Osama bin Laden BIOGRAPHY(page 2)

THE BIN LADENS

The rise of the bin Laden family to a position of unprecedented wealth

and power paralleled the emergence of Saudi Arabia as a modern state.

Bin Laden’s father, Mohammed bin Laden, was born in the Hadramut region

of Yemen in or around 1905. He left home in 1925 (again, the date

is uncertain) and settled in Jeddah, a major city in western Saudi Arabia.

4 OSAMA BIN LADEN

There he held menial jobs, fi nally settling down in the construction business,

a fi eld for which he demonstrated an aptitude. He founded his own

company in 1931, according to the Binladen Group offi cial history. 2 He

began building houses, worked as a bricklayer for the Arabian American

Oil Company, and eventually secured government contracts. His ability

Osama bin Laden BIOGRAPHY(page 1)

CONTENTS


Series Foreword ix

Preface xi

Introduction xiii

Timeline: Events in the Life of Osama bin Laden xix

Chapter 1 Osama bin Laden the Man 1

Chapter 2 Osama bin Laden’s Worldview 17

Chapter 3 Afghanistan 35

Chapter 4 Al-Qaeda 51

Chapter 5 Fighting the Great Satan 69

Chapter 6 Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, Post-9/11 91

Osama bin Laden BIOGRAPHY(11)

Articles


Buchanan, Michael. “ London Bombs Cost Just Hundreds.” BBC Online. January

3, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4576346.stm.

“Bundestagwahl im Visier von al-Qaieda.” Die Welt, July 5, 2009, p. 4.

Comas, Victor. “Al Qaeda Financing and Funding to Affi liate Groups.” Strategic

Insights 4, no. 1 ( January 2005). http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2005/Jan/

comrasJan05.asp.

“ The CIA’s Intervention in Afghanistan.” Le Nouvel Observateur. Paris, January

15– 21, 1998. http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ BRZ110A.html.

Starkey, Jerome. “Drugs for Guns: How the Afghan Heroin Trade is Fuelling the

Taliban insurgency.” The Independent (UK). April 29, 2008. http://www.

Osama bin Laden BIOGRAPHY