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==Adult life==
==Adult life==
He returned to Saudi Arabia after an apparent falling-out with his father over the [[September 11 attacks]], which he saw as a strategic blunder that led to the fall of the [[Taliban]]. On [[September 11]], [[2001]] Osama was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks occurred.<ref name="CNN1" /> A special chartered flight to Saudi Arabia, embarking eight days after the September 11th attacks, carried 13 bin Laden relatives including '''Omar Awad bin Laden''', described as a nephew of Osama bin Laden living with Abdullah bin Laden, founder of WAMY.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4014-2004Jul21.html|title=Plane carried 13 bin Ladens|publication=Washington Post|date=2004-07-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=254254|title=Senator Lautenberg Releases Passenger Manifest of ' Bin Laden Family Airlift' Out of U.S. One Week After 9/11 Attack}}</ref> Omar runs his own company in [[Jeddah]] as a contractor and scrap metal dealer.<ref name="Brown" />
He returned to Saudi Arabia after an apparent falling-out with his father over the [[September 11 attacks]], which he saw as a strategic blunder that led to the fall of the [[Taliban]]. On [[September 11]], [[2001]] Osama was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks occurred.<ref name="CNN1" /> A special chartered flight to Saudi Arabia, embarking eight days after the September 11th attacks, carried 13 bin Laden relatives including '''Omar Awad bin Laden''', described as a nephew of Osama bin Laden living with Abdullah bin Laden, founder of WAMY.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4014-2004Jul21.html|title=Plane carried 13 bin Ladens|publication=Washington Post|date=2004-07-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=254254|title=Senator Lautenberg Releases Passenger Manifest of ' Bin Laden Family Airlift' Out of U.S. One Week After 9/11 Attack}}</ref> Omar runs his own company in [[Jeddah]] as a contractor and scrap metal dealer.<ref name="Brown" /> Jeddah, a major city and important transit port for Saudi Arabia, is the site of the headquarters of the [[Saudi Binladen Group]] and has been reported to be "truly" ruled by [[Bakr bin Laden]].<ref>{{cite web|author = Georg Mascolo and Erich Follath|title = Osama's Road to Riches and Terror|date=2005-06-06|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,359690,00.html}}</ref>
He married [[Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah]] aka [[Jane Felix-Browne]], a parish councillor from [[Moulton]], near [[Northwich]] in [[Cheshire]] [[UK]] in July 2007.<ref name="AnonBBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6292072.stm|title=Councillor weds Bin Laden's son|work=[[BBC News Online]]|date=[[2007-07-11]]|accessdate=2007-07-11}}</ref> Zaina had been married five times previously, beginning with a Saudi man at the age of 16, who introduced her to several members of the [[bin Laden family]]. She believes she met Osama bin Laden at a party in London in the 1970s.<ref name="Brown" /> They met while she was undergoing treatment for [[multiple sclerosis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://despardes.com/NewsExplorer/2007/20070712-bin-laden-marries.html|title=Brit bin Laden "Bahu" Raises Eyebrows}}</ref> Their mutual love of horses brought them together when they met on a ride at the [[Giza pyramids]] in Egypt.<ref name="Schemm" /> She has declined to take her new husband's surname. She is his third wife and 24 years older than him, with five grandchildren.<ref name="AnonBBC" /> She was aware when she married Omar that he had another wife and a two year old son.<ref name="Brown" />
He married [[Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah]] aka [[Jane Felix-Browne]], a parish councillor from [[Moulton]], near [[Northwich]] in [[Cheshire]] [[UK]] in July 2007.<ref name="AnonBBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6292072.stm|title=Councillor weds Bin Laden's son|work=[[BBC News Online]]|date=[[2007-07-11]]|accessdate=2007-07-11}}</ref> Zaina had been married five times previously, beginning with a Saudi man at the age of 16, who introduced her to several members of the [[bin Laden family]]. She believes she met Osama bin Laden at a party in London in the 1970s.<ref name="Brown" /> They met while she was undergoing treatment for [[multiple sclerosis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://despardes.com/NewsExplorer/2007/20070712-bin-laden-marries.html|title=Brit bin Laden "Bahu" Raises Eyebrows}}</ref> Their mutual love of horses brought them together when they met on a ride at the [[Giza pyramids]] in Egypt.<ref name="Schemm" /> She has declined to take her new husband's surname. She is his third wife and 24 years older than him, with five grandchildren.<ref name="AnonBBC" /> She was aware when she married Omar that he had another wife and a two year old son.<ref name="Brown" />

Revision as of 04:51, 26 January 2008

See 2008 AP image:

Omar bin Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden (Arabic: عمر بن أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born 1981) better known as Omar Osama bin Laden (also Omar bin Laden or Omar Awad bin Laden) is one of the sons of Osama bin Laden and his first wife and first cousin Najwa Ghanem,[1] (see Bin Laden family). He is the fourth eldest son[2] among nineteen children of Osama bin Laden.[3] Older reports have described him and his brother Abdallah Osama bin Laden as nephews or cousins of Osama bin Laden.[4]

Childhood

Omar accompanied Osama on his exile to Sudan from 1991-1996, and then to Afghanistan after that.[5] He has said that he trained in al-Qaeda camps beginning at the age of 14, but after training with al-Qaeda for six years and sharing a house with Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, he left al-Qaeda in 2000 because he did not want to be associated with killing civilians and his father did not object.[6][7][8] Reportedly he helped to organize the U.S. branch of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY, occasionally reported as the World Congress of Muslim Youth, formerly at 5134 Leesburg Pike, Alexandria VA) in Falls Church, Virginia during the 1990s with his brother Abdallah and Kamal Helwabi or Kamal Helbawy, a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who now characterizes himself as a moderate.[9] WAMY was criticized for disseminating "hate speech", employing persons calling for violence against Jews, and sued for damages by survivors of the September 11th attacks before being shut down in May 2004 in a federal raid in which all files and computer hard drives were seized. Anonymous sources have said that the Bush administration told FBI investigators to "'back off' when it came to investigating bin Laden's family", forcing an end to the investigation of WAMY, Abdallah, and Omar in 1996.[10][11][12][13] Other national WAMY affiliates have been accused of acting as a Hamas front or have hosted Hamas speakers, [14] and the 2004 raid was based in part on an affidavit citing ties with Hamas.[15]

Omar's association with WAMY exposed him to FBI investigation beginning on September 19, 2001.[16] He was named as one of hundreds of defendants in a lawsuit filed by the family of John Patrick O'Neill, Sr., a victim of the September 11th attacks.[17]

Adult life

He returned to Saudi Arabia after an apparent falling-out with his father over the September 11 attacks, which he saw as a strategic blunder that led to the fall of the Taliban. On September 11, 2001 Osama was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks occurred.[6] A special chartered flight to Saudi Arabia, embarking eight days after the September 11th attacks, carried 13 bin Laden relatives including Omar Awad bin Laden, described as a nephew of Osama bin Laden living with Abdullah bin Laden, founder of WAMY.[18][19] Omar runs his own company in Jeddah as a contractor and scrap metal dealer.[2] Jeddah, a major city and important transit port for Saudi Arabia, is the site of the headquarters of the Saudi Binladen Group and has been reported to be "truly" ruled by Bakr bin Laden.[20]

He married Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah aka Jane Felix-Browne, a parish councillor from Moulton, near Northwich in Cheshire UK in July 2007.[21] Zaina had been married five times previously, beginning with a Saudi man at the age of 16, who introduced her to several members of the bin Laden family. She believes she met Osama bin Laden at a party in London in the 1970s.[2] They met while she was undergoing treatment for multiple sclerosis.[22] Their mutual love of horses brought them together when they met on a ride at the Giza pyramids in Egypt.[5] She has declined to take her new husband's surname. She is his third wife and 24 years older than him, with five grandchildren.[21] She was aware when she married Omar that he had another wife and a two year old son.[2]

After their wedding, Zaina described the stress of Omar's family background: "Omar is wary of everyone. He is constantly watching people who he feels might be following him. Not without reason he is fearful of cameras. He is the son of Osama. But when we are together he forgets his life." The couple announced their divorce in September 2007, which was said to be in response to threats to their "lives and liberty" from two unspecified sources known to them in Saudi Arabia. At the time Zaina said she did not regard herself as divorced and that the divorce under duress did not have legal standing under Sharia law.[23] After 2 weeks Zaina and Omar decided not to part and would not let threats destroy their marriage. They are now together, have just finished filming for a BBC documentary, and plan to live in Europe.

Public life

North African horse race

Widespread news coverage beginning with an Associated Press interview in Cairo, Egypt on January 11, 2008 has featured Omar with dreadlocks and a black leather biker jacket promoting a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) horse race for peace across North Africa.[24] The race is in the planning stages, awaiting approval from governments along the route and sponsors to provide money to benefit child victims of war. Omar describes the race as an equine counterpart to the cancelled 2008 Paris-Dakar car rally, saying "I heard the rally was stopped because of al-Qaida. I don't think they are going to stop me."[25][5] The race was cancelled after the killings of four French tourists in Mauritania on Christmas Eve 2007. Following the murders race organizers received threats directly from heavily armed and organized groups linked to al-Qaeda, which led them to cancel the race on January 4, 2008 and soon after to plan the 2009 event for South America.[26][27] Police in Guinea-Bissau said that two of five men arrested for the crime on January 11 2008 admitted al-Qaeda involvement.[28]

