THE BOYS' BRIGADE

Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind al-Qaida, is dead, President Obama announces from the White House.

Osama bin Laden has been killed by US operatives in Pakistan, President Obama announced. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Osama bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind al-Qaida and the world's most sought-after terrorist since the attacks of 11 September 2001, has been killed by a US operation, President Barack Obama has announced.
HyperSmash
In an address to the nation, President Obama said Bin Laden was killed in a "targeted operation" in Abbottabad, a highland town north of Islamabad, last night.
The operation started with an intelligence lead last August, and culminated in an operation involving a "small team of Americans". "After a firefight they killed bin Laden."
None of the Americans was killed. Pakistani co-operation "helped to lead us to him" he said.
Osama's body is in possession of the US, according to the first reports from the US television networks.
As the news spread, crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House in Washington DC, singing the national anthem and cheering.
President Obama made the highly unusual Sunday night live statement to announce the news at around 11.30pm eastern time.
Bin Laden's capture comes eight years to the day that President George Bush declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. As president, Bush declared he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" – but it is now the unlikely figure of Barack Obama who has been able to announce the final triumph as US commander-in-chief.
This is a turning point in the global "war on terrorism" that has been waged since 9/11 - and the news will reverberate around the world.
The news comes as an unparalleled boost for US foreign policy, the key aim of which since 2001 has been the disarming and dismemberment of al-Qaida, and coincidentally probably ensures the re-election of Obama in 2012.
As a candidate during the 2008 election campaign, Obama repeatedly vowed: "We will kill Osama bin Laden." And so it has proved.
The Obama statement was scheduled originally for 10.30pm, but the need to inform US congressional leaders caused the delay.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, one western diplomat described the news as a "game changer" – not just for al-Qaida, but also for US foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region embroiled in turmoil and violence since 2001.
"I'm overjoyed," said the diplomat. "But what this exactly means is really not clear."
Some analysts fear bin Laden's death could spark a precipitous US withdrawal from the region, with the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan still unresolved.
It will likely also reconfigure relations with Pakistan, where the CIA is engaged in a controversial assassination campaign against senior al-Qaida figures using Predator and Reaper drones.
"He's dead," said an official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, declining to give details other than to say that it was "highly sensitive intelligence operation".
The official said he was "not at liberty" to give further details on the killing, including on reports that Pakistani intelligence was involved in the operation. "We'll release more information later this morning," he said.
Abbottabad is about two hours' drive north of Islamabad, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is not part of the tribal belt, where the CIA drone strike campaign has been concentrated, but is home to the Pakistan military's main training institution, the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.
The fact that bin Laden was killed outside the tribal belt in Pakistan will raise questions about how the six-foot four-inch fugitive, one of the most famous faces in the world, managed to escape justice for so long.
Pakistan's intelligence services have largely co-operated with the US in capturing al-Qaida fugitives - some of the most notorious figures seized since 2001 were caught in Pakistan's cities such as the architect of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.
In recent months US military and intelligence officials have publicly complained that the ISI has been assisting the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked militant network that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead - Barack Obama

Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama has said.

Bin Laden was killed in a ground operation outside Islamabad based on US intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.
Mr Obama said after "a firefight", US forces took possession of the body.
Bin Laden is believed to be the mastermind of the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 and a number of others.
He was top of the US' "most wanted" list.
Mr Obama said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda".
The US has put its embassies around the world on alert, warning Americans of the possibility of al-Qaeda reprisal attacks for Bin Laden's killing.
Crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC, chanting "USA, USA" after the news emerged.
A US official quoted by Associated Press news agency said Bin Laden's body had been buried at sea, although this has not been confirmed.
Compound raided Bin Laden had approved the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died.

He evaded the forces of the US and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $25m bounty on his head.

Mr Obama said he had been briefed last August on a possible lead to Bin Laden's whereabouts.
"It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground," Mr Obama said.
"I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located Bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.
"And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorised an operation to get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice," the president said.
On Sunday, US forces said to be from the elite Navy Seal Team Six undertook the operation in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad.
After a "firefight" Bin Laden was killed and his body taken by US forces, the president said.
Mr Obama said "no Americans were harmed".

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America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done”

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US officials said Bin Laden was shot in the head after resisting.

Giving more details of the operation, one senior US official said a small US team had conducted the raid in about 40 minutes.

Three other men were killed in the raid - one of Bin Laden's sons and two couriers - the official said, adding that one woman was also killed when she was used as "a shield" and two other women were injured.
One helicopter was lost due to "technical failure". The team destroyed it and left in its other aircraft.
One resident, Nasir Khan, told Reuters the helicopters had come under "intense firing" from the ground.
The size and complexity of the structure in Abbottabad had "shocked" US officials.
It had 4m-6m (12ft-18ft) walls, was eight times larger than other homes in the area and was valued at "several million dollars", though it had no telephone or internet connection.
The US official said that intelligence had been tracking a "trusted courier" of Bin Laden for many years. The courier's identity was discovered four years ago, his area of operation two years ago and then, last August, his residence in Abbottabad was found, triggering the start of the mission.

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Barack Obama gives a statement confirming the death of Osama Bin Laden

Another senior US official said that no intelligence had been shared with any country, including Pakistan, ahead of the raid.
"Only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance," the official said.
The Abbottabad residence is just 200 metres from the Pakistan Military Academy - the country's equivalent of West Point.
The senior US official warned that the possibility of revenge attacks had now created "a heightened threat to the homeland and to US citizens and facilities abroad".
But the official added that "the loss of Bin Laden puts the group on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse".
He said Bin Laden's probable successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was "far less charismatic and not as well respected within the organisation", according to reports from captured al-Qaeda operatives.
'Momentous achievement' Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Bin Laden had "paid for his actions".
A Pakistani government statement said Bin Laden's death "illustrates the resolve of the international community, including Pakistan, to fight and eliminate terrorism".
Former US President George W Bush described the news as a "momentous achievement".

"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," Mr Bush said in a statement.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says that, to many in the West, Bin Laden became the embodiment of global terrorism, but to others he was a hero, a devout Muslim who fought two world superpowers in the name of jihad.
The son of a wealthy Saudi construction family, Bin Laden grew up in a privileged world. But soon after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan he joined the mujahideen there and fought alongside them with his Arab followers, a group that later formed the nucleus for al-Qaeda.
After declaring war on America in 1998, Bin Laden is widely believed to have been behind the bombings of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and the attacks on New York and Washington.
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday in a firefight with U.S. forces, ending a manhunt that spanned a frustrating decade. 
"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama declared as crowds formed outside the White House to celebrate. Many sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "We Are the Champions," NBC News reported.
Hundreds more celebrated and waved American flags at ground zero in New York — where the twin towers that once stood as symbols of American economic power were brought down by bin Laden's hijackers 10 years ago. 

