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He was the world’s most wanted international terrorist – the Svengali like leader at the helm of a violent political movement that brought havoc and destruction the world over. His name became instantly familiar – Osama bin Laden. We all recognized his image; the long, drawn face, the scraggly beard, the turban. Yet, discovering the man behind the image has never been easy, causing him to be referred to as a ‘fact-checker’s nightmare.’
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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Osama bin Laden
00:01
He was the world’s most wanted international terrorist – the Svengali like leader at
00:04
the helm of a violent political movement that brought havoc and destruction the world over.
00:09
His name became instantly familiar – Osama bin Laden.
00:14
We all recognized his image; the long, drawn face, the scraggly beard, the turban.
00:18
Yet, discovering the man behind the image has never been easy, causing him to be referred
00:22
to as a ‘fact-checker’s nightmare.’
00:24
Only now, 6 years after his death, are we able to piece together a complete profile
00:28
of the life and death of the man at the fore-front of a violent political movement that significantly
00:33
impacted our world.
00:35
In this week’s Biographix, we discover the truth about Osama bin Laden.
00:44
* * *
00:45
Formative Years Osama bin Laden was born into a wealthy indisutrialist
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family in the city of Riyadah in 1957.
01:01
His father, Mohammed bin Laden, was a builder and contractor, who, during his lifetime had
01:06
eleven wives and at least fifty-two children.
01:09
His mother was a petite Syria woman.
01:11
Mohammed was an ambitious businessman who had brought his family from Yemen to Saudi
01:14
Arabia in the hopes of both advancing his own professional opportunities and providing
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opportunities for his sons.
01:21
Things went well, and the elder bin Laden built importanat social relatoonships and
01:26
forged enduring bonds with notable members of Saudi society, including members of the
01:30
House of Saud – Saudi Arabia’s ruling family.
01:33
Mohammed built the bin Laden Construction Corporation into one of the largest and most
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profitable construction businesses in the Middle East.
01:41
As he became more successful, Mohammad further strengthened his bond with the Saudi Royal
01:45
family.
01:46
He used his money and influence to bolster the image of the House of Saud.
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In return, King Faisal decreed that all the nation’s construction contracts would be
01:54
awarded to the bin Laden Corporation.
01:57
Mohammad bin Laden died in a plane crash in 1967.
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The ten-year-old Osama was told at the funeral by King Faisal that ‘today I have lost my
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right hand.’
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The Construction Corporation was taken over by Osama’s older brothers.
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By the mid-1990’s it was worth around $36 billion.
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Osama was groomed to enter the family business.
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After successfully completing high school, he furthered his education at King Abdul Aziz
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University.
02:23
There he studied economics and management with an eye to a future in business.
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He also learned the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the family enterprise.
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Unlike Osama, most of his brothers chose to attend Western Universities where they were
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not constricted by Islamic tradition.
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This was particularly true of Osama’s half-brother Salim.
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Known for his good looks and charm, Salim was educated in London and flew his own private
02:46
plane.
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In the early 1970’s, Osama, now in his mid-teens, began to enjoy the excesses of wealth.
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He would regularly make the trip to Beirut, Lebanon to take in the excitement of the city’s
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fast-paced nightlife.
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He spent hours frequenting bars, nightclubs and casinos and often drank more than he should
03:02
have.
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He also began enjoying the company of beautiful young women.
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Spiritual Awakening Around 1975, however, Osama bin Laden had
03:19
a spiritual rebirth, causing him to return to Islam with a fervent devotion that altered
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his goals and lifestyle dramatically.
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It began when he decided to help with restoration work on two mosques.
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At the same time, he began meeting with Islamic fundamentalists and reading more about the
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teachings of Islam.
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Within weeks he had disowned his former loose way of life and become a devout Muslim.
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At the age of twenty, Osama entered an arranged marriage with a devout Syrian woman who was
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a distant cousin.
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Together they immersed themselves in Islamic Fundamentalism, rejecting Western values and
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priorities and condemning its greatest proponent, the United States.
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When Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was killed by his deranged nephew, bin Laden’s anti-American
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sentiments were reinforced.
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The king’s nephew had been educated in the United States and had become completely westernized.
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Bin Laden was thrilled when, in 1979, a fundamentalist religious leader known as Ayatollah Ruhollah
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Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, who was seen as a puppet of the United States.
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For the first time, Islamic fundamentalists had seized a Muslim country and established
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an Islamic state.
