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| {{short description|Saudi Arabian terrorist and co-founder of al-Qaeda}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Osama bin Laden]] |
| {{redirect2|Osama|bin Laden|the elephant|Osama bin Laden (elephant)|other uses|Osama (disambiguation)|and|Bin Laden (disambiguation)}}
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| {{Family name hatnote|lang=Arabic|bin Laden}}
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| {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} | | {{Redirect category shell|1= |
| {{Infobox officeholder
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| | name = Osama bin Laden<br />{{lang|ar|أسامة بن لادن}}
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| | order = 1st General Emir of [[al-Qaeda]]
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| | image = Osama bin Laden portrait.jpg
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| | caption = bin Laden {{circa}} 1997–98
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| | predecessor1 = ''Position created''
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| | successor1 = [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]]
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| | birth_name = Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Ladin<ref name="Davies2018">{{Cite book |last1=Davies |first1=William D. |last2=Dubinsky |first2=Stanley |year=2018 |title=Language Conflict and Language Rights: Ethnolinguistic Perspectives on Human Conflict |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=74 |isbn=978-1-107-02209-6 }}</ref>
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| | birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|3|10}}
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| | birth_place = [[Riyadh]], [[Saudi Arabia]]
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| | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|5|2|1957|3|10}}
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| | death_place = [[Abbottabad]], [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]], [[Pakistan]]
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| | citizenship = Saudi Arabian (1957–1994)
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| | parents = [[Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden]]<br />[[Hamida al-Attas]]
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| | spouse = {{marriage|[[Najwa Ghanhem]]|1974|2001|end=div}}<br />{{marriage|Khadijah Sharif|1983|1990s|end=div}}<br />{{marriage|Khairiah Sabar|1985}}<br />{{marriage|Siham Sabar|1987}}<br />{{marriage|Amal Ahmed al-Sadah|2000}}
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| | children = 20–26; including [[Abdallah bin Laden|Abdallah]], [[Saad bin Laden|Saad]], [[Omar bin Laden|Omar]], and [[Hamza bin Laden|Hamza]]
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| | relatives = [[Bin Laden family]]
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| | blank1 = Religion
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| | data1 = [[Islam]] ([[Wahhabism]]/[[Salafism]])<ref>{{Cite book |title=Pakistan's Enduring Challenges |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XxtrBgAAQBAJ |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |date=February 18, 2015 |isbn=978-0-8122-4690-2 |first1=C. Christine |last1=Fair |first2=Sarah J. |last2=Watson |page=246 |quote=Osama bin Laden was a hard-core Salafi who openly espoused violence against the United States in order to achieve Salafi goals. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131203102/https://books.google.com/books?id=XxtrBgAAQBAJ |archive-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Roads to Reconciliation: Conflict and Dialogue in the Twenty-first Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDzfBQAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |date=December 18, 2014 |isbn=978-1-317-46076-3 |first1=Amy Benson |last1=Brown |first2=Karen M. |last2=Poremski |page=81 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131203102/https://books.google.com/books?id=MDzfBQAAQBAJ |archive-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>Osama Bin Laden (2007) Suzanne J. Murdico</ref><ref name=Karen>{{cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jul/11/northernireland.july7 |title=The label of Catholic terror was never used about the IRA |work=The Guardian |date=July 11, 2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226235515/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jul/11/northernireland.july7 |archive-date=December 26, 2016 }}</ref>
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| |allegiance = {{flagicon image|Flag of al-Qaeda.svg|size=23px}} [[Maktab al-Khidamat]] (1984–1988) <br />
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| {{flagicon image|Flag of al-Qaeda.svg|size=23px}} [[Al-Qaeda]] (1988–2011)
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| | branch =
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| | serviceyears = 1984–2011
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| | rank = General [[Emir]] of [[al-Qaeda]]
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| | battles = [[Soviet–Afghan War]]
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| * [[Battle of Jaji]]
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| [[War on terror]]
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| * [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|Afghan War]]
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| ** [[Battle of Tora Bora]]
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| * [[War in North-West Pakistan]]
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| * [[Operation Neptune Spear]] {{KIA}}
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| | height = 1.95 m<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden |title=Usama BIN LADEN |publisher=FBI.gov |access-date=October 5, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526174037/https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden |archive-date=May 26, 2016 }}</ref>
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| | term_start = August 11, 1988
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| | term_end = May 2, 2011
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| | death_cause = [[Gunshot wound]]
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| }} | | }} |
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| '''Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden'''<ref name="Davies2018"/><ref>The common transliteration is [[persianization|based on]] [[Dari language|Afghan Persian]]; according to standard Arabic pronunciation, his name would be rendered in English as ''Usamah bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Ladin''.</ref> {{IPAc-en|oʊ|ˈ|s|ɑː|m|ə|_|b|ɪ|n|_|ˈ|l|ɑː|d|ən}} ({{lang-ar|أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن}}, ''{{transl|ar|ALA|Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin Awaḍ bin Lādin}}''; March 10, 1957<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Bin_Laden |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061229161128/http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Bin_Laden |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 29, 2006 |website=[[Rewards for Justice]] |title=Usama Bin Laden |date=December 29, 2006}}</ref> – May 2, 2011),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fbi.gov/a-z-index/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925024039/http://www.fbi.gov/a-z-index/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 25, 2012 |title=FBI – USAMA BIN LADEN |date=September 25, 2012}}</ref> also rendered as '''Usama bin Ladin''', was a founder of the [[pan-Islamic]] militant organization {{nowrap|[[al-Qaeda]]}}. The group is designated as a [[List of designated terrorist groups|terrorist group]] by the [[United Nations Security Council]], the [[NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO), the [[European Union]], and various countries.
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| He was a [[Saudi Arabia]]n citizen until 1994 and a member of the wealthy [[bin Laden family]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Yemen still close to al Qaeda's heart |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB07Ak01.html |newspaper=Asia Times Online |date=February 7, 2008 |access-date=May 6, 2011 |archive-date=July 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702080545/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB07Ak01.html |url-status=unfit }}</ref> Bin Laden{{'}}s father was [[Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden]], a Saudi millionaire from [[Hadhramaut|Hadhramaut, Yemen]], and the founder of the construction company, [[Saudi Binladin Group]].<ref name=strozier>{{Cite book |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4419-8387-9 |last1=Strozier |first1=Charles B. |last2=Offer |first2=Daniel |last3=Abdyli |first3=Oliger |title=The Leader: Psychological Essays |date=May 24, 2011}}</ref> His mother, [[Alia Ghanem]], was from a secular middle-class family in [[Latakia]], [[Syria]].<ref name=scheuer>{{Cite book |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-973866-3 |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |title=Osama Bin Laden |date=February 17, 2011}}</ref> He was born in Saudi Arabia and studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined [[Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen|Mujahideen]] forces in Pakistan [[Soviet–Afghan War|fighting against the Soviet Union]] in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the Mujahideen by funneling arms, money, and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, and gained popularity among many Arabs.<ref name="Fisk-p4">{{cite book|last=Fisk|first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |year=2005|title=[[The Great War for Civilisation]]|page=4}}</ref> In 1988, he formed al-Qaeda.<ref name="al-Fadl">{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Usama bin Laden et al. |vol=S (7) 98 |reporter=Cr. |opinion=1023 |pinpoint=Testimony of Jamal Ahmed Mohamed al-Fadl |court=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|SDNY]] |date=February 6, 2001 |url=http://cryptome.org/usa-v-ubl-02.htm}}</ref> He was banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to [[Sudan]], until U.S. pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and related attacks.<ref name="Fisk-p22">{{cite book|last=Fisk|first=Robert |year=2005|title=The Great War for Civilisation|page=22}}</ref> Bin Laden was on the American [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s (FBI) lists of [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives|Ten Most Wanted Fugitives]] and [[FBI Most Wanted Terrorists|Most Wanted Terrorists]] for his involvement in the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|1998 U.S. embassy bombings]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm |title=FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives |publisher=FBI.gov |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103044553/http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm |archive-date=January 3, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700687.html |title=Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombings? |work=The Washington Post |last=Eggen |first=Dan |date=August 28, 2006 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115203443/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700687.html |archive-date=January 15, 2010}}</ref><ref name="cnnterrorlist">{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/10/10/inv.mostwanted.list/ |title='Most wanted terrorists' list released |access-date=March 2, 2018 |date=October 10, 2001 |publisher=CNN |archive-date=April 10, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410042856/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/10/10/inv.mostwanted.list |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| Bin Laden is most well known for his role in masterminding the [[September 11 attacks]], which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 and prompted the United States on the orders of President [[George W. Bush]], to initiate the [[War on Terror]]. He subsequently became the subject of a decade-long international manhunt. From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the United States, as the FBI offered a $25 million bounty in their [[Search for Osama bin Laden|search for him]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden |title=Fbi – Usama Bin Laden |publisher=Fbi.gov |date=August 7, 1998 |access-date=May 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515104052/http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden |archive-date=May 15, 2011 }}</ref> On May 2, 2011,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/ten-most-wanted-fugitives-faq/ten-most-wanted-401-500|title=Ten Most Wanted Fugitives 401 to 500|website=Federal Bureau of Investigation|access-date=October 10, 2019|archive-date=November 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101212822/https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/ten-most-wanted-fugitives-faq/ten-most-wanted-401-500|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Killing of Osama bin Laden|bin Laden was shot and killed]]<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.sofmag.com/navy-seal-who-shot-bin-laden-rob-oneill-butte-montana |title=The Navy SEAL Who Shot Bin Laden Is: Rob O'Neill From Butte Montana |date=November 6, 2014 |work=Soldier of Fortune Magazine |access-date=July 8, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141203151430/http://www.sofmag.com/navy-seal-who-shot-bin-laden-rob-oneill-butte-montana |archive-date=December 3, 2014}}</ref> by US Navy [[United States Navy SEALs|SEALs]] inside a [[Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad|private residential compound]] in [[Abbottabad]], [[Pakistan]], where he lived with a local family from [[Waziristan]]. The covert operation was conducted by members of the [[United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group]] (SEAL Team Six) and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] [[Special Activities Center|SAD/SOG]] operators on the orders of U.S. President [[Barack Obama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/uss-carl-vinson-osama-bin-ladens-burial-sea/story?id=13510831 |title=USS Carl Vinson: Osama Bin Laden's Burial at Sea |publisher=ABC News |location=USA |access-date=May 1, 2011 |date=May 1, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504142851/https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/uss-carl-vinson-osama-bin-ladens-burial-sea/story?id=13510831 |archive-date=May 4, 2011 }}</ref> Under bin Laden's leadership, the al-Qaeda organization was responsible for, in addition to the September 11 attacks in the United States, many [[Timeline of al-Qaeda attacks|other mass-casualty attacks]] worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mofa.gov.pk/Press_Releases/2011/May/PR_150.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504231453/http://www.mofa.gov.pk/Press_Releases/2011/May/PR_150.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 4, 2011 |publisher=Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=May 1, 2011 |access-date=January 9, 2012 |title=Death of Osama bin Ladin }}</ref><ref name="DeathNYT">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |title=Bin Laden Dead, US Officials Say |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |first1=Peter |last1=Baker |first2=Helene |last2=Cooper |first3=Mark |last3=Mazzetti |date=May 1, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195308/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |archive-date=May 5, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="bbcdead">{{cite news |first1=Aleem |last1=Maqbool |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676 |title=Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda leader, dead – Barack Obama |date=May 1, 2011 |work=BBC News |access-date=January 12, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204140706/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676 |archive-date=February 4, 2015 }}</ref>
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| ==Name==
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| {{Further|Romanization of Arabic}}
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| There is no universally accepted standard for [[transliteration|transliterating]] [[Arabic language|Arabic]] words and [[Arabic name]]s into English;<ref>{{cite web |last=Whitaker |first=Brian |title=Arabic words and the Roman alphabet |url=http://www.al-bab.com/arab/language/roman1.htm |publisher=Al-Bab.com |access-date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425213610/http://www.al-bab.com/arab/language/roman1.htm |archive-date=April 25, 2011 }}</ref> however, bin Laden's name is most frequently rendered as "Osama bin Laden". The FBI and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), as well as other U.S. governmental agencies, have used either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin". Less common renderings include "Ussamah bin Ladin" and, in the French-language media, "Oussama ben Laden". Other spellings include "Binladen" or, as used by his family in the West, "Binladin". The decapitalization of ''bin'' is based on the convention of leaving short prepositions, articles, and [[patronymics]] uncapitalized in surnames; the [[nasab]] ''[[Arabic Name#Nasab نسب|bin]]'' means "son of". The spellings with ''o'' and ''e'' come from a [[Persian language|Persian]]-influenced pronunciation also used in Afghanistan, where bin Laden spent many years.
