Osama bin Laden is today the most famous terrorist of the XX-XXI centuries. What is known about him life path? For you, we have collected the most complete biography of this person. You will learn about how Osama bin Laden turned from the spoiled son of a Saudi billionaire into a criminal who was hunted by the strongest intelligence agencies in the world.
Childhood, youth, family
The exact date of birth of Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden) is unknown, but most experts agree that he was born in Riyadh on March 10, 1957. Osama was the seventeenth of 52 children of Yemeni immigrant Mohammed bin Laden, owner of the largest construction company in the Saudi kingdom. The mother of the future "terrorist number one" was a Syrian and far from the only wife of Osama's father.
Osama's father began his career as a simple handyman in the port of Jeddah. During the reign of King Saud, Muhammad managed to get a contract for the construction of royal palaces, offering the most low price. Nothing is known about how the former docker managed to open his own business. Some sources claim that bin Laden Sr. possessed the gift of persuasion, thanks to which he not only managed to impress Saud, but was also lucky to establish good relations with members of the royal family, especially with the king's half-brother Faisal.
In the 60s, a conflict arose between Saud and Faisal and the current king abdicated. It is believed that Muhammad played a key role in making this decision. After the departure of Saud, it turned out that the state treasury was empty. Here, bin Laden Sr. provided great support to the new king: at his own expense, he paid the salaries of civil servants for six months.
For such help, Faisal gave Muhammad all the construction projects in the kingdom, issuing a special decree. Bin Laden took over as Minister of Public Works, effectively gaining a monopoly in the construction sector. In 1968, Osama's father died in a plane crash.
It should be noted that the parents of bin Laden Jr. divorced when he was still very young, so Osama was brought up in his mother's house, in the family of her new husband. The reason for the divorce was that the Syrian did not agree to keep herself within the strict limits that constituted the generally accepted model of behavior for Saudi women. Therefore, her husband sent her to a distant province, and left his son with him. For ten years Osama did not see his mother.
There is evidence that in the family of bin Laden Sr., Osama's mother was given the nickname "Slave". Accordingly, her half-brothers called her son nothing more than "the son of a slave." After the death of Muhammad Osama, he inherited several companies, as well as 25 (according to other sources - 300) million dollars from general condition, which was estimated at 5 billion. At that time, the range of interests of his company was quite wide: for example, among other things, it was the main supplier of Volkswagen cars and Snapple soft drinks throughout the Middle East.
At the age of 13, the orphaned bin Laden married a 17-year-old girl with whom he was related by blood. Osama had a strict religious upbringing and was a deeply devout Sunni Muslim, having joined the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age. Most likely, the future head of al-Qaeda went to college at the King Abdulaziz University, but here the opinions of experts differ: some say that bin Laden studied in Jeddah, others say that he was educated in London, Riyadh or Mecca .
At the age of 14, Osama traveled with his brothers in Europe. He visited Great Britain, France, Sweden. In London, he was very interested in cinema. He watched films all day and tried to avoid noisy parties, avoiding social life. Some sources claim that at the age of 16, Osama entered an elite school in Beirut and plunged headlong into a wild student life. There, despite a Muslim upbringing, he, like many Arab young people who come to Europe, became addicted to alcohol. According to some reports, then Bin Laden was a frequenter of the expensive Crazy Horse bar, where, having drunk champagne and whiskey, he regularly tried to show signs of attention to the fair sex. I tried to dress fashionably, drove a Mercedes-Benz. In the spring of 1975, war broke out in Lebanon, and relatives demanded that he return home. At first, Osama continued a carefree life according to the Western model: he had fun with women and alcohol, participated in illegal races along with other children of the rich.
But then his older brother persuaded him to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. They lived in tents, adhered to the prescribed diet, and performed religious rituals. According to some sources, Osama participated in the restoration of Muslim shrines in Medina and Mecca, and then served in the Sharia police.
In 1979 he graduated from the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, having mastered the specialty of an economist or, according to other sources, an engineer.
The beginning of extremist activity
At the age of 16, Osama joined the followers of the scholar and radical pan-Islamist Abdullah Azzam, who believed that all Muslims of the world should take the path of jihad (“holy war”) and, united, create one Islamic State. These ideas appealed to the deeply religious Osama, who was outraged by the growing influence of the West and Western culture on Middle Eastern life.
There was an invasion in 1979 Soviet troops to Afghanistan. Bin Laden was already an established businessman. Subsequently, recalling that period, he stated that he was very angry with the fact of Soviet aggression, so at the end of 1979 he was in Afghanistan. Osama first arrived in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, and from there he crossed the border and joined the resistance forces. He used his extensive connections and capital to finance the Mujahideen, providing them with covert diplomatic and informational support. It is known that until 1989 he collaborated with the US government, which also supplied militants in Afghanistan with weapons and money. In fact, American assistance played a decisive role in the conflict: thanks to MANPADS with Stinger missiles, the Mujahideen managed to deprive the USSR of the ability to conduct operations with air support.
In 1980, bin Laden, along with his spiritual and ideological mentor Abdullah Azzama, created the Maktab al-Khadamat organization, which translates as the Service Bureau. This structure has opened recruitment centers in more than fifty countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and a number of European countries. The network organized by bin Laden cannot be underestimated: tens of thousands of volunteers from Muslim countries were trained in training camps founded by Maktab al-Khadamat. Osama also took care of his reputation among the refugees, buying food, clothes, household items for them, starting the construction of dwellings. How effective was the assistance that bin Laden provided to the civilian population is difficult to judge, but among more than two and a half million refugees, he gained the reputation of a "benefactor".
Al Qaeda and death
In 1988, Osama separated from the Service Bureau and used his authority in the Muslim environment to organize a more aggressive structure - Al-Qaeda (Bas), which later positioned itself as the Islamic Army. Al-Qaeda initially declared the goal of spreading jihad to all countries of the world.
In 1989, the Soviet forces left Afghanistan, but bin Laden did not give up his goals to start a "holy war" on a planetary scale. Under the guise of an official construction and trading business he continued to multiply and strengthen al-Qaeda cells around the world, with particular emphasis on supporting opposition movements in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
In 1990, the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. The leader of Al-Qaeda appealed to the government of Saudi Arabia with a demand not to involve non-Muslim forces in this conflict. Nevertheless, the Saudis turned to the United States for help and American military bases were deployed on the territory of the state.
