Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Militant leader (–)
"ObL" redirects here. For other uses, see OBL (disambiguation).
See also: Bin Laden (disambiguation)
Osama bin Laden[a] (10 March &#;&#; 2 May ) was a Saudi Arabian–born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda.
Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union, and supported the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Opposed to the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East, Bin Laden declared war on the U.S. in and advocated attacks targeting US assets in various countries, and supervised the execution of September 11 attacks inside the U.S.
in
Bin Laden was born in Riyadh to the aristocratic bin Laden family. He studied at Saudi and foreign universities until , when he joined the mujahideen fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Osama bin laden history biography
After the raid, the operatives returned to Afghanistan with bin Laden's corpse for identification and then flew over miles 1, km to the Arabian Sea , where he was buried in accordance with Islamic tradition. Al-Qaeda confirmed bin Laden's death through posts made on militant websites on May 6, and vowed to avenge his killing. After the killing of bin Laden, Pakistani prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani formed a commission led by senior justice Javed Iqbal to investigate the circumstances of the assault. The report was classified by the Pakistani government but was later leaked to and published by Al Jazeera Media Network on July 8, Accounts of how bin Laden was located by U.In , he co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat, which recruited foreign mujahideen into the war. Bin Laden was an influential ideologue who inspired several Islamist organizations. To many Islamists, he was a war hero for helping defend Afghanistan, and a voice of opposition against Western imperialism. He founded al-Qaeda in for worldwide jihad.
In the Gulf War, Bin Laden's offer for support against Iraq was rebuked by the Saudi royal family, which instead sought American aid.
Bin Laden's views on pan-Islamism and anti-Americanism resulted in his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in He shifted his headquarters to Sudan until , when he established a new base in Afghanistan, where he was supported by the Taliban.
Bin Laden declared twofatāwā in August and February , declaring holy war against the U.S. After the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, he was indicted by a U.S. district court and listed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists and Most Wanted Fugitives lists. In October , the United Nations designated al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization.
In the U.S., Bin Laden is a symbol of terrorism and mass murder, reviled for his justification and orchestration of attacks against Americans. He organized the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3, people. This resulted in the U.S. invading Afghanistan and launching the war on terror.
Osama bin Laden - Wikipedia: On May 1, , American soldiers killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound near Islamabad, Pakistan.
Bin Laden became the subject of a nearly decade-long international manhunt led by the U.S. During this period, he hid in the mountains of Afghanistan and later escaped to neighboring Pakistan. On 2 May , Bin Laden was killed by U.S. special operations forces at his compound in Abbottabad. His corpse was buried in the Arabian Sea and he was succeeded by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri on 16 June
Name
Further information: Romanization of Arabic
Bin Laden's name is most frequently rendered as "Osama bin Laden".
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as other U.S. governmental agencies, have used either "Usama bin Laden" or the accepted transliteration "Usama bin Ladin".
Osama bin laden history Born to a billionaire father in Saudi Arabia , was the turning point when Osama went from being a business administration student to becoming a fighter in Afghanistan. Childhood: Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in , Osama was the 17th child born to Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who owned the largest construction company in Saudi. Osama was 11 years old at the time. Cold war: The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was met by local Afghan resistance armed and funded by an international coalition that included the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and China. Fundraising: In the first half of the s, bin Laden set up in Peshawar, Pakistan to raise funds and recruit foreign Mujahidin.Osama bin Laden's full name, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of Awad, son of Laden".[5] "Mohammed" refers to Bin Laden's father Mohammed bin Laden; "Awad" refers to his grandfather, Awad bin Aboud bin Laden, a Kindite Hadhrami tribesman; "Laden" therefore refers to Bin Laden's great-great-grandfather, Laden Ali al-Qahtani.[6]
He was named Usama, meaning "lion", after Usama ibn Zayd, one of the companions of Muhammad.
Osama bin Laden had assumed the kunya (teknonym) Abū ʿAbdallāh, meaning "father of Abdallah" The Arabic 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 one of his sons Omar, the family's hereditary surname is āl-Qaḥṭānī, but Bin Laden's father, Muhammad bin Ladin, never officially registered the name.[8]
Early life and education
Main article: Personal life of Osama bin Laden
See also: Bin Laden family
Osama bin Laden was born on 10 March in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[9][10] His father was Muhammad bin Ladin,[11][12] a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family,[13] and his mother was Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, SyrianHamida al-Attas (then called Alia Ghanem).[14] Despite it being generally accepted that Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, his birthplace was listed as Jeddah in the initial FBI and Interpol documents.[16]
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 s or early s.[17] The couple had four children, and Bin Laden lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.[14] The Bin Laden family made $5&#;billion in the construction industry, of which Osama later inherited around $25–30&#;million.[18]
Bin Laden was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim.[19] From to , he attended the elite Al-Thager Model School.[14][20] Bin Laden attended an English-language course in Oxford, England, during [21] He studied economics and business administration[22] at King Abdulaziz University.