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| Osama bin Laden's full name, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of Awad, son of Laden".<ref name="Davies2018"/> "Mohammed" refers to bin Laden's father Mohammed bin Laden; "Awad" refers to his grandfather, Awad bin Aboud bin Laden, a Kindite [[Hadhrami people|Hadhrami]] tribesman; "Laden" refers not to bin Laden's great-grandfather, who was named Aboud, but to Aboud's father, Laden Ali al-Qahtani.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/L%C4%81din-al-Qatani/6000000012479136624 |title=Lādin Ali al-Qatani |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116225543/https://www.geni.com/people/L%C4%81din-al-Qatani/6000000012479136624 |archive-date=November 16, 2016 }}</ref>
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| The [[Arabic]] [[natural language|linguistic]] convention would be to refer to him as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden" alone, as "bin Laden" is a [[patronymic]], not a surname in the Western manner. According to bin Laden's son [[Omar bin Laden]], the family's hereditary surname is "[[Al-Qahtani (disambiguation)|al-Qahtani]]" ({{lang-ar|القحطاني}}, ''āl-Qaḥṭānī''), but bin Laden's father, [[Mohammed bin Laden]], never officially registered the name.<ref>{{cite book |title=Growing up Bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World |last1=bin Laden |first1=Najwa |author-link2=Omar bin Laden |last2=bin Laden |first2=Omar |last3=Sasson |first3=Jean |author-link=Najwa Ghanem |author-link3=Jean Sasson |year=2009 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-312-56016-4 |page=301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RcBwm5b8VbAC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407011237/http://books.google.com/books?id=RcBwm5b8VbAC |archive-date=April 7, 2015 }}</ref>
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| Osama bin Laden had also assumed the ''[[kunya (Arabic)|kunyah]]'' "Abū 'Abdāllāh" ("father of [[Abdallah Laden|Abdallah]]"). His admirers have referred to him by several nicknames, including the "Prince" or "[[Emir]]" (الأمير, ''al-Amīr''), the "[[Sheikh|Sheik]]" (الشيخ, ''aš-Šaykh''), the "Jihadist Sheik" or "Sheik al-[[Mujahideen|Mujahid]]" (شيخ المجاهد, ''Šaykh al-Mujāhid''), "[[Hajj]]" (حج, ''Ḥajj''), and the "Director".<ref name="fbiwantednotice">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm |title=Most Wanted Terrorist – Usama Bin Laden |publisher=FBI |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060310055924/http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm |archive-date=March 10, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The word ''usāmah'' (أسامة) means "lion",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.almaany.com/home.php?language=english&lang_name=English&category=Names+Meanings&word=USAMA |title=Meaning of Usama |year=2011 |work=English–Arabic Almaany Dictionary |access-date=May 9, 2011 |archive-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903194203/http://www.almaany.com/home.php?language=english&lang_name=English&category=Names+Meanings&word=USAMA |url-status=live }}</ref> earning him the nicknames "Lion" and "Lion Sheik".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090700279.html |work=The Washington Post |title=In a New Video, Bin Laden Predicts U.S. Failure in Iraq |first=Joby |last=Warrick |date=September 8, 2007 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224030015/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090700279.html |archive-date=February 24, 2011 }}</ref>
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| ==Early life and education==
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| {{Main|Personal life of Osama bin Laden}}
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| {{See also|Bin Laden family}}
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| Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden<ref name="Davies2018"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |title=Frontline: Hunting Bin Laden: Who is Bin Laden?: Chronology |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210192537/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |archive-date=February 10, 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> was born in [[Riyadh]], Saudi Arabia, a son of Yemeni [[Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden]], a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the [[House of Saud|Saudi royal family]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html |title=Osama bin Laden |publisher=infoplease |last=Johnson |first=David |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120224312/http://www.infoplease.com/spot/osamabinladen.html |archive-date=January 20, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, [[Syrian]] [[Hamida al-Attas]] (then called Alia Ghanem).<ref name="newyorker.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212fa_fact |title=Letter From Jedda: Young Osama- How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America|work=The New Yorker |last=Coll|first=Steve |date=December 12, 2005 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117190909/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212fa_fact |archive-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref> In a 1998 interview, bin Laden gave his birth date as March 10, 1957.<ref>{{cite web |title=Osama bin Laden |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/osama_bin_laden.htm |publisher=GlobalSecurity.org |date=January 11, 2006 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329161357/http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/osama_bin_laden.htm |archive-date=March 29, 2010 }}</ref>
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| Mohammed bin Laden divorced Hamida soon after Osama bin Laden was born. Mohammed recommended Hamida to Mohammed al-Attas, an associate. Al-Attas married Hamida in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and they are still together.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mysterious Death of Osama Bin Laden |url=http://votebits.com/tag/osama-bin-laden-histery |date=August 3, 2011 |access-date=November 4, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425135504/http://votebits.com/tag/osama-bin-laden-histery/ |archive-date=April 25, 2012 }}</ref> The couple had four children, and bin Laden lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.<ref name="newyorker.com" /> The bin Laden family made $5 billion in the construction industry, of which Osama later inherited around $25–30 million.<ref>"[http://www.economist.com/node/18648254 Osama bin Laden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520023316/http://www.economist.com/node/18648254 |date=May 20, 2011 }}", ''[[The Economist]]'', May 5, 2011, p. 93.</ref>
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| Bin Laden was raised as a devout [[Sunni]] Muslim.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beyer |first=Lisa |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html |work=Time |title=The Most Wanted Man in the World |date=September 24, 2001 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010916125854/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html |archive-date=September 16, 2001 }}</ref> From 1968 to 1976, he attended the elite [[Al-Thager Model School]].<ref name="newyorker.com" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006|p=52}}</ref> He studied [[economics]] and [[business administration]]<ref>''[[Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden]]'', Verso, 2005, p. xii.</ref> at [[King Abdulaziz University]]. Some reports suggest he earned a degree in [[civil engineering]] in 1979,<ref>{{citation|url=http://galenet.galegroup.com/ |title=Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement|volume=22 |publisher=Gale Group |date=2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518084513/http://galenet.galegroup.com/ |archive-date=May 18, 2008|url-access=subscription}}</ref> or a degree in [[public administration]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html |title=A Biography of Osama Bin Laden |publisher=PBS Frontline |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329153133/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html |archive-date=March 29, 2010 }}</ref> Bin Laden attended an English-language course in [[Oxford]], England during 1971.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1595205.stm |title=Bin Laden's Oxford days |work=BBC News |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904170856/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1595205.stm |archive-date=September 4, 2017 |date=October 12, 2001}} in, {{cite web |last1=Burke |first1=Jason |first2=Shaheen |last2=Kareem |title=This article is more than 2 years old Bin Laden's disdain for the west grew in Shakespeare's birthplace, journal shows |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/newly-released-journal-confirms-osama-bin-laden-visited-the-west |website=[[The Guardian]] 1 November 2017 20.50 GMT |publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]] |access-date=March 9, 2020 |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102232947/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/newly-released-journal-confirms-osama-bin-laden-visited-the-west |url-status=live }}</ref> One source described him as "hard working";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10855 |title=The Real Osama |work=The American Prospect |date=January 19, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430133236/http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10855 |archive-date=April 30, 2008 |last=Hug |first=Aziz |access-date=January 6, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> another said he left university during his third year without completing a college degree.<ref name="gunaratna-22">{{Cite book |title=Inside Al Qaeda |last=Gunaratna|first=Rohan |publisher=Berkley Books |year=2003 |edition=3rd |page=[https://archive.org/details/insidealqaedaglo00guna/page/22 22] |isbn=0-231-12692-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/insidealqaedaglo00guna/page/22 }}</ref> At university, bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the [[Quran]] and [[jihad]]" and charitable work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=79}}</ref> Other interests included writing poetry;<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7630934.stm |title=Analysing Osama's jihadi poetry |work=BBC News |last=Hirst |first=Michael |date=September 24, 2008 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930075727/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7630934.stm |archive-date=September 30, 2009 }}</ref> reading, with the works of Field Marshal [[Bernard Montgomery]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]] said to be among his favorites; black [[stallion]]s; and [[association football]], in which he enjoyed playing at [[Centre-forward|centre forward]] and followed the English club [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/osama-bin-ladens-bodyguard-i-had-orders-126430 |title=Osama bin Laden's bodyguard: I had orders to kill him if the Americans tried to take him alive |work=Daily Mirror |date=May 4, 2011 |access-date=April 20, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610184157/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/osama-bin-ladens-bodyguard-i-had-orders-126430 |archive-date=June 10, 2012}}</ref>
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| ==Personal life==
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| At age 17 in 1974, bin Laden married [[Najwa Ghanhem]] at [[Latakia]], Syria;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/13/news/mn-3564 |title=Osama Kin Wait and Worry |last=Slackman |first=Michael |date=November 13, 2001 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926011904/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/13/news/mn-3564 |archive-date=September 26, 2009 }}</ref> they were separated before September 11, 2001. Bin Laden's other known wives were Khadijah Sharif (married 1983, divorced 1990s); Khairiah Sabar (married 1985); Siham Sabar (married 1987); and Amal al-Sadah (married 2000). Some sources also list a sixth wife, name unknown, whose marriage to bin Laden was annulled soon after the ceremony.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/osama.many.wives |title=Bin Laden's wives – and daughter who would 'kill enemies of Islam' |publisher=CNN Edition: International |last1=Todd |first1=Brian |last2=Lister |first2=Tim |date=May 5, 2011 |access-date=May 5, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506085949/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/osama.many.wives/ |archive-date=May 6, 2011 }}</ref> Bin Laden fathered between 20 and 26 children with his wives.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/12/ltm.10.html |title=Osama's Women |publisher=CNN |date=March 12, 2002 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505084546/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/12/ltm.10.html |archive-date=May 5, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/OsamabinLaden.htm |title=Profile: Osama bin Laden |publisher=About.com |last=Zalman|first=Amy |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707075153/http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/OsamabinLaden.htm |archive-date=July 7, 2011 }}</ref> Many of bin Laden's children fled to Iran following the September 11 attacks and {{as of|lc=y|2010}}, Iranian authorities reportedly continue to control their movements.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7897555/Osama-bin-Ladens-family-stranded-in-Iran-son-says.html |title=Osama bin Laden's family 'stranded' in Iran, son says|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=July 19, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312025042/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7897555/Osama-bin-Ladens-family-stranded-in-Iran-son-says.html |archive-date=March 12, 2011}}</ref>
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| [[Nasser al-Bahri]], who was bin Laden's personal bodyguard from 1997–2001, details bin Laden's personal life in his memoir. He describes him as a frugal man and strict father, who enjoyed taking his large family on shooting trips and picnics in the desert.<ref>{{cite book|last=Al-Bahri|first=Nasser |author-link=Nasser al-Bahri|title=Guarding bin Laden: My Life in al-Qaeda|date=June 2013 |pages=150–160 |publisher=Thin Man Press |place=London|isbn=978-0-9562473-6-0}}</ref>
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| Bin Laden's father Mohammed died in 1967 in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot Jim Harrington<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4581571&page=1 |title=Blood Brothers: Could Osama Have Been Tamed? |publisher=ABC News |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101093302/https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4581571&page=1 |archive-date=January 1, 2016}}</ref> misjudged a landing.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,544921,00.html |title=Interview with US Author Steve Coll: 'Osama bin Laden is Planning Something for the US Election' |work=Der Spiegel |access-date=January 26, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213044611/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,544921,00.html |archive-date=February 13, 2011 |date=April 2, 2008 }}</ref> Bin Laden's eldest half-brother, [[Salem bin Laden]], the subsequent head of the bin Laden family, was killed in 1988 near [[San Antonio]], Texas, in the United States, when he accidentally flew a plane into power lines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.woai.com/content/news/newslinks/story/Best-of-the-Web-Osamas-Brother-Died-in-San/fQByftuKL0WrEDALXrJ7EA.cspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113114003/http://www.woai.com/content/news/newslinks/story/Best-of-the-Web-Osamas-Brother-Died-in-San/fQByftuKL0WrEDALXrJ7EA.cspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 13, 2012 |title=Best of the Web: Osama's Brother Died in San Antonio, Red Velvet Onion Rings-WOAI: San Antonio News |date=January 13, 2012 }}</ref>
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| The FBI described bin Laden as an adult as tall and thin, between {{convert|6|ft|4|in|m|order=flip|abbr=on}} and {{convert|6|ft|6|in|m|order=flip|abbr=on}} in height and weighing about {{convert|160|lb|kg|order=flip}}, although the author [[Lawrence Wright]], in his [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning book on [[al-Qaeda]], ''[[The Looming Tower]]'', writes that a number of bin Laden's close friends confirmed that reports of his height were greatly exaggerated, and that bin Laden was actually "just over {{convert|6|ft|m}} tall".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=83}}</ref> Eventually, after his death, he was measured to be around {{convert|6|ft|4|in|m|order=flip|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nypost.com/2011/08/02/wanted-dead-not-alive/ |title=Wanted: dead – not alive! |last=Mangan |first=Dan |work=New York Post |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429000044/http://nypost.com/2011/08/02/wanted-dead-not-alive/ |archive-date=April 29, 2017 |date=August 2, 2011 }}</ref> Bin Laden had an olive complexion and was left-handed, usually walking with a cane. He wore a plain white [[keffiyeh]]. Bin Laden had stopped wearing the traditional Saudi male keffiyeh and instead wore the traditional Yemeni male keffiyeh.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060310055924/http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 10, 2006 |title=Most Wanted Terrorist – Usama Bin Laden |publisher=FBI |access-date=June 8, 2006}}</ref> Bin Laden was described as soft-spoken and mild-mannered in demeanor.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3570751.stm |title=I met Osama Bin Laden |work=BBC News |access-date=May 15, 2006 |date=March 26, 2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316162620/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3570751.stm |archive-date=March 16, 2006}}</ref>
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| ==Beliefs and ideology==
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| {{Antisemitism sidebar}}
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| {{Main|Beliefs and ideology of Osama bin Laden}}
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| A major component of bin Laden's ideology was the concept that civilians from enemy countries, including women and children, were legitimate targets for jihadists to kill.<ref>''Messages'', (2005) p. 70. Al Jazeera, December 1998, following Kenya and Tanzania embassy attacks.</ref><ref>''Messages'', (2005), p. 119, October 21, 2001, interview with Taysir Alluni of Al Jazeera.</ref> According to former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] analyst [[Michael Scheuer]], who led the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader was motivated by a belief that [[Foreign policy of the United States|U.S. foreign policy]] has oppressed, killed, or otherwise harmed Muslims in the Middle East.<ref name="Scheuer 2004 9">{{cite book |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |title=Imperial Hubris |publisher=Brassey's, Inc. |year=2004 |location=Dulles, Virginia |page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialhubriswh00anon/page/9 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/imperialhubriswh00anon|url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-9655139-4-4 |quote=The focused and lethal threat posed to U.S. national security arises not from Muslims being offended by what America is, but rather from their plausible perception that the things they most love and value—God, Islam, their brethren, and Muslim lands—are being attacked by America.}}</ref> As such, the threat to U.S. national security arises not from al-Qaeda being offended by what America is but rather by what America does, or in the words of Scheuer, "They (al-Qaeda) hate us (Americans) for what we do, not who we are." Nonetheless, bin Laden criticized the U.S. for its secular form of governance, calling upon Americans to convert to Islam and reject the immoral acts of [[:wikt:fornication|fornication]], [[homosexuality]], [[Psychoactive drug|intoxicants]], [[gambling]], and [[usury]], in a letter published in late 2002.<ref name=Letter2002/>
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| Bin Laden believed that the Islamic world was in crisis and that the complete restoration of [[Sharia]] law would be the only way to set things right in the Muslim world. He opposed such alternatives as secular government,<ref name=Letter2002/> as well as [[pan-Arabism]], [[socialism]], [[communism]], and [[democracy]].<ref>''Messages'', 2005, p. 218. "Resist the New Rome", audiotape delivered to al-Jazeera and broadcast by it on January 4, 2004.</ref> He subscribed to the [[Athari]] (literalist) school of Islamic theology.<ref name=Halverson-80>{{cite book |last=Halverson |first=Jeffry R. |title=Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IYzGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |quote=It was there that he met the Athari-Wahhabite militant Osama bin Laden ... |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101093302/https://books.google.com/books?id=IYzGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=#v=onepage&q=osama&f=false |archive-date=January 1, 2016|isbn=978-0-230-10658-1 }}</ref>
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| These beliefs, in conjunction with violent [[jihad]], have sometimes been called [[Qutbism]] after being promoted by [[Sayyid Qutb]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/07spring/eikmeier.htm |title=Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism |journal=[[Parameters (journal)|Parameters]] |last=Eikmeier |first=Dale C. |pages=85–98 |date=Spring 2007 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609120804/http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/07spring/eikmeier.htm |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Bin Laden believed that Afghanistan, under the rule of [[Mohammed Omar|Mullah Omar]]'s [[Taliban]], was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world.<ref>''Messages'', (2005), p. 143. from an interview published in ''[[Al-Quds Al-Arabi]]'' in London, November 12, 2001 (originally published in Pakistani daily, ''[[Ausaf]]'', Nov. 7)</ref> Bin Laden consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believed were injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states.<ref>''Messages to the World'', (2005), pp. xix–xx, editor Bruce Lawrence.</ref> He also called for the elimination of [[Israel]], and called upon the United States to withdraw all of its civilians and military personnel from the Middle East, as well as from every Islamic country of the world.
