bin Laden, Osama

An Islamic terrorist and the head of the Al Qaeda network of terrorists. Born into a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia , bin Laden went to Afghanistan to train Islamic warriors known as mujahideen after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. After the Soviets pulled out in 1989, he returned to Saudi Arabia. During the Persian Gulf War , he developed strong objections to the American presence in Saudi Arabia. He was expelled in 1991. Fleeing first to the Sudan and then back to Afghanistan in 1996, he orchestrated a series of attacks on American targets, including, it is believed, the destruction of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001 ( see September 11 attacks ).

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The 2001 grand jury indictment named 21 suspects as being involved in the U.S. embassy bombings, including Osama bin Laden.

In the mid-1990s, some visitors did begin to show up due to the construction efforts of Osama Bin Laden.

“The Americans came here to look for Osama bin Laden and to bring a friendly government with them,” he says.

Four years later, Bush would be aided by the airing of a video by Osama bin Laden, which dropped just before Election Day.

The Taliban, power cuts, corruption, economic stagnation, Osama bin Laden, all of it.

Osama bin Laden declared: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."

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