For the first time with slogans calling for active opposition, as he believed, to the "American occupation" of Israel and Saudi Arabia, he spoke in 1991, accusing the Saudis of collaborationism.
Al-Qaeda struck its first blow in 1992: a bomb exploded in a hotel in Aden (Yemen), where American troops were temporarily based before being sent to Somalia. Two Austrian tourists were killed.
In 1993, "terrorist No. 1" organized the training of Somali rebels, who subsequently fought against representatives of the American peacekeeping mission. In the same year, there was a terrorist attack in the New York World Trade Center.
In 1994, the Saudi authorities decided to expel bin Laden from the country and he fled to Sudan. While in exile, the terrorist launched a real information war against the United States. Through the media controlled by him, bin Laden relishes in detail the victims among the civilian population: he exaggerates the number of those killed and maimed, shows photos and videos with the corpses of children and pregnant women, blaming the deaths of civilians solely on the Saudi authorities and the United States.
In 1995, al-Qaeda militants were accused of actively participating in the Chechen conflict, on the side of the rebel forces. But the official representative of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakaev, denied the connection of the Chechen militias with Al-Qaeda. Some sources claim that bin Laden helped the Uzbek Islamists financially, as well as building ties with the Taliban.
In 1996, Osama openly accused Sudan of supporting international terrorism, and also stated that the "sacred" duty of Muslims is to destroy the US military abroad, all over the world. The Sudanese authorities expelled him from the country and he settled in Afghanistan.
In 1998, he paraphrased his anti-American thesis, emphasizing that all Muslims of the world are obliged to kill not only American soldiers, but also US allies, to which he included the civilian population of countries that are not in conflict with this state. In the same year, he organized a large extremist association, which was joined by members of such groups as Al-Jihad, Jamiat-i Ulama-i Pakistan, Harakat al-Anasar, Jihad and Al-Ghaama al Islamiya". On August 7, there was an explosion at the American embassy in Kenya, after which the FBI included bin Laden in the list of the most wanted criminals. Bill Clinton declared him "Terrorist Number One".
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda's largest and loudest terrorist attack took place: the attack on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers in the United States. The CIA received reliable information about bin Laden's involvement in organizing these actions, but for the first time he publicly confirmed his participation in this terrorist attack only in 2004, through the Qatari television company Al Jazeera. October 7th. It was the fight against al-Qaeda that served as the official reason for the start of the NATO operation in Afghanistan (2001-2014) and the start of the military campaign in Iraq (2003-2011).
In August 2010, the CIA was able to find bin Laden and track him to the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, 35 miles from Islamabad. Surveillance continued for several months on the house where the leader of al-Qaeda was. On the night of May 1-2, 2011, an operation was carried out by the US Navy SEAL unit. Some sources claim that Osama bin Laden was killed while trying to resist because he was armed; others suggest that he did not have a weapon in his hands. Referring to unofficial testimonies of participants in the operation, Western media reported that the commandos were not ordered to take bin Laden alive.
According to information released by CNN, the body of "terrorist No. 1" was buried at sea so that his grave would not serve as a place of pilgrimage for fanatics who consider Osama bin Laden a righteous martyr who died for his faith.
The organizer of a number of Islamic terrorist organizations...
Osama / Osama – 17th son - apart from daughters - of construction magnate Awad bin Laden Sr. and inherited a number of companies and a personal fortune in $ 300 000 000 .
“Remembering young Osama, one of the sons of the Saudi king Abd al-Aziz, Prince Bandar contemptuously said that the young Osama bin Laden and a herd of ducks would not be able to lead across the road! His father left his mother before the child was born. The elder bin Laden had more fifty children, they are all more educated than Osama. No one in the family believed in his future. Perhaps he would have remained a clerk in his father's construction company, if not for Afghanistan. This country completely changed his fate. […] ... Saudi Arabia played an equally important role in the Afghan war. The Saudis financed the war. The Kingdom often bailed out the United States when American intelligence agencies needed money and Congress didn't provide it. But there was a special case. The appearance of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was a gift for the royal family. Participation in the Afghan jihad should have been an indication of how much the Saudis are doing to spread Islam. Fundraising committees for Afghanistan have sprung up all over the country. All the prominent families of the kingdom served on these committees. This was done by Prince Salman, one of the seven sons of King Abd al-Aziz, born from his beloved wife, Hasa (these are the most influential people in the kingdom). The bin Laden family delegated Osama. Almost all of his brothers and sisters studied in the West. Osama hardly traveled abroad. But he was the most religious in the family. He took his new responsibilities seriously. Perhaps he wanted to show his older brothers that he was worth something, that he was worthy of bearing the name of a great father. […]
Saudi Arabia thrives thanks to the labor of foreigners who come here to work. The greatest contribution was made by people from central Yemen. The most famous of them was Osama's father. Mohammad bin Awad bin Laden. The elder bin Laden was tall and ugly, his right eye could not see. He never learned to read and write, he could not even put his signature. But he was respected for his will and energy. When he got rich, he wore gold cufflinks, a gold Rolex watch, and a silver ring on the little finger of his left hand. He was one of the first to understand royal family. King abd al-Aziz believed impossible for members of the royal family to engage in dirty work and commerce, but generously rewarded those who knew how to do it. In the twenties, the entire government of Saudi Arabia consisted of a dozen foreign consultants - two Iraqis, two Lebanese, two Syrians, one Palestinian and one Englishman - the father of Soviet intelligence officer Kim Philby. The king also had a translator, a couple of clerks who typed on a typewriter, and an official who sorted out complaints. The elder bin Laden built palaces for members of the royal family. Success came to him when he built a palace for the king, which could be entered by car and rolled up to the bedroom located on the second floor. The king believed in reality when bin Laden himself drove into the new palace several times in the heaviest car from the royal garage. Bin Laden was given the right to renovate mosques in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, the three most important Islamic holy cities. He himself worked long hours with his workmen, singing:
Oh guys your master
bin Laden, the one-eyed builder.