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| His viewpoints and methods of achieving them had led to him being designated as a terrorist by scholars,<ref>{{cite book|last=Randal |first=John |title=Osama: The Making of a Terrorist|publisher=I B Tauris & Co Ltd |year=2005}}</ref><ref>''A Capitol Idea'' Donald E. Abelson p. 208.</ref> journalists from ''[[The New York Times]]'',<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/us/nationalspecial3/08padilla.html |title=Mysteries, Legal and Sartorial, at Padilla Trial |work=The New York Times |last=Goodnough |first=Abby |date=July 8, 2007 |access-date=May 26, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105211631/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/us/nationalspecial3/08padilla.html |archive-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/world/after-the-attacks-the-strategy-a-new-war-and-its-scale.html |title=After the attacks: the strategy; A New War And Its Scale |work=The New York Times |last=Gordon|first=Michael R. |author-link=Michael R. Gordon |date=September 17, 2001 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201104026/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/world/after-the-attacks-the-strategy-a-new-war-and-its-scale.html |archive-date=December 1, 2010 }}</ref> the [[BBC]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7412036.stm |title=Is global terror threat falling? |work=BBC News |date=May 21, 2008 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216203549/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7412036.stm |archive-date=February 16, 2010 }}</ref> and Qatari news station [[Al Jazeera]],<ref>{{cite web |title="Osama bin Laden's operation" has "perpetrated the worst act of terrorism ever witnessed on U.S. soil |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2008/08/20088161083773835.html |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=August 17, 2008 |access-date=February 11, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605084335/http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2008/08/20088161083773835.html |archive-date=June 5, 2011 }}</ref> analysts such as [[Peter Bergen]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006}}</ref> [[Michael Scheuer]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Scheuer|2002}}</ref> [[Marc Sageman]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Sageman|first=Marc |author-link=Marc Sageman|title=Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century|jstor=j.ctt3fhbht|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|year=2008|isbn=9780812240658 }}</ref> and [[Bruce Hoffman]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/spring2004/ceo.html|title=Redefining Counterterrorism: The Terrorist Leader as CEO |work=RAND Review |last=Hoffman|first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Hoffman |date=Spring 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040528181019/http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/spring2004/ceo.html|archive-date=May 28, 2004}}</ref><ref>''A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons Of Mass Destruction, And Rogue States'' Peter Brookes Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.</ref> He was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in [[Madrid]], New York City, and [[Tripoli]].<ref name="interpol">{{cite web |url=http://www.interpol.int/public/data/wanted/notices/data/1998/32/1998_20232.asp |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20080303070940/http://www.interpol.int/public/Data/Wanted/Notices/Data/1998/32/1998_20232.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 3, 2008 |title=Wanted: Bin Laden, Usama |publisher=[[Interpol]] |access-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref>
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| In 1997, he condemned the United States for its hypocrisy in not labeling the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|bombing of Hiroshima]] as terrorism. In November 2001, he maintained that the revenge killing of Americans was justified because he claimed that Islamic law allows believers to attack invaders even when the enemy uses [[human shield]]s. However, according to Rodenbeck, "this classical position was originally intended as a legal justification for the accidental killings of civilians under very limited circumstances — not as a basis for the intentional targeting of noncombatants."<ref name=Rodenbeck-NYRoB>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18750?email |title=Their Master's Voice, [a review of ''Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden''] |magazine=The New York Review of Books |date=March 9, 2006 |access-date=March 29, 2018 |last=Rodenbeck |first=Max |author-link=Max Rodenbeck |url-access=subscription |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135020/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2006/03/09/their-masters-voice/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A few months later in a 2002 letter, he made no mention of this justification but claimed "that since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets."<ref name=Rodenbeck-NYRoB/><ref name="nyt-2006-2-12">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/becoming-bin-laden.html|title=Becoming bin Laden|last=Feldman|first=Noah|author-link=Noah Feldman|date=February 12, 2006|work=The New York Times|access-date=June 12, 2019|archive-date=September 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914055806/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/becoming-bin-laden.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
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| Bin Laden's overall strategy for achieving his goals against much larger enemies such as the [[Soviet Union]] and United States was to lure them into a long [[Attrition warfare|war of attrition]] in Muslim countries, attracting large numbers of jihadists who would never surrender. He believed this would lead to [[economic collapse]] of the enemy countries, by "bleeding" them dry.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html |title=Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.|publisher=CNN |date=November 2, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305091629/http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html |archive-date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> Al-Qaeda manuals express this strategy. In a 2004 tape [[2004 Osama bin Laden video|broadcast]] by [[Al Jazeera]], bin Laden spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy".<ref>{{cite news |date=November 1, 2004 |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html |title=Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech |publisher=[[Al Jazeera]] |access-date=November 16, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081116092323/http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html |archive-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref>
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| A number of errors and inconsistencies in bin Laden's arguments have been alleged by authors such as [[Max Rodenbeck]] and [[Noah Feldman]]. He invoked democracy both as an example of the deceit and fraudulence of [[Western world#Modern political|Western political system]]—American law being "the law of the rich and wealthy"<ref>''Messages to the World, Statements of Osama bin Laden'', Verso, 2005, p. 168</ref>—and as the reason civilians are responsible for their government's actions and so can be lawfully punished by death.<ref name="Shirazi-2006-listen">{{cite web|last1=Shirazi|first1=S|title=Listening to Bin Laden |url=http://www.printculture.com/item-799.html|website=printculture.com |access-date=March 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061122194233/http://www.printculture.com/item-799.html |archive-date=November 22, 2006|date=March 31, 2006}}</ref> He denounced democracy as a "religion of ignorance" that violates Islam by issuing man-made laws, but in a later statement compares the Western democracy of Spain favorably to the Muslim world in which the ruler is accountable. Rodenbeck states, "Evidently, [bin Laden] has never heard theological justifications for democracy, based on the notion that the will of the people must necessarily reflect the will of an all-knowing God."<ref name=Rodenbeck-NYRoB/>
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| Bin Laden was heavily [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]], stating that most of the negative events that occurred in the world were the direct result of Jewish actions. In a December 1998 interview with Pakistani journalist [[Rahimullah Yusufzai]], bin Laden stated that [[Operation Desert Fox]] was proof that [[Israeli Jews]] controlled the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, directing them to kill as many Muslims as they could.<ref name=Time1999>{{cite web |url=http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,17676,00.html |title=Conversation With Terror |work=Time |date=January 1999 |access-date=March 22, 2015 |archive-date=February 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205200538/http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,17676,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In a letter released in late 2002, he stated that Jews controlled the civilian media outlets, politics, and economic institutions of the United States.<ref name=Letter2002>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130826184301/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver October 6, 2002. Appeared in Al-Qala'a website and then ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian'' on November 24, 2002.]</ref> In a May 1998 interview with [[ABC News|ABC]]'s John Miller, bin Laden stated that the Israeli state's ultimate goal was to annex the [[Arabian Peninsula]] and the Middle East into its territory and enslave its peoples, as part of what he called a "[[Greater Israel]]".<ref name=May1998>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990508145341/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html |title=frontline: the terrorist and the superpower: who is bin laden?: interview with osama bin laden (in may 1998) |archive-date=May 8, 1999 |publisher=pbs.org}}</ref> He stated that Jews and Muslims could never get along and that war was "inevitable" between them, and further accused the U.S. of stirring up [[Criticism of Islam|anti-Islamic sentiment]].<ref name=May1998/> He claimed that the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] and [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]] were controlled by Jews, for the sole purpose of serving the Israeli state's goals.<ref name=May1998/> He often delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next."<ref>''Messages'', (2005), p. 190. from a 53-minute audiotape that "was circulated on various websites" dated February 14, 2003. "Among a Band of Knights"</ref> [[Shia]] Muslims have been listed along with [[heresy|heretics]], America, and Israel as the four principal enemies of Islam at ideology classes of bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=303 "From interview with [[Ali Soufan]] – a [[Lebanese American|Lebanese]] Sunni FBI agent"}}</ref>
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| Bin Laden was opposed to music on religious grounds,<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=167}}</ref> and his attitude towards [[technology]] was mixed. He was interested in earth-moving machinery and [[genetic engineering]] of plants on the one hand, but rejected chilled water on the other.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=172}}</ref>
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| Bin Laden also believed [[Global warming|climate change]] to be a serious threat and penned a letter urging Americans to work with President [[Barack Obama]] to make a rational decision to "save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Landay |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-binladen-climatechange-idUSKCN0W35MS |title=Bin Laden called for Americans to rise up over climate change |date=March 1, 2016 |work=Reuters|access-date=April 3, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403050528/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-binladen-climatechange-idUSKCN0W35MS |archive-date=April 3, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/2/osama-bin-laden-called-for-americans-to-help-obama/ |title=Osama bin Laden called for Americans to help Obama fight climate change |last=Chasmar |first=Jessica |work=The Washington Times|date=March 2, 2016 |access-date=April 3, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403042453/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/2/osama-bin-laden-called-for-americans-to-help-obama/ |archive-date=April 3, 2016 }}</ref>
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| ==Militant and political career==
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| {{Main|Militant activity of Osama bin Laden}}
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| {{See also|Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden}}
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| ===Mujahideen in Afghanistan===
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| After leaving college in 1979, bin Laden went to Pakistan, joined [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam|Abdullah Azzam]] and used money and machinery from his own construction company to help the [[Mujahideen]] resistance in the [[Soviet–Afghan War]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm |title=Who is Osama Bin Laden? |work=BBC News |date=September 18, 2001 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224201012/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm |archive-date=December 24, 2008 }}</ref> He later told a journalist: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan."<ref>Interview with Robert Fisk, March 22, 1997, ''The Great War For Civilisation'', 2005, p. 7.</ref> From 1979 to 1992, the United States (as part of [[CIA activities in Afghanistan]], specifically [[Operation Cyclone]]), [[Saudi Arabia]], and [[China]] provided between $6–12 billion worth of financial aid and weapons to tens of thousands of mujahideen through Pakistan's [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI).<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steve Coll|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=[[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2004|isbn=9781594200076|pp=144–145, 238}}</ref> British journalist [[Jason Burke]] wrote that "He did not receive any direct funding or training from the US during the 1980s. Nor did his followers. The Afghan mujahideen, via Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, received large amounts of both. Some bled to the Arabs fighting the Soviets but nothing significant."<ref>{{cite web |last=Burke |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Burke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-10-myths-cia-arsenal |work=[[The Guardian]] |title=The 10 key myths about Osama bin Laden |date=May 11, 2011 |access-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-date=December 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228020631/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-10-myths-cia-arsenal |url-status=live }}</ref> Bin Laden met and built relations with [[Hamid Gul]], who was a [[three-star rank|three-star]] [[Lieutenant General (Pakistan)|general]] in the [[Pakistan Army|Pakistani army]] and head of the ISI agency. Although the United States provided the money and weapons, the training of militant groups was entirely done by the [[Pakistani Armed Forces]] and the ISI.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hiro|first=Dilip |author-link=Dilip Hiro|date=January 28, 1999 |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/cost-afghan-victory?page=0,1 |title=The Cost of an Afghan 'Victory' |magazine=[[The Nation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302090727/http://www.thenation.com/article/cost-afghan-victory?page=0%2C1 |archive-date=March 2, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to some CIA officers, beginning in early 1980, bin Laden acted as a liaison between the Saudi [[General Intelligence Presidency]] (GIP) and Afghan warlords, but no evidence of contact between the CIA and Bin Laden exists in the CIA archives. [[Steve Coll]] states that although bin Laden may not have been a formal, salaried GIP agent, "it seems clear that bin Laden did have a substantial relationship with Saudi intelligence."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steve Coll|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=[[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2004|isbn=9781594200076|pages=72, 87–88}}</ref> Bin Laden's first trainer was [[U.S. Special Forces]] commando [[Ali Mohamed]].<ref name="Cloonan">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline//////torture/interviews/cloonan.html Interview with FBI special agent Jack Cloonan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321123520/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/cloonan.html |date=March 21, 2012}}, ''Frontline'', PBS, October 18, 2005.</ref>
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| By 1984, bin Laden and Azzam established [[Maktab al-Khidamat]], which funneled money, arms, and fighters from around the Arab world into Afghanistan. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=145 "Lawrence Wright estimates his share of the Saudi Binladin Group circa fall 1989 as amounted to 27 million Saudi riyals – a little more than [US]$7 million."}}</ref> paid for air tickets and accommodation, paid for paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihadi fighters. Bin Laden established camps inside [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] in Pakistan and trained volunteers from across the Muslim world to fight against the Soviet-backed regime, the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]]. Between 1986 and 1987, bin Laden set up a base in eastern Afghanistan for several dozen of his own Arab soldiers.<ref name="Bergen49">{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006|pp=49–51}}</ref> From this base, bin Laden participated in some combat activity against the Soviets, such as the [[Battle of Jaji]] in 1987.<ref name="Bergen49"/> Despite its little strategic significance, the battle was lionized in the mainstream Arab press.<ref name="Bergen49"/> It was during this time that he became idolised by many Arabs.<ref name="Fisk-p4" />
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| === 1988 Gilgit massacre ===
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| {{See also|1988 Gilgit massacre}}
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| In May 1988, responding to rumours of a massacre of [[Sunni]]s by Shias, large numbers of Shias from in and around [[Gilgit|Gilgit, Pakistan]] were killed in a massacre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hunzai |first1=Izhar |title=Conflict Dynamics in Gilgit-Baltistan |url=https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR321.pdf |publisher=United States Institute of Peace |access-date=July 5, 2017 |quote=In 1988, a rumor alleging a Sunni massacre at the hands of Shias resulted in an attack by thousands of armed tribesmen from the south, the killing of nearly four hundred Shias |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509172907/https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR321.pdf |archive-date=May 9, 2017 }}</ref> Shia civilians were also subjected to rape.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19mPVOBZ_9YC&pg=PA134 |title=The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism |last=Murphy |first=Eamon |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-56526-4 |page=134 |quote=Shias in the district of Gilgit were assaulted, killed and raped by an invading Sunni lashkar-armed militia-comprising thousands of jihadis from the North West Frontier Province. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003094150/https://books.google.com/books?id=19mPVOBZ_9YC&pg=PA134&dq=gilgit+shias+raped+1988&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKgvjkm57RAhXLNpQKHZnoCx8Q6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=gilgit%20shias%20raped%201988&f=false |archive-date=October 3, 2017 }}</ref>
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| The massacre is alleged by [[B. Raman]], a founder of India's [[Research and Analysis Wing]],<ref>{{cite news |title=B Raman, one of RAW founders, passes away |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/b-raman-one-of-raw-founders-passes-away/ |access-date=July 5, 2017 |work=The Indian Express |date=June 17, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802041911/http://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/b-raman-one-of-raw-founders-passes-away/ |archive-date=August 2, 2017 }}</ref> to have been in response to a revolt by the [[Shias]] of [[Gilgit District|Gilgit]] during the rule of military dictator [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|Zia-ul Haq]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-shia-anger/221654 |title=The Shia Anger |last=Raman |first=B |date=October 7, 2003 |work=Outlook |quote=Because they have not forgotten what happened in 1988. Faced with a revolt by the Shias of the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), under occupation by the Pakistan Army, for a separate Shia State called the Karakoram State, the Pakistan Army transported Osama bin Laden's tribal hordes into Gilgit and let them loose on the Shias. They went around massacring hundreds of Shias – innocent men, women, and children.|access-date=December 31, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101001207/http://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-shia-anger/221654 |archive-date=January 1, 2017 }}</ref> He alleged that the [[Pakistan Army]] induced Osama bin Laden to lead an armed group of [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] tribals, from [[Afghanistan]] and the [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier Province]], into [[Gilgit District|Gilgit]] and its surrounding areas to suppress the revolt.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/feb/26raman.htm |title=The Karachi Attack: The Kashmir Link |last=Raman |first=B |date=February 26, 2003 |work=Rediiff News |quote=A revolt by the Shias of Gilgit was ruthlessly suppressed by the Zia-ul Haq regime in 1988, killing hundreds of Shias. An armed group of tribals from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province, led by Osama bin Laden, was inducted by the Pakistan Army into Gilgit and adjoining areas to suppress the revolt.|access-date=December 31, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510091547/http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/feb/26raman.htm |archive-date=May 10, 2017 }}</ref>
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| ===Formation and structuring of al-Qaeda===
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| {{Main|Al-Qaeda}}
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| By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat. While Azzam acted as support for Afghan fighters, bin Laden wanted a more military role. One of the main points leading to the split and the creation of al-Qaeda was Azzam's insistence that Arab fighters be integrated among the Afghan fighting groups instead of forming a separate fighting force.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006|pp=74–88}}</ref> Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20, 1988 indicate that al-Qaeda was a formal group by that time: "Basically an organized Islamic faction, its goal is to lift the word of God, to make his religion victorious." A list of requirements for membership itemized the following: listening ability, good manners, obedience, and making a pledge (''[[Bay'at|bayat]]'') to follow one's superiors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=133–134}}.</ref>
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| According to Wright, the group's real name was not used in public pronouncements because its existence was still a closely held secret.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=260}}.</ref> His research suggests that al-Qaeda was formed at an August 11, 1988, meeting between several senior leaders of [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam|Abdullah Azzam]], and bin Laden, where it was agreed to join bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and take up the jihadist cause elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EqWnqdsgZMC&q=August+11,+1988,+meeting+between+%22several+senior+leaders%22+of+Egyptian+Islamic+Jihad,+Abdullah+Azzam,+and+bin+Laden&pg=PA108 |title=Urban Terrorism : Myths And Realities |first=N. C |last=Asthana |page=108 |publisher=Pointer Publishers |isbn=978-81-7132-598-6 |date=January 1, 2009 |access-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135034/https://books.google.com/books?id=8EqWnqdsgZMC&q=August+11%2C+1988%2C+meeting+between+%22several+senior+leaders%22+of+Egyptian+Islamic+Jihad%2C+Abdullah+Azzam%2C+and+bin+Laden&pg=PA108 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero of jihad.<ref name="pbschronology"/> Along with his Arab legion, he was thought to have brought down the mighty superpower of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=146}}</ref> After his return to Saudi Arabia, bin Laden engaged in opposition movements to the Saudi monarchy while working for [[Saudi Binladin Group|his family business]].<ref name="pbschronology"/> He offered to send al-Qaeda to overthrow the Soviet-aligned [[Yemeni Socialist Party]] government in [[South Yemen]] but was rebuffed by Prince [[Turki bin Faisal Al Saud|Turki bin Faisal]]. He then tried to disrupt the [[Yemeni unification]] process by assassinating YSP leaders but was halted by Saudi Interior Minister Prince [[Nayef bin Abdulaziz]] after President [[Ali Abdullah Saleh]] complained to [[Fahd of Saudi Arabia|King Fahd]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=173–176}}</ref> He was also angered by the internecine tribal fighting among the Afghans.<ref name="Fisk-p4"/> However, he continued working with the Saudi GID and the Pakistani ISI. He funded the [[1990 Afghan coup d'état attempt]] and also lobbied the [[Parliament of Pakistan]] to carry out an unsuccessful [[motion of no confidence]] against Prime Minister [[Benazir Bhutto]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coll|first=Steve|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52814066|title=Ghost wars : the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001|date=2004|publisher=Penguin Press|isbn=1-59420-007-6|location=New York|oclc=52814066}}</ref>
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| The [[invasion of Kuwait|Iraqi invasion of Kuwait]] under [[Saddam Hussein]] on August 2, 1990, put the Saudi kingdom and the royal family at risk. With Iraqi forces on the [[Iraq–Saudi Arabia border|Saudi border]], Saddam's appeal to pan-Arabism was potentially inciting internal dissent. One week after King Fahd agreed to U.S. Secretary of Defense [[Dick Cheney]]'s offer of American military assistance, Bin Laden met with King Fahd and Saudi Defense Minister [[Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud|Sultan]], telling them not to depend on non-Muslim assistance from the United States and others and offering to help defend Saudi Arabia with his Arab legion. When Sultan asked how bin Laden would defend the fighters if Saddam used [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|Iraqi chemical and biological weapons]] against them he replied "We will fight him with faith."<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=178–179}}</ref> Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed, and the Saudi monarchy invited the deployment of U.S. forces in Saudi territory.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jehl |first=Douglas |title=A Nation Challenged: Holy war lured Saudis as rulers looked Away |work=The New York Times |date=December 27, 2001 |pages=A1, B4 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/27/world/a-nation-challenged-saudi-arabia-holy-war-lured-saudis-as-rulers-looked-away.html |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118105250/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/27/world/a-nation-challenged-saudi-arabia-holy-war-lured-saudis-as-rulers-looked-away.html |archive-date=November 18, 2010 }}</ref>
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| Bin Laden publicly denounced Saudi dependence on the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. Armed Forces]], arguing that the [[Quran]] prohibited non-Muslims from setting foot in the [[Arabian Peninsula]] and that two holiest shrines of Islam, [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]], the cities in which the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]] received and recited Allah's message, should only be defended by Muslims. Bin Laden tried to convince the Saudi ''[[ulama]]'' to issue a fatwa condemning the American military deployment but senior clerics refused out of fear of repression.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=180}}</ref> Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led them to try to silence him. The U.S. [[82nd Airborne Division]] landed in the north-eastern Saudi city of [[Dhahran]] and was deployed in the desert barely 400 miles from Medina.<ref name="Fisk-p4" />
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| Meanwhile, on November 8, 1990, the FBI [[raid (military)|raided]] the [[New Jersey]] home of [[El Sayyid Nosair]], an associate of al-Qaeda operative [[Ali Mohamed]]. They discovered copious evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers. This marked the earliest discovery of al-Qaeda terrorist plans outside of Muslim countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tkb.org/CaseHome.jsp?caseid=332 |title=USA v. Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel-Rahman et al: 93-CR-181-KTD |publisher=MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109221029/http://www.tkb.org/CaseHome.jsp?caseid=332 |archive-date=January 9, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the [[1993 World Trade Center bombing]], and later admitted guilt for the murder of Rabbi [[Meir Kahane]] in New York City on November 5, 1990.