Video: Crowds celebrate bin Laden death at ground zero (on this page)
Bin Laden, 54, was killed after a gunbattle with Navy SEALs and CIA paramilitary forces at a compound in the city of Abbottabad. He was shot in the head, NBC News reported.
DNA tests The special operations forces were on the ground for less than 40 minutes and the operation was watched in real-time by CIA director Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, an official said on condition of anonymity.
The team returned to Afghanistan with bin Laden's body, U.S. officials said.
NBC News reported that bin Laden was later buried at sea.
Video: Bin Laden buried at sea (on this page)

Islamic tradition calls for a body to be buried within 24 hours, but finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, a senior administration official said.
The U.S. was conducting DNA testing and used facial recognition techniques to help formally identify him, Reuters reported. Results of the DNA tests were expected to be available in the next few days.
Other U.S. officials said one of bin Laden's sons and two of his most trusted couriers also were killed, as was an unidentified woman who was used as a human shield.
Al Arabiya TV reported that two of bin Laden's wives and four of his children were also captured during the operation.
PhotoBlog: Bin Laden 'death photo' a fake? "When word came in that the operation was a success, CIA officials in the conference room had a rather large applause," a U.S. official said.
Bin Laden was holed up in a two-story house 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy when four helicopters carrying U.S. forces swooped in , leaving his final hiding place in flames, Pakistani officials and a witness said.
Video: US official: Bin Laden 'was hiding in plain sight' (on this page) They said bin Laden's guards opened fire from the roof of the compound and one of the choppers crashed. It was later destroyed by the U.S. team. U.S. officials said no Americans were hurt in the operation. The sound of at least two explosions rocked Abbottabad as the fighting raged.
Abbottabad is home to three Pakistan army regiments and thousands of military personnel and is dotted with military buildings. BBC News described the army site as the country's equivalent to West Point.
The discovery that bin Laden was living in an army town in Pakistan raises pointed questions about how he managed to evade capture and even whether Pakistan's military and intelligence leadership knew of his whereabouts and sheltered him.
The news of bin Laden's death immediately raised concerns that reprisal attacks from al-Qaida and other Islamist extremist groups could follow soon.
Video: State Department issues travel advisory (on this page)
"In the wake of this operation, there may be a heightened threat to the U.S. homeland," a U.S. official said. "The U.S. is taking every possible precaution. The State Department has sent advisories to embassies worldwide and has issued a travel ban for Pakistan."

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Police in New York, site of the deadliest attack on Sept. 11, said they had already begun to "ramp up" security on their own.
'Momentous achievement' Charles Wolf of New York, whose wife, Katherine, died on Sept, 11, 2001, rejoiced at the news, which he called "wonderful."
"I am really glad that man's evil is off this earth forever," Wolf said. "I am just very glad that they got him."
Former President George W. Bush said in a statement that he had personally been informed by Obama of the death of the terrorist leader whose attacks forever defined his eight years in office.

1. Death of Osama bin Laden
   1. US forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
   2. For 9/11 families, 'no such thing as closure'
   3. US tracked couriers to elaborate bin Laden compound
   4. Analysis: Al-Qaida needs 'miracle' to recover
   5. Across New York City, joy that 'Obama got Osama'
   6. PhotoBlog: Bin Laden 'death photo' a fake?
   7. Follow reaction across Web to bin Laden's death
   8. NYT: Bin Laden, the most wanted face of terrorism
   9. A timeline of Osama bin Laden's life
   10. Marking bin Laden news? Click here
   11. Bin Laden: Alleged mastermind of global attacks
   12. Bush, victims react to bin Laden's death
   13. NBC: Who is Ayman al-Zawahiri?
   14. breakingnews.com: Get the latest updates

"This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001," the former president said.
"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done."

Show more text 

Osama bin Laden dead

Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the world’s most wanted man for almost a decade is dead, President Barack Obama is poised to announce.

Osama bin Laden has been killed Photo: EPA

By Toby Harden in Washington 4:10AM BST 02 May 2011

Mr Obama was due to address the United States and people across the globe shortly after 11pm local time on Sunday night from the East Room of the White House.

He was expected to say that the Saudi-born Islamist had been killed by an American "asset" and that his body was in US custody in Afghanistan.

Military sources said that bin Laden was killed in a mansion outside Islamabad along with other family members after “actionable intelligence” about his whereabouts was received.

Two senior counterterrorism officials confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan last week. One said bin Laden was killed in a ground operation, not by a Predator drone.

A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that the al-Qaeda leader had been killed in Pakistan.

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Bin Laden was widely assumed to have been hiding in the remote tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The fact that he was killed close to the Pakistani capital will fuel fears that Pakistan has been giving sanctuary to al-Qaeda leaders.
In the days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush said that bin Laden was wanted “dead or alive” while Vice President Dick Cheney said he would willingly accept the al-Qaeda leader’s head “on a platter”.
But after bin Laden escaped from US forces in the Tora Bora cave complex in April 2002 he eluded the CIA and American forces despite the intense focus on killing or capturing the man responsible for killing 3,000 Americans and others in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania in the worst terrorist attack in US history.

Osama bin Laden dead in US raid

Jubilation fills Ground Zero, Times Square

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/us_raiders_slay_beast_QgxwTCzo6XLjib9bJKPckK#ixzz0RwX5gKtV

We finally got the miserable son of a bitch!
President Obama last night delivered to a jubilant nation the news Americans have been waiting nearly 10 years to hear: The United States killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden -- and had his corpse. Early Monday morning, a U.S. official said bin Laden had been buried at sea.
The most hated man in the world was killed yesterday in a $1 million mansion in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, not far from the capital of Islamabad.
"Justice has been done," Obama declared.
READ OBAMA'S FULL STATEMENT ON BIN LADEN'S DEATH

AP

AND NOW, TO HELL: The mutilated face of Osama bin Laden, shot to death in a daring US operation, pollutes the airwaves early today as his miserable, rancid corpse is displayed for all the world to see.