He used to marry local girls. Perhaps he learned this from King Abd al-Aziz, who thus cemented the dynasty. Bin Laden invariably married a girl from the tribe through whose territory he made his way. He made fifty four son and daughter by twenty women. Osama became the seventeenth of twenty-four sons. The elder bin Laden had three regular wives. And he had the right to four, but the fourth was constantly changing. A Muslim can get a divorce by repeating three times: "I am divorcing you." He was a generous man and cared about children. He loved children, loved when they rushed to him, and asked who was from which mother. By the time Osama was born, bin Laden had already separated from his mother. Perhaps this left an imprint on the psyche of the boy. He felt like a child of the second class - in contrast to the children born from the permanent wives of the elder bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden has become part of the system to raise money for Afghanistan."
Mlechin L.M., My friends-dictators, M., "Tsentropoligraf", 2007, p. 297-299.
Abbottabad, Pakistan) is the former leader of the al-Qaeda organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, as well as many other terrorist attacks. He was on the "Most Wanted Terrorists" list. MostWantedterrorists) FBI in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa. From 2001 to 2011, he was one of the main targets of the international "war on terror" campaign.
On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was killed by US Navy and CIA SEALs in a hideout in the city of Abbottabad on the orders of President Barack Obama as part of a covert sting operation. Shortly thereafter, bin Laden's body was buried at sea. On May 6, al-Qaeda confirmed his death, promising revenge.
Biography
His birth is attributed to the second half of the 1950s, probably 1957; place of birth - Saudi Arabia, Jeddah or Riyadh. His father, Mohammed bin Laden (1908-1967), was a Saudi entrepreneur of Yemeni origin who made a fortune in the construction business, founder of the Saudi bin Laden Group, who had close ties to the Saudi royal family. The bin Laden family, whose prosperity was started by Osama's father, is now one of the richest and most influential in Saudi Arabia; The Saudi bin Laden group controls a large part of the Saudi economy in areas such as construction, oil production, shipbuilding, media and telecommunications. Osama's mother - Aliya Ghanem, according to other sources of Hamid, marriage with her became for Mohammed bin Laden, according to various sources, the 4th, 10th or 11th; in total, Mohammed bin Laden has 52 or 57 children. Osama's parents divorced shortly after his birth, and Osama grew up in the family of his mother and her new husband, Muhammad al-Attas. Osama's father died in a plane crash in 1967 (according to other sources, in 1968 or 1970). Osama grew up in Hijaz. He studied at the Al-Tager school, then at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah (there is contradictory information about the specialty he received at the university - a civil engineer, or economics and management, or public administration). Even in his school years, he participated in an Islamist circle. At the university, he met the Islamic theologian, the ideologist of jihad, Abdullah Azzam. In his youth, he served for some time in the Saudi Sharia police.
During the civil war in Afghanistan
Around this time, Osama bin Laden is reported to have started a career in the construction business, which did not stop him from joining the Afghan Jihad movement, where he eventually became a prominent figure. He later recalled: "When the invasion of Afghanistan began, I was angry and immediately went there - I arrived in Afghanistan at the very end of 1979."
In January 1980, he visited the Pakistani city of Lahore, where he established the first contacts with the leaders of Islamic groups opposed to the government of Kabul. On a regular basis, he began to provide financial support to the leaders of the Afghan resistance from personal funds. Together with the leader of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden created the Bureau of Services (Maktab al-khidamat) and an organization to recruit Muslim volunteers from Arab countries. Bin Laden paid for the arrival of Mujahideen volunteers in Afghanistan and their training in training camps, where they were trained in terrorist and sabotage activities. In addition, he participated in the battles against the Soviet troops, commanding a detachment of 2,000 people (most of whom were volunteers from Arab countries).
According to former CIA officer Michael Shoer (Eng. MichaelScheuer), who led the bin Laden case, and by 2011 a professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, American intelligence knew about bin Laden's activities in Afghanistan against Soviet troops, but never had contact with him.
Creation of al-Qaeda
In 1989, Osama bin Laden returned to the Jeddah-based family contracting and construction business, but his organization continued to help the opposition movement in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. During the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait, Osama prepared a plan to defend his native country from the invasion of Iraqi troops and even offered the services of his Mujahideen. However, at this time, the United States and its allies came to the aid of the Gulf countries. Bin Laden spoke with slogans of active opposition to the American "occupation" of the "holy land" - Saudi Arabia and Israel. He also accused the Saudi rulers of complicity with the US. Bin Laden's anti-government activities prompted the Saudi authorities to expel him from the country in 1991, and on March 5, 1994, he was completely deprived of Saudi citizenship. Osama bin Laden moved to Sudan.
Sudanese period of life. Business
In 1991, bin Laden moved to Sudan, where the Islamists came to power. Having settled in Sudan, he was mainly engaged in business. He began to build highways in Sudan. Using the latest technology and construction technologies, in as soon as possible bin Laden laid 1200 kilometers (a quarter of the total length) of good roads across the desert, providing jobs for tens of thousands of Sudanese and for the first time connecting the country's villages and towns with the capital, Khartoum and Port Sudan. In addition to this business, bin Laden took up pharmacology, building the largest pharmaceutical plant in Africa in Khartoum, and with it a research center. Another area of activity for bin Laden in Sudan was the slave trade. This fishery has long flourished in Sudan. But after the National Islamic Front came to power, it acquired unprecedented proportions. The United States demanded that the Sudanese authorities expose bin Laden, and on May 18, 1996, he and his family moved to Afghanistan on an Afghan Ariana plane.
Terrorist activity
After the end of the Afghan war, Osama decided to continue his “ghazavat” against the United States. He sponsored the fight of Somali militants against US and UN troops in 1993.
Osama bin Laden was included in the list of 10 most wanted by the FBI as a suspect in the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), which took place on August 7, 1998 - exactly on the eighth anniversary of deployment of US troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. As a result of the terrorist attack in Nairobi, 213 people were killed and about 5,000 people were injured. Among the dead, according to various sources, there were 12 or 13 Americans.