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| ===Move to Sudan===
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| In 1991, bin Laden was expelled from Saudi Arabia by its regime after repeatedly criticizing the Saudi alliance with the United States.<ref name="pbschronology"/><ref name="cnn201107">{{cite web |year=2011 |title=Timeline: Osama bin Laden, over the years |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.timeline/index.html |work=CNN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717222154/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.timeline/index.html |archive-date=July 17, 2011|access-date=October 17, 2019}}</ref> He and his followers moved first to Afghanistan and then relocated to Sudan by 1992,<ref name="pbschronology"/><ref name="cnn201107"/> in a deal brokered by Ali Mohamed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Abdullah Assam: The Man Before Osama Bin Laden |last=Emerson |first=Steve |url=http://www.iacsp.com/itobli3.html |publisher=International Association of Counterterrorism & Security Professionals|access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218211532/http://www.iacsp.com/itobli3.html |archive-date=February 18, 2007 }}</ref> Bin Laden's personal security detail consisted of [[bodyguard]]s personally selected by him. Their arsenal included [[SA-7]], [[Stinger missile]]s, [[AK-47]]s, [[Rocket-propelled grenade|RPGs]], and [[PK machine gun]]s.<ref>Soufan, Ali. ''The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda.'' W.W. Norton and Company. New York and London: 2011.Page 325</ref> Meanwhile, in March–April 1992, bin Laden tried to play a pacifying role in the escalating [[Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)|civil war in Afghanistan]], by urging warlord [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] to join the other [[mujahideen]] leaders negotiating a coalition government instead of trying to conquer [[Kabul]] for himself.{{sfnp|Gutman|2008|page=37}}
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| U.S. intelligence monitored bin Laden in Sudan using operatives to run by daily and to photograph activities at his compound, and using an intelligence [[safe house]] and [[signals intelligence]] to [[surveillance|surveil]] him and to record his moves.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jacobsen|first=Annie |author-link=Annie Jacobsen|title=Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins |place=New York |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2019|pages=281–288}}</ref>
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| ===Sudan and return to Afghanistan===
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| In Sudan, bin Laden established a new base for Mujahideen operations in [[Khartoum]]. He bought [[Osama bin Laden's house in Khartoum|a house]] on Al-Mashtal Street in the affluent Al-Riyadh quarter and a retreat at [[Soba (city)|Soba]] on the [[Blue Nile]].<ref name="Reeve2002">{{cite book |last=Reeve |first=Simon |title=The new jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the future of terrorism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VQjpziNmoE4C&pg=PA172 |access-date=May 7, 2011 |date=June 27, 2002 |publisher=UPNE |isbn=978-1-55553-509-4 |page=172 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529065422/http://books.google.com/books?id=VQjpziNmoE4C&pg=PA172 |archive-date=May 29, 2013 }}</ref><ref name="ShayLiberman2006">{{cite book |last1=Shay |first1=Shaul |last2=Liberman |first2=Rachel |title=The Red Sea terror triangle: Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Islamic terror |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2ss0vor_DkC&pg=PA43 |access-date=May 7, 2011 |date=October 13, 2006 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-0620-6 |page=43 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529080257/http://books.google.com/books?id=v2ss0vor_DkC&pg=PA43 |archive-date=May 29, 2013 }}</ref> During his time in Sudan, he heavily invested in the infrastructure, in agriculture and businesses. He was the Sudan agent for the British firm [[Hunting Surveys]],<ref name=VF2002>{{cite web|last=Rose |first=David |date=January 2002 |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2002/01/osama200201 |title=The Osama Files|work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008210904/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2002/01/osama200201 |archive-date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> and built roads using the same bulldozers he had employed to construct mountain tracks in Afghanistan. Many of his labourers were the same fighters who had been his comrades in the war against the Soviet Union. He was generous to the poor and popular with the people.<ref name="Gallab2008">{{cite book |last=Gallab |first=Abdullahi A. |title=The first Islamist republic: development and disintegration of Islamism in Sudan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1XdRfAJwLIC&pg=PA127 |access-date=May 7, 2011 |year=2008 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-7162-6 |page=127 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727154122/http://books.google.com/books?id=s1XdRfAJwLIC&pg=PA127 |archive-date=July 27, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fisk|first=Robert |year=2005|title=The Great War for Civilisation|page=5}}</ref> He continued to criticize King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. In response, in 1994 Fahd stripped bin Laden of his Saudi citizenship and persuaded his family to cut off his $7 million a year stipend.<ref name="Forbes">{{cite web|last=Ackman|first=Dan |url=https://www.forbes.com/2001/09/14/0914ladenmoney.html |title=The Cost Of Being Osama Bin Laden|work=Forbes |date=September 14, 2001|access-date=March 15, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729115849/https://www.forbes.com/2001/09/14/0914ladenmoney.html |archive-date=July 29, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=195}}</ref>
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| By that time, bin Laden was being linked with [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] (EIJ), which made up the core of al-Qaeda. In 1995 the EIJ [[Attempted assassination of President Hosni Mubarak|attempted to assassinate]] the Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]]. The attempt failed, and Sudan expelled the EIJ.
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| The U.S. State Department accused Sudan of being a [[State terrorism|sponsor of international terrorism]] and bin Laden of operating terrorist training camps in the Sudanese desert. However, according to Sudan officials, this stance became obsolete as the Islamist political leader [[Hassan al-Turabi]] lost influence in their country. The Sudanese wanted to engage with the U.S. but American officials refused to meet with them even after they had expelled bin Laden. It was not until 2000 that the State Department authorized U.S. intelligence officials to visit Sudan.<ref name=VF2002/>
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| The [[9/11 Commission Report]] states:
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| <blockquote>In late 1995, when Bin Laden was still in Sudan, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned that Sudanese officials were discussing with the Saudi government the possibility of expelling Bin Laden. CIA paramilitary officer [[Billy Waugh]] tracked down Bin Ladin in Sudan and prepared an operation to apprehend him, but was denied authorization.<ref>''Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism,'' 2004.</ref> U.S. Ambassador [[Timothy M. Carney|Timothy Carney]] encouraged the Sudanese to pursue this course. The Saudis, however, did not want Bin Laden, giving as their reason their revocation of his citizenship. [[Minister of Defence (Sudan)|Sudan's minister of defense]], Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Laden over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Laden. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding against bin Laden in any country.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.pdf |title=Responses to Al Qaeda's Initial Assaults |publisher=9/11 Commission |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015032827/http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.pdf |archive-date=October 15, 2009 |df=mdy-all}}</ref></blockquote>
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| The 9/11 Commission Report further states:
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| <blockquote>In February 1996, Sudanese officials began approaching officials from the United States and other governments, asking what actions of theirs might ease foreign pressure. In secret meetings with Saudi officials, Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. U.S. officials became aware of these secret discussions, certainly by March. Saudi officials apparently wanted Bin Laden expelled from Sudan. They had already revoked his citizenship, however, and would not tolerate his presence in their country. Also Bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, and paid for by the [[CIA]].</blockquote>
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| Due to the increasing pressure on Sudan from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States, bin Laden was permitted to leave for a country of his choice. He chose to return to [[Jalalabad]], Afghanistan aboard a chartered flight on May 18, 1996; there he forged a close relationship with [[Mullah Mohammed Omar]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/06/news/mn-12224 |title=Fighters Hunt Former Ally |work=Los Angeles Times |last=Stack |first=Megan K. |date=December 6, 2001 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919134203/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/06/news/mn-12224 |archive-date=September 19, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550419.stm |title=Profile: Mullah Mohamed Omar |date=September 18, 2001 |work=BBC News |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728110131/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550419.stm |archive-date=July 28, 2010 }}</ref> According to the 9/11 Commission, the expulsion from Sudan significantly weakened bin Laden and his organization.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch2.pdf |title=The Foundation of the New Terrorism |publisher=9/11 Commission |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827082338/http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch2.pdf |archive-date=August 27, 2010 }}</ref> Some African intelligence sources have argued that the expulsion left bin Laden without an option other than becoming a full-time radical, and that most of the 300 Afghan Arabs who left with him subsequently became terrorists.<ref name=VF2002/> Various sources report that bin Laden lost between $20 million<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=222}}</ref> and $300 million<ref>{{Harvnb|Stern|2003|p=253}}</ref> in Sudan; the government seized his construction equipment, and bin Laden was forced to liquidate his businesses, land, and even his horses.
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| ====1996 Declaration of war and 1998 fatwa====
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| In August 1996, [[Fatawā of Osama bin Laden#1996 fatwā|bin Laden declared war]] against the United States.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bergen|2008|p=14}}.</ref> Despite the assurance of President [[George H. W. Bush]] to [[King Fahd]] in 1990, that all U.S. forces based in Saudi Arabia would be withdrawn once the Iraqi threat had been dealt with, by 1996 the Americans were still there. Bush cited the necessity of dealing with the remnants of Saddam's regime (which Bush had chosen not to destroy). Bin Laden's view was that "the 'evils' of the Middle East arose from America's attempt to take over the region and from its support for Israel. Saudi Arabia had been turned into an American colony".<ref name="Fisk-p22" />
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| In 1998 he issued a [[Fatawā of Osama bin Laden#1998 fatwā|fatwā]] against the United States, which was first published in ''[[Al-Quds Al-Arabi]]'', a London-based newspaper. It was entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011031024057/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 31, 2001 |title=Bin Laden's Fatwa |publisher=Pbs.org |date=August 20, 1998 |access-date=June 25, 2011 }}</ref> Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. The reference to occupation in the fatwā referred to US forces based in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of controlling air space in Iraq, known as [[Operation Southern Watch]].
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| In Afghanistan, bin Laden and al-Qaeda raised money from donors from the days of the Soviet jihad, and from the Pakistani ISI to establish more training camps for Mujahideen fighters.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=250}}</ref> Bin Laden effectively took over [[Ariana Afghan Airlines]], which ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash, and opium through the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, as well as provided false identifications to members of bin Laden's terrorist network.<ref>Stephen Braun; Judy Pasternak [https://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/18/news/mn-5593 "Long Before Sept. 11, Bin Laden Aircraft Flew Under the Radar"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715022941/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/18/news/mn-5593 |date=July 15, 2012 }}, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. November 18, 2001.</ref> The arms smuggler [[Viktor Bout]] helped to run the airline, maintaining planes and loading cargo. Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, concluded that Ariana was being used as a terrorist taxi service.<ref>''Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible'' (2007), pp. 138–140</ref>
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| ===Early attacks and aid for attacks===
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| It is believed that the first bombing attack involving bin Laden was the December 29, 1992, bombing of the [[Gold Mihor Hotel]] in [[Aden]] in which two people were killed.<ref name="pbschronology">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |title=Who is bin Laden?: Chronology |publisher=PBS |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414023118/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |archive-date=April 14, 2010 }}</ref>
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| [[File:Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden.jpg|thumb|left|Pakistani journalist [[Hamid Mir]] interviewing Osama bin Laden in 1997. The [[AKS-74U]] in the background is a symbol of the mujadin's victory over the Soviets, since these weapons were captured from [[Spetsnaz]] forces.]]
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| After this bombing, al-Qaeda was reported to have developed its justification for the killing of innocent people. According to a fatwa issued by [[Mamdouh Mahmud Salim]], the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find a proper reward in death, going to ''[[Jannah]]'' (paradise) if they were good Muslims and to ''[[Jahannam]]'' (hell) if they were bad or non-believers.<ref>testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.</ref> The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.