Photos: Osama bin Laden killed

VIDEO: AL QAEDA LEADER OSAMA BIN LADEN KILLED
PHOTOS: OSAMA BIN LADEN DEAD
Crowds gathered at Ground Zero, in Times Square and outside the White House to celebrate.
They waved flags, cheered, pumped their clenched fists and chanted, "USA! USA!"
"Osama is dead, and there's love in New York again," said James Childress, 34, at Ground Zero, where 2,752 people died in the attacks at the World Trade Center.
Directly across from the White House, thousands cheered.
"We finally got the mother f - - ker" screamed one man.
Said Geoff Rowson, from Atlanta, "It's retribution for 911."
He said he gathered with the crowd "to support all the men and women who have given their lives these last nine, 10 years. "This feels like a unifying event," he said.
PHOTOS: CELEBRATIONS AT GROUND ZERO
Obama acknowledged both the tremendous loss of 9/11 and of soldiers lost in the ensuing wars.
"Images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory," Obama said. " Nearly 3,000 citizens were taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts."
He added, "After nearly 10 years of service, struggle and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as commander-in-chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one, or look into the eyes of a service member who's been gravely wounded."
Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on the day of the attacks, issued a written statement.
"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," he said.
The huge victory over terrorism took place on the first anniversary of the aborted car bomb attack on Times Square.
Senior Obama administration officials told The Post of the extraordinary series of events that began four years ago and led yesterday to the death of the world's most-wanted terrorist.
According to one source, the identity of a key courier to bin Laden was discovered then -- and last August, officials pinpointed the massive compound where the terror lord was hiding.
"We were shocked by what we saw," one source told The Post. "It was an extraordinarily unique compound," with 12- to 18-foot high walls topped with barbed wire and protected by two security gates -- but oddly without telephone or Internet service.
The sources said that around 1 a.m. yesterday, helicopters swooped in on the compound. In a subsequent firefight, bin Laden, one of his sons, two couriers and a woman being used as a human shield were killed, sources said.
One of the helicopters had a mechanical failure, but the crew destroyed it and hopped another chopper to complete the mission.
Bin Laden's son wasn't identified; one, Hamza, is a senior member of al Qaeda. No Americans were hurt, the president said.
The Pakistanis were not warned in advance of the attack.
Obama spoke with Bush and former President Bill Clinton last night to inform them of the developments. "The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date to defeat al Qaeda," Obama said. "His demise should be welcomed by all."
The end to the world's most widely watched manhunt came just months before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon -- orchestrated by bin Laden's al Qaeda -- which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The 9/11 terrorists hijacked planes, flew one of them into the north tower of the WTC and, moments later, flew the second into the south tower.
A third plane slammed into the Pentagon, defacing the symbol of America's military night. A fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers overpowered the hijackers and forced the craft from the air before it could hit its intended target in Washington.
The attacks sparked the war on terror, which has cost the lives of more than 4,000 US servicemen and women.
Moments after Obama's dramatic announcement, American authorties cautioned the events could lead to heightened threats against the United States.
Senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/us_raiders_slay_beast_QgxwTCzo6XLjib9bJKPckK#ixzz0RwWzBNTP

Undoubtedly, everybody reading this knows the news: Osama bin Laden is dead.  What’s interesting to me, though, is that he wasn’t killed the way I’d have expected. I’d have been willing to predict that he would be killed by one of two things: 1) by unmanned drone attack or 2) by lack of access to the modern medicines he needed for his reported kidney problems. Either way, I figured it would be through modern advances, modern technology — or lack thereof, that he was killed.
The truth, as it turned out, was different. He was killed by human beings in a firefight.
I’m also guessing that since they had his exact location, developed “from a lead” last August, his whereabouts were probably determined by old fashioned human intelligence, not satellites. I’ll doubt we’ll ever know the full story behind that, though.
Congratulations to the analysts who tracked the data and the men in uniform who carried out the mission.
Bin Laden’s death will not mean the end of terrorism, nor will it bring back the victims of 9/11.  But it will ensure that bin Laden will never again be responsible for anyone else’s death.
I’ve seen this quote by Mark Twain floating around the internet tonight, “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011^[1][2][3]) was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family.^[4]
Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists due to his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings.^[5][6][7] Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. Bin Laden and fellow al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
On May 1, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced on national television that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by American military forces and the Central Intelligence Agency^[2][8] and that his body was in U.S. custody.^[3]

Contents [hide] 1 Variations of Osama bin Laden's name 2 Childhood, education and personal life 3 Beliefs and ideology 4 Militant activity 4.1 Mujahideen in Afghanistan 4.2 Formation and structuring of Al-Qaeda 4.3 Sudan and return to Afghanistan 4.4 Early attacks and aid for attacks 4.5 Balkan wars 4.6 September 11 attacks 5 Criminal charges 6 Attempted capture by the United States 6.1 Clinton administration 6.2 Bush administration 6.3 Obama administration 7 Criticism 8 Activities and whereabouts after the September 11 attacks 9 Death 10 See also 11 Footnotes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links

Variations of Osama bin Laden's name

There is no universally accepted standard in the West for transliterating Arabic words and names into English, so bin Laden's name is spelled in many different ways. The version translation most often used by English-language mass media is Osama bin Laden. Most American government agencies, including the FBI and CIA, use either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin", both of which are often abbreviated to UBL. Less common renderings include "Ussamah Bin Ladin" and "Oussama Ben Laden" (French-language mass media). The last two words of the name can also be found as "Binladen" or (as used by his family in the West) "Binladin". The spelling with "o" and "e" comes from a Persian-influenced pronunciation used in Afghanistan where he lived for a long time.
Strictly speaking, Arabic linguistic conventions dictate that he be referred to as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden", as "Bin Laden" is not used as a surname in the Western manner, but simply as part of his name, which in its long form means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of 'Awad, son of Laden". Still, "bin Laden" has become nearly universal in Western references to him.
Osama bin Laden's admirers commonly use several aliases and nicknames, including the Prince/Al-Amir, the Sheikh, Abu Abdallah, Sheikh Al-Mujahid, the Lion Sheik,^[9] the Director.^[10]

Childhood, education and personal life

Main article: Childhood, education and personal life of Osama bin Laden

See also: Bin Laden family

Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.^[11] In a 1998 interview, he gave his birth date as March 10, 1957.^[12] His father Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a wealthy businessman with close ties to the Saudi royal family.^[13] Osama bin Laden was born the only son of Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas.^[14] Osama's parents divorced soon after he was born; Osama's mother then married Mohammed al-Attas. The couple had four children, and Osama lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.^[14]
Osama was raised as a devout Wahhabi Muslim.^[15] From 1968 to 1976 he attended the "élite" secular Al-Thager Model School.^[14][16] Osama studied economics and business administration^[17] at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest Osama earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979,^[18] or a degree in public administration in 1981.^[19] Other sources describe him as having left university during his third year,^[20] never completing a college degree, though "hard working."^[21] At university, Osama's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work.^[22] He also wrote poetry.^[23]
In 1974, at the age of 17, Osama married his first wife Najwa Ghanem at Latakia.^[24] According to CNN national security correspondent David Ensore, as of 2002 Osama had married four women and fathered roughly 25 or 26 children.^[25] Other sources report that he has fathered anywhere from 12 to 24 children.^[26]
His father, Mohammed bin Laden, was killed in 1967 in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot misjudged a landing.^[27] His eldest half-brother and head of the bin Laden family, Salem bin Laden, was killed in 1988 when he accidentally flew a plane into powerlines near San Antonio, Texas, USA.
The FBI described Osama bin Laden as tall and thin, between 6'4" and 6'6" (193– 198 cm) in height and weighing about 165 pounds (75 kg). Interviewees of Lawrence Wright, on the other hand, describe him as quite slender, but not particularly tall.^[28] He had an olive complexion and was left-handed, usually walking with a cane. He wore a plain white turban and no longer donned the traditional Saudi male headdress.^[29]In terms of personality, bin Laden was described as a soft-spoken, mild mannered man.^[30]