Since that day, US intelligence agencies have assigned Osama bin Laden the status of "terrorist number one", seized his bank accounts and promised to give five million dollars as a reward for information that will help his arrest. At that time, Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan and was considered a guest of the Taliban movement, which controlled 2/3 of Afghanistan. Using the pretext of a tradition of hospitality, the Taliban refused to actively cooperate with the US government. Negotiations with the Taliban on the subject of extradition eventually led to the fact that the Taliban promised to either try Osama bin Laden under Sharia law, or promised to transfer him to a neutral Islamic country, but even this only if the necessary evidence of his involvement in the attacks was provided.
He appears more as an inspirer and instigator, rather than the leader of a terrorist network. All those arrested during the investigation of the terrorist attacks referred only to his calls to fight the Americans... Thus, Frank Anderson, who led the CIA operations in the Middle East in the mid-1990s, in the New York Times claims that bin Laden actually controls only a small part of the nearly $300 million that Washington believes he got from family capital, and even that has almost dried up. Legend has it that he bravely fought the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. However, Anderson is convinced that bin Laden is not a fighter, but a kind of philanthropist who did a lot of charitable work in Peshawar (Pakistan) among Afghan refugees.
The US government rejected the Taliban's proposal and preferred military action to the diplomatic channels available to them. About two weeks after the embassy bombings, on August 20, the US Air Force carried out air strikes against the Taliban-controlled eastern territories of Afghanistan. There have been strikes on alleged terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, as well as attacks on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where al-Qaeda allegedly produced chemical weapons. Evidence that the Sudanese factory produced anything other than medical supplies was weak enough at the time to warrant such strikes. The bombing and missile strikes on Afghanistan also failed to achieve the desired results, and, according to some critics, all these actions were Bill Clinton's pre-planned petty political maneuver, undertaken in order to divert public attention from the scandalous case with Monica Lewinsky, a court hearing of this case. , where Monica gave her testimony about her relationship with the president, took place on the same day.
It is believed that he also actively supported the Islamists operating in the North Caucasus, Central Asia and other regions of the world. It was noted with reference to the FBI that bin Laden founded a fund to subsidize terrorists.
In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to destroy the US military in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. In May of that year, Sudan expelled bin Laden, largely in response to the threat of UN sanctions, over alleged Sudanese complicity in the 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. A month later, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan, where he continued his Islamic extremist activities. In 1998, he issued a second fatwa ordering Muslims to kill American civilians.
In the summer of 2001, Mullah Omar pointed out that bin Laden had no right to issue fatwas because he had not received a full Islamic education.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Osama bin Laden visited Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. Bin Laden and his Tunisian aide Mehrez Aoduni received Bosnian citizenship in 1993. According to the Bosnian press in 1999, bin Laden's passport was issued by the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Aliya Izetbegovic, in gratitude for the Mujahideen's support for his aspirations to create a "fundamentalist Islamic republic" in the Balkans. Bin Laden financed the transfer of mercenaries from the Arab world to Bosnia with the help of Sudanese business partners.
Statements about the presence of bin Laden in Bosnia were also made by foreign journalists. Renate Flottau, a journalist for the German magazine Der Spiegel, claims to have seen bin Laden in Sarajevo when he visited Bosnian Muslim President Izetbegovic in 1993. On February 3, 2006, at the ICTY, in a court hearing in the case of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, British journalist, correspondent for The Guardian and The London Times, Eve-Ann Prentice] testified under oath that in November 1994 the chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina Aliya Izetbegovic personally visited by Osama bin Laden Prentice said she saw bin Laden enter Izetbegovic's office shortly before the last interview.
Albania and Kosovo
Osama bin Laden first visited Albania as a guest of President Sali Berisha in 1994 or 1995, telling the government that he was leading a prosperous Saudi agency to provide humanitarian assistance. The meeting between Sali Berisha and bin Laden was also attended by Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinayi, former chief of the Albanian secret police Bashkim Gazidede.
In December 1998, Albanian intelligence chief Fatos Klosi said that bin Laden had personally visited Albania and represented one of the fundamentalist groups that sent fighters to take part in the hostilities in Kosovo. Klosi expressed the opinion that terrorists had already infiltrated various parts of Europe from bases in Albania, using illegal migration flows. Interpol, in turn, warned that the Islamists have great opportunities to acquire false documents, since more than one hundred thousand blank Albanian passports were stolen during the 1997 riots. The involvement of bin Laden's militants in terrorist activities in Kosovo was confirmed by Claude Kader, a French national who said he was a member of bin Laden's Albanian network. He stated that he traveled to Albania to train and arm militants in Kosovo. In 2000, bin Laden also worked in Kosovo, plotting terrorist acts during the conflict in the Presevo Valley.
Osama bin Laden has been actively involved in the Chechen conflict since 1995, sending al-Qaeda agents to the North Caucasus and sponsoring Chechen terrorists.
Bin Laden's representative in the North Caucasus was the field commander Khattab, whom he met back in 1987. The connection with bin Laden opened up access to unlimited financial resources for Khattab and allowed him to gain strong positions in Chechnya. On the other hand, from the Chechen separatists themselves, there are denials of ties to al-Qaeda. In particular, Akhmed Zakayev, at that time the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ichkeria, denied the connection of Chechen separatists with Al-Qaeda (during the kidnapping of Russian diplomats in Iraq on June 6, 2006), and according to him it was clear that Al-Qaeda and Chechen separatists are not cooperating.
After the statement of the Iraqi fighters, Akhmed Zakayev, the head of the Foreign Ministry of Ichkeria, now living in London, categorically denied any connection between the Chechen separatists and Al-Qaeda and demanded the release of the diplomats without any conditions. “Their demands look at least naive. Especially if you remember how Russia acted, freeing the hostages in the theater on Dubrovka and in Beslan,” Zakayev said. In addition, he did not rule out that by putting forward their demands, the group associated with Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda itself tried to discredit the movement of Chechen separatists.