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| In the 1990s, bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt, and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993, bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded. The [[Algerian Civil War#Massacres and reconciliation|war]] that followed caused the deaths of 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with the Islamist surrender to the government. In January 1996, the CIA launched a new unit of its [[Counterterrorism Center]] (CTC) called [[Bin Laden Issue Station]], code-named "Alec Station", to track and to carry out operations against Bin Laden's activities. Bin Laden Issue Station was headed by [[Michael Scheuer]], a veteran of the Islamic Extremism Branch of the CTC.<ref name="GhostWars">Coll, Steve, "Ghost Wars," (Penguin Books, 2004)</ref>
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| ===Late 1990s attacks===
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| It has been claimed that bin Laden funded the [[Luxor massacre]] of November 17, 1997,<ref>Jailan Halawi, "bin Laden behind Luxor Massacre?", ''Al-Ahram Weekly'', May 20–26, 1999.</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Barbara |last=Plett |title=Bin Laden 'behind Luxor massacre' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/343207.stm |work=BBC News |date=May 13, 1999 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121090734/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/343207.stm |archive-date=November 21, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Profile: Ayman al-Zawahiri |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1560834.stm |work=BBC News |date=September 27, 2004 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819003214/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1560834.stm |archive-date=August 19, 2010 }}</ref> which killed 62 civilians, and outraged the Egyptian public. In mid-1997, the [[Northern Alliance]] threatened to overrun Jalalabad, causing bin Laden to abandon his [[Najim Jihad]] compound and move his operations to [[Tarnak Farms]] in the south.<ref name="arkChark">Testimony of [[Abdurahman Khadr]] as a witness in the trial against Charkaoui, July 13, 2004.</ref>
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| Another successful attack was carried out in the city of [[Mazar-i-Sharif]] in Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped cement his alliance with the Taliban by sending several hundred Afghan Arab fighters along to help the Taliban kill between five and six thousand [[Hazaras]] overrunning the city.<ref>Rashid, ''Taliban'', p. 139.</ref>
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| In February 1998, Osama bin Laden and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] co-signed a ''fatwa'' in the name of the [[World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders]], which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to liberate the [[al-Aqsa Mosque]] (in [[Jerusalem]]) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm |title=World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders: Initial "Fatwa" Statement |author=Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin |first2=Ayman |last2=al-Zawahiri |author3=Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha |author4=Shaykh Mir Hamzah |first5=Fazlur |last5=Rahman |date=February 23, 1998 |work=al-Quds al-Arabi |language=ar |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-date=June 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626184406/https://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm |title=Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. World Islamic Front Statement |author=Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin |first2=Ayman |last2=al-Zawahiri |author3=Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha |author4=Shaykh Mir Hamzah |first5=Fazlur |last5=Rahman |date=February 23, 1998 |publisher=al-Quds al-Arabi |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421110549/http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm |archive-date=April 21, 2010 }} English-language version of the fatwa translated by the [[Federation of American Scientists]] of the [http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm original Arabic document published in the newspaper ''al-Quds al-Arabi'' (London, UK) on 1998-02-23, p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626184406/https://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm |date=June 26, 2016 }}.</ref> At the public announcement, fatwa bin Laden announced that North Americans are "very easy targets". He told the attending journalists, "You will see the results of this in a very short time."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Atta |first=Dale |author-link=Dale Van Atta |title=Carbombs & cameras: the need for responsible media coverage of terrorism |journal=Harvard International Review |publisher=Harvard International Relations Council |location=Cambridge, Mass. |year=1998 |volume=20 |issue=4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/trustbetrayedins00vana/page/66 66] |issn=0739-1854 |isbn=978-0-89526-485-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/trustbetrayedins00vana/page/66 |access-date=May 28, 2010 }}</ref>
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| Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri organized an al-Qaeda congress on June 24, 1998.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100703033234/http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |title=Russian Secret Services' Links With Al-Qaeda |date=July 18, 2005 |last=Elbaz|first=Michel |work=Axis Globe |archive-date=July 3, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[1998 U.S. Embassy bombings]] were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous [[truck bomb]] explosions at the United States [[embassy|embassies]] in the major East African cities of [[Dar es Salaam]], [[Tanzania]], and [[Nairobi]], Kenya.<ref name="cnn201310">{{cite web |year=2013 |title=1998 US Embassies in Africa Bombings Fast Facts |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/africa-embassy-bombings-fast-facts/index.html |work=CNN |access-date=October 17, 2019 |archive-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024083240/https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/africa-embassy-bombings-fast-facts/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the United States public for the first time. Al-Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the bombings.<ref name="cnn201310"/>
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| In retaliation for the embassy bombings, President [[Bill Clinton]] ordered a [[Operation Infinite Reach|series of cruise missile strikes]] on bin Laden-related targets in Sudan and Afghanistan on August 20, 1998.<ref name="cnn201310"/> In December 1998, the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] Counterterrorist Center reported to President Clinton that al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the United States of America, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522041639/http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001110635/0001110635_0001.gif |archive-date=May 22, 2010 |title=Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack U.S. Aircraft and Other Attacks |date=December 4, 1998 |access-date=March 3, 2016 |publisher=[[Director of Central Intelligence]] |url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001110635/0001110635_0001.gif}}</ref> On June 7, 1999, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placed bin Laden on its [[FBI ten most wanted fugitives|Ten Most Wanted]] list.<ref name="pbscontext">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/timeline-al-qaedas-global-context/ |title=Timeline: Al Qaeda's Global Context |publisher=PBS |date=October 3, 2002 |access-date=October 20, 2019 |archive-date=August 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809234850/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/cron.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| At the end of 2000, [[Richard A. Clarke|Richard Clarke]] revealed that Islamic militants headed by bin Laden had planned a [[2000 millennium attack plots|triple attack on January 3, 2000]], which would have included bombings in [[Jordan]] of the [[Radisson SAS Hotel]] in [[Amman]], tourists at [[Mount Nebo (Jordan)|Mount Nebo]], and a site on the [[Jordan River]], as well as the sinking of the destroyer {{USS|The Sullivans|DDG-68|6}} in Yemen, and an attack on a target within the United States. The plan was foiled by the arrest of the Jordanian terrorist cell, the sinking of the explosive-filled skiff intended to target the destroyer, and the arrest of [[Ahmed Ressam]].<ref name="Loeb"/>
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| ===Yugoslav Wars===
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| {{See also|Bosnian mujahideen}}
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| A former U.S. State Department official in October 2001 described [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as a safe haven for terrorists, and asserted that militant elements of the former Sarajevo government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Osama bin Laden.<ref name=SeattleTimes2001-10-15>{{Cite news |url=http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20011015&slug=bosnia15 |title=Bosnia – base for terrorism |work=The Seattle Times |last1=Pyes|first1=Craig |last2=Meyer|first2=Josh |last3=Rempel|first3=William C. |date=October 15, 2001 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111119202404/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20011015&slug=bosnia15 |archive-date=November 19, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1997, ''[[Rzeczpospolita (newspaper)|Rzeczpospolita]]'', one of the largest Polish daily newspapers, had reported that intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish [[SFOR]] Brigade suspected that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries was located in the Bocina Donja village near [[Maglaj]] in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, hundreds of volunteers joined an all-mujahedeen unit called El Moujahed in an abandoned hillside factory, a compound with a hospital and prayer hall.
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| According to Middle East intelligence reports, bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was [[Karim Said Atmani]], who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/50933336.html?FMT=ABS |title=A Bosnian Village's Terrorist Ties |work=The Washington Post |last=Smith |first=R. Jeffrey |date=March 11, 2000 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725055852/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/50933336.html?FMT=ABS |archive-date=July 25, 2012 }}</ref> He is a former roommate of [[Ahmed Ressam]], the man arrested at the [[Canada–United States border]] in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials.<ref name="csisAlmrei">[[Canadian Security Intelligence Service]], Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Hassan Almrei, February 22, 2008.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Baravalle |first=Giorgio |title=Rethink: Cause and Consequences of September 11 |publisher=de-MO |year=2004 |page=584 |isbn=0-9705768-6-2}}</ref> He was convicted of colluding with Osama bin Laden by a French court.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20050817121245.htm |title=Jihadists find convenient base in Bosnia |agency=Assyrian International News Agency |last=Gossett |first=Sherrie |date=August 17, 2005 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051217231929/http://www.aina.org/news/20050817121245.htm |archive-date=December 17, 2005 |url-status=live}}</ref>
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| A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former Mujahideen who were linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists, and had lived in the area {{convert|60|mi|km|sigfig=1|order=flip|abbr=on}} north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. [[Khalil al-Deek]] was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites. A second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Osama bin Laden. In its June 26, 1997, a report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ''The New York Times'' noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslim forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Osama bin Laden.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Bin Laden was granted Bosnian passport", Agence France-Presse, September 24, 1999.</ref><ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/world/outsiders-bring-islamic-fervor-to-the-balkans.html |title=Outsiders Bring Islamic Fervor To the Balkans |work=The New York Times |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=September 23, 1996 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705164148/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/world/outsiders-bring-islamic-fervor-to-the-balkans.html |archive-date=July 5, 2011 }}</ref>{{Verify source|date=January 2021}}
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| In 1999, the press reported that bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and [[Bosnian passport]]s in 1993 by the government in Sarajevo. The Bosnian government denied this information following the September 11 attacks, but it was later found that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation, a new explanation was given that bin Laden did not personally collect his Bosnian passport and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who bin Laden was at the time.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="query.nytimes.com"/>{{Verify source|date=January 2021}}
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| The Bosnian daily ''[[Oslobođenje]]'' published in 2001 that three men, believed to be linked to bin Laden, were arrested in Sarajevo in July 2001. The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, were Egyptian nationals. The paper said that two of the suspects were holding Bosnian passports.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
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| [[SHISH]]'s head Fatos Klosi said that Osama was running a terror network in [[Albania]] to take part in the [[Kosovo War]] under the guise of a humanitarian organisation and it was reported to have been started in 1994. Claude Kader, who was a member, testified its existence during his trial.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apnews.com/6d844d0d31d7cf39ccd52891567235be |title=Bin Laden, Albania Link Reported |access-date=October 8, 2018 |archive-date=October 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009013427/https://apnews.com/6d844d0d31d7cf39ccd52891567235be |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1998, four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) were arrested in Albania and extradited to Egypt.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mayer|first=Jane |title=The Dark Side |year=2008 |publisher=Doubleday |page=114 |isbn=978-0-385-52639-5}} (0-385-52639-3)</ref> The mujahideen fighters were organised by Islamic leaders in Western Europe allied to him and Zawihiri.<ref name="Bodansky2011">{{cite book|last=Bodansky|first=Yossef|title=Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vur8xnVanEUC&pg=PA398|date=May 4, 2011|publisher=Crown Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-79772-8|pages=398–403|access-date=October 26, 2018|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019145435/https://books.google.com/books?id=vur8xnVanEUC&pg=PA398|url-status=live}}</ref>
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| During his trial at the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]], former Serbian President [[Slobodan Milošević]] quoted from a purported [[FBI]] report that bin Laden's al-Qaeda had a presence in the Balkans and aided the [[Kosovo Liberation Army]]. He claimed bin Laden had used Albania as a launchpad for violence in the region and Europe. He claimed that they had informed [[Richard Holbrooke]] that KLA was being aided by al-Qaeda but the US decided to cooperate with the KLA and thus indirectly with Osama despite the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]] earlier. Milošević had argued that the United States aided the terrorists, which culminated in its backing of the 1999 [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]] during the Kosovo War.<ref>{{cite news|last=Roche|first=Andrew |url=http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20020215/milosevicdc.html|title=Milosevic: U.S. was Ally of Al Qaeda in Kosovo|agency=Reuters |date=February 15, 2002|via=FindLaw|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020220040734/http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20020215/milosevicdc.html|archive-date=February 20, 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Scahill |first1=Jeremy |title=Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Milosevic Can't Talk Anymore |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rest-easy-bill-clinton-mi_b_17235 |website=Huffington Post |date=March 13, 2006 |access-date=June 19, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135015/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rest-easy-bill-clinton-mi_b_17235 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Al-Qaeda 'helped Kosovo rebels' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1862515.stm |website=BBC News |date=March 8, 2002 |access-date=June 19, 2020 |archive-date=August 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809231059/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1862515.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=US backed Al Qaeda in Kosovo: Milosevic: Chinese embassy bombing termed deliberate |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/21743/us-backed-al-qaeda-in-kosovo-milosevic-chinese-embassy-bombing-termed-deliberate |website=Dawn |date=February 16, 2002|access-date=June 19, 2020}}</ref>
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| ===September 11 attacks===
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| {{See also|September 11 attacks|Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden}}
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| {{quote|God knows it did not cross our minds to attack [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|the Towers]], but after the situation became unbearable—and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in [[State of Palestine|Palestine]] and Lebanon—I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were [[1982 Lebanon War|that of 1982]] and the events that followed—when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the [[U.S. Sixth Fleet]]. As I watched [[Siege of Beirut|the destroyed towers in Lebanon]], it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way: to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women.|Osama bin Laden, 2004<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/30/alqaida.september11 |title=God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers |date=October 30, 2004 |work=The Guardian |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828091507/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/30/alqaida.september11 |archive-date=August 28, 2013 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}
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| [[File:UA Flight 175 hits WTC south tower 9-11 edit.jpeg|thumb|[[United Airlines Flight 175]] crashes into the South Tower]]
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| After his initial denial,<ref name=cnndenial>{{cite news |publisher=CNN |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-16/us/inv.binladen.denial |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119094303/http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-16/us/inv.binladen.denial |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 19, 2013 |title=Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks |date=September 16, 2001 |access-date=January 7, 2012}}</ref><ref>* {{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page88.html |title=Pentagon |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007052917/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page88.html |archive-date=October 7, 2006 |url-status=live}}
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| * {{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page93.html |title=American Airlines Flight 11 |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910182819/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page93.html |archive-date=September 10, 2006 |url-status=live}}
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| * {{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page96.html |title=American Airlines Flight 77 |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111073414/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page96.html |archive-date=January 11, 2010 }}
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| * {{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page98.html |title=United Airlines Flight 93 |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327150828/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page98.html |archive-date=March 27, 2010 }}
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| * {{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page100.html |title=United Airlines Flight 175 |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001110822/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-location/page100.html |archive-date=October 1, 2009 }}
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| * {{Cite news |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp |title=Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=October 28, 2001 |last=Roddy |first=Dennis B. |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031008115441/http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp |archive-date=October 8, 2003 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.statisticbrain.com/911-death-statistics/ |title=9/11 Death Statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140507162712/http://www.statisticbrain.com/911-death-statistics |archive-date=May 7, 2014 |date=August 2016 }}</ref> in the wake of the attacks, bin Laden announced, "what the United States is tasting today is nothing compared to what we have tasted for decades. Our ''umma'' has known this humiliation and contempt for over eighty years. Its sons are killed, its blood is spilled, its holy sites are attacked, and it is not governed according to Allah's command. Despite this, no one cares".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present |last=Hunt |first=Michael H. |isbn=978-0-19-937102-0 |page=495 |oclc=907585907|date = 2015}}</ref> In response to the attacks, the United States launched the [[War on Terror]] to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's [[Special Activities Division]] was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.<ref>{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Greg|url=https://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/jul/14/nation/na-cia-cheney14|title=CIA's secret program: paramilitary teams to strike Al Qaeda|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=July 14, 2009|page=A1|access-date=June 19, 2020|archive-date=February 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205200538/http://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/jul/14/nation/na-cia-cheney14|url-status=live}}</ref>
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| The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified<ref>{{cite web |url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010924-4.html |title=President Freezes Terrorists' Assets |access-date=June 26, 2011 |date=September 24, 2001 |work=The White House |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030212004/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010924-4.html |archive-date=October 30, 2011 }}</ref> evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the September 11 attacks is clear and irrefutable.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.representativepress.org/FBITestimony.html |title=FBI Testimony about 9/11 terrorists' motives |author=Watson, Dale L., Executive Assistant Director, Counter terrorism/Counterintelligence Division, FBI |date=February 6, 2002 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation – (RepresentativePress) |access-date=February 11, 2011 |archive-date=May 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505093746/http://www.representativepress.org/FBITestimony.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11 attacks, although the government report noted that the evidence presented is not necessarily sufficient to prosecute the case.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://number10.gov.uk/archive/2003/05/september-11-attacks-culpability-document-3682 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100511135851/number10.gov.uk/archive/2003/05/september-11-attacks-culpability-document-3682 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 11, 2010 |title=Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States, September 11, 2001 |publisher=10 Downing Street, Office of the Prime Minister of the UK |date=May 15, 2003 |access-date=May 28, 2010}}</ref>
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| Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's [[Al Jazeera]] satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Carl |last1=Cameron |first2=Marla |last2=Lehner |first3=Paul |last3=Wagenseil |agency=Associated Press |title=Pakistan to Demand Taliban Give Up Bin Laden as Iran Seals Afghan Border |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34440,00.html |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=September 16, 2001 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523082548/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34440,00.html |archive-date=May 23, 2010 }}</ref> In a videotape recovered by U.S. forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with [[Khaled al-Harbi]] in a way that indicates foreknowledge.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Bin Laden on tape: Attacks 'benefited Islam greatly' |publisher=CNN |date=December 14, 2001 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape |access-date=September 17, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214150849/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/ |archive-date=December 14, 2013 }}</ref> The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Restle|first1=Georg |last2=Sieker|first2=Ekkehard |url=http://www.wdr.de/tv/monitor/beitraege.phtml?id=379 |title=Bin-Laden-Video: Falschübersetzung als Beweismittel? |work=Monitor |number=485 |publisher=Westdeutscher Rundfunk |date=December 20, 2001 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |language=de |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030217005900/http://www.wdr.de/tv/monitor/beitraege.phtml?id=379 |archive-date=February 17, 2003}}</ref>
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| [[File:Defense.gov News Photo 672130-D-PUD18-896.jpg|thumb|2001 video of bin Laden]]
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| In the [[2004 Osama bin Laden video|2004 video]], bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he said he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers.<ref name="cbc-2004">{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-claims-responsibility-for-9-11-1.513654 |title=Bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11 |publisher=CBC News |date=October 29, 2004 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025044652/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-claims-responsibility-for-9-11-1.513654 |archive-date=October 25, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Al-Jazeera: Bin Laden tape obtained in Pakistan |publisher=NBC News |date=October 30, 2004 |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6363306 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-date=April 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415055105/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6363306/ |url-status=live }}—"In the tape, bin Laden—wearing traditional white robes, a turban and a tan cloak—reads from papers at a lectern against a plain brown background. Speaking quietly in an even voice, he tells the American people that he ordered the September 11 attacks because 'we are a free people' who wanted to 'regain the freedom' of their nation."</ref> In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President [[George W. Bush]] of negligence in the [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacking]] of the planes on September 11.<ref name="cbc-2004"/> According to the tapes, bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3966817.stm |title=Excerpts: Bin Laden video |work=BBC News |date=October 29, 2004 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006091233/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3966817.stm |archive-date=October 6, 2010 }}</ref>
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| Through two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announced, "I am the one in charge of the nineteen brothers. ... I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers ... with the raids" (May 23, 2006).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12939961 |title=Osama bin Laden tape transcript |date=May 23, 2006 |publisher=NBC News |access-date=February 11, 2011 |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213030202/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12939961 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the tapes he was seen with [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]], as well as two of the 9/11 hijackers, [[Hamza al-Ghamdi]], and [[Wail al-Shehri]], as they made preparations for the attacks (videotape broadcast September 7, 2006).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-9-11-planning-video-aired-1.618703 |title=Bin Laden 9/11 planning video aired |publisher=CBC News |date=September 7, 2006 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013183902/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-9-11-planning-video-aired-1.618703 |archive-date=October 13, 2007 }}</ref> Identified [[motivations of the September 11 attacks]] include the [[Israel – United States military relations|support of Israel by the United States]], presence of the U.S. military in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. enforcement of [[Iraq sanctions|sanctions against Iraq]].
