Interesting article about Osama Bin Laden

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Sorry for offtopic but an interesting story i found about this bas**ard!

Bin Laden is thought to be in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.

Osama Bin Laden is top of US President Bush's most wanted list.

He is accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in East Africa and - most notoriously - the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.

Since then, his al-Qaeda network has been linked indirectly to bombings on the island of Bali in Indonesia and its capital Jakarta, as well as with devastating suicide attacks in Casablanca, Riyadh and Istanbul.

President Bush said in his State of the Union address in January 2004: "We are tracking al-Qaeda around the world, and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed."

US military commanders have said on several occasions they expected to bring Bin Laden to justice soon.

But more than four years after the 11 September attacks, successive operations involving coalition troops inside Afghanistan and Pakistani forces along their side of the border have so far failed to track down the al-Qaeda leader, and his precise whereabouts remain a mystery.

Mild-mannered and polite.

Those who have met Bin Laden describe him as a mild-mannered man, who is generally polite and hospitable to strangers, yet he has become the most hated and implacable opponent of the US and all it stands for.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957 to a wealthy Yemeni father and a Syrian mother, he had a comfortable childhood.

BIN LADEN OBJECTIVES.

Religious war against America and American interests.

Remove US forces from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Liberate Jerusalem from Israelis.

Overthrow the "un-Islamic" governments of the region.

Restore the Caliphate, or pan-Islamic ruler

The hunt for Bin Laden.

Like his father, who had made his fortune from the construction business and had close ties with the Saudi royal family, the young Bin Laden had religious leanings.

At school and university, he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, he went to Pakistan, where he met Afghan rebel leaders resisting the occupation.

Later, he returned to Saudi Arabia to collect money and supplies for the Afghan resistance, the mujahideen.

He made further trips, delivering aid and arms, and eventually joining the fight against the Soviets.

Rebel commander.

As a wealthy Saudi, he stood out and acquired a following.

Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others - numbering thousands in Bin Laden's estimate - joined their Afghan Muslim brothers in the struggle against a Soviet ideology that spurned religion.

SHADOWY FIGURE.

Born in Saudi Arabia.

Fought against Soviets in Afghanistan.

Ploughed inherited fortune into armed activities.

Reported to have at least three wives.

Suffers from kidney disease.

Last video message broadcast December 2001.

Whereabouts unknown.

Bin Laden in his own words.

Bin Laden opened a guesthouse in Peshawar - a stopping-off point for Arab mujahideen fighters. Eventually, their numbers became so large he built camps for them inside Afghanistan.

He gave the umbrella group for his guesthouse and camps a name: al-Qaeda, Arabic for "the base".

As a military commander, Bin Laden was respected for his organisational skills, his bravery and, above all, for his ability to survive.

American backing.

The Afghan jihad against the Soviet army was backed by American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Bin Laden is accused of involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings

After the Soviet withdrawal, the "Arab Afghans", as Bin Laden's faction came to be called, looked forward to a warm welcome at home.

But Bin Laden quickly became disillusioned by the lack of recognition for his achievements.

This turned to anger when the Saudis turned down his offer to provide an army of mujahideen to defend the kingdom after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Instead, half a million US soldiers were invited on to Saudi soil - a historic betrayal in Bin Laden's eyes.

Bin Laden became an out-and-out opponent of the Saudi regime and began to direct his efforts against the US and its allies in the Middle East.

In 1991, he was expelled from the country because of his anti-government activities.

Period of radicalisation.

He spent the next five years in Sudan, where he used his money to fund a number of infrastructure projects for the Islamist government in Khartoum.

The Saudi government is reported to have sought reconciliation but, when this failed, it froze his bank accounts and stripped him of his Saudi citizenship.

The US put pressure on Sudan's government to expel him, prompting Bin Laden's return to Afghanistan where he became increasingly messianic and radical.

By the mid-1990s, he was calling for a global war against Americans and Jews and in 1998, he issued his famous fatwa (religious ruling), amounting to a declaration of war against the US.

Two simultaneous bomb attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania followed a few months later.

Bin Laden never acknowledged responsibility, but several of those arrested for their part in the bombings named him as a backer. Islamic front

Experts say Bin Laden is part of an international Islamic front, bringing together Saudi, Egyptian and other groups.

Their rallying cry is the liberation of Islam's three holiest places - Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

Bin Laden's organisation is believed not to be a tightly-knit group with a clear command structure, but a loose coalition of groups operating across continents.

American officials say his associates may operate in more than 40 countries across Europe and North America, as well as in the Middle East and Asia.

The fear now must be that, even if Bin Laden himself is captured or killed, the movement he leads will be harder than ever to crush.

isn't he is a crazy son of a bich!