Some reports suggest he earned a degree in civil engineering in ,[23] or a degree in public administration in [24] One source described him as "hard working";[25] another said he left university during his third year without completing a college degree.[26]
At university, Bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work.
Other interests included writing poetry; reading, with the works of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle said to be among his favorites; black stallions; and association football, in which he enjoyed playing at centre forward and followed the English club Arsenal.[28][29] During his studies in Jeddah, Bin Laden became a pupil of the influential Islamist scholar Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and avidly read his treatises.
He also read the writings of several Muslim Brotherhood leaders and was highly influenced by the Islamic revolutionary ideas advocated by Sayyid Qutb.[30]
Personal life
Main article: Personal life of Osama bin Laden
At age 17 in , Bin Laden married Najwa Ghanem at Latakia, Syria;[31] but they were later separated and she left Afghanistan on 9 September , 2 days before the 9/11 attacks.[32] His other known wives were Khadijah Sharif (married , divorced s); Khairiah Sabar (married ); Siham Sabar (married ); and Amal al-Sadah (married ).
Some sources also list a sixth wife, name unknown, whose marriage to Bin Laden was annulled soon after the ceremony.[33] Bin Laden fathered between 20 and 26 children with his wives.[34][35] Many of Bin Laden's children fled to Iran following the September 11 attacks and as of [update], Iranian authorities reportedly continue to control their movements.[36]
Nasser al-Bahri, who was Bin Laden's personal bodyguard from to , 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.[37]
Bin Laden's father Mohammed died in in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot Jim Harrington[38] misjudged a landing.[39] Bin Laden's eldest half-brother, Salem bin Laden, the subsequent head of the Bin Laden family, was killed in near San Antonio, Texas, in the U.S., when he accidentally flew a plane into power lines.[40]
The FBI described Bin Laden as an adult as tall and thin, between &#;m (6&#;ft 4&#;in) and &#;m (6&#;ft 6&#;in) in height and weighing about 73 kilograms (&#;lb),[41] although author Lawrence Wright, in his 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 he was actually "just over 6 feet (&#;m) tall".
After his death, he was measured to be roughly &#;m (6&#;ft 4&#;in).[43] Bin Laden had an olive complexion and was left-handed, usually walking with a cane. He wore a plain white keffiyeh. At one point, he stopped wearing the traditional Saudi male keffiyeh and instead wore the traditional Yemeni male keffiyeh.[44] He was described as soft-spoken and mild-mannered in demeanor.[45]
Political views
Main article: Political views of Osama bin Laden
According to former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Bin Laden, Bin Laden was motivated by a belief that U.S.
foreign policy has oppressed, killed, or otherwise harmed Muslims in the Middle East.[46] As such, the threat to U.S. national security arises not from al-Qaeda being offended by what the U.S. is but rather by what the U.S. does, or in the words of Scheuer, "They (al-Qaeda) hate us (Americans) for what we do, not who we are."[47] 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 fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury, in a letter published in late [48]
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,[48] as well as pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, and democracy.[49] He subscribed to the Athari (literalist) school of Islamic theology.[50]
These beliefs, in conjunction with violent jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism after being promoted by Sayyid Qutb.[51] Bin Laden believed that Afghanistan, under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban, was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world.[52] Bin Laden consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believed were injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the U.S.
and sometimes by other non-Muslim states.[53] In his Letter to the American People published in , Bin Laden described the formation of the Israeli state as "a crime which must be erased" and demanded that the United States withdraw all of its civilians and military personnel from the Arabian Peninsula, as well as from all Muslim lands.[54][55]
His viewpoints and methods of achieving them had led to him being designated as a terrorist by scholars;[56][57] journalists from The New York Times,[58][59] the BBC,[60] and Qatari news station Al Jazeera;[61] and analysts such as Peter Bergen,[62] Michael Scheuer,[63]Marc Sageman,[64] and Bruce Hoffman.[65][66] He was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.[67]
Bin Laden supported the targeting of American civilians, in retaliation against U.S.
troops indiscriminately attacking Muslims. He asserted that this policy could deter U.S. troops from targeting Muslim women and children. Furthermore, he argued that all Americans were complicit in the crimes of their government due to majority of them electing it to power and paying taxes that fund the U.S.
military.[68] According to Noah Feldman, Bin Laden's assertion was that "since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets."[69]
Two months after the September 11, attacks, Bin Laden stated during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir:
"According to my information, if the enemy occupies an Islamic land and uses its people as human shields, a person has the right to attack the enemy.