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| ==Criminal charges==
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| On March 16, 1998, Libya issued the first official [[Interpol]] [[arrest warrant]] against bin Laden and three other people. They were charged for killing Silvan Becker, agent of Germany's domestic intelligence service, the [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution]], in the Terrorism Department, and his wife Vera in Libya on March 10, 1994.<ref name="interpol" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldcrunch.com/untold-story-gaddafis-hunt-osama-bin-laden/2963|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122185405/http://worldcrunch.com/untold-story-gaddafis-hunt-osama-bin-laden/2963|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 22, 2011 |title=The Untold Story of Gaddafi's Hunt For Osama Bin Laden |publisher=[[Die Welt]]/Worldcrunch |access-date=September 3, 2011 |last=Flade |first=Florian |date=May 2, 2011}}</ref> Bin Laden was still wanted by the [[Libyan government]] at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_56a.html |title=Was Libyan WMD Disarmament a Significant Success for Nonproliferation? |last=Salama |first=Sammy |publisher=NTI |date=September 2004 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602234625/http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_56a.html |archive-date=June 2, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Interpol Arrest Warrant File No. 1998/20232, Control No. A-268/5-1998. Brisard Jean-Charles, Dasquie Guillaume. "Forbidden Truth". (New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 2002), p. 156.</ref> Osama bin Laden was first indicted by a [[grand jury]] of the United States on June 8, 1998 on a charges of conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States and prosecutors further charged that bin Laden was the head of the terrorist organization called al-Qaeda, and that he was a major financial backer of Islamic fighters worldwide.<ref name="cron">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |title=Osama bin Laden: A Chronology of His Political Life |access-date=July 25, 2006 |series=Frontline |author-link=Frontline (American TV program)|author1=Frontline |author2=The New York Times |author3=Rain Media |year=c. 2001 |work=Hunting bin Laden: Who Is bin Laden? |publisher=[[WGBH-TV|WGBH]] Educational Foundation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060717222134/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |archive-date=July 17, 2006 }}</ref> On November 4, 1998, Osama bin Laden was indicted by a [[Grand juries in the United States|Federal Grand Jury]] in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York]], on charges of ''Murder of U.S. Nationals Outside the United States, Conspiracy to Murder U.S. Nationals Outside the United States, and Attacks on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/binladen/usbinladen1.pdf |title=Indictment #S(9) 98 Cr. 1023 |publisher=United States District Court, Southern District of New York |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324205702/http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/binladen/usbinladen1.pdf |archive-date=March 24, 2012 |access-date=September 2, 2012 }}</ref> for his alleged role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony by former al-Qaeda members and satellite phone records, from a phone purchased for him by al-Qaeda procurement agent [[Ziyad Khaleel]] in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/14/embassy.bombing.02/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226033056/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/14/embassy.bombing.02/index.html |archive-date=December 26, 2007 |title=Embassy bombing defendant linked to bin Laden |publisher=CNN |date=February 14, 2001 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=osama_bin_laden |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229162104/http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=osama_bin_laden |archive-date=December 29, 2010 |title=Profile: Osama bin Laden |publisher=Cooperative Research |url-status=dead |access-date=December 16, 2018 }}</ref> However the Taliban ruled not to extradite Bin Laden on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence published in the indictments and that non-Muslim courts lacked standing to try Muslims.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |title=Osama bin Laden 'innocent' |date=November 21, 1998 |work=BBC News |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223030402/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |archive-date=December 23, 2011 }}</ref>
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| Bin Laden became the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1990s|456th person listed]] on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, when he was added on June 7, 1999, following his indictment along with others for [[Capital punishment|capital crimes]] in the 1998 embassy attacks. Attempts at assassination and requests for the extradition of bin Laden from the Taliban of Afghanistan were met with failure before the bombing of Afghanistan in October 2001.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |title=Osama bin Laden 'innocent' |date=November 21, 1998 |work=BBC News |last=Reeve |first=William |access-date=May 27, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114154322/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |archive-date=January 14, 2010 }}</ref> In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.<ref>{{cite news |title=Security Council demands that Taliban turn over Osama bin Laden to appropriate authorities |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19991015.sc6739.doc.html |publisher=United Nations |date=October 15, 1999 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816074745/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19991015.sc6739.doc.html |archive-date=August 16, 2013 }}</ref>
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| On October 10, 2001, bin Laden appeared as well on the initial list of the top 22 FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by the President of the United States George W. Bush, in direct response to the September 11 attacks, but which was again based on the indictment for the 1998 embassy attack. Bin Laden was among a group of thirteen fugitive terrorists wanted on that latter list for questioning about the 1998 embassy bombings. Bin Laden remains the only fugitive ever to be listed on both FBI fugitive lists.
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| Despite the multiple indictments listed above and multiple requests, the Taliban refused to extradite Osama bin Laden. However, they did offer to try him before an Islamic court if evidence of Osama bin Laden's involvement in the September 11 attacks was provided. It was not until eight days after the bombing of Afghanistan began in October 2001 that the Taliban finally did offer to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third-party country for trial in return for the United States ending the bombing. This offer was rejected by President Bush stating that this was no longer negotiable, with Bush responding "there's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5 |title=Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over |work=The Guardian |date=October 14, 2001 |access-date=May 27, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130825195435/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5 |archive-date=August 25, 2013 }}</ref>
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| On June 15, 2011, federal prosecutors of the United States of America officially dropped all criminal charges against Osama bin Laden following his death in May.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304453304576391563524482274 |title=U.S. Formally Drops Charges Against bin Laden |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 17, 2011 |first=Chad |last=Bray |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710010238/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304453304576391563524482274 |archive-date=July 10, 2017 }}</ref>
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| ==Pursuit by the United States==
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| [[File:Reward for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri -- AFD290B.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.35|U.S. propaganda leaflet used in Afghanistan, with bin Laden and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]]]]
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| ===Clinton administration===
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| Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html |title=Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing bin Laden |publisher=CNN |date=September 25, 2006 |access-date=May 27, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005001828/http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html |archive-date=October 5, 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> Shortly after the September 11 attacks it was revealed that President Clinton had signed a directive authorizing the CIA (and specifically their elite [[Special Activities Center|Special Activities Division]]) to apprehend bin Laden and bring him to the United States to stand trial after the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]] in Africa; if taking bin Laden alive was deemed impossible, then deadly force was authorized.<ref name="cbs"/> On August 20, 1998, 66 cruise missiles launched by United States Navy ships in the [[Arabian Sea]] struck bin Laden's training camps near [[Khost]] in Afghanistan, missing him by a few hours.<ref name="Woodward&Ricks"/> In 1999 the CIA, together with Pakistani military intelligence, had prepared a team of approximately 60 Pakistani commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan to capture or kill bin Laden, but the plan was aborted by the [[1999 Pakistani coup d'état]];<ref name="Woodward&Ricks">{{cite news|last1=Woodward|first1=Bob |last2=Ricks|first2=Thomas E. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800629.html |title=CIA Trained Pakistanis to Nab Terrorist But Military Coup Put an End to 1999 Plot|work=[[The Washington Post]] |date=October 3, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828011415/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800629.html |archive-date=August 28, 2016 }}</ref> in 2000, foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA had fired a [[rocket-propelled grenade]] at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding.<ref name="cbs">{{cite news|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/16/national/main311490.shtml |title=Report: Clinton Targeted Bin Laden|publisher=[[CBS News]]|date=September 16, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508111618/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/16/national/main311490.shtml |archive-date=May 8, 2011 }}</ref>
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| In 2000, before the September 11 attacks, [[Paul Bremer]] characterized the [[Clinton administration]] as correctly focused on bin Laden, while [[Robert B. Oakley|Robert Oakley]] criticized their obsession with Osama.<ref name="Loeb">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43852-2000Dec23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521152243/https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43852-2000Dec23/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 21, 2018 |title=Terrorists Plotted Jan. 2000 Attacks |work=The Washington Post |last=Loeb |first=Vernon |author-link=Vernon Loeb |date=December 24, 2000 |access-date=January 6, 2012}}</ref>
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| ===Bush administration===
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| [[File:Delta force GIs disguised as Afghan civilians, November 2001 C.jpg|thumb|[[Delta Force]] GIs disguised as Afghan civilians, while they searched for bin Laden in November 2001]]
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| [[File:Speen ghar.jpg|thumb|Bin Laden was in Afghanistan's [[Spin Ghar|White Mountains]] before the U.S. attack in the [[Battle of Tora Bora]]]]
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| Immediately after the September 11 attacks, U.S. government officials named bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization as the prime suspects and offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to his capture or death.<ref name="fbiwantednotice" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/page2/nov03/laden110503.htm |title=Five Years Ago Today – Usama bin Laden: Wanted for Murder |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date=November 5, 2003 |access-date=May 27, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109080055/http://www.fbi.gov/page2/nov03/laden110503.htm |archive-date=January 9, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> On July 13, 2007, the Senate voted to double the reward to $50 million, although the amount was never changed.<ref name="BBCJuly07">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6898075.stm |title=Senate doubles Bin Laden reward |work=BBC News |date=July 13, 2007 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808104324/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6898075.stm |archive-date=August 8, 2010 }}</ref> The [[Airline Pilots Association]] and the [[Air Transport Association]] offered an additional $2 million reward.<ref>{{Cite news |author1=Katie Turner |author2=Pam Benson |author3=Peter Bergen |author4=Elise Labott |author5=Nic Robertson |publisher=CNN |date=September 24, 2006 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/23/france.binladen/index.html |title=Officials, friends can't confirm Bin Laden death report |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326042339/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/23/france.binladen/index.html |archive-date=March 26, 2010 }}</ref>
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| Bin Laden was believed to be hiding in the [[Spin Ghar|White Mountains (Spin Ghar)]] in Afghanistan's east, near the [[Durand Line|Pakistani border]].<ref>https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-111SPRT53709/html/CPRT-111SPRT53709.htm</ref><ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1006946289469823000</ref> According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', the U.S. government concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the [[Battle of Tora Bora]], Afghanistan in late 2001, and according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge, failure by the United States to commit enough U.S. ground troops to hunt him led to his escape and was the gravest failure by the United States in the war against al-Qaeda. Intelligence officials assembled what they believed to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the Battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Gellman |first1=Barton |last2=Ricks |first2=Thomas E. |title=U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62618-2002Apr16 |archive-url= http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20100301195609/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62618-2002Apr16 |url-status=dead |archive-date= March 1, 2010 |date=April 17, 2002 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |work=The Washington Post}}</ref>
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| ''The Washington Post'' also reported that the CIA unit composed of special operations paramilitary forces dedicated to capturing bin Laden was shut down in late 2005.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400375.html |work=The Washington Post |title=CIA Reportedly Disbands Bin Laden Unit |agency=Associated Press |date=July 4, 2006 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112023538/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400375.html |archive-date=November 12, 2012 }}</ref>
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| U.S. and Afghanistan forces raided the mountain caves in [[Tora Bora]] between August 14–16, 2007. The military was drawn to the area after receiving intelligence of a pre-[[Ramadan]] meeting held by al-Qaeda members. After killing dozens of al-Qaeda and Taliban members, they did not find either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21000298 |title=Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces |publisher=NBC News |author1=Justin Balding |author2=Adam Ciralsky |author3=Jim Miklaszewski |author4=Robert Windrem |date=September 26, 2007 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-date=October 11, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011041830/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21000298/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| ===Obama administration===
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| [[File:Obama and Biden await updates on bin Laden.jpg|thumb|left|[[White House Situation Room]], in which members of the Obama administration track the mission that killed bin Laden]]
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| On October 7, 2008, in the [[2008 United States presidential debates|second presidential debate]], on foreign policy, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged, "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority."<ref name=ToraBora>{{cite news |last=Arena |first=Kelli |title=Obama administration to ratchet up hunt for bin Laden |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-12/politics/binladen.hunt|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119085751/http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-12/politics/binladen.hunt|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 19, 2013 |publisher=CNN |access-date=November 15, 2008 |date=December 28, 2001}}</ref> Upon being elected, then President-elect Obama expressed his plans to renew U.S. commitment to finding al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to his national security advisers in an effort to ratchet up the hunt for the terrorist.<ref name=ToraBora /> President Obama rejected the Bush administration's policy on bin Laden that conflated all terror threats from al-Qaeda to Hamas to Hezbollah, replacing it with a covert, laserlike focus on al-Qaeda and its spawn.<ref>{{cite news |last=Serwer |first=Adam |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/no-killing-of-bin-laden-does-not-represent-continuity-with-bush/2011/03/04/AFJbo3YG_blog.html |title=No, killing of Bin Laden does not represent 'continuity' with Bush – The Plum Line |work=The Washington Post |date=February 7, 2011 |access-date=May 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512022810/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/no-killing-of-bin-laden-does-not-represent-continuity-with-bush/2011/03/04/AFJbo3YG_blog.html |archive-date=May 12, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hirsh|first=Michael |author-link=Michael Hirsh (journalist) |url=http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/vantage-point/obama-s-war-against-al-qaida-20110505 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507100857/http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/vantage-point/obama-s-war-against-al-qaida-20110505 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 7, 2011 |title=Obama's War |date=May 5, 2011 |work=National Journal |access-date=May 15, 2011 }}</ref>
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| [[United States Secretary of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] [[Robert Gates]] said in December 2009 that officials had had no reliable information on bin Laden's whereabouts for years. One week later, General [[Stanley McChrystal]], the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said in December 2009 that al-Qaeda would not be defeated unless its leader, Osama bin Laden, were captured or killed. Testifying to the U.S. Congress, he said that bin Laden had become an iconic figure, whose survival emboldens al-Qaeda as a franchising organization across the world, and that Obama's deployment of 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan meant that success would be possible. "I don't think that we can finally defeat al-Qaeda until he's captured or killed", McChrystal said of bin Laden. According to him, killing or capturing bin Laden would not spell the end of al-Qaeda, but the movement could not be eradicated while he remained at large.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8402138.stm |title=Gen McChrystal: Bin Laden is key to al-Qaeda defeat |work=BBC News |date=December 9, 2009 |access-date=May 25, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100428192959/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8402138.stm |archive-date=April 28, 2010 }}</ref>