Relationship to father and al-Qaeda

Omar has said he doesn't criticize his father and has said that Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world,[5] and that his father is not a terrorist "because history tells you he's not"[7]. In an interview with ABC News he said, "My father is very kind man. And he very sorry when he do something like 11th September." Osama ordered the attacks "Because he believe if he put two buildings down, maybe some people, little will die, but millions other will (be) save(d). He believe that. ... I believe he did it the wrong,"[8] In a January 21, 2008 CNN interview, he said "I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,' " Regarding the September 11 attacks he said, "I don't think 9/11 was right personally, but it happened. I don't think ... [the war] in Vietnam was right. I don't think what's going on in Palestine is right. I don't think what's going on in Iraq is right. If we make what is right and not right, we will make a very big list."[6]

Omar stated that he had not been in contact with his father since leaving Afghanistan in 2000.[29] When asked whether he would tell the Americans if he found out where his father was living, he said with a smile "Actually, I would hide him. Because he is my father."[8]

According to Time Magazine's website, Omar has stated a desire to become an "ambassador of peace" between Muslims and the West. [30] Omar has said that Osama bin Laden offered a truce to Europe in a 2004 videotape and a conditional truce with the United States in a 2006 videotape, and believes a truce is possible. "My father is asking for a truce but I don't think there is any government (that) respects him. At the same time they do not respect him, why everywhere in the world, they want to fight him? There is a contradiction."[31] The truces offered in these videos of Osama bin Laden were rapidly rejected at the time.[32][33][34].

References

  1. ^ "Bin Laden Son Plays Key Role in Al Qaeda". [title refers to Saad bin Laden ]
  2. ^ a b c d David Brown (2007-07-11). "Briton marries bin Laden's son".
  3. ^ "Bin Laden's braided peacenik son on a mission". 2008-01-18.
  4. ^ "Profile:Omar bin Laden".
  5. ^ a b c d Paul Schemm (2008-01-17). "Bin Laden Son Wants to Be Peace Activist". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c Aneesh Raman (2008-01-21). "Bin Laden's son to father: Change your ways". CNN.
  7. ^ a b Tom Leonard (2008-01-23). "Osama bin Laden's son asks 'find another way'". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  8. ^ a b c Nick Watt (2008-01-21). "Bin Laden's Son Wants to Make Up for Father's 'Mistake':Omar bin Laden Left Afghanistan After Six Years' Training as al Qaeda Fighter". ABC News.
  9. ^ Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball (2006-10-08). "Denied Entry (Kamal Helbawy, Tariq Ramadan)". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  10. ^ "FBI claims Bin Laden inquiry was frustrated".
  11. ^ "Saudis spread hate speech".
  12. ^ "Islamic terrorism timeline".
  13. ^ "World Assembly of Muslim Youth".
  14. ^ Simon Henderson (2003-09-10). "Saudi Strategies (Senate testimony)".
  15. ^ "U.S. Raids N.Va. Office Of Saudi-Based Charity".
  16. ^ "Saudi Arabia and the fight against terrorism financing" (PDF). US House of Representatives.
  17. ^ 03 MDL 1570, a filing applying to the Estate of John P. O’Neill, Sr., et al. v. The Republic of Iraq et. al., 04 CV 1076 (RCC)
  18. ^ "Plane carried 13 bin Ladens". 2004-07-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  19. ^ "Senator Lautenberg Releases Passenger Manifest of ' Bin Laden Family Airlift' Out of U.S. One Week After 9/11 Attack".
  20. ^ Georg Mascolo and Erich Follath (2005-06-06). "Osama's Road to Riches and Terror".
  21. ^ a b "Councillor weds Bin Laden's son". BBC News Online. 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-07-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Brit bin Laden "Bahu" Raises Eyebrows".
  23. ^ "Briton to divorce bin Laden's son". BBC News Online. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "Bin Laden Son Wants to Be Peace Activist".
  25. ^ "Omar Osama bin Laden organising horse race for peace".
  26. ^ "Terror threat leads to cancellation of Dakar Rally".
  27. ^ "Dakar Rally to Relocate to South America?".
  28. ^ "Bissau extradites al Qaeda suspects to Mauritania".
  29. ^ "Bin Laden son: I am for peace". 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  30. ^ "Friday, Jan. 18, 2008 - Quotes of the Day".
  31. ^ "Osama's son wants to be peace ambassador between West and Muslims".
  32. ^ "UK 'Bin Laden' offers Europe truce". BBC. 2004-04-15.
  33. ^ "Europe: No deal with bin Laden". CNN. 2004-04-15.
  34. ^ "U.S. rejects bin Laden tape's 'truce' offer". CNN. 2006-01-20.

A search on Yahoo News references 244 articles mentioning Omar Osama bin Laden as of 2008-01-18.

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