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Monday 10 September 2012

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family and Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas (then called Alia Ghanem).

He was the 17th of 52 children in total of  Muhammad Awad bin Laden. Muhammad Awad bin Laden had several wives and Osama bin Laden was born to his tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas.

The bin Laden family made $5 billion in the construction industry, of which Osama later inherited around $25–30 million.

As a teen, Osama Bin Laden formed an a capella singing group with some of his friends.

Bin Laden was a keen footballer in his youth, playing centre forward and he supported the English club Arsenal.

Bin Laden went to Afghanistan in 1982 to help the mujaheddin in their struggle against the Russian invaders. While there he set up and funded an organization to train the many Arabs who had come to join him in the cause. It becomes known as al-Qa'ida ('the base').



A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" on November 20, 1998 in regard to the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

On September 11, 2001, two hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashed into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The series of coordinated suicide attacks were led by 19 members of al-Qaeda. In total 2,996 people were killed.

The north face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) immediately after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration announced a War on Terror, with the stated goals of bringing bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks.

CIA once tried to scare Pakistani children with Osama Bin Laden action figures whose face peeled off to reveal a scary devil beneath. 

Anti-American demonstrators protesting in Bangladesh after the 9/11 terrorist attacks carried posters of Osama bin Laden sitting alongside Bert, a beloved Sesame Street Muppet character.

Bin Laden fathered between 20 and 26 children with his five wives. Many of Bin Laden's children fled to Iran following the September 11 attacks.

Family Guy broadcasted an "Osama Bin Laden trying to make it through airport security" joke, before 9/11.

Osama Bin Laden was obsessed with Whitney Houston and wanted to make her one of his wives.

The FBI described bin Laden as an adult as tall and thin, between 6 ft 4 in and 6 ft 6 in (193–198 cm) in height and weighing about 160 pounds (73 kg). Bin Laden had an olive complexion and was left-handed, usually walking with a cane. He wore a plain white turban and he had stopped wearing the traditional Saudi male headdress.


Bruce Willis personally offered $1 million in real life bounty to any civilian who captured  Osama bin Laden.

Barack Obama announced on May 1, 2011 that Osama bin Laden had been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, Bin Laden was actually killed on May 2.

The Navy Seals who carried out the Bin Laden kill mission, forgot to bring a tape measure and had to measure Laden's height by making a six feet tall Seal lie down next to Laden's corpse.

Situation Room, in which members of the Obama administration track the mission that killed bin Laden

Bin Laden's hideout compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where he was killed is known locally as the Waziristan Haveli mansion.

Of the 38 full-length English language books Osama Bin Laden had in his possession upon arrest, half of them were conspiracy theory books.

Osama bin Laden kept Charlie Bit My Finger and cat videos saved on his computer. The CIA also found games such as Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry and even Animal Crossing on Bin Laden's hard drive. They also found anime like Naruto, Bleach and Dragon Ball.

27.9 million tweets were sent in the 2.5 hours following President Obama’s announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

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