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| In April 2011, President Obama ordered a covert [[Death of Osama bin Laden|operation]] to kill or capture bin Laden. On May 2, 2011, the White House announced that [[SEAL Team Six]] had successfully carried out the operation, killing him in his [[Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad|Abbottabad compound]] in Pakistan.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13256791 |title=Osama Bin Laden dead, US President Obama confirms |work=BBC News |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503194908/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13256791 |archive-date=May 3, 2011 }}</ref>
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| {{Clear}}
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| ==Activities and whereabouts after the September 11 attacks==
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| {{Main|Manhunt for Osama bin Laden}}
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| While referring to Osama bin Laden in a [[CNN]] film clip on September 17, 2001, then-President George W. Bush stated, "I want justice. There is an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or alive'".<ref>{{cite news |title=2001, President George W. Bush 'Bin Laden, Wanted dead or alive' |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFgn4EaCGQA |publisher=CNN |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=January 7, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722005532/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFgn4EaCGQA |archive-date=July 22, 2013 }}</ref> Subsequently, bin Laden retreated further from public contact to avoid capture. Numerous speculative press reports were issued about his whereabouts or even death; some placed bin Laden in different locations during overlapping time periods. None were ever definitively proven. After military offensives in Afghanistan failed to uncover his whereabouts, Pakistan was regularly identified as his suspected hiding place. Some of the conflicting reports regarding bin Laden's whereabouts and mistaken claims about his death follow:
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| * On December 11, 2005, a letter from [[Atiyah Abd al-Rahman]] to [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] indicated that bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership were based in the [[Waziristan]] region of Pakistan at the time. In the letter, translated by the United States military's [[Combating Terrorism Center]] at [[West Point]], Atiyah instructs Zarqawi to send messengers to Waziristan so that they meet with the brothers of the leadership. Al-Rahman also indicates that bin Laden and al-Qaeda are weak and have many of their own problems. The letter has been deemed authentic by military and counterterrorism officials, according to ''[[The Washington Post]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101083.html |title=Letter Gives Glimpse of Al-Qaeda's Leadership |work=The Washington Post |last=DeYoung |first=Karen |date=October 2, 2006 |access-date=May 20, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425085210/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101083.html |archive-date=April 25, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/CTC-AtiyahLetter.pdf |title=Letter Exposes New Leader in Al-Qa'ida High Command (PDF) |publisher=Combating Terrorism Center at West Point |date=September 25, 2006 |access-date=May 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808182757/http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/CTC-AtiyahLetter.pdf |archive-date=August 8, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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| * Al-Qaeda continued to release time-sensitive and professionally verified videos demonstrating bin Laden's continued survival, including in August 2007.<ref>{{cite news|date=September 6, 2007 |url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_EKAnlECgMVCrglrdYA5IqvQ6hQ |title=Experts warn of attack clues in Bin Laden video |agency=Agence France-Presse|access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408035426/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_EKAnlECgMVCrglrdYA5IqvQ6hQ |archive-date=April 8, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bin Laden claimed sole responsibility for the September 11 attacks and specifically denied any prior knowledge of them by the [[Taliban]] or the Afghan people.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2912911920071129?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 |title=Bin Laden urges Europe to quit Afghanistan |date=November 29, 2007 |work=Reuters |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112053348/http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2912911920071129?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 |archive-date=January 12, 2009 }}</ref>
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| * In 2009, a research team led by Thomas W. Gillespie and [[John A. Agnew]] of [[UCLA]] used satellite-aided geographical analysis to pinpoint three compounds in [[Parachinar]] as bin Laden's likely hideouts.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gillespie|first=Thomas W. |title=Finding Osama bin Laden: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery |url=http://web.mit.edu/mitir/2009/online/finding-bin-laden.pdf |journal=MIT International Review |year=2009 |access-date=May 20, 2010 |display-authors=etal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805125236/http://web.mit.edu/mitir/2009/online/finding-bin-laden.pdf |archive-date=August 5, 2010 }}</ref>
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| * In March 2009, the ''[[New York Daily News]]'' reported that the hunt for bin Laden had centered in the [[Chitral District]] of Pakistan, including the [[Kalam Valley]]. Author [[Rohan Gunaratna]] stated that captured al-Qaeda leaders had confirmed that bin Laden was hiding in Chitral.<ref>Meek, James Gordon, "Tighten The Net on Evil", ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]'', 2009-03-15, p. 27.</ref>
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| * In the first week of December 2009, a Taliban detainee in Pakistan said he had information that bin Laden was in Afghanistan in 2009. The detainee reported that in January or February (2009) he met a trusted contact who had seen bin Laden in Afghanistan about 15 to 20 days earlier. However, on December 6, 2009, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the United States had had no reliable information on the whereabouts of bin Laden in years.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8397684.stm |title=No Bin Laden information in years, says Gates|work=BBC News|date=December 6, 2009 |access-date=May 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091206051926/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8397684.stm |archive-date=December 6, 2009 }}</ref> Pakistan's Prime Minister [[Yousaf Raza Gillani|Gillani]] rejected claims that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/03/pakistan.bin.laden/index.html |title=Bin Laden not in Pakistan, PM says|publisher=CNN|date=December 3, 2009|access-date=May 20, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091206225704/http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/03/pakistan.bin.laden/index.html |archive-date=December 6, 2009}}</ref>
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| * On December 9, 2009, [[BBC News]] reported that U.S. Army General [[Stanley A. McChrystal]] ([[International Security Assistance Force#List of Commanders|Commander of U.S. and ISAF forces in Afghanistan]] from June 15, 2009 to June 23, 2010) emphasized the continued importance of the capture or killing of bin Laden, thus indicating that the U.S. high command believed that bin Laden was still alive.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8402138.stm |title=Gen McChrystal: Bin Laden is key to al-Qaeda defeat |work=BBC News |date=December 9, 2009 |access-date=October 21, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723112633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8402138.stm |archive-date=July 23, 2012 }}</ref>
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| * On February 2, 2010, Afghan president [[Hamid Karzai]] arrived in Saudi Arabia for an official visit. The agenda included a discussion of a possible Saudi role in Karzai's plan to reintegrate Taliban militants. During the visit, an anonymous official of the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Saudi Arabia)|Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry]] declared that the kingdom had no intention of getting involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban severed ties with extremists and expelled Osama bin Laden.<ref name=Expel>{{cite news |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/saudi-arabia-wants-taliban-to-expel-bin-laden/|title=Saudi Arabia Wants Taliban to Expel Bin Laden |date=February 2, 2010 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=February 11, 2011}}</ref>
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| * On June 7, 2010, the Kuwaiti newspaper ''[[Al-Seyassah]]'' reported that bin Laden was hiding out in the mountainous town of [[Sabzevar]], in northeastern [[Iran]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/report.htm?report=4338 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613123449/http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/report.htm?report=4338 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 13, 2010 |title=Kuwaiti Daily 'Al-Siyassa': Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri Guarded by Iranian Troops in Iranian Territory |publisher=Memrijttm.org |date=June 7, 2010 |access-date=January 26, 2011 }}</ref> On June 9, The Australian News' online edition repeated the claim.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/bin-laden-aides-hiding-in-iran/story-fn3dxity-1225877288776 |title=Bin Laden, aides 'hiding in Iran' |date=June 9, 2010 |work=The Australian}}</ref> This report turned out to be false.
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| * On October 18, 2010, an unnamed [[NATO]] official suggested that bin Laden was alive, well, and living comfortably in Pakistan, protected by elements of the country's intelligence services. A senior Pakistani official denied the allegations and said that the accusations were designed to put pressure on the Pakistani government ahead of talks aimed at strengthening ties between Pakistan and the United States.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8070836/Osama-bin-Laden-living-comfortably-in-Pakistan.html |title=Osama bin Laden 'living comfortably in Pakistan' |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |first=Rob |last=Crilly |date=October 18, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020044227/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8070836/Osama-bin-Laden-living-comfortably-in-Pakistan.html |archive-date=October 20, 2010 }}</ref>
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| * On April 16, 2011, a leaked [[Al Jazeera]] report claimed that bin Laden had been captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://rmc2011.net/2011/04/16/al-jazeera-leak-osama-bin-laden-captured |title=Al-Jazeera: LEAK: Osama Bin Laden Captured |work=The RMC News page |first=Sarah |last=Qari |date=April 16, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506002917/http://rmc2011.net/2011/04/16/al-jazeera-leak-osama-bin-laden-captured/ |archive-date=May 6, 2011 }}</ref> This report turned out to be false.
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| On March 29, 2012, Pakistani newspaper [[Dawn (newspaper)|''Dawn'']] acquired a report produced by Pakistani security officials, based on interrogation of his three surviving wives, that detailed his movements while living underground in Pakistan.<ref name=NYTimes2012-03-30>
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| {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/world/asia/on-run-bin-laden-had-4-children-and-5-houses-a-wife-says.html?pagewanted=all |title=On the Run, Bin Laden Had 4 Children and 5 Houses, a Wife Says |work=The New York Times |date=March 30, 2012 |access-date=March 30, 2012 |last=Walsh |first=Declan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405184117/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/world/asia/on-run-bin-laden-had-4-children-and-5-houses-a-wife-says.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print |archive-date=April 5, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| In a 2010 letter, bin Laden chastised followers who had reinterpreted ''al-tatarrus''—an Islamic doctrine meant to excuse the unintended killing of non-combatants in unusual circumstances—to justify routine massacres of Muslim civilians, which had turned Muslims against the extremist movement. Of the groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, Bin Laden condemned [[Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]] for an attack on members of a hostile tribe, declaring that the operation is not justified, as there were casualties of noncombatants. Bin Laden wrote that the ''tatarrus'' doctrine needs to be revisited based on the modern-day context and clear boundaries established. He asked a subordinate to draw up a jihadist code of conduct that would constrain military operations in order to avoid civilian casualties. In Yemen, Bin Laden urged his allies to seek a truce that would bring the country stability or would at least show the people that we are careful in keeping the Muslims safe on the basis of peace. In Somalia, he called attention to the extreme poverty caused by constant warfare, and he advised [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|al-Shabab]] to pursue economic development. He instructed his followers around the world to focus on education and persuasion rather than entering into confrontations with Islamic political parties.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/05/bin_laden_s_documents_al_qaida_letters_show_the_moral_and_political_failure_of_terrorism_.single.html |title=Reflections of a Terrorist |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |first=William |last=Saletan|author-link=William Saletan |date=May 4, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506033547/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/05/bin_laden_s_documents_al_qaida_letters_show_the_moral_and_political_failure_of_terrorism_.single.html |archive-date=May 6, 2012 }}</ref>
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| ===Whereabouts just before his death===
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| In April 2011, various U.S. intelligence outlets were able to pinpoint Bin Laden's suspected location near Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was previously believed that bin Laden was hiding near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan's [[Federally Administered Tribal Areas]], but he was found {{convert|100|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} away in a three-story windowless [[Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad|mansion in Abbottabad]] at {{Coord|34|10|9.51|N|73|14|32.78|E|scale:10|display=inline}}.<ref name="ZengerleBull">{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-binladen-compound-idUSTRE7411NX20110502 |title=Bin Laden was found at luxurious Pakistan compound |last=Zengerle |first=Patricia |author2=Bull, Alister |work=Reuters |access-date=May 2, 2011 |date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503050450/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/02/us-binladen-compound-idUSTRE7411NX20110502 |archive-date=May 3, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/05/osama-bin-laden-pakistan-locals-flock-house Osama bin Laden death: Pakistan locals flock to see villain's lair] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927193629/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/05/osama-bin-laden-pakistan-locals-flock-house |date=September 27, 2016 }} Declan Walsh ''[[The Guardian]]'' May 5, 2011</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/02/world/asia/abbottabad-map-of-where-osama-bin-laden-was-killed.html |title=Map of Where Osama bin Laden Was Killed – Map |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 2, 2011 |date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505205356/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/02/world/asia/abbottabad-map-of-where-osama-bin-laden-was-killed.html |archive-date=May 5, 2011 }}</ref> Bin Laden's mansion was located {{convert|0.8|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} southwest of the [[Pakistan Military Academy]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257330 |title=Osama Bin Laden's death: How it happened |work=BBC News |access-date=May 2, 2011 |date=June 7, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503041240/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257330 |archive-date=May 3, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Osama bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan |publisher=CNN |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=May 2, 2011 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/01/bin.laden.obit/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506084553/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/01/bin.laden.obit/index.html |archive-date=May 6, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/spitzer-what-role-did-pakistan-play-in-the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505062124/http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/spitzer-what-role-did-pakistan-play-in-the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 5, 2011 |title=Spitzer: What role did Pakistan play in the killing of Osama bin Laden? – In the Arena |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 2, 2011 |date=May 2, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/osama-bin-laden-death-prompts-celebrations-security-alerts/story?id=13507836 |title=President Obama Praises Troops Who Killed Osama bin Laden |publisher=ABC news |access-date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504001033/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/osama-bin-laden-death-prompts-celebrations-security-alerts/story?id=13507836 |archive-date=May 4, 2011 }}</ref> [[Google Earth]] maps show that the compound was not present in 2001, but it was present in images taken in 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ogleearth.com/2011/05/finding-osama-bin-ladens-abbottabad-mansion-with-google-earth/ |title=Finding Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad mansion with Google Earth |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=October 31, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107150234/http://ogleearth.com/2011/05/finding-osama-bin-ladens-abbottabad-mansion-with-google-earth/ |archive-date=November 7, 2012 }}</ref>
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| ==Death and aftermath==
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| {{Main|Killing of Osama bin Laden}}
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| {{See also|Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden|Osama bin Laden death conspiracy theories}}
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| [[File:Osama Bin Laden marked deceased on FBI Ten Most Wanted List May 3 2011.jpg|thumb|Website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation listing bin Laden as deceased on the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives|Most Wanted List]] on May 3, 2011]]
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| Osama bin Laden was killed in [[Abbottabad]], Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 AM local [[Pakistan Standard Time|time]] (4:00 PM [[Eastern Time Zone|eastern time]])<ref group=note>Depending on the time zone, the date of his death may be different locally.</ref><ref name="waposurveil">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cia-spied-on-bin-laden-from-safe-house/2011/05/05/AFXbG31F_story.html |title=CIA spied on bin Laden from safe house |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=May 5, 2011 |last=Miller |first=Greg |access-date=May 6, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510144552/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cia-spied-on-bin-laden-from-safe-house/2011/05/05/AFXbG31F_story.html |archive-date=May 10, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Cooper |first=Helene |title=Obama Announces Killing of Osama bin Laden |date=May 1, 2011 |url=http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/bin-laden-dead-u-s-official-says/ |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110502033900/http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/bin-laden-dead-u-s-official-says/ |archive-date=May 2, 2011 }}</ref> by a United States military [[special operations]] unit.