Bin laden history Osama bin Laden [ a ] 10 March — 2 May was a Saudi Arabian—born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Bin Laden was born in Riyadh to the aristocratic bin Laden family. He studied at Saudi and foreign universities until , when he joined the mujahideen fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In , he co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat , which recruited foreign mujahideen into the war. Bin Laden was an influential ideologue who inspired several Islamist organizations.The targets of September 11 were not women and children. The main targets were the symbol of the United States: their economic and military power. Our Prophet Muhammad was against the killing of women and children. When he saw the body of a non-Muslim woman during a war, he asked what the reason for killing her was. If a child is older than thirteen and bears arms against Muslims, killing him is permissible."[70]
Bin Laden's overall strategy for achieving his goals against much larger enemies such as the Soviet Union and U.S.
was to lure them into a long 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.[71] Al-Qaeda manuals express this strategy. In a tape broadcast by Al Jazeera, Bin Laden spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy".[72]
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 political system—American law being "the law of the rich and wealthy"[73]—and as the reason civilians are responsible for their government's actions and so can be lawfully punished by death.[74] 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."[75]
Bin Laden was heavily anti-Semitic, stating that most of the negative events that occurred in the world were the direct result of Jewish actions.
In a December interview with Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, Bin Laden stated that Operation Desert Fox was proof that Israeli Jews controlled the governments of the U.S. and the United Kingdom, directing them to kill as many Muslims as they could.[76] In a letter released in late , he stated that Jews controlled the civilian media outlets, politics, and economic institutions of the United States.[48] In a May interview with ABC News, Bin Laden claimed 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".[77] He stated that Jews and Muslims could never get along, that war was "inevitable" between them, and accusing the U.S.
of stirring up anti-Islamic sentiment.[77] He claimed that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Defense were controlled by Jews, for the sole purpose of serving the Israeli state's goals.[77] 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."[78]Shia Muslims have been listed along with heretics, the United States, and Israel as the four principal enemies of Islam at ideology classes of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.[79]
Bin Laden was opposed to music on religious grounds,[80] and his attitude towards technology was mixed.
Osama bin laden history in urdu Intelligence officials believe bin Laden was responsible for many deadly acts of terrorism, including the bombings of the U. Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in or He was the 17th of 52 children born to Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who owned the largest construction company in the Saudi kingdom. Young Osama had a privileged, cosseted upbringing. He went to school in Jiddah, married young and, like many Saudi men, joined the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.He was interested in earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants, while rejecting the use of chilled water.[81] He also believed climate change to be a serious threat and penned a letter urging Americans to work with U.S. President Barack Obama to make a rational decision to "save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny".[82][83]
Militant and political career
Main article: Militant career of Osama bin Laden
Afghan–Soviet War
See also: Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden
After leaving college in , Bin Laden went to Pakistan, joined Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and used money and machinery from his own construction company to help the Mujahideen resistance in the Soviet—Afghan War.[84] He later told a journalist: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan."[85] From to , the U.S.
(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).[86]
British journalist Jason Burke wrote: "[Bin Laden] did not receive any direct funding or training from the U.S.
during the s. 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."[87] Bin Laden met and built relations with Hamid Gul, who was a three-stargeneral in the 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 Pakistan Armed Forces and the ISI.[88] According to Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, the person in charge of the ISI's Afghan operations at the time, it was a strict policy of Pakistan to prevent any American involvement in the distribution of funds or weapons or in the training of the mujahideen, and the CIA officials stayed in the embassy in Islamabad, never entering Afghanistan or meeting with the Afghan resistance leaders themselves.[89] According to some CIA officers, beginning in early , Bin Laden acted as a liaison between the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) and Afghan warlords; 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."[90] Bin Laden's first trainer was U.S. Special Forces commando Ali Mohamed.[91]
By , 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[92] 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 and , Bin Laden set up a base in eastern Afghanistan for several dozen of his own Arab soldiers.[93] From this base, Bin Laden participated in some combat activity against the Soviets, such as the Battle of Jaji in [93] Despite its little strategic significance, the battle was lionized in the mainstream Arab press.[93] It was during this time that he became idolized by many Arabs.[94]
Allegation of involvement in Gilgit massacre
See also: Gilgit massacre
In May , responding to rumours of a massacre of Sunnis by Shias, large numbers of Shias from in and around Gilgit, Pakistan were killed in a massacre.[95] Shia civilians were also subjected to rape.[96] The massacre is alleged by B.
