Osama bin Laden

1. What is hypocritical about bin Laden’s childhood in regards to how he felt about Western money as an

adult?2. What caused bin Laden to become a terrorists

threat to the world and to become active in Islamic politics?

3. What terrorists event did he orchestrate in 1998 in Africa?

4. What terrorists event did he orchestrate in Yemen in 2000?

5. Which terrorist do we have in custody, who is currently on trial for being the mastermind of 9/11, and whom bin Laden warned us against executing?

6. When was bin Laden killed and what happened to his body?

As you view this PPT, write and answer the following questions:

Vocabulary

al Qaeda: Arabic for "The Base”.

The group is a magnet for radical Muslims seeking more fundamentalist governments in their home countries

and with a common hatred of the United States, Israel, and moderate

Muslim governments.

Taliban – “Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement” who ruled

Afghanistan from 1996-2001.

Militant – (adjective and noun): vigorously active, combative and

aggressive especially in support of a cause.

Insurgency – armed revolt against a government that is less than an

organized revolution.

Radical – favoring drastic political, economic or social reforms.

Extremists/fundamentalists – strong adherence to any set of beliefs in the

face of criticism or unpopularity.

Early life…

Osama bin Mohammad bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957,

the 17th of 57 children of millionaire construction magnate Mohammad bin Laden.

His first marriage was to a Syrian cousin at the age of 17, and he is reported to have at least 23 children from at least five wives.

Education…

Conflicting information suggests bin Laden may have studied Management and Economics at university in

Jeddah in 1976. It has also been said that he graduated in Civil Engineering.

Some reports say in his student days he could be found in flashy Beirut nightclubs, a free-spender and heavy drinker, fighting over dancers and bar girls.

How he became involved in radical Islamic politics is unclear, though the December 26th 1979 Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan appears key.

With his family fortune, bin Laden used Afghanistan to set up training camps

and as a base from which to plan attacks on Western countries.

During the 1990’s his family disowned him and he was stripped of his Saudi

citizenship.

In 1986 bin Laden moves to Pakistan, begins importing arms and forms his own

small brigade of volunteer fighters.

al Qaeda (The Base) is established in 1988.

He returned to Afghanistan in the 1990s, training Islamist militants from across the world in camps allowed to function by the

ruling Taliban.

Bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan in 1996 after U.S. pressure on its

government, and he went to Afghanistan.  In August of that year Bin Laden issued a religious decree stating that U.S. military

personnel should be killed.

In October, U.S. brands bin Laden as a prime suspect in two bombings in Saudi Arabia which killed 24 U.S. servicemen

and two Indians.

August 2nd 1998-Truck bombs exploded at U.S. embassies in Africa (Nairobi and Dar es Salaam) killing 224, including 12

Americans.

August 20th-President Bill Clinton named bin Laden as America's top enemy and accused him of being responsible for the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombings. U.S. launched missile strikes against what Clinton called terrorist bases

in Afghanistan and Sudan. One destroyed a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, whose owner denied any affiliation with

bin Laden.

bin Laden was unhurt by U.S. missile strikes on his Afghan camps after the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.

October 12th, 2000. Al Qaeda strikes at the navy destroyer USS Cole, which was harbored at the

Yemen port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed. 

September 11th 2001.-Three hijacked planes crash into major U.S. landmarks, destroying New York's

World Trade Center and plunging into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes in

Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. In a video released later, bin Laden says the collapse of

the towers exceeded al Qaeda's expectations.

September 17th 2001. U.S. President George W. Bush declares bin Laden is "Wanted: Dead or

Alive".

October 7th 2001. United States attacks Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, host to bin Laden and al Qaeda.

According to some reports, he was nearly killed by a U.S. bomb when militants were being hunted 2001 in the Tora-Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan.

December 6th 2001. Anti-Taliban forces capture bin Laden's main base in Tora-Bora mountains of

eastern Afghanistan.

November 2002. Al Qaeda claims responsibility for three suicide car bombs in Kenya which blew up the

Mombasa Paradise Resort Hotel, popular with Israelis, killing 15 people and wounding 80. 

October 2004-Bin Laden bursts into the U.S. election campaign in his first videotaped message

in over a year to ridicule Bush. 

January 2006 - Bin Laden's first public message in over a year is a bid to show he is still in command

of al Qaeda.

September 2006-Bush vows "America will find you".

September 2007-Bin Laden issues first new video for nearly three years, telling U.S. it is vulnerable

despite its power.

FBI

January 24th 2010.-Bin Laden claims responsibility for the failed Dec. 25th bombing of a U.S.-bound

plane in an audio tape and vows to continue attacks on the United States.

March 25th 2010-Bin Laden threatens that al Qaeda will kill any American it takes prisoner if accused Sept. 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was being held by United States, is put to death.

January 21st 2011-Bin Laden says in an audio recording that the release of French hostages held in Niger by al Qaeda depends on France's soldiers

leaving Muslim lands.

With a $25m US bounty on his head, he then evaded the world's biggest manhunt

for a decade, with tens of thousands of U.S. and Pakistani troops looking for him.

It now appears that he had been hiding in the border areas between Afghanistan

and Pakistan.

On May 2nd 2011-Osama bin Laden was killed in a million-dollar compound in the resort of

Abbottabad, 60 km north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

On the same day Osama bin Laden was buried at sea according to senior US administration officials who said Islamic practice calls for burial within 24

hours.

They also said it would have been too hard to find a country willing to accept the remains of the

world's most wanted terrorist, and they wanted to avoid creating a pilgrimage site.