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| The operation, code-named [[Operation Neptune Spear]], was ordered by United States President [[Barack Obama]] and carried out in a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation by a team of United States Navy SEALs from the [[United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group]] (also known as DEVGRU or informally by its former name, SEAL Team Six) of the [[Joint Special Operations Command]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Finkel|first=Gal Perl |url=http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14263 |title=Back to the ground?|work=[[Israel Hayom]] |date=November 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817075613/http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14263 |archive-date=August 17, 2016}}</ref> with support from CIA operatives on the ground.<ref name="Sherwell">{{cite news |title=Osama bin Laden killed: Behind the scenes of the deadly raid |last=Sherwell |first=Philip |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8500431/Osama-bin-Laden-killed-Behind-the-scenes-of-the-deadly-raid.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=May 7, 2011 |access-date=May 9, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510063758/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8500431/Osama-bin-Laden-killed-Behind-the-scenes-of-the-deadly-raid.html |archive-date=May 10, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="CIAled">{{cite news |last=Dilanian |first=Ken |url=https://latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-osama-bin-laden-cia-20110502,0,6466214.story |title=CIA led U.S. special forces mission against Osama bin Laden |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=May 14, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524113215/http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-osama-bin-laden-cia-20110502,0,6466214.story |archive-date=May 24, 2011 }}</ref> The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was launched from Afghanistan.<ref name="aftermath">{{cite web |url=http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/04/the_bin_laden_aftermath_the_us_shouldnt_hold_pakistans_military_against_pakistans_c |title=The bin Laden aftermath: The U.S. shouldn't hold Pakistan's military against Pakistan's civilians |last=Fair |first=C. Christine |date=May 4, 2011 |work=[[Foreign Policy]] |access-date=May 10, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509174818/http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/04/the_bin_laden_aftermath_the_us_shouldnt_hold_pakistans_military_against_pakistans_c |archive-date=May 9, 2011 }}</ref> After the raid, reports at the time stated that U.S. forces had taken bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for positive identification, then [[Burial at sea|buried it at sea]], in accordance with Islamic law, within 24 hours of his death.<ref name="ref-5">{{cite news |title=Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda leader, dead – Barack Obama |date=May 1, 2011 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676 |work=BBC News |access-date=May 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110502034501/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676 |archive-date=May 2, 2011 }}</ref> Subsequent reporting has called this account into question—citing, for example, the absence of evidence that there was an [[imam]] on board the {{USS|Carl Vinson}}, where the burial was said to have taken place.<ref name = "SMHLRB"/>
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| Pakistani authorities later demolished the compound in February 2012<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/asia/pakistan-razing-house-where-bin-laden-lived.html|title=Pakistan Razing House Where Bin Laden Lived|last=Walsh|first=Declan|date=February 25, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 25, 2012|archive-date=December 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222110434/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/asia/pakistan-razing-house-where-bin-laden-lived.html|url-status=live}}</ref> to prevent it from becoming a neo-[[Islamism|Islamist]] shrine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chamkhi|first=Tarek |url=https://www.ipsa.org/events/congress/wc2018/paper/neo-islamism-and-quest-islamisation-case-studies-turkey-tunisia-egypt |title=Neo Islamism and the Quest for Islamisation: Case Studies from Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco |publisher=International Political Science Association|access-date=August 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830004954/https://www.ipsa.org/events/congress/wc2018/paper/neo-islamism-and-quest-islamisation-case-studies-turkey-tunisia-egypt |archive-date=August 30, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Bin Laden's Compound in Pakistan Demolished|url=http://en.rian.ru/world/20120225/171530570.html|agency=RIA Novosti|access-date=April 28, 2012|date=February 25, 2012|archive-date=February 28, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120228054242/http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20120225/171530570.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Osama Bin Laden's Pakistan compound demolished|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17169101|work=BBC News|access-date=April 28, 2012|date=February 26, 2012|archive-date=April 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422141802/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17169101|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=4 reasons Pakistan demolished bin Laden's compound|url=https://theweek.com/article/index/224879/4-reasons-pakistan-demolished-bin-ladens-compound|access-date=April 28, 2012|newspaper=The Week|date=February 27, 2012|archive-date=April 18, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418170429/http://theweek.com/article/index/224879/4-reasons-pakistan-demolished-bin-ladens-compound|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=4 reasons Pakistan demolished bin Laden's compound|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17165800|work=BBC News|access-date=April 28, 2012|date=February 27, 2012|archive-date=April 18, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418173016/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17165800|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Ladd|first=Trevor J.|title=Osama Bin Laden's Pakistani Compound Demolished|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-ladens-pakistani-compound-demolished/story?id=15800784|access-date=April 28, 2012|newspaper=ABC News|date=February 27, 2012|archive-date=April 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414155312/http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-ladens-pakistani-compound-demolished/story?id=15800784|url-status=live}}</ref>{{citekill|date=January 2021}} In February 2013, Pakistan announced plans to build a ₨265 million [[Pakistani rupee|PKR]] ($30 million [[USD]]) [[amusement park]] in the area, including the property of the former hideout.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bin Laden hideout to become theme park|url=http://www.news24.com/Travel/International/Bin-Laden-hideout-to-become-theme-park-20130206|publisher=News 24|access-date=February 11, 2013|date=February 6, 2013|archive-date=April 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427235631/https://www.news24.com/Travel/International/Bin-Laden-hideout-to-become-theme-park-20130206|url-status=live}}</ref>
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| In an interview in 2019, [[Pakistani]] prime minister [[Imran Khan]] claimed that [[Pakistani]] intelligence led the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to Osama bin Laden.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-07-23|title=Imran Khan claims Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden|url=https://www.france24.com/en/20190723-imran-khan-bin-laden-pakistani-usa-cia-intelligence|access-date=2021-05-04|website=France 24|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2019-07-23|title=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden — Imran Khan|url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1529586/pakistan|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Arab News|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=hermesauto|date=2019-07-23|title=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to Osama bin Laden: PM Khan|url=https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/pakistani-intelligence-led-cia-to-osama-bin-laden-imran-khan|access-date=2021-05-04|website=The Straits Times|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden: Imran Khan|url=https://www.trtworld.com/asia/pakistani-intelligence-led-cia-to-bin-laden-imran-khan-28444|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden: Imran Khan|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to Bin Laden: Imran Khan|url=https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistani-intelligence-led-cia-to-bin-laden-imran-khan-1.1563852636298|access-date=2021-05-04|website=gulfnews.com|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|author=Scroll Staff|title=Pakistan PM Imran Khan claims ISI helped the United States kill Osama Bin Laden|url=https://scroll.in/latest/931533/pakistan-pm-imran-khan-claims-isi-helped-the-united-states-kill-osama-bin-laden|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|title=Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden: Imran Khan|url=https://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-intelligence-led-cia-bin-laden-imran-khan-025242576.html|access-date=2021-05-04|website=news.yahoo.com|language=en-US}}</ref>
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| ===Allegations of Pakistan-support protection of bin Laden===
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| {{main|Allegations of support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden}}
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| Bin Laden was killed within the fortified complex of buildings that were probably built for him,<ref>{{cite news |last=Westhead |first=Rick |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/984289 |title=Questions about bin Laden embarrassing to Pakistan |work=Toronto Star |date=April 1, 2011 |access-date=May 3, 2011 |location=Toronto |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202134937/https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/05/03/questions_about_bin_laden_embarrassing_to_pakistan.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and had reportedly been his home for at least five years.<ref>{{cite news |last=Walker |first=Peter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/06/osama-bin-laden-lived-two-rooms |title=Osama bin Laden lived in two rooms for five years, wife says |work=The Guardian |date=May 6, 2011 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930084223/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/06/osama-bin-laden-lived-two-rooms |archive-date=September 30, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |agency=Reuters |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-bin-laden-lived-in-pakistan-compound-for-at-least-5-years-1.359578 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506130336/http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-bin-laden-lived-in-pakistan-compound-for-at-least-5-years-1.359578 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 6, 2011 |title=U.S.: Bin Laden lived in Pakistan compound for at least 5 years |work=Haaretz |date=May 3, 2011 |access-date=January 7, 2012 }}</ref> The compound was located less than a mile from [[Pakistan Military Academy]] and less than 100 kilometers' drive from Pakistan's capital.<ref name="Sherwell"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://articles.latimes.com/print/2011/may/06/world/la-fg-osama-builder-20110506 |title=Mystery shrouds the quiet man who built Bin Laden's compound |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 6, 2011 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |first=Alex |last=Rodriguez |archive-date=July 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725230819/http://articles.latimes.com/print/2011/may/06/world/la-fg-osama-builder-20110506 |url-status=live }}</ref> While the United States and Pakistan governments both claimed, and later maintained, that no Pakistani officials, including senior military leaders, knew bin Laden's whereabouts or had prior knowledge of the U.S. strike,<ref>{{cite web |last=Ross |first=Brian |title=Osama Bin Laden Killed: U.S. Intelligence Probes Possible Pakistani Support System |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed-us-probes-pakistan-support/story?id=13516775 |publisher=[[ABC News]] |date=May 3, 2011|access-date=May 3, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505010148/https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed-us-probes-pakistan-support/story?id=13516775 |archive-date=May 5, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Laskar|first=Rezaul H |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/report/osama-raid-took-pakistan-army-by-surprise/20110726.htm |title=Osama raid took Pakistan Army by surprise |agency=Press Trust of India|date=July 26, 2011 |work=Rediff.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924200148/http://www.rediff.com/news/report/osama-raid-took-pakistan-army-by-surprise/20110726.htm |archive-date=September 24, 2011 }}</ref> [[Carlotta Gall]], writing in ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'' in 2014, reported that ISI Director General [[Ahmad Shuja Pasha]] knew of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gall|first=Carlotta |author-link=Carlotta Gall |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/magazine/what-pakistan-knew-about-bin-laden.html |title=What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden |date=March 19, 2014 |access-date=March 20, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320022921/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/magazine/what-pakistan-knew-about-bin-laden.html |archive-date=March 20, 2014 }}</ref> In a 2015 ''[[London Review of Books]]'' article, investigative reporter [[Seymour M. Hersh]] asserted—citing U.S. sources—that bin Laden had been a prisoner of the ISI at the Abbottabad compound since 2006; that Pasha knew of the U.S. mission in advance, and authorized the helicopters delivering the SEALs to enter Pakistani airspace; and that the CIA learned of bin Laden's whereabouts from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer, who was paid an estimated $25 million for the information.<ref name="SMHLRB">{{cite news |last=Hersh |first=Seymour M. |newspaper=London Review of Books |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden |title=The Killing of Osama bin Laden |pages=3–12 |date=May 21, 2015 |access-date=May 3, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510191921/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden |archive-date=May 10, 2015 }}</ref> Both stories were denied by U.S. and Pakistani officials.
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| Mosharraf Zia, a leading Pakistani columnist, stated, "It seems deeply improbable that bin Laden could have been where he was killed without the knowledge of some parts of the Pakistani state."<ref>{{cite news |title=Levin questions Pakistan's role |last=Schultz |first=Marisa |work=The Detroit News |date=May 3, 2011 |page=7A}}</ref> Pakistan's United States envoy, [[List of ambassadors of Pakistan to the United States|Ambassador]] [[Husain Haqqani]], promised a "full inquiry" into how Pakistani intelligence services could have failed to find bin Laden in a fortified compound so close to Islamabad. "Obviously bin Laden did have a support system", he said. "The issue is, was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan, or within the society of Pakistan?"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ph.news.yahoo.com/death-bin-laden-live-report-013459906.html |title=Death of Bin Laden: Live report |publisher=Yahoo! |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118191002/http://ph.news.yahoo.com/death-bin-laden-live-report-013459906.html |archive-date=January 18, 2012 }}</ref>
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| Others argued that bin Laden lived in the compound with a local family, and never used the internet or a mobile phone, which would have made him much easier to locate.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/11/inside-osama-bin-laden-assassination-plot |title=Inside Osama Bin Laden's Final Hours—and How the White House Chose Their Assassination Plot |last=Bowden|first=Mark |work=Vanity Fair |date=October 12, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160218012602/http://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/11/inside-osama-bin-laden-assassination-plot |archive-date=February 18, 2016 }}</ref> Pakistan's president [[Asif Ali Zardari]] denied that his country's security forces sheltered bin Laden, and called any supposed support for bin Laden by the Pakistani government baseless speculation.<ref name="yahar">{{cite news |first1=Nahal |last1=Toosi |author-link1=Nahal Toosi|first2=Zarar |last2=Khan |agency=Associated Press |url=http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/Pakistans-president-denies-apf-1756634910.html |title=Pakistan's president denies harboring bin Laden |publisher=Yahoo Finance |date=May 3, 2011 |access-date=January 6, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119231114/http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/Pakistans-president-denies-apf-1756634910.html |archive-date=January 19, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |agency=Agence France-Presse |url=http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/zardari-defends-pakistan-over-bin-laden-intel-2011-05-03-1.388294 |title=Zardari defends Pakistan over intel |publisher=Emirates 24/7 |date=May 3, 2011 |access-date=May 3, 2011 |archive-date=June 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607161800/https://www.emirates247.com/news/world/zardari-defends-pakistan-over-intel-2011-05-03-1.388294 |url-status=live }}</ref> Government officials said that the country's limited resources had been committed to its war against the [[Pakistan Taliban]], and other insurgents who posed an active threat to it, rather than to finding or sheltering bin Laden.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Karon|first1=Tony |last2=Waraich|first2=Omar |url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948207,00.html |title=Under U.S. Pressure, Pakistan Balks at Helping on Afghan Taliban |date=December 17, 2009 |magazine=Time |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101093302/http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948207,00.html |archive-date=January 1, 2016 }}</ref>
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| ==See also==
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| {{Portal|Biography|Afghanistan|Pakistan|Saudi Arabia}}
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| * [[Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)]]
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| * [[Fatawā of Osama bin Laden]]
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| * [[Islamic extremism]]
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| * [[Islamic fundamentalism]]
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| * [[Islamic terrorism]]
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| * [[Islamism]]
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| * [[List of assassinations by the United States]]
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| * [[Osama bin Laden in popular culture]]
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| * [[Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism]]
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| * [[Tere Bin Laden]]
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| * [[The Golden Chain]]
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| * [[War on terror]]
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|
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| ==Notes==
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| {{reflist|group=note}}
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist|25em}}
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| ===Bibliography===
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| {{Refbegin}}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Bergen |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Bergen |year=2006 |title=The Osama Bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XkM92XMlQ4C&q=Osama+bin+Laden |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-7432-9592-7 |access-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135134/https://books.google.com/books?id=_XkM92XMlQ4C&q=Osama+bin+Laden |url-status=live }}
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| * {{Cite journal |last=Bergen |first=Peter |year=2008 |title=Al Qaeda, the Organization: A Five-Year Forecast |journal=[[Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science]] |volume=618 |pages=14–30 |jstor=40375772 |doi=10.1177/0002716208317599 |s2cid=145566133 }}
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| * {{cite book |last=Gutman |first=Roy |author-link=Roy Gutman |title=How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9eqvc-Ru3cC&pg=PP1 |year=2008 |publisher=US Institute of Peace Press |isbn=978-1-60127-024-5 |access-date=December 28, 2017 |archive-date=December 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224123428/https://books.google.com/books?id=A9eqvc-Ru3cC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Scheuer |year=2002 |title=Through Our Enemies' Eyes |url=https://archive.org/details/throughourenemie00mich_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Washington, D.C.: Brassey's |isbn=1-57488-553-7 }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Stern |first=Jessica |author-link=Jessica Stern |title=Terror in the Name of God |date=2003 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=0-06-050533-8 |edition=1 }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |author-link=Lawrence Wright |year=2006 |title=The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 |url=https://archive.org/details/loomingtoweralqa00wrig |url-access=registration |publisher=New York: Knopf |isbn=1-4000-3084-6 }}
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| {{Refend}}
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|
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| ==Further reading==
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| {{Refbegin}}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Al-Bahri |first=Nasser |author-link=Nasser al-Bahri |year=2013 |title=Guarding bin Laden: My Life in Al-Qaeda |publisher=Thin Man Press |isbn=978-0-9562473-6-0 }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Atwan |first=Abdel Bari |author-link=Abdel Bari Atwan |year=2012 |title=After Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation |url=https://archive.org/details/afterbinladenalq0000atwa |url-access=registration |publisher=Saqi |isbn=978-0-86356-419-2 }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Atwan |first=Abdel Bari |year=2006 |title=The Secret History of Al-Qaeda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JL6MuAAACAAJ |publisher=Saqi |isbn=978-0-86356-760-5 |access-date=May 14, 2020 |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819132716/https://books.google.com/books?id=JL6MuAAACAAJ |url-status=live }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Berner |first=Brad K. |year=2007 |title=Quotations from Osama Bin Laden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ytwlNcIqYs0C&q=Osama+bin+Laden |publisher=Peacock Books |isbn=978-81-248-0113-0 |access-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135021/https://books.google.com/books?id=ytwlNcIqYs0C&q=Osama+bin+Laden |url-status=live }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Bin Laden |first=Osama |editor-first=Bruce |editor-last=Lawrence |editor-link=Bruce Lawrence |translator-first=James |translator-last=Howarth |year=2005 |title=Messages to the World: the Statements of Osama Bin Laden |url=https://archive.org/details/messagestoworlds00binl |url-access=registration |publisher=Verso |isbn=1-84467-045-7 }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Burke |year=2007 |title=Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam |edition=2nd |location=London |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03136-1}}
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| * Foreign Broadcast Information Service (2006) – [https://fas.org/irp/world/para/ubl-fbis.pdf Compilation of Usama Bin Laden Statements 1994 – January 2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711061832/http://fas.org/irp/world/para/ubl-fbis.pdf |date=July 11, 2015 }}
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| * {{cite book |first=Andrea |last=Mura |title=The Symbolic Scenarios of Islamism: A Study in Islamic Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXu1CwAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |place=London |isbn=978-1-317-01450-8 |access-date=August 22, 2017 |archive-date=July 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707131653/https://books.google.com/books?id=JXu1CwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
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| * {{cite book |last=Ibrahim |first=Raymond |author-link=Raymond Ibrahim |title=The Al Qaeda Reader |year=2007 |publisher=Broadway Books |isbn=978-0-7679-2262-3 |page=318 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdx3M-bHj34C&q=raymond+ibrahim |access-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135038/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdx3M-bHj34C&q=raymond+ibrahim |url-status=live }}
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| * {{Cite book |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |year=2011 |title=Osama Bin Laden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt-a30Z4_UUC&q=Osama%20bin%20Laden&pg=PP1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973866-3 |access-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135003/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt-a30Z4_UUC&q=Osama+bin+Laden&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}
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| {{Refend}}
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|
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| ==External links==
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| {{Sister project links|Osama bin Laden|s=Author:Osama bin Laden}}
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| * {{Aljazeeratopic|person/osama-bin-laden}}
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| * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110506134150/http://www.dawn.com/osamabinladen Osama bin Laden] collected news and commentary at ''[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]''
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| * {{Guardian topic}}
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| * {{NYTtopic|people/b/osama_bin_laden}}
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| * {{JURISTtopic|binladen.php}}
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| * [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'], ''[[The Observer]]'', November 24, 2002
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| * [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/ Hunting Bin Laden], ''[[PBS Frontline]]'', (November 2002)
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| * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160826231553/http://www.bhaskar.com/news-ep/INT-osama-bin-laden-facts-5313803-PHO.html "5 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Osama bin Laden"], ''[[Dainik Bhaskar]]'', (May 2016)
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| * [https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212fa_fact?currentPage=all Young Osama], Steve Coll, ''[[The New Yorker]]'', December 12, 2005
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| * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110505074728/http://www.life.com/gallery/59991/how-the-world-sees-osama-bin-laden How the World Sees Osama bin Laden], slideshow by ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]''
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| * [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB343/index.htm The Osama bin Laden File] from the [[National Security Archive]], posted May 2, 2011
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| * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120505212905/http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letters-from-abbottabad-bin-ladin-sidelined Letters from Abbottabad] from [[Combating Terrorism Center]]
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| * [http://vault.fbi.gov/osama-bin-laden/osama-bin-laden-part-1-of-1/view FBI Records: The Vault - Osama Bin Laden]
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| {{Osama bin Laden}}
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| {{Al-Qaeda}}
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| {{War on Terror}}
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