As a rule, Osama bin Laden explicitly declares his intentions towards individual countries, uses the media to explain the reasons for possible attacks and gives time for reflection. But in the case of a successful sabotage, he does not always immediately report his involvement. As far as we know, most of the messages are addressed to the United States, Europe and the Muslim world. According to these messages, one can judge that Russia is not included in the active sphere of interests of Osama bin Laden. He did not take responsibility for the preparation of terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia, but the main thing is that there are no his addressed messages to the CIS countries. Although he occasionally mentions Russia's participation in the war with Muslims in Chechnya as something negative, nevertheless, given his eloquence and many years of experience in conducting an information war against the United States, such messages in the context can be considered only as a small illustration of the situation in which the countries of the Muslim world are .
§ To date, it is not clear how much Osama bin Laden controlled al-Qaeda, it cannot be ruled out that some of the cells and people got out of control and began to do such work that no one assigned them. Thus, references to the existence and activities of groups associated with al-Qaeda could get into the press, although in fact the links of such organizations with Osama bin Laden and with the program settings of al-Qaeda can be very relative. For example, it is necessary to remember that on the part of the George W. Bush administration there were words about Saddam Hussein's ties with Osama bin Laden, then this information was refuted, but everyone knows well what consequences such statements led to.
According to a source who can be called close to Osama bin Laden, it seems that after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden lost interest in the USSR and Russia as an enemy and almost completely switched his attention to solving the problem of the Arab population of Palestine and the problem of the American military presence in the territories of Muslim countries. This can be judged by what Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist, who is called in quotation marks "Osama bin Laden's regular biographer" (indirectly, Mir's words are confirmed by an analysis of Osama bin Laden's own messages) says.
“Now I can say for sure that Osama bin Laden is not a fighter for Islam. His main and only goal is the war with America, - Mir says and explains: - He is not at war with the West. There is a stereotype - the war of the West and the rest of the world. No, he is not at war with China, Russia, France, Japan. All he has in his mind now is America.”
All 6 hours of the interview was filmed by one of bin Laden's bodyguards. The film was handed over to Islamabad after the journalist's return. When Hamid Mir asked the terrorist why he was so opposed to the Americans, he replied that he only now realized that the USSR and Russia were not a threat to Muslims, since the real enemy of Muslims is the United States. He said that the US is an enemy to anyone who tries to compete with them in economics or politics. "This is a new imperialist force," he said, "that wants to control the whole world." The Americans have been very successful in using Muslims against the USSR, and now they want to use them against China because China is a new threat to the US.
central Asia
Beginning in 1995, Osama bin Laden repeatedly held meetings with one of the leaders of the Uzbek Islamists, Takhir Yuldashev, and helped him to establish contacts with the leaders of the Taliban movement. Another Uzbek Islamist leader, Juma Namangani, received $3 million a year in funding from bin Laden.
Ties to Saddam Hussein
The US government has repeatedly accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of collaborating with al-Qaeda. The press wrote that Saddam Hussein met with Osama bin Laden and intended to transfer weapons of mass destruction into the hands of terrorists. These accusations were the main reason for the start of the war in Iraq. Subsequently, on September 9, 2006, in the published report of the US Senate Committee on Intelligence, these statements were refuted. Moreover, it turned out that Saddam Hussein not only did not have any connections with Al-Qaeda, but was at enmity with it. This conclusion, which refuted George W. Bush's statements about the Saddam regime's long-standing ties with terrorist organizations, significantly undermined the authority of the US government as an international arbiter, and further compromised the quality of the work of such a serious organization as the CIA. Critics have noted that with this approach, unverified accusations of cooperation with terrorists can now become a reason for the invasion of other countries in which a regime is in power that is objectionable to the US government. Citing information provided by the FBI, the report said that Hussein turned down Osama bin Laden's request for help in 1995.
Assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud
After the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, the armed detachments of Ahmad Shah Massoud retreated to the Panjshir Gorge area, where they held the defense, not letting the Taliban go further north. Ahmad Shah Massoud led the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban military-political coalition that controlled part of the country for the next few years.
On September 9, 2001, in the village of Khoja Bahauddin, Takhar Province, Massoud received two Arab journalists. During the interview, an explosive device planted in the TV camera went off. Massoud died from his wounds.
In August 2002, the former Deputy Interior Minister of Afghanistan under the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Khaksar, announced that Massoud was killed on the personal orders of Osama bin Laden.
The name of Osama bin Laden was largely unknown until the attention of the whole world was drawn to him by the statement of the US FBI that he was considered the prime suspect in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during of which three of the four passenger airliners hijacked in the air were directed at the buildings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the fourth airliner crashed in Pennsylvania. As a result, both skyscrapers, adjacent buildings and one wing of the Pentagon were destroyed, killing about three thousand people. On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photographs of 19 terrorists, accompanied by information about their possible nationality, age, and possible nicknames and pseudonyms. The FBI's investigation into the 9/11 attacks was the largest investigation in the agency's history, codenamed Operation PENTTBOM more than seven thousand employees were involved. The US government has decided that al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was responsible for the attacks after the FBI said evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement was " clear and undeniable". The UK government has come to the same conclusion.
Osama bin Laden's declaration of jihad against America, his 1998 fatwa, and numerous other calls to kill Americans were seen as evidence that he had substantial motives for organizing such a terrorist act.
Bin Laden initially denied his involvement in the events, but later confirmed it. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden declared his non-involvement in the attacks on the broadcast of the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera, in particular, he said: "I emphasize that I did not carry out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation". This speech was broadcast throughout the United States, as well as around the world.
§ Since the link has not been preserved, it makes sense to mention that, according to other sources, this was a text message read by an announcer on the air of Al Jazeera. It was probably a fax message - the same or similar message signed by Osama bin Laden was sent by someone the same day to the bureau of the Islamic Press of Afghanistan (AIP).
The first video featuring Osama bin Laden appeared on the Al Jazeera channel only on October 7 (indirect confirmation of this is in the official list of the Al Jazeera channel dedicated to the messages of Osama bin Laden), it contains ultimatum wishes addressed to the United States and expressed satisfaction with the actions of terrorists, but Osama bin Laden did not say a word about his involvement (or non-involvement).