Beliefs and ideology

Main article: Beliefs and ideology of Osama bin Laden

Osama believed that the restoration of Sharia law will set things right in the Muslim world, and that all other ideologies—"pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy"—must be opposed.^[31] These beliefs, along with violent expansive jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism (the ideology of Sayyid Qutb).^[32] He believed Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world.^[33] Osama consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believes are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states,^[34] the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East. He also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication (and) homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury," in an October 2002 letter.^[35]
Probably the most infamous part of Osama's ideology was that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad.^[36][37] Osama was antisemitic, and delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next."^[38] Shia Muslims have been listed along with "Heretics,... America and Israel," as the four principal "enemies of Islam" at ideology classes of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization.^[39]
In keeping with Wahhabi beliefs,^[40] Osama opposed music on religious grounds,^[41] and his attitude towards technology was mixed. He was interested in "earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants" on the one hand, but rejected "chilled water" on the other.^[42]
His viewpoints and methods of achieving them had led to him being designated as a "terrorist" by scholars,^[43][44] journalists from The New York Times,^[45][46] the BBC,^[47] and Qatari news station Al Jazeera,^[48] analysts such as Peter Bergen,^[49] Michael Scheuer,^[50] Marc Sageman,^[51] and Bruce Hoffman^[52][53] and he was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.^[54]

Militant activity

Main article: Militant activity of Osama bin Laden

See also: CIA-Osama bin Laden controversy

Mujahideen in Afghanistan

Osama Bin Laden with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir in 1997.

After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam to fight the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan^[55] and lived for a time in Peshawar.^[56] From 1979 through 1989 under U.S. Presidents Carter and Reagan, the United States Central Intelligence Agency provided overt and covert financial aid, arms and training to Osama's Islamic Jihad Mujahideen through Operation Cyclone^[57], and The Reagan Doctrine. President Reagan often praised Osama's Mujahideen as Afghanistan's "Freedom Fighters."
By 1984, with Azzam, bin Laden established Maktab al-Khadamat, which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the Arabic world into the Afghan war. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune^[58] paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. Osama established a camp in Afghanistan, and with other volunteers fought the Soviets.
It was during his time in Peshawar that he began wearing camouflage-print jackets and carrying a captured Soviet assault rifle, which urban legends claimed he had obtained by killing a Russian soldier with his bare hands.^[59]

Formation and structuring of Al-Qaeda

Main article: Al-Qaeda

By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat. While Azzam acted as support for Afghan fighters, bin Laden wanted a more military role. One of the main points leading to the split and the creation of al-Qaeda was Azzam's insistence that Arab fighters be integrated among the Afghan fighting groups instead of forming a separate fighting force.^[60] Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20, 1988, indicate al-Qaeda was a formal group by that time: "basically an organized Islamic faction, its goal is to lift the word of God, to make His religion victorious." A list of requirements for membership itemized the following: listening ability, good manners, obedience, and making a pledge (bayat) to follow one's superiors.^[61]
According to Wright, the group's real name wasn't used in public pronouncements because "its existence was still a closely held secret."^[62] His research suggests that al-Qaeda was formed at an August 11, 1988, meeting between "several senior leaders" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Abdullah Azzam, and bin Laden, where it was agreed to join bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and take up the jihadist cause elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.^[63] Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as a hero of jihad, who along with his Arab legion, "had brought down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union.^[64] The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 had put the kingdom and its ruling House of Saud at risk. The world's most valuable oil fields were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait, and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. bin Laden met with King Fahd, and Sultan, Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, telling them not to depend on non-Muslim troops, and offered to help defend Saudi Arabia with his mujahideen fighters. Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed, and after the American offer to help repel Iraq from Kuwait was accepted, involving deploying U.S. troops in Saudi territory,^[65] he publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S. military, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) profaned sacred soil. Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led that government to attempt to silence him.
Shortly after Saudi Arabia permitted U.S. troops on Saudi soil, bin Laden turned his attention to attacks on the west. On November 8, 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of El Sayyid Nosair, an associate of al Qaeda operative Ali Mohamed, discovering a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers, marking the earliest uncovering of al Qaeda plans for such activities outside of Muslim countries.^[66] Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane on November 5, 1990.
Bin Laden continued to speak publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops, for which the Saudis banished him. He went to live in exile in Sudan, in 1992, in a deal brokered by Ali Mohamed.^[67]

Sudan and return to Afghanistan

In Sudan, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations, in Khartoum.
Bin Laden continued his verbal assault on King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and in response, on March 5, 1994, Fahd sent an emissary to Sudan demanding bin Laden's passport. His family was persuaded to cut off his monthly stipend, the equivalent of $7 million a year.^[68] By now bin Laden was strongly associated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which made up the core of al-Qaeda. In 1995 the EIJ attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The attempt failed, and the EIJ was expelled from Sudan.
Sudan also began efforts to expel bin Laden. The 9/11 Commission Report states:

"In late 1995, when Bin Laden was still in Sudan, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned that Sudanese officials were discussing with the Saudi government the possibility of expelling Bin Laden. CIA paramilitary officer Billy Waugh tracked down Bin Ladin in the Sudan and prepared an operation to apprehend him, but was denied authorization.^[69] US Ambassador Timothy Carney encouraged the Sudanese to pursue this course. The Saudis, however, did not want Bin Laden, giving as their reason their revocation of his citizenship. Sudan's minister of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Laden over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Laden. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding."^[70]

The 9/11 Commission Report further states:

"In February 1996, Sudanese officials began approaching officials from the United States and other governments, asking what actions of theirs might ease foreign pressure. In secret meetings with Saudi officials, Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. US officials became aware of these secret discussions, certainly by March. Saudi officials apparently wanted Bin Laden expelled from Sudan. They had already revoked his citizenship, however, and would not tolerate his presence in their country. Also Bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, or both."

