Osama Bin Laden Biography
Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957 in Saudi Arabia to a wealthy builder called Mohamed Bin Laden. He was one of a reputed 52 children.
His father died in a helicopter crash in 1968 when Osama was 11, and he consequently inherited millions of dollars.
He studied civil engineering at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and it appears that it was during this time that he became involved with the radical version of Islam that is well known in Saudi Arabia. What he saw as the decadence of the West seemed to be the reason he used to justify his move into fundamentalist Islam.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 he quickly joined the Mujahideen there and fought the Soviets for a decade until they pulled out of the country. It is believed that during this time he was trained and armed by the US.
His loyalties switched however when America based US troops in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War against Iraq. He saw this as a sin against Islam and is the basis of his war against America and the West.
He was forced to move back to Afghanistan in 1996 when his ability to live and travel elsewhere was curtailed, and found a home in the arms of the Taliban.
In 1998 he issued a fatwa against America and it’s allies. The religious edict led to the bombing of 2 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing over 200 people, mostly Africans.
He was also said to be involved in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2 car bombings in Saudi Arabia.
On the 11th September 2001 when planes smashed into the the twin towers of the World Trade Center he instantly became America’s most wanted man as the evidence pointed to him having ordered the operation.
He moved into the border regions of Pakistan, where he was fated as a freedom fighter, sometime before or directly after the US led invasion of Afghanistan; designed to capture or kill Bin Laden.
It sounds like this area was where Bin Laden finally ended his life after more than a decade on the run from US forces. To many he was a cold blooded murderer of innocent people, to others it was the superpower bullies who were the ones with innocent blood on their hands and he was a freedom fighter standing up to them.
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