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PROFILE:
Osama Bin Laden is both one of the CIA's most wanted men
and a hero to many young people in the Arab world. He and
his associates were already being sought by the US on charges
of international terrorism, including in connection with the
1998 bombing of American embassies in Africa and last year's
attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
In May this year a US jury convicted four men believed to
be linked with Bin Laden of plotting the embassy bombings
in Kenya and Tanzania.
Bin Laden, an immensely wealthy and private man, has been
granted a safe haven by Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement.
During his time in hiding, he has called for a holy war against
the US, and for the killing of Americans and Jews. He is reported
to be able to rally around him up to 3,000 fighters. He is
also suspected of helping to set up Islamic training centres
to prepare soldiers to fight in Chechnya and other parts of
the former Soviet Union.
His power is founded on a personal fortune earned by his
family's construction business in Saudi Arabia.
Born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemeni family, Bin Laden left Saudi
Arabia in 1979 to fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had
the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
He received security training from the CIA itself, according
to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian.
While in Afghanistan, he founded the Maktab al-Khidimat (MAK),
which recruited fighters from around the world and imported
equipment to aid the Afghan resistance against the Soviet
army.
Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others - numbering thousands
in Bin Laden's estimate - joined their Afghan Muslim brothers
in the struggle against an ideology that spurned religion.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the "Arab Afghans", as Bin Laden's
faction came to be called, turned their fire against the US
and its allies in the Middle East.
Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to work in the family
construction business, but was expelled in 1991 because of
his anti-government activities there. He spent the next five
years in Sudan until US pressure prompted the Sudanese Government
to expel him, whereupon Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan.
Terrorism experts say Bin Laden has been using his millions
to fund attacks against the US. The US State Department calls
him "one of the most significant sponsors of Islamic extremist
activities in the world today".
According to the US, Bin Laden was involved in at least
three major attacks - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,
the 1996 killing of 19 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and the
1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
BBC correspondent James Robbins says Bin Laden had "all but
admitted involvement" in the Saudi Arabia killings. Some experts
say he 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.
Analysts say Bin Laden's organisation is very different from
the groups that carried out bombings and hijackings in the
past in that it is not a tightly knit group with a clear command
structure but a loose coalition of groups operating across
continents.
American officials believe Bin Laden's associates may operate
in over forty countries - in Europe and North America, as
well as in the Middle East and Asia.
The few outsiders who have met Bin Laden describe him as
modest, almost shy. He rarely gives interviews. He is believed
to be in his 40s, and to have at least three wives.
Source:
BBC
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