In May 1996, under increasing pressure on Sudan, from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States, bin Laden returned to Jalalabad, Afghanistan aboard a chartered flight, and there forged a close relationship with Mullah Mohammed Omar.^[71][72] When Bin Laden left Sudan, he and his organization were significantly weakened, despite his ambitions and organizational skills.^[73] In Afghanistan, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda raised money from "donors from the days of the Soviet jihad", and from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to establish more training camps for Mujahideen fighters .^[74]

Early attacks and aid for attacks

It is believed that the first bombing attack involving bin Laden was the December 29, 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden in which two people were killed.^[75]
It was after this bombing that al-Qaeda was reported to have 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 will find their proper reward in death, going to Jannah (Paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers.^[76] The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.
In the 1990s bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993 bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded but the war that followed killed 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with Islamist surrender to the government.
Another effort by bin Laden was the funding of the Luxor massacre of November 17, 1997,^[77][78][79] which killed 62 civilians, but so revolted the Egyptian public that it turned against Islamist terror. In mid-1997, the Northern Alliance threatened to overrun Jalalabad, causing Bin Laden to abandon his Nazim Jihad compound and move his operations to Tarnak Farms in the south.^[80]
A later effort that did succeed was an attack on the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped cement his alliance with his hosts the Taliban by sending several hundred of his Afghan Arab fighters along to help the Taliban kill between five and six thousand Hazaras overrunning the city.^[81]
In 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to "liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip".^[82][83] At the public announcement of the fatwa bin Laden announced that North Americans are "very easy targets." He told the attending journalists, "You will see the results of this in a very short time."^[84]
In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center reported to the president that al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the USA, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.^[85]
At the end of 2000, Richard Clarke revealed that Islamic militants headed by bin Laden had planned a triple attack on January 3, 2000 which would have included bombings in Jordan of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman and tourists at Mount Nebo and a site on the Jordan River, the sinking of the destroyer USS The Sullivans in Yemen, as well as an attack on a target within the United States. The plan was foiled by the arrest of the Jordanian terrorist cell, the sinking of the explosive-filled skiff intended to target the destroyer, and the arrest of Ahmed Ressam.^[86]

Balkan wars

See also: Bosnian mujahideen

A former U.S. State Department official in October 2001 described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a safe haven for terrorists, after it was revealed that militant elements of the former Sarajevo government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Osama bin Laden.^[87] In 1997, Rzeczpospolita, one of the largest Polish daily newspapers, reported that intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish SFOR Brigade suspected that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries was located in the Bocina Donja village near Maglaj in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, hundreds of volunteers joined an "all-mujahedeen unit" called El Moujahed in an abandoned hillside factory, a compound with a hospital and prayer hall. According to Middle East intelligence reports, bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was Karim Said Atmani who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the USA.^[88] He is a former roommate of Ahmed Ressam, the man arrested at the Canadian-U.S. border in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials.^[89][90] He was convicted of colluding with Osama bin Laden by a French court.^[91]
A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former mujahideen who are linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists who have lived in this area 60 miles (97 km) north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. Khalil al-Deek, was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites; a second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Osama Bin Laden. In its June 26, 1997 Report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, The New York Times noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslims forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Osama bin Laden.^[92][93][94]
In 1999 it was revealed that Osama bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and Bosnian passports in 1993 by the Government in Sarajevo. This information was denied by the Bosnian government following the 9/11 attacks, but it was later found that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation, a new explanation was given that bin Laden "did not personally collect his Bosnian passport" and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who bin Laden was at the time.^[92][93][94] The Bosnian daily Oslobođenje published in 2001 that three men, believed to be linked to Osama Bin Laden, were arrested in Sarajevo in July 2001. The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, were Egyptian nationals. The paper said that two of the suspects were holding Bosnian passports.^[92]
In 1998 it was reported that bin Laden was operating his Al Qaeda network out of Albania. The Charleston Gazette quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Confirmation of these activities came from Claude Kader, a French national who said he was a member of bin Laden's Albanian network.
By 1998 four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) were arrested in Albania, and extradited to Egypt at the urging of the CIA. It is believed that the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Africa occurred as retaliation for these arrests.^[95]

September 11 attacks

See also: September 11 attacks and Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden

"Allah knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed – when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."

– Osama bin Laden, 2004^[96]

After reports of repeated initial denials,^[97] in 2004 Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.^{[98][99][100]} The attacks involved the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft,^[101] the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,^[102] and the deaths of 2,974 people and the nineteen hijackers.^[103] In response to the attacks, the United States launched a War on Terror to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's Special Activities Division was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.^[104]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified^[105] evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable.^[106] The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001, attacks although the government report notes that the evidence presented is insufficient for a prosecutable case.^[107] Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.^[108]
In a videotape recovered by US forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge.^[109] The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."^[110]
In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he stated he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers.^[99][111] In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President George W. Bush of negligence on the hijacking of the planes on September 11.^[99]
According to the tapes, bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.^[112]
In two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announces,

I am the one in charge of the nineteen brothers ... I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers ... with the raids [5 minute audiotape broadcast May 23, 2006],^[113]

and is seen with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as two of the 9/11 hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks (videotape broadcast September 7, 2006).^[114]

Criminal charges

On March 16, 1998, Libya issued the first official Interpol arrest warrant against Bin Laden and three other people for killing two German citizens in Libya on March 10, 1994, one of which is thought to have been a German counter-intelligence officer. Bin Laden was still wanted by the Libyan government.^[115][116] Osama bin Laden was first indicted by the United States on June 8, 1998, when a grand jury indicted Osama bin Laden on charges of killing five Americans and two Indians in the November 14, 1995 truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh.^[117]
Bin Laden was charged with "conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States" and prosecutors further charged that bin Laden is the head of the terrorist organization called al Qaeda, and that he was a major financial backer of Islamic fighters worldwide.^[117] Bin Laden denied involvement but praised the attack. On November 4, 1998, Osama bin Laden was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on charges of Murder of US Nationals Outside the United States, Conspiracy to Murder US Nationals Outside the United States, and Attacks on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death^[118] for his alleged role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony by former Al Qaeda members and satellite phone records, from a phone purchased for him by al-Qaeda procurement agent Ziyad Khaleel in the U.S.^[119]
Bin Laden became the 456th person listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, when he was added to the list on June 7, 1999, following his indictment along with others for capital crimes in the 1998 embassy attacks. Attempts at assassination and requests for the extradition of bin Laden from the Taliban of Afghanistan were met with failure prior to the bombing of Afghanistan in October 2001.^[120] In 1999, US President Bill Clinton convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.
Years later, on October 10, 2001, bin Laden appeared as well on the initial list of the top 22 FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by the President of the United States George W. Bush, in direct response to the attacks of 9/11, but which was again based on the indictment for the 1998 embassy attack. Bin Laden was among a group of thirteen fugitive terrorists wanted on that latter list for questioning about the 1998 embassy bombings. Bin Laden remains the only fugitive ever to be listed on both FBI fugitive lists.
Despite the multiple indictments listed above and multiple requests, the Taliban refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden. It wasn't until after the bombing of Afghanistan began in October 2001 that the Taliban finally did offer to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third-party country for trial, in return for the US ending the bombing and providing evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This offer was rejected by George W Bush stating that this was no longer negotiable with Bush responding that "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty."^[121]