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It gave undeniable proof that radical Islamic forces could prevail over Western decadency.
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Then, towards the end of 1979, the Soviet Union invaded the largely Muslim nation of
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Afghanistan.
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Soviet forces were ruthless, pouring overwhelming fire power on the Afghanistan resistance.
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They killed the Afghanistan president, and put their own government in place.
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Middle Eastern Arab nations were alarmed.
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They were all sympathetic to the Afghani cause, but knew that none of them had the ability
04:55
to take on the Soviet war machine.
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Yet, Islamic fundamentalist militants were determined to do something.
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Ousting the Soviets and restoring Islam in its purest sense fit their definition of jihad,
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or Holy War.
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Thousands of young men, united by Islam rather than national boundaries, travelled to Afghanistan
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to risk their lives for their beliefs.
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Among them was Osama bin Laden.
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Afghanistan
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the impetus that took Osama bin Laden out of his
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comfortable life of privilege and into his reincarnation as a freedom fighter.
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Yet, unlike many others, he did not unthinkingly grab an AK-47 and rush off to the desert to
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join the guerrilla army.
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His first stop was Pakistan, where he set up a recruitment station to bring Muslims
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from surrounding Arab nations to the cause of jihad.
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It soon became clear that his business background and money were going to be a huge asset.
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He organized training camps where the recruits learned the art of strategic warfare.
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Bin Laden knew that the thousands of eager young men he was gathering together needed
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a support network.
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So, he also began recruiting doctors, bomb experts, military strategists and engineers
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from all over the Arab world.
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His family’s building background impelled him to build the infrastructure that would
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be needed to defeat the Soviets.
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Men who had come to fight soon found themselves digging trenches, paving roads and building
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hospitals and depots.
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During the 1980’s, bin Laden was instrumental in bringing together in Afghanistan and nearby
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areas of Pakistan more than twenty-five thousand Muslim fighters from at least thirty-five
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countries across the Muslim world.
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Yet, support also came from the most unlikely of places – the United States.
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The U.S. was fixated on stopping Soviet expansion and so were willing to support Islamic efforts
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to remove the Communist invaders from Afghanistan.
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Despite their hatred of the United States, the jihadists gladly accepted their backing
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– after all, it meant money, weapons and supplies.
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Still, they made sure that the Americans stayed well clear of their operations.
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One Islamic intelligence officer noted that ‘no American instructor was ever involved
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in giving training on any kind of weapon or equipment to the mujahideen,’ or holy fighters.
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Bin Laden was instrumental in securing from the United States ‘stingers’, which were
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heat seeking ground-to-air missiles with the ability to bring down a Soviet fighter plane.
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With the aid of American stingers, bin Laden’s men could bring down at least 270 Soviet aircraft.
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Through their fixation on defeating the Soviets by whatever means necessary, the U.S, was
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creating a monster.
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As well as bringing money, resources and organizational skill to the jihadist cause, bin Laden fought
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alongside his fellow jihadists.
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One of his troops recalled . . .
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He was a hero to us because he was on the front line, always moving ahead of everybody
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else.
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He not only gave us money, but he also gave himself.
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He came down from his palace to live with the Afghan peasants and the Arab fighters.
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He cooked with them, ate with them, dug trenches with them.
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That was bin Laden’s way.
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Bin Laden was not afraid of death, convinced that there was a special place in the hereafter
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for those who participated in jihad.
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He often stated that one day of fighting in Afghanistan was like a thousand days of praying
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in an ordinary mosque.
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As a result, he was more than willing to become a martyr for the cause.
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Conquering Hero In 1989, after a painful decade, the Soviets
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finally withdrew from Afghanistan.
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Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia with the reputation of a jihadist hero.
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He was hugely popular amongst the common people, and the ruling family saw friendship with
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him as a way to quell criticism from Islamic fundamentalists, who saw them as too western.
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Bin Laden milked his hero status for all it was worth.
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He spoke at mosques and other places, often drawing large crowds of young men who were
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inspired to help create an Islamic fundamentalist world.
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His speeches, filled with venom against the United States, were often taped, with over
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a million copies circulating around the Mulsim world.
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Despite returning to the rich embrace of his family, Osama did not avail himself of the
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lavish lifestyle that was available to him.
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He moved into a modest apartment with his wife and children and did his best to live
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according to strict Islamic teachings.
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Yet, a fire was smouldering inside him.
