Osama bin Laden was an international terrorist, religious extremist, and the founder of Al Qaeda, a violent jihadist group. Bin Laden, a devout Sunni Muslim, was devoted to religious study as a student, and after graduation, he used his riches to assist religious opposition fighters in Afghanistan during the Soviet War. Arms, resources, and training were provided to militant religious factions in Saudi Arabia by the organizations he created. When the Saudi Arabian government approved the deployment of US soldiers on Saudi soil, bin Laden publicly condemned his own country and was finally exiled to Sudan, where he continued to amass wealth and support jihad. After his organization was exiled from Sudan after failing an assassination attempt, he returned to Afghanistan and issued a fatwa titled “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places.” He initiated a series of coordinated attacks on US embassies in East African cities, as well as numerous other foreign targets, until the ‘World Trade Center’ bombings culminated his war crimes. Bin Laden became the United States’ public enemy number one, and he was wanted around the world for his savage attacks on helpless citizens.
Childhood and Adolescence
Bin Laden was born in the late 1950s in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, as Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden. Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a rich construction mogul, and his tenth wife Hamida al-Attas were his parents.
Bin Laden was nurtured in the home of his mother and her new spouse after his parents split shortly after his birth. The bin Laden family was estimated to be around $5 billion, with bin Laden inheriting about $25 million from his father.
He was raised as a devoted Sunni Muslim and attended King Abdulaziz University, where he studied economics and business, as well as Quran interpretation and jihad. Although he studied religion and other courses, it is uncertain whether he received a university diploma.
Incarceration & Offenses
Bin Laden was already a successful businessman when he graduated from college in 1979. He moved to Pakistan and began funding Mujahideen fighters in the Soviet war in Afghanistan using monies from his construction and machinery company. During this time, up until 1989, the US government was also sending money and weapons to the resistance fighters.
Bin Laden formed the Afghan Services Bureau, or Maktab al-Khidamat, and used it to smuggle money into Afghanistan to help the Mujahideen. In 1988, he broke away from the ‘Maktab Al-Knidamat’ and exploited his growing fame and clout to found the far more aggressive worldwide terrorist organization ‘Al Qaeda.’
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, headed by Saddam Hussein, posed a threat to Saudi Arabia’s domestic stability. Bin Laden pleaded with the Saudi authorities to keep non-Muslims out of the conflict, but they disobeyed his counsel, and US forces were deployed in Saudi land.
He continued to speak out against the government’s policies until he was expelled from his native country two years later. He took refuge in Sudan and lived there in exile.
During his exile in Sudan, he continued to speak out against the Saudi government and US soldiers in the country, and he was also linked to the ‘Egyptian Islamic Jihad,’ which was at the heart of ‘Al Qaeda.’
Following the failed EIJ murder attempt on Egypt’s president, the US accused Sudan of funding international terrorism, leading to the eventual expulsion of bin Laden and his organization in 1996.
Bin Laden declared war on the United States after returning to Afghanistan, alleging that the Middle East’s problems were caused by American intervention. He reverted to his roots, enlisting the help of his Soviet jihadist comrades to help him generate funds to fund his attacks.
Bin Laden was placed on the FBI’s ten most wanted list in 1998 for his role in the bombings of US embassies in several major East African cities, which killed hundreds of people. His preparations to hijack planes were discovered by American counter-terrorism intelligence by the end of the year.
The FBI discovered unassailable classified information linking ‘Al Qaeda’ and bin Laden to the hijacking after the September 11 attacks. He first denied his involvement, but in a video released in 2004, he admitted to being the mastermind of the attacks.
Major Offenses of Laden
Bin Laden was wanted in a number of countries on charges of mass murder, terrorism, and war crimes. For his role in an embassy explosion that killed hundreds, he was placed on the FBI’s ten most wanted list in 1998.
Osama bin Laden’s name is tied to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. He had been wanted by the FBI for years at the time of this incident.
Personal History and Legacy
In 1974, he married for the first time at the age of seventeen. He divorced and remarried multiple times, fathering 20 to 26 children with his many wives, many of whom fled to Iran after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The US government spent a decade focusing numerous agencies on finding and murdering bin Laden. President Barack Obama launched a secret operation in April 2011 to kill or capture the wanted terrorist, and US military officers successfully carried out the mission in bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in Pakistan on May 2nd.
Estimated Net Worth
Osama bin Laden is reported to have inherited a large portion of his father’s fortune before using it to fund terrorist acts. His net worth was reported to be $50 million at the time of his death.
Trivia
The international religious fundamentalist was one of a billionaire’s more than 50 children. Many analysts suspect that his riches came from his father, despite the fact that it is unclear where it came from.