Attempted capture by the United States

US propaganda leaflet used in Afghanistan

Clinton administration

Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton.^[122] Shortly after the September 11 attacks it was revealed that President Clinton had signed a directive authorizing the CIA (and specifically their elite Special Activities Division) to apprehend bin Laden and bring him to the United States to stand trial after the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa; if taking bin Laden alive was deemed impossible, then deadly force was authorized.^[123] On August 20, 1998, 66 cruise missiles launched by United States Navy ships in the Arabian Sea struck bin Laden's training camps near Khost in Afghanistan, narrowly missing him by a few hours.^[124] In 1999 the CIA, together with Pakistani military intelligence, had prepared a team of approximately 60 Pakistani commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan to capture or kill bin Laden, but the plan was aborted by the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état;^[124] in 2000, foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding.^[123]
In 2000, prior to the September 11 attacks, Paul Bremer characterized the Clinton administration as "correctly focused on bin Laden", while Robert Oakley criticized their "obsession with Osama".^[86]

Bush administration

According to The Washington Post, the US government concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the Battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in late 2001, and according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge, failure by the US to commit enough US ground troops to hunt him led to his escape and was the gravest failure by the US in the war against al Qaeda. Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border.^[125]
The Washington Post also reported that the CIA unit composed of their special operations paramilitary forces dedicated to capturing Osama was shut down in late 2005.^[126]
US and Afghanistan forces raided the mountain caves in Tora Bora between 14–16 August 2007. The military was drawn to the area after receiving intelligence of a pre-Ramadan meeting held by al Qaeda members. After killing dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban members, they did not find either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.^[127]
Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, US government officials named bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda organization as the prime suspects and offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to his capture or death.^[10][128] On July 13, 2007, this figure was doubled to $50 million.^[129]
The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association had offered an additional $2 million reward.^[130]

Obama administration

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in December 2009 that officials had had no reliable information on Bin Laden's whereabouts for "years". One week later, General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said in December 2009 that al-Qaeda will not be defeated unless its leader, Osama Bin Laden, is captured or killed. Testifying to the U.S. Congress, he said Bin Laden had become an "iconic figure, whose survival emboldens al-Qaeda as a franchising organization across the world", and that Obama's deployment of 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan meant that success would be possible. "I don't think that we can finally defeat al-Qaeda until he's captured or killed", McChrystal said of Bin Laden. "Killing or capturing Bin Laden would not spell the end of al-Qaeda, but the movement could not be eradicated while he remained at large."^[131]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Osama bin Laden

Salafist Muslims have criticized bin Laden for adherence to Qutbism, takfir and Khaarijite deviance. Critics are said to include Muhammad Ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee, Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz, Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan and Muqbil bin Haadi al-Waadi'ee. In August 2010, Fidel Castro claimed that bin Laden was a spy employed by the United States.^[132]

Activities and whereabouts after the September 11 attacks

Main article: Location of Osama bin Laden

Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush stated that now hoped to "kill or capture" Bin Laden. Subsequently, Bin Laden retreated further from public contact to avoid capture. Since that time, numerous speculative press reports had been issued concerning various hearsay stories about his whereabouts, and also about alleged evidence of his death. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda had continued to release time-sensitive and professionally-verified videos demonstrating Bin Laden's continued survival as recently as August 2007.^[133] Most recently, U.S. Army General Stanley A. McChrystal had emphasized the continued importance of the capture or killing of bin Laden, thus clearly indicating that the US high command continued to believe that Bin Laden was probably still alive. Some of the conflicting reports regarding both his his continued whereabouts and previous mistaken claims about his death have included the following:
Many claims as to the location of Osama bin Laden were made in the wake of 9/11, although none were ever definitively proven and some placed Osama in different locations during overlapping time periods. After military offensives in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 failed to uncover his whereabouts, Pakistan was regularly identified as his suspected hiding place.
A December 11, 2005, letter from Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicates that bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership were based in the Waziristan region of Pakistan at the time. In the letter, translated by the United States military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "Atiyah" instructs Zarqawi to "send messengers from your end to Waziristan so that they meet with the brothers of the leadership ... I am now on a visit to them and I am writing you this letter as I am with them..." Al-Rahman also indicates that bin Laden and al-Qaeda are "weak" and "have many of their own problems." The letter has been deemed authentic by military and counterterrorism officials, according to The Washington Post.^[134][135]
In 2009, a research team led by Thomas W. Gillespie and John A. Agnew of UCLA used satellite-aided geographical analysis to pinpoint three compounds in Parachinar as bin Laden's likely hideouts.^[136]
In March 2009, the New York Daily News reported that the hunt for bin Laden had centered in the Chitral District of Pakistan, including the Kalam Valley. According to the report, author Rohan Gunaratna states that captured Al Qaeda leaders have confirmed that Chitral is where bin Laden is hiding.^[137]
In the first week of December 2009, a Taliban detainee in Pakistan said he had information that Bin Laden was in Afghanistan in 2009. The detainee said that in January or February (of 2009) he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden about 15 to 20 days earlier in Afghanistan. However, on December 6, 2009. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the U.S. had had no reliable information on the whereabouts of Bin Laden in years.^[138] Pakistan's Prime Minister Gillani rejected claims that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.^[139]
On January 15, 2010, the FBI published digitally aged pictures of Osama bin Laden showing what he may look like after a decade of aging. Spanish newspaper El Mundo subsequently revealed that the FBI had used a photo of Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares from Google Images to create the image. The FBI admitted to using the photo and removed it from its website. Llamazares has responded by stating that he was "stupefied by the FBI's decision to use his photograph to compose its latest image of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden" and that he is considering taking legal action if the FBI does not provide an explanation.^[140] An internal investigation has been launched by the FBI to find out if this was done intentionally.^[141][142]
On February 2, 2010, an anonymous official of the Saudi Foreign Ministry declared that the kingdom had no intention of getting involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban would sever ties with extremists and expel Osama bin Laden.^[143] This condition was announced as the Afghan president Karzai arrived in the kingdom for an official visit, for a discussion of a possible Saudi role in his plan to reintegrate Taliban militants.^[143]
On June 7, 2010, the Kuwaiti Al Siyassa reported that Bin Laden was hiding in the mountainous town of Savzevar, in north eastern Iran.^[144] The Australian newspaper online published the claim on June 9.^[145]
On October 18, 2010, an unnamed NATO official suggested that bin Laden was "alive and well and living comfortably" in Pakistan, protected by elements of the country's intelligence services. A senior Pakistani official denied the allegations and said the accusations were designed to put pressure on the Pakistani government ahead of talks aimed at strengthening ties between Pakistan and the United States.^[146]