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That fire was inflamed in August 1990 when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded the neighbouring
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nation of Kuwait, with Saudi Arabia looking to be his next target.
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Panic arose in the House of Saudi.
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Bin Laden stepped up to offer his assistance, his experience in Afghanistan allowed him
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to map out a battle strategy to save his country.
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He was determined that any Iraqi aggression would be met my Muslim forces alone.
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To call on the West for help would be, he argued, contrary to Islamic teachings and
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demoralizing to the nation.
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Bin Laden warned the Saudi government that assistance from the U.S. would mean that Islamic
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fundamentalists would withdraw their support.
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But Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Défense, Prince Sultan knew that even bin Laden’s
10:00
forces could not defend his country from the air, naval or chemical and biological weapons
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attacks that Saddam Hussein had at his disposal.
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One one occasion, bin Laden burst in the Prince’s office and yelled,
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There is no need for American troops!
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Yet, when the prince asked him how he would save the people from an Iraqi chemical weapon
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attack, he could only reply . . .
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We will defeat them with our faith.
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The Saudi Government did turn to the United States for help.
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The result was the Gulf War – a U.S. led Western assault on Iraq.
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Saddam was pushed back and his threat negated.
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However, to the outrage of bin Laden and his fundamentalist followers, U.S. military forces
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remained in the region in case Saddam made any further aggressive moves.
10:41
The House of Saudi, who had not long before seen association with bin Laden as an asset,
10:45
now got nervous at Osama’s hero status and huge popularity.
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They warned him to restrain from making negative public comment about their reliance on the
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West, threatening to remove the lucrative public contracts that had been given to the
10:57
family business.
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Exile
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The relationship between bin Laden and the House of Saud quickly deteriorated to the
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point that, in 1991, he was expelled from the country.
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Three years later his citizenship was revoked.
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He fled to Sudan with his immediate family, which now included three wives and fifteen
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children.
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They moved into a brick and stucco home in Khartoum where he lived a simple and deeply
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religious life.
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In Sudan, bin Laden quickly found support for his ideology, which was fiercely opposed
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to any collaboration with the West.
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His goal was to overthrow regimes that were friendly to the U.S. and establish in their
11:40
place true Islamic states.
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The first step towards that end would be to strike at U.S. targets throughout the world.
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By doing so, it was believed that the United States would be forced to withdraw from the
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Middle East.
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Then, the governments that been propped up by America could easily be toppled.
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The nucleus of the terrorist organization that would bring about these changes was a
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group that bin Laden helped develop.
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It was called al-Qaeda.
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From their base in Sudan, experienced al-Qaeda leaders were sent to various parts of the
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world where there were large Muslim populations.
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Their mission was to incite an Islamic revolution and carry out acts of terrorism.
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In his first year in Sudan, bin Laden became a disciple of Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, the
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Islamic spiritual leader of Sudan.
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While Turabi helped Osama to deepen his spiritual development, bin Laden, in turn, built up
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Turabi’s jihdist group, the Popular International Organization or PIO.
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He also built connectiions with various international financial institutions to channel money towards
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his growing terror networks.
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At the same time, he could smuggle terrorists into the United States by arranging for them
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to be employees of companies owned by wealthy pro-Islamic Middle eastern businessmen.
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Meanwhile, within Sudan, bin Laden established a building company known as the al-Hirjah
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for Construction and Development Ltd.
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Its sole purpose was to build an infrastructure in Sudan to move the equipment, vehicles,
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and weaponry needed to expedite terrorist acts.
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International Terrorist By the mid-1990’s bin Laden had established
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a world-wide reputation as a revolutionary, with thousands of young jihaidts idolizing
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him and dreaming of being just like him.
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The first bombing attack that was credited to bin Laden was the December 29, 1992 attack
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on two hotels in Aden, Yemen.
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Both hotels were frequently used by U.S. military personnel in the area.
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Three people were killed and five more were wounded in the attack.
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This was part of a concerted effort to oust the Americans from the Horn of Africa and
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assert fundamentalist Islamic power in the region.
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The focus of the action was Somalia, where bin Laden organized fierce figting against
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U.S. forces who were there for humanitarian purposes.
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Bin Laden counted the withdrawal of U.S, troops from Mogadishu as among his most significant
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victories against the U.S.
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Following his actions in Somalia, bin Laden turned his attention to Europe.
