Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden is a Saudi Arabian millionaire and the leader of al Qaeda, a worldwide terrorist group responsible for September 11, 2001 attacks and some other terrorist attacks on Americans in the 1990s. He obtained his wealth by inheriting it from his father, Mohammed Awad bin Laden, who was a successful entrepreneur in the construction industry.

During the Clinton Administration , bin Laden issued two Declarations of War against the United States for the basing of troops in the Arabian Penninsula to defend against external aggression by Saddam Hussein and because of the suffering of the Iraqi people under UN economic sanctions.

Bin Laden lived in Sudan for most of the 1990's at the invitation of Hassan al-Turabi, a powerful Sudanese political leader and terrorism supporter. He then returned to Afghanistan, where he had fought against the Soviets in the 1980's. He was protected by the Taliban until the American liberation of Afghanistan following 9/11.

During the 1980s insurgency against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan the CIA helped to train and arm anti-Soviet Islamic militants such as the Taliban. Bin Laden had his own source of funding, though, and would have shunned influence by America.

He remains at large to this day.

See also

• Yasser Arafat