Death

Main article: Death of Osama bin Laden

This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Wikinews has related news: Osama bin Laden dead, report US officials

On May 1, 2011 Eastern Standard Time U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed earlier that day by "a small team of Americans" acting under Obama's direct orders, in a covert operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Islamabad,^[8][147] affirming earlier confirmation by U.S. officials to the media. According to U.S. officials a team of 20-25 US Navy SEALs under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the CIA stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden and those with him were killed during a firefight in which U.S. forces experienced no injuries or casualties.^[148] According to one US official the attack was carried out without the knowledge or consent of the Pakistani authorities.^[149] In Pakistan some people were reported to be shocked at the illegal incursion by US armed forces.^[150] The site is a few kilometers from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul.^[151] In his broadcast announcement President Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties."^[152] Details soon emerged that three men and a woman were killed along with Bin Laden, the woman being killed when she was “used as a shield by a male combatant”.^[149] DNA from bin Laden's body, compared with DNA samples on record from his dead sister,^[153] confirmed bin Laden's identity.^[154] The body was recovered by the US military and was in its custody ^[147] until, according to news sources, his body was buried at sea with Islamic traditions ^[155][156] with one U.S. official stating that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult." ^[157]

See also

• Afghan civil war
• Fatawā of Osama bin Laden
• Islamic fundamentalism
• Islamic mujahid movement
• Islamic terrorism
• Islamofascism
• Osama bin Laden as destructive Cult leader
• Osama bin Laden in popular culture
• The Golden Chain
• Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden

Footnotes

1. ^ "In an intelligence driven operation, Osama Bin Ladin was killed in the surroundings of Abbottabad in the early hours of this morning.". May 2, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Bin Laden Dead, US Officials Say". The New York Times.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden 'dead'". BBC News. May 1, 2011.
4. ^ The Cost Of Being Osama Bin Laden Retrieved 15 March 2011
5. ^ "FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives". FBI.gov. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
6. ^ Dan Eggen (August 28, 2006). "Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombings?". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
7. ^ "'Most wanted terrorists' list released". CNN. October 10, 2001. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
8. ^ ^{a b} "Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces". The Guardian. May 1, 2011.
9. ^ Warrick, Joby (September 8, 2007). "In a New Video, Bin Laden Predicts U.S. Failure in Iraq". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
10. ^ ^{a b} "Most Wanted Terrorist – Usama Bin Laden". FBI. Archived from the original on March 10, 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
11. ^ "Frontline: Hunting Bin Laden: Who is Bin Laden?: Chronology". PBS. Archived from the original on February 10, 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
12. ^ "Osama bin Laden". GlobalSecurity.org. January 11, 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
13. ^ David Johnson. "Osama bin Laden infoplease". Infoplease. Archived from the original on January 20, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
14. ^ ^{a b c} Steve Coll (December 12, 2005). "Letter From Jedda: Young Osama- How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
15. ^ Beyer, Lisa (September 24, 2001). "The Most Wanted Man In The World". Time. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
16. ^ Bergen, Peter. The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader. Free Press, 2006, p. 52
17. ^ Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, Verso, 2005, p. xii.
18. ^ Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 22. Gale Group, 2002. (link requires username/password)
19. ^ "A Biography of Osama Bin Laden". PBS Frontline. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
20. ^ Gunaratna, Rohan (2003). Inside Al Qaeda (3rd ed.). Berkley Books. p. 22. ISBN 0231126921.
21. ^ Aziz Hug (January 19, 2006). "The Real Osama". The American Prospect. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
22. ^ Wright, Looming Tower, (2006), p. 79.
23. ^ Michael Hirst (September 24, 2008). "Analysing Osama's jihadi poetry". BBC News. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
24. ^ Michael Slackman (November 13, 2001). "Osama Kin Wait and Worry". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
25. ^ "Osama's Women". CNN. March 12, 2002. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
26. ^ Amy Zalman, Ph.D.. "Profile: Osama bin Laden". About.com. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
27. ^ "Interview with US Author Steve Coll: 'Osama bin Laden is Planning Something for the US Election'". Der Spiegel. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
28. ^ Lawrence Wright, Looming Tower (2006)
29. ^ "Most Wanted Terrorist - Usama Bin Laden". FBI. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
30. ^ "'I met Osama Bin Laden'". BBC News. 2004-03-26. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
31. ^ Messages, 2005, p. 218. "Resist the New Rome, audiotape delivered to al-Jazeera and broadcast by it on 2004-01-04.
32. ^ Dale C. Eikmeier (Spring 2007). "Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism". Parameters. pp. 85–98. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
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34. ^ Messages to the World, (2005), pp. xix, xx, editor Bruce Lawrence.
35. ^ October 6, 2002. Appeared in Al-Qala'a website and then the London Observer 2002-11-24.
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37. ^ Messages, (2005), p. 119, October 21, 2001 interview with Taysir Alluni of Al Jazeera.
38. ^ Messages, (2005), p. 190. from 53-minute audiotape that "was circulated on various websites." dated February 14, 2003. "Among a Band of Knights."
39. ^ from interview with Ali Soufan – a Lebanese Sunni FBI agent – by Wright, Wright, Looming Tower (2006), p. 303.
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88. ^ R. Jeffrey Smith (March 11, 2000). "A Bosnian Village's Terrorist Ties". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
89. ^ Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Hassan Almrei, 2008-02-22.
90. ^ Baravalle, Giorgio (2004). Rethink: Cause and Consequences of September 11. de-MO. p. 584. ISBN 0970576862.
91. ^ Sherrie Gossett (August 17, 2005). "Jihadists find convenient base in Bosnia". Assyrian International News Agency. Archived from the original on December 17, 2005. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
92. ^ ^{a b c} "Bin Laden's Balkan Connections". Retrieved May 25, 2010.
93. ^ ^{a b} BIN LADEN WAS GRANTED BOSNIAN PASSPORT, Agence France Presse 1999-09-24.
94. ^ ^{a b} Chris Hedges (September 23, 1996). "Outsiders Bring Islamic Fervor To the Balkans". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
95. ^ Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Doubleday. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-385-52639-5 (0-385-52639-3).
96. ^ "God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers". The Guardian (London). October 30, 2004. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
97. ^ CIA translations of bin Laden messages and interviews at Wikinews, 15 September 2008
98. ^ Eggen, Dan (August 28, 2006). "Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombings?". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
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100. ^ "Osama claims responsibility for 9/11". The Times of India. May 24, 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
101. ^ United Airlines Flight 93, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, and American Airlines Flight 77.
102. ^ Phil Hirschkorn (April 26, 2006). "9/11 jurors face complex life or death decisions". CNN. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
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104. ^ CIA Secret Program: PM Teams Targeting Al Qaeda, Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2009, A1.
105. ^ President Bush, Secretary of the Treasury O'Neill and Secretary of State Powell, White House news release, September 24, 2001.
106. ^ Watson, Dale L., Executive Assistant Director, Counter terrorism/Counterintelligence Division, FBI (February 6, 2002). "FBI Testimony about 9/11 terrorists' motives". Federal Bureau of Investigation - (RepresentativePress). Retrieved February 11, 2011.
107. ^ "Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States, September 11, 2001". 10 Downing Street, Office of the Prime Minister of the UK. May 15, 2003. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
108. ^ "Pakistan to Demand Taliban Give Up Bin Laden as Iran Seals Afghan Border". Associated Press. Fox News. September 16, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
109. ^ "Bin Laden on tape: Attacks 'benefited Islam greatly'". CNN. December 14, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
110. ^ "Bin-Laden-Video: Falschübersetzung als Beweismittel?". WDR, Das Erste, MONITOR Nr. 485 am. December 20, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
111. ^ "Al-Jazeera: Bin Laden tape obtained in Pakistan". msnbc.com. October 30, 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2010.—"In the tape, bin Laden—wearing traditional white robes, a turban and a tan cloak—reads from papers at a lectern against a plain brown background. Speaking quietly in an even voice, he tells the American people that he ordered the September 11 attacks because "we are a free people" who wanted to "regain the freedom" of their nation."
112. ^ "Excerpts: Bin Laden video". BBC News. October 29, 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
113. ^ "Osama bin Laden tape transcript". msnbc.com. May 23, 2006. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
114. ^ "Bin Laden 9/11 planning video aired". CBC News. September 7, 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
115. ^ Sammy Salama (September 2004). "Was Libyan WMD Disarmament a Significant Success for Nonproliferation?". NTI. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
116. ^ Interpol Arrest Warrant File No. 1998/20232, Control No. A-268/5-1998. Brisard Jean-Charles, Dasquie Guillaume. "Forbidden Truth." (New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 2002), p. 156.
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118. ^ "Indictment #S(9) 98 Cr. 1023" (PDF). United States District Court, Southern District of New York.
119. ^ "Embassy bombing defendant linked to bin Laden". CNN. February 14, 2001.
120. ^ William Reeve (November 21, 1998). "Osama bin Laden 'innocent'". BBC News. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
121. ^ "Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over". The Guardian (London). October 14, 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
122. ^ "Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing bin Laden". CNN. September 25, 2006. Archived from the original on October 5, 2006. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
123. ^ ^{a b} "Report: Clinton Targeted Bin Laden", CBS News, 2001-09-16.
124. ^ ^{a b} "CIA Trained Pakistanis to Nab Terrorist But Military Coup Put an End to 1999 Plot", The Washington Post, 2001-10-03.
125. ^ Gellman, Barton; Ricks, Thomas E. (April 17, 2002). "U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
126. ^ "CIA Reportedly Disbands Bin Laden Unit". The Washington Post. Associated Press. July 4, 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
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129. ^ "Senate doubles Bin Laden reward". BBC News. July 13, 2007. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
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References