Prior to this, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaif, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan (September 13), an unnamed Osama bin Laden's closest aide in Afghanistan, had officially declared the innocence of Osama bin Laden (September 12 - by phone to Palestinian journalist Jamal Ismail, who is chief of the Islamabad bureau of Abu Dhabi Television), as well as allegedly Osama bin Laden himself in an interview published on September 28 in Daily Ummat (Karachi) to some unknown journalist under unclear circumstances. There were other statements made on behalf of Osama bin Laden:
In this regard, the reaction of Osama bin Laden to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington is very indicative. A few hours after the explosions, bin Laden's representative in Europe, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, said that such actions are forbidden by Islam, but "valuable lessons can be learned from them" and warned of the consequences of launching a military action against Afghanistan. A week after the events, on September 18, 2001, Osama bin Laden's plenipotentiary, Suleiman Abu Ghayat, called on a Qatari Al Jazeera TV talk show and expressed admiration for the "martyrs" who carried out these attacks, but denied Al Qaeda's involvement. in their preparation and implementation. On September 24, bin Laden sent a fax to Al-Jazeera, mourning the deaths of anti-American demonstrators in Karachi, without mentioning the events of September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. A few days later, on September 28, 2001, the Islamist Urdu newspaper Ummat, published in Karachi, published the text of a conversation with bin Laden in which he denied any involvement in the attacks: “I already said that I did not participate in the September 11 attacks in the United States. I knew nothing about these operations and do not consider it acceptable to kill innocent women and children.”
The authenticity of the words of all sources before the appearance of Osama bin Laden on the air of Al Jazeera on October 7, 2001 is practically difficult to verify, moreover, they contain direct contradictions in relation to the previous statements and fatwas of Osama bin Laden with his ultimatum demands against United States, which can formally be regarded as a threat.
However, in an interview broadcast on Al Jazeera on October 7, 2001, Osama bin Laden, having the opportunity to directly declare his non-involvement in the events of 9/11, did not do this. In addition, in this interview, he delivered new ultimatum wishes to the United States, after which George W. Bush, through his press service, said that Osama bin Laden actually took responsibility for the attacks. However, in an interview with Hamid Mir (November 7, 2001), Osama bin Laden noted that:
“The US has no serious evidence against us. They only have guesses. It is unfair to start the bombing with only these assumptions in hand.”
In November 2001, US occupying forces in Afghanistan found a videotape of bin Laden talking to Khaledd al-Harbi in a destroyed house in Jalalabad. In this video, bin Laden confirms that he knew about the attacks in advance and directly led the terrorists. The footage was widely broadcast beginning December 13, 2001.
Osama bin Laden: The brothers who did this operation, they all knew that it would be a suicide attack, and we sent them to America, but they did not know anything about the operation itself, not a single letter. But they were trained, and we didn't tell them the details until they were there, until they had to go on board.
On December 27, 2001, bin Laden released another video. In this video, he stated that " Terrorism against America is commendable because it is a response to injustice aimed at forcing America to stop supporting Israel that is killing our people. and briefly mentioned his responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
In March 2002, Osama's younger brother Sheikh Ahmed claimed in an interview with CNN that Osama could not have been the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in the United States: “He is my brother, I know him. I lived with him for many years and I know how afraid he is of God.”
Shortly before the 2004 US presidential election, in another video message, Osama bin Laden publicly confirmed the participation of Al-Qaeda in organizing the terrorist attacks of 2001, and also stated that he was directly involved in this. He also said that attacks were carried out, " because we are a free people who do not accept injustice and we want to return the freedom of our nation". In this tape, obtained by Al Jazeera on October 30, 2004, bin Laden says he was in direct control of 19 hijackers. He also reported: " I and Commander-in-Chief Mohammed Atta, may Allah have mercy on him, agreed that the entire operation should be completed in no more than 20 minutes, until Bush and his administration notice what is happening.».
Counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan
On October 7, the United States and Great Britain launched rocket attacks on Taliban targets in Afghanistan, which was the beginning of the military operation "Enduring Freedom". Al-Jazeera, a Qatari broadcaster, broadcast Osama bin Laden's speech. In his address, he stated: “Allah hit America in one of its most vulnerabilities. America is in fear from north to south, from west to east. I thank Allah for this.".
drug business
Osama bin Laden made the drug business one of the most important sources of financing. He purchased modern equipment and invited chemists, his main drug laboratories and warehouses were located in the east of Afghanistan, not far from the city of Khost.
The search for a terrorist
Osama bin Laden's death has been reported six times since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The first time he was declared dead was in December 2001, shortly after the large-scale American bombing of the Tora Bora region in eastern Afghanistan. Subsequently, it was alleged that bin Laden was hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border. $ 50 million was promised for his head. For about ten years, the Americans and their allies could not find bin Laden. From time to time, his appeals to his comrades-in-arms were distributed through the media.
So, for example, on April 23, 2006, in his audio message, which was broadcast through the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera, Osama bin Laden once again voiced his determination to fight against the infidels, "crusaders and Zionists who are waging war against Muslims."
On September 23, 2006, a French newspaper published a document presented as a report by the secret services of the republic, in which it was noted that, according to intelligence data from Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden died of typhus in Pakistan on August 23. However, this information was not confirmed later Pakistani President Musharraf said that bin Laden may be hiding in the Afghan province of Kunar under the guise of field commander Hekmatyar.
Shortly before her death, on November 2, 2007, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced in an interview on Al Jazeera that Osama bin Laden was dead and killed by Omar Sheikh.
On February 9, 2008, based on information from Washington, a statement appeared in the media that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the Pakistani city of Quetta, along with the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, from where he led the militants.
On August 12, 2010, a US military tribunal sentenced former chef Osama bin Laden to 14 years in prison. Last month, at a trial in Guantanamo, al-Kosy, a Sudanese by origin, pleaded guilty to having links with al-Qaeda and providing material assistance to terrorists in undermining the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Appearance and character
Osama bin Laden was often described as a tall man; The FBI considers him tall and thin: height - 193-195 cm and weight - about 75 kg. Skin color - olive. Bin Laden is right-handed, but he sees poorly with his right eye and is forced to use his left when he needs to clearly distinguish objects in the distance, including aiming. The explanation for this is simple, when Osama bin Laden was still a boy, he once forged something out of metal, and the metal shavings got into his right eye. the injury proved to be very serious and he was hastily taken to London to be seen by a specialist. The doctors' diagnosis upset everyone. They said that Osama bin Laden would no longer be able to see well with his right eye. Over the years, he learned to hide his flaw. he preferred to be considered left-handed than to know that one of his eyes could barely distinguish objects. And the only reason he fired while holding his rifle on the left side was because his right eye was practically blind. And as a rule, he walked with a stick. He wore a white turban, which is the traditional male headdress in Saudi Arabia.
Osama bin Laden is believed to have only spoken Arabic. In 2004 and 2005, two books containing a collection of lectures, sermons, and letters from Osama bin Laden were published in the United States. Bruce Lawrence, the author of at least one book (Messages to the World: Osama bin Laden's statements), admits that Osama bin Laden may be the new preeminent Arab poet and thinker whose views have been very misunderstood by the world.
The author of the collection himself believes that he has opened to the world a magnificent example of Arabic rhetoric of modern times. According to Bruce Lawrence, the work of Osama bin Laden is comparable to the best examples of the recognized master of oratory Gamal Abdel Nasser, the first president of Egypt.
I don’t particularly want to talk about it, but I still have to say: he is a master of Arabic literature, - Bruce Lawrence, a professor at Duke University, the largest American authority on Islam, admits a little shyly, as if through “it’s impossible” ...
In Russian, a translation of only one work, made in a literary style, is known so far - this is the "Message to the Resistance Forces in Iraq" dated October 22, 2007:
"Message to the Resistance in Iraq" is written in a specific style, using saj - a special meter of rhymed and rhythmic prose; it is replete with archaic vocabulary and historical-military allusions. The Institute of Religion and Politics considers it necessary to do what no other research center in the world does - to acquaint the visitors of the site "Islam and Politics - Institute of Religion and Politics" with the form of bin Laden's addresses and for this purpose publishes a translation of the "Message".
He was distinguished by excessive religiosity and an ambitious character. There is also evidence that bin Laden was a hard worker. The former bodyguard of Terrorist No. 1, Nasser al-Bahri, in an interview with the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, said the following:
“Osama bin Laden is a workaholic. He will always be one step ahead of Western intelligence. His day begins before dawn, when he performs the first prayers, and ends late at night. And all this time he is constantly doing something, he never rests. We lived in uncomfortable conditions, but this did not prevent him from working, thinking and planning all the time. After prayer, he proceeds to organizational matters, and then receives prominent people who come to visit, sometimes secretly. But for the whole day he does not take a single respite.
During the years of study at the university, he showed an interest in the history of the development of Sharia law. In order to deepen his religious knowledge, he studied with well-known theologians of Saudi Arabia, who noted his extraordinary abilities. Interested in international politics. He painfully perceived the disunity and defeat of the Arab side in the conflict with Israel. In those around him, he despised any manifestations of weakness, passivity, helplessness...
The image of bin Laden, who does not part with his personal machine gun, also received some fame - in all the photographs it is the Soviet AKS74U. According to him, he allegedly took this weapon from the Soviet general he had killed. It is possible that Osama got the machine gun of General Petr Shkidchenko (father of the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Volodymyr Shkidchenko). In January 1982, his helicopter was shot down by the Mujahideen.
Personal life Family
There are many conflicting rumors about Osama bin Laden's life, including his family life. There were also contradictions in the official "Report No. 15 of the US Congress Commission on the Investigation of Terrorist Attacks on the United States (the 9-11 Commission). Thus, in one case, the report says that Osama bin Laden, being a multimillionaire, spent his fortune on the war in Afghanistan, and almost on the next page there is refuting information that Osama bin Laden, contrary to popular belief, did not inherit $ 300 million after the death of his father, and the jihad was financed mainly by Arab patrons.
Contrary to popular belief, bin Laden did not fund al-Qaeda with his fortune or the proceeds of his own business. In fact, al-Qaeda received money from a network of sponsors that it developed over time. Bin Laden never inherited $300 million. Between 1970 and circa 1994, he earned about a million dollars a year, which, while a significant amount, does not compare with the $300 million that would be enough to fund a worldwide jihad. According to Saudi officials and bin Laden's relatives, Osama was stripped of his share of the family fortune. Bin Laden also owned several businesses and assets in Sudan, but most of them were small and not economically viable.
There are also suspicions that some of the false information about Osama bin Laden is spread by the CIA to undermine his authority among Muslims (today, ideological confrontation is considered one of the important measures to combat terrorism associated with Islam).
In addition, the CIA plans included shooting "scenes from the life" of the head of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. As conceived by the CIA directors, Osama and his entourage, sitting on a halt by the fire, were supposed to discuss the delights of homosexual sex and the comparative merits of various types of alcoholic beverages.
§ Umm Hamza, a native of Saudi Arabia, “Nasr al-Bahri, Osama's bodyguard from 1997 to 2000 in Kandahar, recalls that Umm Hamza was bin Laden's favorite because of her deep knowledge of Islamic sciences. Osama often consulted with his wife, who was 8 years older than him. According to a former bodyguard, “Umm Hamza was like a mother to almost all jihadists. She solved their family problems, delivered their wives.” She also taught the Quran to all of bin Laden's children."
§ Umm Khaled, a native of Saudi Arabia
§ Yemeni Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, whom bin Laden married in the spring of 2000 (she is called the youngest wife of bin Laden)
Bin Laden has been married five times. The first time he married in 1975 to his cousin. It was rumored that one of his wives was the daughter of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. But in an interview with Hamid Mir, Osama bin Laden said that all his wives (of which there are three) are of Arab origin, and also said that he was connected with Mullah Omar only by religious duty and mutual respect.
17 sons. Their whereabouts are unknown.
The fourth son, Omar, broke with his father at the age of 19 and refused to fight in the ranks of the Taliban. He took up the scrap metal trade in Jeddah. However, he repeatedly tried to speak to a wide audience in order to show that his father is not a terrorist, but rather a protector, and the very wording applied to him is not correct. Just like Osama bin Laden himself, his son repeatedly tried to explain that the causes of the conflict lie in the aggressive foreign policy of the United States itself, according to Omar, the attacks were the result of hopelessness - the father did not find a better way to achieve his goals. Omar claimed that he had not seen his father since 2000 and had nothing to do with his activities. In 2007, he married British Jane Felix-Brown, 24 years older than him, but they were married for only five months. In November 2008, Omar arrived in Madrid, asking for political asylum in Spain, but the Spanish authorities refused him.
