Top 10 Sensational Facts about Osama Bin Laden

Top 10 Sensational Facts about Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born terrorist and founder of the Pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda.

He was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957 or 1958. He was the 17th of 52 children born to Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who owned the largest construction company in the Saudi kingdom.

Young Osama had a privileged, cosseted upbringing. His siblings were educated in the West and went to work for his father’s, but Osama bin Laden stayed close to home. He went to school in Jiddah, married young, and, like many Saudi men, joined the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

For bin Laden, Islam was more than just a religion, it shaped his political beliefs and influenced every decision he made. While he was at college in the late 1970s, he became a follower of the radical pan-Islamist scholar Abdullah Azzam, who believed that all Muslims should rise in jihad, or holy war, to create a single Islamic state. This idea appealed to the young bin Laden, who resented what he saw as a growing Western influence on Middle Eastern life.

His goal was to draw the United States into a large-scale war in the Muslim world that would overthrow the existing world order and establish a single Islamic state. To this end, al-Qaeda trained militants and funded terrorist attacks.

1. He was buried at sea

Image by Frank Winkler from Pixabay

On May 1, 2011, American soldiers killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound near Islamabad, Pakistan. He had been responsible for many deadly acts of terrorism.

Bin Laden’s body was evacuated from the Abbottabad compound by helicopter and flown to an American aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. The corpse was buried at sea.

2. Osama was on the run for nearly 10 years

A federal grand jury in the United States indicted bin Laden on charges related to the embassy bombings, but with no defendant, there could be no trial.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda operatives were busy planning the biggest attack of all: the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Even in the frenzy of the post-September 11 “global war on terror,” bin Laden eluded capture.

For almost ten years, he remained in hiding, issuing fatwas and taunts over radio and television, recruiting enthusiastic young jihadis to his cause, and plotting new attacks. Meanwhile, the CIA and other intelligence officials searched in vain for his hiding place.

3. Osama was a public enemy

Image by Federal Bureau of Investigation-Wikimedia

Osama was a wanted man in many countries. He was responsible for terrorist attacks in several countries including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The near-simultaneous attacks in East Africa killed more than 200 American, Kenyan, and Tanzanian citizens and wounded another 4,500 people.

He was indicted for his role in the bombings on November 4, 1998, and again in June 1999. The charges included the murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals outside the United States, and attacks on a federal facility resulting in death.

Several top al Qaeda operatives were ultimately captured and convicted for their roles in the bombings. The attacks led to ramped-up anti-terror efforts by the U.S. and the FBI, which created its first Counterterrorism Division in 1999, consolidating its many anti-terrorism efforts and capabilities.

4. He created the al Qaeda

Image by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan-Wikimedia

In 1988, he created al Qaeda (“the base”) that would focus on symbolic acts of terrorism instead of military campaigns. After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to step up fundraising for this new and more complicated mission.

The Pro-Western Saudi royal family feared that bin Laden’s fiery pan-Islamist rhetoric would cause trouble in the kingdom, so they tried to keep him as quiet as they could.

They took away his passport and rejected his offer to send “Afghan Arabs” to guard the border after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. To his dismay, they sought help from the “infidel” U.S. instead.

5. He was behind the 9/11 bombing

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Osama plotted the attack on America in a more direct and deadly way. On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners in the eastern United States.

They flew three of the planes into buildings: the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. They crashed the fourth plane in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers heroically rebelled. The horrific attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and injured thousands more.

The 19 men who hijacked and crashed the four planes were all trained by al Qaeda, and bin Laden eventually admitted to his role in orchestrating the attacks.

The ensuing 9/11 investigation was the most massive in the history of the Bureau. The attacks led to the US being more predictive and intelligence-driven in addressing all major national security and criminal threats.

6. The FBI offered a $25 million bounty on him

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

On October 10, 2001, Osama bin Laden was added to the newly-launched Most Wanted Terrorist List. The U.S. and other nations joined military operations in Afghanistan to find him and other al Qaeda terrorists. Osama managed to elude capture.

He masterminded the September 11 attacks which resulted in the killing of nearly 3,000 people. This led President George W. Bush to invade Afghanistan and launch the “War on Terror”.

He became the subject of a decade-long international manhunt, during which the FBI offered a $25 million bounty on him.

7. Osama was treated as a guest in Sudan

The whole world was cautious and focused on capturing Osama. Sudan was not. He chose Sudan and Sudan was okay with it. He chose it because he was attracted to the Islamic banner raised by the new regime in Sudan.

He wanted to have good refuge as well as help the government in its construction projects. He was treated in Sudan as a special guest who wanted to help Sudan when everybody was turning away. He spent a good effort in convincing Saudi businessmen to invest in Sudan and had reasonable success.

Many of his brothers and Jeddah merchants had and still have investments in real estate, farming, and the agricultural industry. In Sudan, he had again escaped an assassination attempt which turned out later to be the plan of Saudi intelligence.

Sudan was exposed to huge international pressure for hosting bin Laden and his followers. He eventually felt that he was becoming an embarrassment to the Sudanese.

Early in 1996, he started making contacts with his old friends in Afghanistan to prepare for his reception. He fled Sudan in a very well-planned trip with many of his followers to go straight to Jalalabad in Eastern Afghanistan.

8. Osama justified killing innocent people by saying they would a reward with death

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His enemy was the Americans. Anyone who died or was wounded in an attack was collateral damage. Many innocent people were caught in the crossfire between the two.

On 29^th December 1992, Osama was responsible for a bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden where two people were killed. After this bombing, al-Qaeda developed its justification for the killing of innocent people.

According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander would find a proper reward in death; going to Jannah (paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers. The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.

9. He hid in plain sight

Aerial view of Osama bin Laden’s compound. This image is a work of a Central Intelligence Agency employee-Wikimedia

The bin Laden family spent the next several years as fugitives after 9/11. They moved from one sympathetic Pakistani locale to another. When his supporters decided it was time for the family to settle, they chose Abbottabad, which bin Laden had visited and liked.

In 2004, his trusted confidant Ibrahim Saeed paid a total of $48,000 to acquire a handful of adjoining small lots that together comprised roughly an acre in a soggy field just northeast of Abbottabad’s city center.

Ibrahim Saeed used an alias, Mohammad Arshad. He claimed he was buying the land for an uncle fleeing a blood feud.

10. Osama bin Laden’s hide-out building had no windows

Hideout of Osama bin Laden. Image by United States Department of Defense-Wikimedia

When he acquired the piece of land, he hired a local architectural firm to draw up plans for a large, two-story building on the premises. The plan was very specific.

On the ground floor, the new villa was designed with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, as well as a kitchen; the second floor had another four bedrooms and four bathrooms. A third floor was added later, which became bin Laden’s living area, with a bedroom, study, and tiny bathroom and kitchen.

The new home’s size was unusual, it lacked windows. But the features that astonished locals were its walls. The builder was instructed to construct a 7-foot-high wall around one of the buildings, and then a thick, 18-foot high wall around the entire compound, topped by razor wire.

This puzzled the builder, both because the Bilal Town neighborhood was safe and peaceful and because it was significantly higher than the architect’s plans called for.  He was warned off for asking too many questions. Customization went as far as applying an anti-snooping film on the upper floor windows.