• Bergen, Peter (2006). The Osama Bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743295927.
• Lawrence, Wright (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda And The Road To 9/11. New York: Knopf. ISBN 1400030846.
• Scheuer, Michael (2002). Through Our Enemies' Eyes. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's. ISBN 1574885537.

Further reading

• Berner, Brad K (2007). Quotations from Osama Bin Laden. Peacock Books. ISBN 8124801134.
• Bin Laden, Osama; Bruce Lawrence (2005). Messages to the world: the statements of Osama Bin Laden. Verso. ISBN 1844670457.
• Scheuer, Michael (2011). Osama Bin Laden. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199738661.
• Foreign Broadcast Information Service Report - Compilation of Usama Bin Laden Statements 1994 – January 2004

External links

Find more about Osama bin Laden on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Hunting Bin Laden – PBS Frontline (Nov. 2002)
• New Yorker article on Osama's youth, December 12, 2005
• Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America', 24 November 2002
• Osama bin Laden collected news and commentary, guardian.co.uk
• Osama bin Laden collected news and commentary at The New York Times

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Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.
With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival? [New York Times. July 11, 2002] 

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

[Fox News. December 26, 2001]
Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years. According to Le Figaro, last year [2000] he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan. [Guardian]
 
Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged 'enormously'

This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he's really, by December [2001] he's looking pretty terrible.
Bin Laden December 27, 2001 video	Healthy bin Laden
But by December, of course, that tape that was aired then, he's barely moving the left side of his body. So he's clearly got diabetes. He has low blood pressure. He's got a wound in his foot. He's apparently got dialysis ... for kidney problems. [CNN] The [December 27, 2001 video] was dismissed by the Bush administration ... as sick propaganda possibly designed to mask the fact the al-Qa'eda leader was already dead. "He could have made the video and then ordered that it be released in the event of his death," said one White House aide. [Telegraph]

Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead
Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.
[A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout." [CNN]
Renal dialysis -- talking about hemodialysis -- is something that really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their kidneys have just completely shut down. The most common cause of something like that would be something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that's happened, if you're separated from your dialysis machine -- and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity, they're going to require clean water, they're going to require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge risk with that. If you don't have all those things and a functioning dialysis machine, it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN]
Karzai: bin Laden 'probably' dead
Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead, but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. [CNN]
FBI: Bin Laden 'probably' dead
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. [BBC]
Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden's will
The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arab news magazine said a purported will it published Saturday was written late last year [2001] by Osama bin Laden, and shows "he's dying or he's going to die soon." [CNN]

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. "The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said. [FOX News] Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper: al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633 News of Bin Laden's Death and Funeral 10 days ago A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa'da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. [Welfare State]

Osama bin who?
Israel does not view bin Laden as a threat. [Janes]
Israeli intelligence: Bin Laden is dead, heir has been chosen
Israeli sources said Israel and the United States assess that Bin Laden probably died in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan in December. They said the emergence of new messages by Bin Laden are probably fabrications, Middle East Newsline reported. [World Tribune]
[See also The Fake bin Laden Audio Tape]
[See also Benazir Bhutto says Osama is dead.]

When you hear a threat which is "probably" made by bin Laden, just remember that he's "probably" dead. Also think about who benefits from your believing he's alive.

"Osama bin Laden" Fitter than ever in