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Who is Osama
bin Laden? Osama bin Laden (March 10,
1957-May 1, 2011) was the mastermind
behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the
United States, is reported to have been
killed by U.S. forces in Islamabad,
Pakistan on May 1, 2011. The evening of
May 1, 2011, President
Obama announced that bin Laden was
killed by an American team in a
compound deep inside Pakistan. After a
firefight in which bin Laden was killed,
the American forces took custody of bin
Laden's body. Osama bin Laden came from a wealthy
Saudi Arabian family of Yemeni origin. Bin
Laden's father gained his wealth as the
owner of one the major construction firms
in Saudi Arabia, and Osama bin Laden
himself was trained in construction
engineering. Osama bin Laden became
radicalized largely through two
significant events in recent history. The
first was the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, a muslim country. Osama bin
Laden moved to Afghanistan, as did many
other young Arab men, to help the Afghans
battle the atheistic Communist Soviets.
The other radicalizing moment was the
presence of American troops in Saudi
Arabia during and after the Gulf
War of 1991. In bin Laden's particular world view,
the Americans were latter-day Crusaders
occupying the birthplace of Islam (Saudi
Arabia), for the benefit of Christianity
and the Zionists (Jews) occupying
Palestine and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is holy
city to Muslims, as well as to Christians
and Jews. Taking the skills and networking
contacts he gained in the Afghan War, bin
Laden formed an organization he called
al-Qaida. In Arabic, al-Qaida means "The
Base", or "Foundation." Osama bin Laden
intended al-Qaida to be the base or
foundation upon which other Islamist
individuals and groups could stand upon to
wage war against Islam's enemies
(Christians, Jews, the West in general,
and Shiite Muslims). The first major attack by al-Qaida that
actually brought the group and bin Laden
into the American public's view were
terrorist bombings in Africa in 1998 that
resulted in hundreds of deaths. The
targets in those bombings were American
Embassies. Then, in 2000, al-Qaida attacked an
American naval ship, the USS
Cole, in Aden harbor. His next big
attack took place on September 11, 2001,
when his operatives hijacked four
commercial airliners and launched them
into buildings in New York and the
Pentagon. In retaliation, the United
States and its allies invaded Afghanistan,
where bin Laden enjoyed protected status
as an ally of the Taliban government
there. Ever since the 2001 Invasion of
Afghanistan, the U.S. has hunted for Osama
bin Laden. On May 1, 2001, U.S. Navy Seals
helicoptered into Pakistan, assaulted the
compound where bin Laden was located,
killed him in a firefight, and then" took
his body into custody", to use the
words of President Obama, who gave a
nationally televised speeche announcing
the death of bin Laden. "The
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