Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 and developed a bad case of "middle-child syndrome"-he was the 17th of 52 children of his father. But while Jan Brady contented herself with agonising over "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia," bin Laden decided on a much larger target for his rage -the entire world.
Osama bin Laden's terrorist networking organisation Al Qaeda has unified a diverse collection of smaller extremist groups into a worldwide coalition responsible for tens of thousands of deaths over the last decade. His war on America in the sept., 11, attack on America which
destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Organisation and made the world's arch-terrorist into a household name.Why Laden is a terrorist?
bin Laden's father, according to al Qaeda propaganda, was a poor laborer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who bootstrapped his way to become the partiarch the second-richest family in the oil-rich country-second only to the royal family.According to the propagandists, bin Laden Sr.imposed tough discipline on his children and insisted to follow strict Muslim practices. "He was very keen not to show any dfference in the treatment of his children" which is pretty good trick when you have 52 kids.
Young Osama graduated from a Jeddah University in 1979with a degree in civil engineering . Naturally, this training inspered him to become a freelance warmonger. The chic venue at the time of Afghanistan, which the Soviet Union had invaded in 1978.With the support of the Saudi and US govt. bin Laden took up the struggle of the Mujahideen rebels who were working to repel the Soviets.
bin Laden used his personal fortune and connections to raise funds for the Mujahideen, providing aid with logistics, supplies,and "humanitarian" aid. He took part in fighting, by all accounts fearless and focussed in working to fortify mujahideen positions. he also helped recruit Muslims for the battle from a headqurters in neighbouring Pakistan.
As with so many of America'sworst nightmares, bin Laden and his cronies received financial support and training from the CIA during this period. The CIA had come up with this fabulous notion that it could incite the entire Arab world into Jihad against the godless Soviets.
President Ronald Reagon authorised the covert release of funds high end armaments, and CIA "specialists" to assist the mujahideen in drivinng the Soviets out of Afghanistan, an effort that ultimately suceeded in 1989.
Working with Seikh Abdullah Azzam during the mid-1980s, bin Laden had helped establish the office of services , a support organisation for the mujahideen , led by Azzam. As the Soviet found themselves increasingly on the defensive , Afghanistan became a accompli and bin laden found himself a warmonger without a war to mong. Being a self -starter, it wouldn't take him long to rectify that situation.
Azzam didn't share bin Laden's sweeping ambitions but a convenient car-bomb in 1989 left bin laden the heir apparent for the army of arab mujahideen , volunteer fighters who would develop a tase for the service of Allah, which in their minority view primarily involvedkilling infidels.