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His first step was to bolster the Islamic fundamentalist movement in the Balkans, before
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setting his sights on western Europe and the United States.
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Muslim communities in these places were saturated with pro-Islamic, anti-Western propaganda.
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Bin Laden also relied heavily on e-mail and the internet to get the word out.
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In 1995, al-Qaeda turned its attention back to the Middle Eastern nations that it belived
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were roadblocks to the establishment of Islamic fundamentalist regimes throughout the Muslim
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world.
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Bin Laden saw Egypt and Saudi Arabia as the two biggest local obstacles to his cause.
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In Saudi Arabia he became obsessed with overthrowing the House of Saud.
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In November 1995, he orchestrated the bombing of a U.S. Militartry training center in Riyadh,
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killing seven people.
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The House of Saud were outraged at the attack, convinced that bin Laden was behind it.
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A few days after the attack, four mercenaries from Yemen opened fire with AK-47’s outside
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of his residence in Sudan.
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Bin Laden’s bodyguards returned fire and, within minutes, three of the assailants and
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two bodygusrds were dead.
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From that day on, Osama bin Laden’s house and street were transformed into an armed
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camp.
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It wasn’t just the House of Saud that were after him.
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In 1996, a U.S. Special Forces operation was launched to capture bin Laden, with the aid
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of America friendly Mulsim nations.
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From now on, he refused to venture out of Sudan.But then both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
15:19
turned up the screws, threatening economic sanctions on Sudan unless they handed bin
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Laden over.
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He was quietly asked to leave and he and his wife and children headed for Afghanistan in
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May 1996.
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Safely ensconced in Afghanistan, bin Laden now fully embraced the role of internatiional
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leader of the Islamic extremist movement.
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To stay alive, though, he had to surround himself with many bodyguards.
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He established a three-room opertions base in a cave that had been carved out of the
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mountainside, that was equipped with basic furnishings.
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His only connections to the outside world were his satellite phone and two laptops.
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In 1998, bin Laden turned his destrucitive attention back to Africa.
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His plan was to bomb two U.S. Embassies in different African countries.
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On August 7th, simultaneous attacks in Kenya and Tanzania killed hundreds of people.
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Although he denied responsibility, the international community were unanimous that bin Laden was
16:11
behind the attacks.
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As a result, the U.S. stepped up its attempts to take him out, with an air strike on October
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20th known as Operation Infinite Reach.
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It destroyed three terrorist training camps in the Afghani mountains, but bin Laden remained
16:24
at large.
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Target: USA
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A year later, he was connected to an attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole.
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The ship had stopped to refuel in the port of Aden, Yemen, when terrorists blasted it,
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killing seventeen sailors.
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Less than a month after that, two planes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center
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in New York City, striking a devastating blow at the very symbol of American business and
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achievement.
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Within moments it had been transformed into a full-blown war zone.
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About 45 minutes later, the terror struck again.
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A hijacked airliner that had departed from Virginnia was spearheaded into the Pentagon
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– the natiion’s military headquarters.
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The horrific, shocking attack, the deadliest since Peral Harbor, was a major wake up call
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for the United States.
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A $25 million reward was offered for bin Laden and antiterrorist task forces were set up.
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Despite a full-on effort to bring hm to justice, bin Laden was able to remain at large, plotting
17:25
further attacks for another decade.
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Sometime in the mid 2000’s he slipped into Pakistan.
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For a while he stayed in rural mountain villages protected by local tribal leaders.
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Then he moved to the Abbottabad compound with three of his wives (he now had five) and thirteen
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of his children.
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It was there that the Americans finally got their man.
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The End In the early morning hours of May 2nd,2011,
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about twenty-five Navy SEAL commandos descended on the Abbottabad compound.
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They quickly breached the 18-foot walls and then stormed the house, using explosives to
18:04
gain entry.
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Two men encountered on the first floor were killed, and then the commandos rushed upstairs
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where they identified and killed bin Laden.
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He was shot in the chest and the forehead.
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One of his wives was also shot in the leg when she lunged at a SEAL.
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To make sure that they had gotten their man, one of the SEAL’s took a photo and then
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quickly put it through facial recognition software.
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The result showed a 95 percent likelihood that this was Osama bin Laden.
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Later DNA testing put it beyond a shadow of doubt – the world’s number one terrorist
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was dead.
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Osama bin Laden was buried at sea shortly after the raid.
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Unfortunately, the terror organization that he created remains.
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