osama bin laden (1957-2011) was a Saudi engineer and terrorist, responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Born into a wealthy family and supporters of a radical interpretation of Islam, Osama bin Laden carried out attacks that killed thousands of innocent people.
After ten years of searching, American soldiers find him and he is killed on May 2, 2011.
The Twin Towers and bin Laden
Within the logic of fighting those who were considered enemies of Islam, Osama bin Laden begins to plan and finance an attack of great magnitude on the United States.
Instead of car bombings or the murder of a politician, this time aircraft would be used as weapons. Therefore, pilots were trained in American aviation schools in order to be able to control the planes. All of this would be done with the money and carried out by members of the al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden.
The chosen targets represented American financial, military, and political power. On September 11, 2001, four planes are hijacked in the United States and diverted from their route.
Two of them head towards the Twin Towers, in New York, and complete their mission by crashing into the buildings.
Another plane heads for the Pentagon, headquarters of the Armed Forces, and knocks down one of the buildings.
The fourth aircraft was supposed to cause damage to the Capitol in Washington, but the passengers rebelled and managed to prevent the attack.
Osama bin Laden's death
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S they launch a major offensive to find the one who was the mastermind of the attacks: Osama bin Laden. However, ten years would pass before this day arrived.
Because of this delay, there was a rumor that Osama bin Laden was dead or even hiding in some Western country. This news was always denied by al-Qaeda members in press releases.
Osama bin Laden, was a refugee in a house in Pakistan, in the city of Abbottabad. There he would live with two wives, several children and grandchildren. Accustomed to a simple life, he spent his days writing memos to his subordinates, teaching the children and watching videos reporting on the 9/11 attack.
After intense investigations, which included torture, the American intelligence services were able to locate the residence of Osama bin Laden. In the early morning hours of May 1, 2011, US Army special forces invade the house and kill the world's most wanted terrorist.
His death was announced the same day by the American president barack obama.
Osama bin Laden's life
Osama bin Laden's story begins when his father, Mohammed bin Laden, decides to move to Yemen from Yemen. Saudi Arabia, in the 40s.
At that time, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was just a big desert, but with the will and money to modernize. With the oil profits, there was enough capital for investments and the era of big construction begins.
Osama Bin Laden's father befriends the Saudi royal family and gets several contracts to carry out works such as roads, public buildings and even the expansion of the mosque in Mecca.
His company, the Saudi Binladin Group, quickly became the most important construction company in Saudi Arabia. This allows Mohammed bin Laden to have multiple wives (four at a time) who will give him 54 children.
Osama was the 17th child of 25 male children, born on March 10, 1957. His mother was Syrian and considered the most “westernized” of the businessman's wives. The boy grew up in an extremely religious environment, as the father was a follower of strict Islam and demanded a lot from his sons.
Osama's father died when he was 11 years old, in a plane crash. Later, at age twenty, he inherited $30 million, his share of the inheritance.
He studied engineering and business administration in Saudi Arabia, in order to prepare himself to take over the family business. Some point out that it was there that his radicalization would have taken place, others claim that already at school he would have had a teacher who would have inculcated radical ideas.
At the University, Osama would attend theological debates on the jihad, Western world vs. Islamic world, but also about the moral corruption of Saudi princes who adopted a lifestyle considered by some to be non-Muslim.
THE "jihad" it is commonly translated in Western languages as "holy war". However, like any theological concept, several interpretations can be made. For some, it would be a personal struggle between human beings and everything that distances them from religion.
However, for others, it is a fight against external and concrete enemies who must physically perish.
Personality
Osama is described by his peers as a shy, courteous and simple person. Very concerned about his family environment, with the values of Islam and extremely religious.
Although some of his brothers adopted the Western way of life, Osama bin Laden never did. It is quite possible that he has never been to any country in the West and his travels would be limited to Muslim countries like Syria, Afghanistan or Egypt.
Wars and Terrorist Attacks
Osama bin Laden believed that it was possible to build a great Muslim empire and this would be achieved through the destruction of the enemies of Islam.
For this reason, it is involved in various armed conflicts and promotes terrorist attacks that have caused deaths and countless material losses.
afghan war
When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden thinks this is an intervention of the "infidels" in an Islamic country. Therefore, Osama bin Laden takes up arms and funds various radical groups to fight the Soviet soldiers.
The United States is going to the rescue of the Afghans to preserve its interests in the region. Several Afghan militia groups, including the one sponsored by Osama, receive military training from the CIA.
In this way, claiming that bin Laden was a "CIA agent" is a bit of an exaggeration, as many Afghans received the same training.
In any case, for his performance in the afghan war, Osama bin Laden becomes known among those who wish to use violence to eliminate so-called "enemies of Islam".
Building on his victory against the Soviets in the late 1980s, he brought these guerrillas together and founded his own organization, al-Qaeda, which means "the base" in Arabic.
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a conflict between Western coalition forces, led by the United States, against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The aim was to free up invaded Kuwait and also prevent Iraqi troops from taking over Saudi oil wells.
A friend of the Saudi Arabian royal family, Osama bin Laden demands that the king use only Muslim troops to fight the enemy. The king does not accept, as he maintains very strong commercial and political relations with the Americans.
Thus, Osama bin Laden becomes an adversary of the Saudi royal family and is expelled from the country because of his criticisms. He goes to Sudan, where he contacts other radical Islamists willing to die and kill in the name of Islam.
Terrorist Attacks
For two decades, Osama bin Laden would plan and sponsor several terrorist attacks against the United States.
The first attempt, with a car bomb, was carried out against American embassies located in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania), on August 7, 1988.
Another terrorist action would follow on October 12, 2000, when a speedboat loaded with explosives crashed into the American destroyer "USS Cole" in Aden, Yemen.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks the United States in an unprecedented way.
In the following years, organizations sympathetic to or considered affiliates of al-Qaeda will carry out large-scale terrorist attacks.
Among them are the explosion of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002; or the detonation of four trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004.
Curiosities
- Osama bin Laden was a Sunni and followed a Wahhabi current of Islam. As a Sunni, this meant that he had the Shiites as his enemies and, as a Wahhabi, it postulated that an Islamic country should be governed strictly by the sharia, Islamic law.
- It is known that Osama bin Laden had five wives and an estimated 20 to 26 children.
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