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For ICJE readers who may not be familiar with the activities of Osama bin Laden, adjacent is a summary of who he is and the operations of his group. Bear in mind that al Quaeda is an umbrella organization which funds and trains terrorist organizations and operations on a worldwide scale.
The summary has been excerpted from the ICJE book, A Survey of Terrorism.
Osama bin Laden


Excerpted from A Survey of Terrorism (1991), Publishing Division, ICJE, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.


“We predict a black day for America and the end of the United States.”

"I am not afraid of America. I will continue my work.  No one can stop me.”

--Usama Bin Laden


Osama bin Laden, a.k.a. Usama bin Laden:

The only terrorist leader to have formally declared a jihad - holy war - against the U.S.(1)  His organization is called al Qaeda (The Base).

Country/Background:  Currently believed to be in Afghanistan.

Philosophy:  Fundamentalist Islam.

History:  Originally from Saudi-Arabia where his father is a building contractor and a billionaire who has fathered more than 50 children.  Osama bin Laden is in his mid-40s, has four wives and 15 children.  He studied management and economics at a university in Saudi Arabia, and had a religious conversion to fundamentalist Islam in the mid-1970s.  Shortly after the Russian-Afghanistan war began in 1979, bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan to offer his services in fighting the Russians.  He brought with him money, volunteers and construction equipment to help build roads, tunnels and buildings.(2)

Following the war's end (1989), he returned to Saudi Arabia where he was hailed a hero. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, bin Laden offered to recruit fighters and warned against bringing in the United States.  He became so vocal that he embarrassed the Saudi authorities, who were counting on American support, and they eventually threatened him and his family if he ceased to remain silent.(3)  His net worth is reported to be between $100 million and $300 million.(4)

Bin Laden's primary goals now are to drive U.S. forces from the Arabian peninsula, to remove the Saudi ruling family from power and to "liberate Palestine."  His secondary goals are to remove Western military forces and to overthrow “corrupt” Western-oriented governments in predominantly Muslim countries.(5)

Activities:

    After the Gulf War, the Saudi government forced him into exile.   He moved to Sudan where he used his extensive financial holdings in the 1990s to expand his organization around the world, laundering money from drug trades and providing cover for terrorists in the United States and other countries through legitimate businesses owned partially by him or his many front groups. His organization also began to funnel money to terrorist groups through charities.(6)

     Bin Laden supplied terrorists in Somalia and supported attacks against the U.N. and U.S. troops in 1993.(7)

     He financed the twin trade tower bombing in 1993, as well as the plan to blow up New York City tunnels and buildings.(8)

     Bin Laden reportedly has biological and chemical weapons, and is alleged to have spent over $3 million in an effort to purchase a nuclear suitcase bomb from the former Soviet Union.

     Intelligence experts believe he has acquired tactical nuclear weapons from the Russians.(9)

     His group is believed to have been responsible for the attacks against U.S. military barracks  in Saudi Arabia and against U.S. Embassies in two African countries.

     Osama bin Laden has become a hero to terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalists throughout the world - his campaign of terror will probably outlive him.

     In April, 2000, bin Laden's organization called for Muslim youths to join a holy war to the death against the United States.(10)

     An article appearing in the London, Telegraph on April 23, 2000, stated that U.S. intelligence officials feared  bin Laden is currently attempting to build a radiation bomb.  The statements were made following the seizure of nuclear material (believed to be strontium 90) as it was being smuggled from the former Soviet Union into Pakistan.  While not a nuclear weapon, a radiation bomb (or radiological weapon) uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material across a wide area with devastating results.  This type of bomb is commonly referred to as the "poor man's nuclear weapon.”(11)

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 1.  Yossef Bodansky, Bin Laden, (Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing Co., 1999),  p ix.
 2.   Ibid., pp. 2-25.
 3.   Ibid., pp. 28-31.
 4.   Douglas Waller, “Inside the Hunt for Osama,” Time, Vol. 152, No. 25, 12/21/98,
       <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/981221/world.inside_the_hunt  _f10a.html> (1/7/99).
 5.    “Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999,” U.S. Department of State Publication 10687, 5/2/00,    
 6.   Yossef Bodansky, Bin Laden, (Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing Co., 1999), pp.32-55.
 7.   Ibid., p.. 57.
 8.   Brian Duffy and Richard J. Newman, “The Price of Payback,” U.S. News, 9/7/98,
 9.   Yossef Bodansky, Bin Laden, (Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing Co., 1999),  pp. 328 - 330.
 10. “Bin Laden Posters Call Muslim Youths to Holy War Against U.S., ”The Associated Press, 4/18/000,  
 11. Julian West, “Atomic Haul Raises Fears of bin Laden Terror Bomb,” London Telegraph, Online Edition, 4/23/00,