Usama Bin Ladin was born in 1955 into one of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. The Bin Ladin family owns the Bin Ladin Group, a construction firm with large contracts in the Kingdom, including some that involve construction of facilities used by American military units. The family is estimated to be worth over $5 billion; Usama Bin Ladin’s personal fortune is somewhere between $250-300 million.
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Usama Bin Ladin joined the CIA-funded and trained mujahidin– freedom fighters. In the mid-1980s he was involved in the recruitment of mujahidin around the world. He was instrumental in the building of training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as hospitals and roads in Afghanistan
In 1988, Bin Ladin created the Al-Qa'ida organization to support opposition to what he claimed were corrupt Muslim regimes in the area, accusing the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen of selling out to the West, particularly the United States. Although he returned to Saudi Arabia to work in the family construction business, he continued to support opposition movements. By 1991, these activities came to the attention of Saudi security authorities; he was expelled him from the kingdom in 1994.
Relocating to Khartoum, Sudan, Bin Ladin continued to support opposition and terrorist organizations in the region. In 1996, Sudan responded to pressure from the United States and the United Nations and expelled Bin Ladin, who was widely believed to support the perpetrators of an assassination attempt against Egyptian President Husni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995
He returned to Saudi Arabia, only to be stripped of his Saudi citizenship for his opposition to the Saudi royal family. In 1996, he returned to Afghanistan and expanded support for Islamic extremist movements and began the heyday of his terrorist activities.
Words and Actions
Bin Ladin's name has come up in connection with a number of terrorist attacks around the world, as early as 1992. In addition, he had made threatening speeches and issued fatwas (religious decrees) against the West and the United States in particular.
Bin Ladin has been linked to the December 1992 bombing of a hotel in Yemen, most likely targeted at American military personnel billeted in the facility. Two Australians were killed.
Although Bin Ladin’s ties to the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center (three dead, hundreds wounded) in New York City may be tenuous, the convicted planner of the operation, Ramzi Ahmad Yusif, lived in a facility provided by the Saudi terrorist.
Bin Ladin also claimed, actually boasted, that his followers had killed American troops in Mogadishu, Somali during the U.S. effort in that country. His exact words were, “We hunted them down….”
In November 1995, a car bomb was detonated outside the compound that housed the American military personnel and contractors that supported the Saudi Arabian National Guard assistance program, killing several people.
In the event that made Usama Bin Ladin a household name in the United States, on June 25, 1996, Saudi dissidents detonated a massive truck bomb at the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel. Bin Ladin called the bombing "praiseworthy terrorism" and called for a jihad against American troops in Saudi Arabia.
In July 1996, Bin Ladin warns that the terrorists who bombed American soldiers in Saudi Arabia will also attack British and French military personnel. He further issued a "declaration of war" against the United States in August 1996. He claimed that Saudis have a "legitimate right" to attack the 5,000 American military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia. Later, he stated, "If someone can kill an American soldier, it is better than wasting time on other matters.
In February 1998, Bin Ladin issued a fatwa calling for the liberation of Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as the death of Americans and their allies.
In perhaps his most infamous act, Usama Bin Ladin has been implicated in the August 7, 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania. Eleven American military personnel and diplomats died in those attacks, as well as scores of Kenyans and Tanzanians, and hundreds wounded.
On August 20, American Tomahawk missiles struck Bin Ladin training camps in Afghanistan.
Bin Ladin was not hit – he had delayed his visit to the camp, a delay that saved his life. Since then, despite Bin Ladin’s repeated threats, his organization has been on the defensive. The U.S. intelligence community has thwarted several of his planned operations and developed information that has resulted in the arrest of scores of Bin Ladin subordinates and followers. These arrests include terrorists that had planned Year 2000 bombing operations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Usama Bin Ladin is a sick man. He is reportedly suffering from a bone marrow disease and kidney failure. There are rumors that he will be replaced in his organization –financed by Bin Ladin’s personal fortune – by an Egyptian terrorist who will carry on Bin Ladin’s work. Bin Ladin will leave a legacy of death and terror.
For more info see "An Exclusive Interview with Osama Bin Ladin"
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/dailynews/terror_980609.html