The rest of the children, most of whom live in Saudi Arabia, are engaged in legal business. According to another source, all the children of Osama bin Laden are Mujahideen (that is, people leading a lifestyle of fighters for the triumph of the ideology of Islam). It should also be noted that according to the same source, Osama bin Laden called one interview (published in one of the Arab newspapers) taken from one of his sons a fake.
Other relatives
Osama's brother Yeslam bin Laden lives in Switzerland. According to him, he has not been to Saudi Arabia since 1987 and has not seen his brother since. In 1974, Yeslam married Carmen, who is of half Iranian and half Swiss origin. The couple separated after 11 years. After the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden's former daughter-in-law recounted her meeting with him: “Someone knocked on the door, I instinctively opened it, and this man was standing on the threshold. I barely looked at him before he turned away because my face was uncovered and Osama didn't want to look at me. I know that Osama was very pious. He is the only one of the brothers who refused to look at me.". The daughter of Yeslam and Carmen - Wafa Dufur, was born in California, lived for some time in Saudi Arabia, after which she was taken first to Switzerland and then to the United States. After the September 11 attacks, she took her mother's maiden name, in 2005 she posed semi-nude for the men's magazine GQ.
State
Using unconfirmed information, the press widely wrote that Osama bin Laden inherited about 250-300 million US dollars from his father. Because of these widely disseminated publications, many people have the wrong image of a terrorist-money bag. Osama bin Laden has passed many enterprises in various countries of the world, including Sudan, Kenya, Yemen, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA. But as the 9-11 Commission Report stated, such ventures were often not profitable and profitable. In addition, Osama bin Laden spent his personal fortune on helping the most needy sections of society. In particular, funds were spent on digging wells, providing medical care to the population (children and families of the wounded and killed Mujahideen).
It is generally accepted that Islamic terrorism comes from poverty - they say, the underdeveloped countries of the Middle East are terribly jealous of the civilization of the West, because they live in poverty. That's how they get rich, they will immediately understand that this is not worth doing, and they will begin to build Western democracy in their country. This is partly true. In the Afghan refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, people who have lived for years on bare ground shouted in my face - “Osama bin Laden is our father! For the USA he is a killer, but for us he is above all saints! He digs wells, buys medicine for our children, distributes food to women. He is a real Muslim - we will die for him! However, paradoxically, in the richest oil countries of the Persian Gulf, bin Laden is even more popular ...
Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011 in a mansion in the city of Abbottabad, 50 km from Islamabad, as a result of a 4-hour operation by American special forces, as Pakistani intelligence chief Ahmed Pasha said on state television.
This information was also confirmed in his speech by US President Barack Obama:
A little over a week ago, I decided we had enough intelligence, and I agreed to go ahead with the operation. Under my leadership, there was an operation near Islamabad, in Pakistan, during which the US military showed incredible courage, eliminated bin Laden and obtained his remains, "Obama said.
At that time, US President George W. Bush made a promise to kill bin Laden 10 years ago. For the head of "terrorist number one" the US government has promised 25 million dollars. In 2007, the US Senate doubled the bonus to 50 million. According to AFP, citing an unnamed official, his son, two couriers and a woman used by bin Laden's associates as human shields were killed along with the terrorist leader. Bin Laden's two wives, four sons and four closest associates have been arrested. According to the President of the United States, American special forces did not suffer losses in the operation. As it became known later from the testimonies of the participants in the operation, they were not tasked with taking bin Laden alive.
Two members of the administration of US President Barack Obama, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Associated Press that DNA tests confirm the identity of Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US intelligence agencies, with a probability of up to 99.9%.
According to CNN, Osama bin Laden's body was buried in the Arabian Sea according to Muslim custom, although Islam prohibits the burial of the bodies of the dead in the sea. (According to another source, Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in compliance with all the necessary Muslim rituals. Burial at sea is extremely rare among Muslims, but not prohibited. Usually, this method of burial is used only when it is not possible to bury a Muslim on land within the next day. The sea as a grave was chosen in order to prevent Osama bin Laden's grave from becoming a place of pilgrimage (as a shahid. Some of Osama bin Laden's sons openly expressed their dissatisfaction with such treatment of their father's body).
After Osama bin Laden's death, al-Qaeda released his last message to Muslims in which he praises the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and speaks of a "rare historic opportunity" for Muslims to rise up.
On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda released another message. Both the current leader of the group, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the former leader of the extremists, Osama bin Laden, appeared on the screen. According to the authors of the video, bin Laden's speech was recorded shortly before his death.
Image in art
The figure of bin Laden has become popular in youth pop culture: on posters, T-shirts, badges, calendars, etc., not only in Arab countries, but also in Western countries. However, in the pro-Islamic and Arab world, there is a completely different attitude towards the popularity of Osama bin Laden.
In particular, in many Arabic-speaking forums, people put avatars with his image for themselves, and also talk about him with undisguised admiration as the “Lion of Islam”, about the defender of the Arab population of Palestine in their struggle against Israel. At the same time, the image of Osama bin Laden in American culture is usually presented with a negative or humorous connotation. His personality becomes the object of jokes, cartoons, humorous songs, entertaining humorous videos.
The film Fahrenheit 9/11 describes the friendship and business contacts in the oil business between Osama and George W. Bush.
Body of Lies (2008), directed by Ridley Scott, is about a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. The depth of the subordinate position in relation to Osama bin Laden of the head of one influential militant group is shown.
Allusions to bin Laden also appear in the Russian TV series Men's Work (Al Said) and Spetsnaz (Bearded).
The Romanian brewing company Brassov made Bin Laden beer.
In the American animated series South Park, Osama is often ridiculed and mocked.
In the game "Postal 3" Osama is one of the story characters. Bin Laden is mentioned to have retired and opened his own restaurant, but continues to make explosives.
The character of the opera by Russian composers Vladimir Martynov and Leonid Fedorov "Binladen, St. Francis and the End of Composers' Time", the main composition of which "Bin Laden" was included in the music album "Tayal".