was believed to be the seventeenth son of Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni by birth who moved to Saudi Arabia and became a billionaire on the strength of his connections with the Saudi royal family. Osama bin Laden graduated from King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, where his dual interest in religion and politics is believed to have originated. He studied business in college and assumed control of $250 million of his father's assets.

Initially, bin Laden was an ally of the United States. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, he, like the United States, supported the rebels. From late 1979 through the mid-1980s, bin Laden invested his fortune and his faith in the rebels, even fighting with them. He also built schools and shelters for refugees. While in Afghanistan, bin Laden worked with Sheik Abdallah Azzam, a former instructor at Abdul Aziz University whom bin Laden had come to know. It is likely that bin Laden's religious zeal was awakened by Azzam, who advocated a jihad, or "holy war," against "unbelievers." Azzam was killed near the end of the Afghani conflict, and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1989.

He came home to what he perceived as a changed Saudi Arabia, one moving away from the strict Muslim principles he increasingly espoused and supported. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Saudi royal family accepted an increased United States' presence on their soil; bin Laden considered the influx of "nonbelievers" a threat to the Saudi holy places of Mecca and Medina. His disenchantment prompted the Saudis to restrict his movement and revoke his citizenship, and his family ultimately disowned him. Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia with his four wives and children and settled in Sudan in 1992. The United States and Saudi Arabia combined to pressure the Sudanese to expel bin Laden, and their 1994 success undoubtedly fueled his rage.

Bin Laden returned with his family to Afghanistan and formed his own terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda, or "the base." In February 1998, Al-Qaeda allied itself with other extremist groups, including the Islamic Jihad who had assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Bin Laden called upon the mujeheddin, the "holy warriors" of such groups, to kill all Americans. On August 7, 1998, 226 people, including twelve Americans, were killed by bombs at the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. The date was the eighth anniversary of American troop deployment in Saudi Arabia, and suspicion quickly focused on bin Laden. Concluding that it had extremely strong evidence that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, on August 20 the United States launched missiles at a terrorist meeting site in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. The attack was intended to disrupt a meeting of terrorists believed planned for that day. Bin Laden escaped injury in the assault.

The United States did not stop with military action, and on August 22, 1998, President Clinton blocked all financial dealings between U. S. citizens and Al-Qaeda, and it became increasingly clear to officials that one of the most effective ways to attack bin Laden was to target his finances. Government officials had tracked and identified his financial assets but could not pursue the assets until grand juries indicted him for alleged involvement in the embassy bombings and other terrorist acts.

Neither bin Laden nor other extremists were deterred by the indictments. United States officials suspected bin Laden and his organization in a suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, a destroyer deployed in Aden, in October 2000. The act killed seventeen American sailors and increased governmental resolve to stop bin Laden. He was ranked the number one fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List and was believed to move frequently to avoid assassination attempts. The United States offered up to $5 million as a reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture or conviction. His enormous wealth enabled him to form and direct the first terrorist organization not to operate under the aegis of a foreign country.

Recent Updates

September 2003: The Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera aired a video of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy. The footage was made in late April or early May, the broadcaster claimed. Source: New York Times, www.nytimes.com, September 14, 2003.

September 2003: Bin Ladin and 34 others were indicted by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon on charges related to terrorism. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, September 17, 2003.

March 2004: United States forces are stepping up their manhunt for bin Ladin, who is believed to be hiding along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. Using U-2 spy planes, Predator drones, and other high-tech equipment, the U.S. military will begin monitoring the border region 24-7. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, March 6, 2004.

April 15, 2004: Arabic-language network Al-Arabiya aired a new audio tape supposedly from bin Ladin. On the tape, the speaker promised a truce with European countries if they would withdraw all of their troops from Muslim lands. Officials from the European Union, France, Britain, Germany, and Italy all immediately ruled out the possibility of negotiating with bin Ladin. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, April 15, 2004.

May 7, 2004: A tape recording that supposedly features the voice of bin Ladin was released. The recording promised 10,000 grams (roughly 22 pounds) of gold to anyone who killed various leaders of the reconstruction effort in Iraq, including United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Annan's envoy Ladkhar Brahimi, and Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, May 9, 2004.

October 29, 2004: A new videotaped message from bin Ladin was televised on the Al Jazeera satellite network. This is the first new video featuring bin Ladin to be released since September 10, 2003. On the tape, bin Ladin declared that the United States would be spared attacks in the future if the country stopped threatening the security of Muslims. Source: New York Times, www.nytimes.com, November 1, 2004.

December 16, 2004: A recorded audio message believed to be from bin Ladin appeared on an Islamist website. The tape referred to an attack on an American consulate in Saudi Arabia that occurred on December 6, 2004. The message also criticized the rulers of Saudi Arabia and encouraged attacks on oil facilities. Source: Bloomberg.com, www.bloomberg.com, December 17, 2004.

March 10, 2005: The Islamic Commission of Spain issued a fatwa against bin Ladin. The Commission, which represents the roughly one million Muslims living in Spain, declared that the terrorism which bin Ladin sponsors is not supported by the Koran and "must be roundly condemned as part of Islam." Source: Daily Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml"xml=/news/2005/03/11/wspan11.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/11/ixworld.html, March 11, 2005.