Raman, a founder of India's Research and Analysis Wing,[97] to have been in response to a revolt by the Shias of Gilgit during the rule of military dictator Zia-ul Haq.[98] He alleged that the Pakistan Army induced Osama bin Laden to lead an armed group of Sunni tribals, from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province, into Gilgit and its surrounding areas to suppress the revolt.[99]
Formation and structuring of al-Qaeda
Main article: Al-Qaeda
By ,[] 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.[] Notes of a meeting of Bin Laden and others on 20 August , 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 (bayat) to follow one's superiors.[]
According to Wright, the group's real name was not used in public pronouncements because its existence was still a closely held secret.[] His research suggests that al-Qaeda was formed at an 11 August , meeting between several senior leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), Azzam, and Bin Laden, where it was agreed to join Bin Laden's money with the expertise of the EIJ and take up the jihadist cause elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.[]
Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in February , Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero of jihad.[] Along with his Arab legion, he was thought to have brought down the mighty superpower of the Soviet Union.[] After his return to Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden engaged in opposition movements to the Saudi monarchy while working for his family business.[] 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.
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 King Fahd.[] He was also angered by the internecine tribal fighting among the Afghans.[94] However, he continued working with the Saudi GID and the Pakistani ISI.
In March Bin Laden led Arab foreign fighters during the unsuccessful Battle of Jalalabad.[][][] Bin Laden led his men in person to immobilize the 7th Sarandoy Regiment but failed doing so leading to massive casualties. He funded the Afghan coup d'état attempt led by hardcore communist General Shahnawaz Tanai.[] He also lobbied the Parliament of Pakistan to carry out an unsuccessful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[]
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Gulf war
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein on 2 August , put the Saudi kingdom and the royal family at risk.
With Iraqi forces on the Saudi border, Saddam's appeal to pan-Arabism was potentially inciting internal dissent. One week after King Fahd agreed to U.S. Secretary of DefenseDick Cheney's offer of American military assistance, Bin Laden met with King Fahd and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan bin Abdulaziz, telling them not to depend on non-Muslim assistance from the U.S.
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 Iraqi chemical and biological weapons against them he replied "We will fight him with faith." Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed, and the Saudi monarchy invited the deployment of U.S. forces in Saudi territory.[]
Bin Laden publicly denounced Saudi dependence on the U.S.
forces, arguing that that it was indignity that the kingdom was being defended by an army of American unbelievers.[] 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.[] Bin Laden's continued criticism of the Saudi monarchy led them to put him under house arrest, under which he remained until he was ultimately forced to leave the country in [] The U.S.
82nd Airborne Division landed in the north-eastern Saudi city of Dhahran and was deployed in the desert barely miles from Medina.[94]
Meanwhile, on 8 November , the FBI 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.[] Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the World Trade Center bombing and, years later, admitted guilt for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City on 5 November
Move to Sudan
In , Bin Laden was expelled from Saudi Arabia by its government after repeatedly criticizing the Saudi alliance with the United States.[][] He and his followers moved first to Afghanistan and then relocated to Sudan by ,[][] in a deal brokered by Ali Mohamed.[] Bin Laden's personal security detail consisted of bodyguards personally selected by him.
Their arsenal included SA-7, Stinger missiles, AKs, RPGs, and PK machine guns.[] Meanwhile, in March–April , Bin Laden tried to play a pacifying role in the escalating 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.
It is believed that the first bombing attack involving Bin Laden was the 29 December , bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden in which two people were killed.[]
In the s, Bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially, and sometimes militarily, in Algeria, Egypt, and Afghanistan.
In or , Bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40, to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded. The war that followed caused the deaths of , to , Algerians and ended with the Islamists surrendering to the government.[]
In Sudan, Bin Laden established a new base for Mujahideen operations in Khartoum.
He bought a house on Al-Mashtal Street in the affluent Al-Riyadh quarter and a retreat at Soba on the Blue Nile.[][] 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,[] 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.[][] He continued to criticize King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. In response, in , Fahd stripped Bin Laden of his Saudi citizenship and persuaded his family to cut off his $7&#;million a year stipend.[11][][]
By that time, Bin Laden was being linked with EIJ, which made up the core of al-Qaeda.
In , the EIJ attempted to assassinate the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The attempt failed, and Sudan expelled the EIJ. 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.[] The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.
The U.S. State Department accused Sudan of being a 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 that the State Department authorized U.S. intelligence officials to visit Sudan.[]
The 9/11 Commission Report states: