May 2020

Saddam Hussein Biography: The Butcher of Baghdad

Saddam Hussein
He was one of the world’s most notorious
and ruthless leaders.

Since coming to power in 1979, Saddam used
any means necessary to hold onto Iraq including

killing anyone who stood in his way.

At a young age, he was brutalized at home,
ran away to his uncles, and quickly became

a thug for an extremist political party.

As he raised through the ranks and took over,
he modernized the country -- and ruled through

fear.

Eventually his greed, defiance, and murderous
ways led to the gallows.

Today, on Biographics we learn about life
of Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein.

Early Life

On April 28, 1937, Saddam Hussein was born
to a peasant woman in a mud and straw village

called Al-Awja near Tikrit, on the banks of
the Tigris River.

Saddam bore the physical mark of his tribe
on the wrist of his right hand; a tattoo of

three dark blue dots.

Most people in his village lived in severe
poverty and life were difficult.

Saddam’s father, a sheepherder, disappeared
before he was born.

Then, a few months later, Saddam’s 12-year-old
brother died from cancer.

This sent Saddam’s mother Subha into a crippling
depression and she attempted to abort her

unborn baby and kill herself.

She failed and when her infant son was born
she named him Saddam, which means in Arabic

the “one who confronts,” or “the stubborn
one.”

Without a husband, Subha didn’t have the
means to support her baby.

She sent Saddam to live with her brother Khairallah
Talfah, a retired army officer and Arab nationalist

in Tikrit.

Saddam lived with him for only three years,
until Talfah was imprisoned due to his part

in a coup to overthrow the pro-British government
in Iraq.

By this time, Saddam’s mother had remarried
a man named Ibrahim Hassan.

Villagers knew him as “Hassan the liar.”

Back at his mother’s home, the young Saddam
endured regular beatings and maltreatment

at the hands of his stepfather.

Neighbors and early friends of Saddam recall
Hassan beating him to wake in the morning

and regularly shouting things like, “You
son of a dog, I don't want you!”

He was forbidden from going to school, and
instead was made to be useful by stealing

goats and chickens for the family.

If Saddam was caught stealing -- it has been
said -- he would rather poison the animals

then return them to their owners.

At the age of 10, Saddam heard his uncle had
been released from prison and he fled to Tikrit

to be with him.

Talfah filled the boy with dreams of glory,
saying he would be a great leader of Iraq

someday.

He gave Saddam his first real possession -- a
handgun.

Saddam reportedly used the weapon to threaten
his primary school teachers and he may have

murdered a man when he was not yet a teenager.

According to the story, after the killing
police showed up at Talfah’s house and found

Saddam sleeping with the gun, still warm,
under his pillow.

Under his uncle’s care, Saddam was finally
able to go to school but he learned much more

then how to read and write.

Through the years he was deeply influenced
by Talfa’s politics and after leaving the

al-Karh Secondary School in 1957, at the age
of 20, Saddam joined the Arab Ba’ath Socialist

Party as a low-level thug and gunman.

The party was formed in Syria in 1947 with
the ultimate goal of unifying the various

Arab states in the Middle East.

At the time, it was the most radical, nationalist
party in Iraq and it had become an underground

revolutionary force.

When he was 22, Saddam played a major role
in the Ba’ath Party’s assassination attempt

of the then-Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim
Qassim.

During the attack on October 7, 1959, Saddam
and other assassins ambushed Qassim’s car

on Baghdad’s busiest street.

The Prime Minister’s chauffeur was killed
but Qassim was spared, surviving gunshot wounds

in the arm and shoulder.

Saddam escaped with a bullet in his leg.

The official version of the story portrays
Saddam as a hero who dug the bullet out with

a penknife.

Another version suggests that the plot failed
because Saddam opened fire prematurely.

Several of the would-be assassins were caught,
tried and executed but not Saddam.

He managed to flee to Syria before eventually
seeking refuge in Egypt.

While in Egypt, Saddam studied law at the
The University of Cairo.

Saddam returned to Iraq in 1963 after a successful
military overthrow of Qassim's government.

After his return, Saddam was recruited for
yet another assassination.

The Ba’ath Party suffered from infighting
and a coup was planned to overthrow the leader.

The plan was ultimately betrayed however and
Saddam became a wanted man.

He was forced into hiding but was caught and
imprisoned in 1964.

While in captivity, he remained active in
party politics and read up on his role models

-- tyrants Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

In 1966, Saddam escaped prison thanks to the
the help of sympathetic prison guards.

Afterward, he was appointed deputy secretary
of the Regional Command, and became a rising

star in the Ba and organization.

Rise to Power
In 1968, another successful coup in Iraq put

Saddam’s Ba’ath party in power and President
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (Saddam’s cousin) named

him deputy and head of the secret police.

Saddam proved to be a ruthless, but effective
politician.

Within government, he either eliminated or
co-opted individuals who stood in his way.

Eventually, he clawed his way to becoming the
vice president of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command

Council (RCC), the core group that held Iraq’s
Ba’athist government together.

Although not the official president of Iraq
until 1979, Saddam truly held the reins from

the early 1970s onward.

When the Ba’ath Party seized control, it
did not enjoy widespread support across the

country.

That changed after Saddam nationalized Iraq’s
the oil industry in the early 1970s before the

the energy crisis of 1973.

As a result, the nation enjoyed a boom to
the economy and the massive earnings allowed

the Ba’athist government to fund the health,
education and public works sectors and expand

social programs.

In an attempt to wipe out illiteracy, Saddam
required all children to attend school and

made it free through high school.

He also provided free hospitalization to all
Iraqis and full economic support to the families

of Iraqis soldiers.

Such reforms were unheard of in any other
Middle Eastern country.

In the years before the Iran-Iraq War construction
became one of the prized occupations of Iraq’s

middle class.

It is also important to note, 40 percent of
the increased revenue from oil went to buying

armaments from Western and Soviet suppliers.

That figure increased at the onset of the
war with Iran.

In 1979, when al-Bakr attempted to unite Iraq
and Syria, in a move that would have left

Saddam effectively powerless, Saddam forced
al-Bakr to resign, and on July 16, 1979, Saddam

Hussein became president of Iraq.

Five days later, he called an assembly of
the Ba'ath Party -- consisting of roughly

250 people.

At the meeting, party officials sat mystified
as Saddam made the announcement he had uncovered

a plot against him -- and he claimed the conspirators
wherein the room.

An alleged informant then read a list of 68
names out loud and each person was promptly

arrested and removed.

All the individuals were eventually tried
and found guilty of treason.

Twenty-two were sentenced to death.

The whole ordeal was filmed and circulated
around Iraq.

This was an intentional, well-scripted display
of Saddam’s power and a clear message of

who was in charge.

Three months later, Saddam declared 14 people
(up to 13 of them Jews), part of a “Zionist

spy ring.”

He made a very public, carnival-like display
out of their execution by stringing them up

before a crowd of thousands in downtown Baghdad.

Over the next several months, Saddam had more
“plotters” murdered live on television

and he hung them up on city lampposts.

To guard against coups and ensure loyalty,
Saddam surrounded himself with kin -- putting

his fellow clansmen in government positions.

He regularly used informants and the secret
police to route out suspected conspirators.

If anyone so much as made a joke about Saddam,
they could have their tongue cut out or pay

with their life.

He believed it was better to murder a person
of suspicion and be wrong -- then it is was

to not, and be killed by them.

Personal Life

Saddam married his first cousin, Sajida -- his
uncle Talfah’s daughter.

They had five children including two sons,
Uday and Qusay, and three daughters, Raghad,

Rana and Hala.

He took on mistresses but did not parade them
around publically.

Later on, when his sons grew up, he gave them
high-ranking positions within Iraq’s government.

Saddam’s public image was meticulously crafted
-- he dyed his hair black, sported a mustache,

and refused to wear his reading glasses unless
in private.

He had a slight limp due to a slipped disc
so he was never filmed walking for more than

a few steps.

He was 6’ tall, and his weight fluctuated
from trim to chubby but his well-tailored

suits were made to disguise his protruding
belly.

Each of his 20 palaces was kept fully staffed,
with meals prepared daily as if he were in

residence to disguise his whereabouts.

He moved around frequently and used body doubles
to thwart assassination attempts.

His meals, such delicacies like imported lobster,
were first tested for radiation and poison.

His wine of choice was Portuguese, Mateus
Rose, but he never drank in public to maintain

the conceit that he was a strict Muslim.

Saddam was particularly phobic about germs
and even top generals summoned to meet him

were often ordered to strip to their underwear
and their clothes were then washed, ironed

and X-rayed before they could get dressed
to meet him.

They had to wash their hands in disinfectant.

During his imprisonment, it is said he would
try to maintain this cleanliness by wiping

his utensils and food tray with baby wipes
before eating.

Throughout his rule, he maintained a limited
world-view and possessed little knowledge

of Western culture, laws, and advancements
in technology.

He was once shocked to learn there was no
such law in the U.S. that prevented citizens

from complaining about the President.

Decades of Conflict

The same year that Saddam anointed himself
President of Iraq, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini

led a successful Islamic revolution.

Saddam’s political power rested in part
upon the support of Iraq's minority Sunni

population and he worried that developments
in the Shiite majority, Iran could lead to a similar

the uprising in Iraq.

In response, on September 22, 1980, Saddam
ordered Iraqi forces to invade the oil-rich

region of Khuzestan in Iran -- a clear violation
of international law.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war;
one Saddam foolishly expected would be over

in a matter of weeks.

Saddam had no prior military experience and
he grossly underestimated his enemy.

Iran was three times the size of Iraq and
a formidable opponent.

A stalemate ensued, with both sides engaged
in a bloody trench war.

At the same time, ground troops were deadlocked,
Saddam sunk millions of dollars into developing

nuclear weapons.

In 1981, Israel took this matter seriously
-- believing if Saddam had the ability, there

would be no preventing him from dropping an
atomic bomb on their cities.

In June, the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s
research center at Osirak.

At least 25 pounds of enriched uranium were
reported to have been on the site.

The plant was near completion and scheduled
to begin operations within a matter of months.

The destruction of Iraq’s nuclear plant
was humiliating and with no end in sight to

the war, Saddam consulted his cabinet.

At the meeting, Saddam’s health minister
suggested that he step down to gain

the ceasefire with Iran.

As the story goes, Saddam thanked him for
his candor and had him arrested on the spot.

The minister’s wife pleaded with Saddam
to release her husband and he promised he

would.

When he sent him home the next day, he was
delivered in a black canvas body bag, cut

up into tiny pieces.

In the closing days of the war with Iran,
Saddam’s murderous ways reached new heights.

In his most savage act, he poisoned thousands
of civilian Kurds using chemical gases, killing

upwards of 5,000 people and injuring 10,000
more.

The genocide became known as the Halabja Massacre
or Bloody Friday.

Iranian photographer Kaveh Golestan witnessed
the gas attacks from a helicopter.

“It was life frozen.

Life had stopped, like watching a film and
suddenly it hangs on one frame.

It was a new kind of death to me.

(…) The aftermath was worse.

Victims were still being brought in.

Some villagers came to our chopper.

They had 15 or 16 beautiful children, begging
us to take them to the hospital.

So all the press sat there and we were each
handed a child to carry.

As we took off, fluid came out of my little
girl's mouth and she died in my arms.”

One decade after the attack, at least 700
people were still being treated for severe

after-effects of the Halabja Massacre.

Surveys have concluded the Kurdish population
in this region suffer from a higher percentage

of medical disorders, birth defects, and various
diseases including cancers and heart disease.

On August 20, 1988, after years of intense
the conflict that left one half million casualties

on each side, a ceasefire agreement was finally
reached.

The eight-year war-ravaged Iraq’s economy
and infrastructure.

One million Iraqi soldiers were out of work.

At the end of the 1980s, Saddam turned his
attention toward Iraq's wealthy neighbor,

Kuwait.

Saddam believed the Kuwaitis had 200 billion
dollars in various banks around the world.

And, a takeover of this small country would
yield him all the riches he needed to pay

back Iraq’s war debt and stabilize his country.

Using the justification that Kuwait was historically
part of Iraq, Saddam ordered the invasion

on August 2, 1990.

It took only six hours for Saddam’s armies
to the occupy the country -- a move greatly

condemned around the world.

A UN Security Council resolution was promptly
passed, imposing sanctions and setting a deadline

of January 15, 1991, for the Iraqis to leave
Kuwait.

During the occupation, Saddam staged a number
of bizarre televised interviews with citizens

of Kuwait in which he asked them if they were
happy with the Iraqis invasion.

Of course, they said yes...they didn’t have
a choice!

When Saddam ignored the January 15 deadline,
a coalition force headed by U.S. President

George H.W. Bush confronted Iraqi forces.

Saddam was no match for America’s firepower
and modern warfare technology.

Within six weeks Saddam’s troops were out
of Kuwait.

A ceasefire agreement was signed, the terms
of which included Iraq dismantling its germ

and chemical weapons programs.

The previously imposed economic sanctions
levied against Iraq remained in place.

Despite this and the fact that his military
had suffered a crushing defeat (an estimated

150,000 Iraqis died), Saddam claimed victory
in the conflict.

He called “The Mother of All Battles”
his biggest victory and maintained that Iraq

had actually repulsed an attack by “America
and its criminal gang.”

He said, “Iraq has punched a hole in the
the myth of American superiority and rubbed the

the nose of the United States in the dust.”

During the 1990s, various Shiite and Kurdish
uprisings in Iraq occurred, but the rest of

the world, fearing another war, did little
or nothing to support these rebellions and

they were ultimately crushed by Saddam's forces.

At the same time, Iraq remained under intense
international scrutiny.

Saddam violated the terms of the UN’s peace
the deal -- when inspectors were sent into Iraq

they found and destroyed stockpiles of weapons
including chemical and biological warheads

and a “supergun” with missiles capable
of reaching Israel.

The inspectors also alleged Saddam was still
at work developing nuclear weapons.

In 1993, when Iraqi forces violated a no-fly
zone imposed by the UN, the U.S. launched

a damaging missile attack on Baghdad.

Further strikes occurred in 1998.

With economic sanctions still in place in
the years following the Gulf War, Saddam continued

to maintain his personal wealth, and his family’s,
through selling oil and medical supplies meant

for his people on the black market.

While the citizens of Iraq were in dire straits,
he built opulent palaces and maintained his

lifestyle.

Saddam's Fall
After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in

September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush
and members of his administration suspected

Saddam’s government of having a relationship
with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization.

And, of possessing “weapons of mass destruction.”

In his January 2002 State of the Union address,
President Bush named Iraq part of his so-called

"Axis of Evil," along with Iran and North
Korea.

Later that year, UN inspections of suspected
weapons sites began, but little or no evidence

that such programs existed was ultimately
found.

Despite this, on March 20, 2003, under the
the pretense that Iraq did, in fact, have a covert

weapons program and that it was planning attacks,
a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.

Within weeks, the government and military
had been toppled, and on April 9, 2003, Baghdad

fell.

Saddam, however, managed to elude capture.

In the months that followed, an intensive
search for Saddam began.

While in hiding, Saddam released several audio
recordings, in which he denounced Iraq's invaders

and called for resistance.

Finally, on December 13, 2003, Saddam was
found hiding in a hole in the ground, a bunker

near a farmhouse in ad-Dawr, near Tikrit.

The once well-dressed and groomed leader looked
disheveled, unshaven and bewildered when he

was arrested.

Saddam was moved to a U.S. base in Baghdad,
where he would remain until June 30, 2004,

when he was officially handed over to the
interim Iraqi government to stand trial for

crimes against humanity.

With his days numbered, Saddam showed no accountability
or remorse for his crimes.

In 2003, when asked by Iraqi politicians about
his brutal acts, Saddam called the Halabja

attack Iran’s handiwork; said that Kuwait
was rightfully part of Iraq and that the mass

graves were filled with thieves who fled the
battlefields.

Saddam declared that he had been “just but
the firm” because Iraqis needed a tough ruler.

During his trial, Saddam would prove to be
a belligerent defendant, often boisterously

challenging the court's authority and making
bizarre statements.

On November 5, 2006, Saddam was found guilty
and sentenced to death.

The sentencing was appealed but was ultimately
upheld by a court of appeals.

On December 30, 2006, at Camp Justice, an
Iraqi base in Baghdad, Saddam was executed.

He was then buried in Al-Awja, his birthplace,
on December 31, 2006.

This closed the chapter on one of modern history’s
most tyrannical and brutal dictators.

Osama Bin Laden Biography: The World's Most Wanted Man

Osama bin Laden
He was the world’s most wanted international
terrorist – the Svengali-like a leader at
the helm of a violent political movement that
brought havoc and destruction the world over.
His name became instantly familiar – Osama
bin Laden.
We all recognized his image; the long, drawn
face, the scraggly beard, the turban.

Yet, discovering the man behind the image
has never been easy, causing him to be referred

to as a ‘fact-checkers nightmare.’

Only now, 6 years after his death, are we
able to piece together a complete profile

of the life and death of the man at the forefront
of a violent political movement that significantly

impacted our world.

In this week’s Biographie, we discover the
the truth about Osama bin Laden.

* * *

Formative Years
Osama bin Laden was born into a wealthy industrialist

family in the city of Riyadh in 1957.

His father, Mohammed bin Laden, was a builder
and contractor, who, during his lifetime had

eleven wives and at least fifty-two children.

His mother was a petite Syria woman.

Mohammed was an ambitious businessman who
had brought his family from Yemen to Saudi

Arabia in the hopes of both advancing his
own professional opportunities and providing

opportunities for his sons.

Things went well, and the elder bin Laden
built important social relationships and

forged enduring bonds with notable members
of Saudi society, including members of the

House of Saud – Saudi Arabia’s ruling
family.

Mohammed built the bin Laden Construction
Corporation into one of the largest and most

profitable construction businesses in the
The Middle East.

As he became more successful, Mohammad further
strengthened his bond with the Saudi Royal

family.

He used his money and influence to bolster
the image of the House of Saud.

In return, King Faisal decreed that all the
nation’s construction contracts would be

awarded to the bin Laden Corporation.

Mohammad bin Laden died in a plane crash in
1967.

The ten-year-old Osama was told at the funeral
by King Faisal that ‘today I have lost my

right hand.’

The Construction Corporation was taken over
by Osama’s older brothers.

By the mid-1990’s it was worth around $36
billion.

Osama was groomed to enter the family business.

After successfully completing high school,
he furthered his education at King Abdul Aziz

University.

There he studied economics and management
with an eye to a future in business.

He also learned the behind-the-scenes dynamics
of the family enterprise.

Unlike Osama, most of his brothers chose to
attend Western Universities where they were

not constricted by Islamic tradition.

This was particularly true of Osama’s half-brother
Salim.

Known for his good looks and charm, Salim
was educated in London and flew his own private

plane.

In the early 1970s, Osama, now in his mid-teens,
began to enjoy the excesses of wealth.

He would regularly make the trip to Beirut,
Lebanon to take in the excitement of the city’s

fast-paced nightlife.

He spent hours frequenting bars, nightclubs
and casinos and often drank more than he should

have.

He also began enjoying the company of beautiful
young women.

Spiritual Awakening
Around 1975, however, Osama bin Laden had

a spiritual rebirth, causing him to return
to Islam with a fervent devotion that altered

his goals and lifestyle dramatically.

It began when he decided to help with restoration
work on two mosques.

At the same time, he began meeting with Islamic
fundamentalists and reading more about the

teachings of Islam.

Within weeks he had disowned his former loose
way of life and become a devout Muslim.

At the age of twenty, Osama entered an arranged
marriage with a devout Syrian woman who was

a distant cousin.

Together they immersed themselves in Islamic
Fundamentalism, rejecting Western values and

priorities and condemning its greatest proponent,
the United States.

When Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was killed
by his deranged nephew, bin Laden’s anti-American

sentiments were reinforced.

The king’s nephew had been educated in the
The United States and had become completely westernized.

Bin Laden was thrilled when, in 1979, a fundamentalist
the religious leader is known as Ayatollah Ruhollah

Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, who was
seen as a puppet of the United States.

For the first time, Islamic fundamentalists
had seized a Muslim country and established

an Islamic state.

It gave undeniable proof that radical Islamic
forces could prevail over Western decadency.

Then, towards the end of 1979, the Soviet
Union invaded the largely Muslim nation of

Afghanistan.

Soviet forces were ruthless, pouring overwhelming
firepower on the Afghanistan resistance.

They killed the Afghanistan president, and
put their own government in place.

Middle Eastern Arab nations were alarmed.

They were all sympathetic to the Afghani cause,
but knew that none of them had the ability

to take on the Soviet war machine.

Yet, Islamic fundamentalist militants were
determined to do something.

Ousting the Soviets and restoring Islam in
its purest sense fit their definition of jihad,

or Holy War.

Thousands of young men, united by Islam rather
than national boundaries, traveled to Afghanistan

to risk their lives for their beliefs.

Among them was Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the
the impetus that took Osama bin Laden out of his

comfortable life of privilege and into his
reincarnation as a freedom fighter.

Yet, unlike many others, he did not unthinkingly
grab an AK-47 and rush off to the desert to

join the guerrilla army.

His first stop was Pakistan, where he set
up recruitment, station to bring Muslims

from surrounding Arab nations to the cause
of jihad.

It soon became clear that his business background
and money was going to be a huge asset.

He organized training camps where the recruits
learned the art of strategic warfare.

Bin Laden knew that the thousands of eager
young men he was gathering together needed

a support network.

So, he also began recruiting doctors, bomb
experts, military strategists, and engineers

from all over the Arab world.

His family’s building background impelled
him to build the infrastructure that would

be needed to defeat the Soviets.

Men who had come to fight soon found themselves
digging trenches, paving roads and building

hospitals and depots.

During the 1980s, bin Laden was instrumental
in bringing together in Afghanistan and nearby

areas of Pakistan more than twenty-five thousand
Muslim fighters from at least thirty-five

countries across the Muslim world.

Yet, support also came from the most unlikely
of places – the United States.

The U.S. was fixated on stopping Soviet expansion
and so we're willing to support Islamic efforts

to remove the Communist invaders from Afghanistan.

Despite their hatred of the United States,
the jihadists gladly accepted their backing

– after all, it meant money, weapons and
supplies.

Still, they made sure that the Americans stayed
well clear of their operations.

One Islamic intelligence officer noted that
‘no American instructor was ever involved

in giving training on any kind of weapon or
equipment to the mujahideen,’ or holy fighters.

Bin Laden was instrumental in securing from
the United States ‘stingers’, which were

heat-seeking ground-to-air missiles with the
ability to bring down a Soviet fighter plane.

With the aid of American stingers, bin Laden’s
men could bring down at least 270 Soviet aircraft.

Through their fixation on defeating the Soviets
by whatever means necessary, the U.S was

creating a monster.

As well as bringing money, resources and organizational
skill to the jihadist cause, bin Laden fought

alongside his fellow jihadists.

One of his troops recalled . . .

He was a hero to us because he was on the
front line, always moving ahead of everybody

else.

He not only gave us money, but he also gave
himself.

He came down from his palace to live with
the Afghan peasants and the Arab fighters.

He cooked with them, ate with them, dug trenches
with them.

That was bin Laden’s way.

Bin Laden was not afraid of death, convinced
that there was a special place in the hereafter

for those who participated in jihad.

He often stated that one day of fighting in
Afghanistan was like a thousand days of praying

in an ordinary mosque.

As a result, he was more than willing to become
a martyr for the cause.

Conquering Hero
In 1989, after a painful decade, the Soviets

finally withdrew from Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia with
the reputation of a jihadist hero.

He was hugely popular amongst the common people,
and the ruling family saw friendship with

him as a way to quell criticism from Islamic
fundamentalists, who saw them as too western.

Bin Laden milked his hero status for all it
was worth.

He spoke at mosques and other places, often
drawing large crowds of young men who were

inspired to help create an Islamic fundamentalist
world.

His speeches, filled with venom against the
The United States were often taped, with over

a million copies circulating around the Mulsim
world.

Despite returning to the rich embrace of his
family, Osama did not avail himself of the

a lavish lifestyle that was available to him.

He moved into a modest apartment with his
wife and children and did his best to live

according to strict Islamic teachings.

Yet, a fire was smoldering inside him.

That fire was inflamed in August 1990 when
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded the neighboring

the nation of Kuwait, with Saudi Arabia looking
to be his next target.

Panic rose in the House of Saudi.

Bin Laden stepped up to offer his assistance,
his experience in Afghanistan allowed him

to map out a battle strategy to save his country.

He was determined that any Iraqi aggression
would be met my Muslim forces alone.

To call on the West for help would be, he
argued, contrary to Islamic teachings and

demoralizing to the nation.

Bin Laden warned the Saudi government that
assistance from the U.S. would mean that Islamic

fundamentalists would withdraw their support.

But Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Défense,
Prince Sultan knew that even bin Laden’s

forces could not defend his country from the
air, naval or chemical and biological weapons

attacks that Saddam Hussein had at his disposal.

On one occasion, bin Laden burst in the Prince’s
office and yelled,

There is no need for American troops!

Yet, when the prince asked him how he would
save the people from an Iraqi chemical weapon

the attack, he could only reply . . .

We will defeat them with our faith.

The Saudi Government did turn to the United
States for help.

The result was the Gulf War – a U.S. led
Western assault on Iraq.

Saddam was pushed back and his threat negated.

However, to the outrage of bin Laden and his
fundamentalist followers, U.S. military forces

remained in the region in case Saddam made
any further aggressive moves.

The House of Saudi, who had not long before
seen association with bin Laden as an asset,

now got nervous at Osama’s hero status and
huge popularity.

They warned him to restrain from making negative
public comment about their reliance on the

West, threatening to remove the lucrative
public contracts that had been given to the

family business.

Exile

The relationship between bin Laden and the
House of Saud quickly deteriorated to the

the point that, in 1991, he was expelled from
the country.

Three years later his citizenship was revoked.

He fled to Sudan with his immediate family,
which now included three wives and fifteen

children.

They moved into a brick and stucco home in
Khartoum where he lived a simple and deeply

religious life.

In Sudan, bin Laden quickly found support
for his ideology, which was fiercely opposed

to any collaboration with the West.

His goal was to overthrow regimes that were
friendly to the U.S. and establish in their

place true Islamic states.

The first step towards that end would be to
strike at U.S. targets throughout the world.

By doing so, it was believed that the United
States would be forced to withdraw from the

The Middle East.

Then, the governments that been propped up
by America could easily be toppled.

The nucleus of the terrorist organization
that would bring about these changes was a

the group that bin Laden helped develop.

It was called al-Qaeda.

From their base in Sudan, experienced al-Qaeda
leaders were sent to various parts of the

a world where there were large Muslim populations.

Their mission was to incite an Islamic revolution
and carry out acts of terrorism.

In his first year in Sudan, bin Laden became
a disciple of Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, the

Islamic spiritual leader of Sudan.

While Turabi helped Osama to deepen his spiritual
development, bin Laden, in turn, built up

Turabi’s jihadist group, the Popular International
Organization or PIO.

He also built connections with various international
financial institutions to channel money towards

his growing terror networks.

At the same time, he could smuggle terrorists
into the United States by arranging for them

to be employees of companies owned by wealthy
pro-Islamic Middle eastern businessmen.

Meanwhile, within Sudan, bin Laden established
a building company is known as the al-Hijrah

for Construction and Development Ltd.

Its sole purpose was to build an infrastructure
in Sudan to move the equipment, vehicles,

and weaponry needed to expedite terrorist
acts.

International Terrorist
By the mid-1990’s bin Laden had established

a worldwide reputation as a revolutionary,
with thousands of young jihadists idolizing

him and dreaming of being just like him.

The first bombing attack that was credited
to bin Laden was the December 29, 1992 attack

on two hotels in Aden, Yemen.

Both hotels were frequently used by U.S. military
personnel in the area.

Three people were killed and five more were
wounded in the attack.

This was part of a concerted effort to oust
the Americans from the Horn of Africa and

assert fundamentalist Islamic power in the
region.

The focus of the action was Somalia, where
bin Laden organized fierce fighting against

U.S. forces who were there for humanitarian
purposes.

Bin Laden counted the withdrawal of U.S, troops
from Mogadishu as among his most significant

victories against the U.S.

Following his actions in Somalia, bin Laden
turned his attention to Europe.

His first step was to bolster the Islamic
fundamentalist movement in the Balkans, before

setting his sights on Western Europe and the
The United States.

Muslim communities in these places were saturated
with pro-Islamic, anti-Western propaganda.

Bin Laden also relied heavily on e-mail and
the internet to get the word out.

In 1995, al-Qaeda turned its attention back
to the Middle Eastern nations that it believed

were roadblocks to the establishment of Islamic
fundamentalist regimes throughout the Muslim

world.

Bin Laden saw Egypt and Saudi Arabia as the
two biggest local obstacles to his cause.

In Saudi Arabia, he became obsessed with overthrowing
the House of Saud.

In November 1995, he orchestrated the bombing
of a U.S. Military training center in Riyadh,

killing seven people.

The House of Saud was outraged at the attack,
convinced that bin Laden was behind it.

A few days after the attack, four mercenaries
from Yemen opened fire with AK-47’s outside

of his residence in Sudan.

Bin Laden’s bodyguards returned fire and,
within minutes, three of the assailants and

two bodyguards were dead.

From that day on, Osama bin Laden’s house
and the street was transformed into an armed

camp.

It wasn’t just the House of Saud that were
after him.

In 1996, a U.S. Special Forces operation was
launched to capture bin Laden, with the aid

of America friendly Mulsim nations.

From now on, he refused to venture out of
Sudan. But then both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

turned up the screws, threatening economic
sanctions on Sudan unless they handed bin

Laden over.

He was quietly asked to leave and he and his
wife and children headed for Afghanistan in

May 1996.

Safely ensconced in Afghanistan, bin Laden
now fully embraced the role of international

leader of the Islamic extremist movement.

To stay alive, though, he had to surround
himself with many bodyguards.

He established a three-room operations base
in a cave that had been carved out of the

mountainside, that was equipped with basic
furnishings.

His only connections to the outside world
were his satellite phone and two laptops.

In 1998, bin Laden turned his destructive
attention back to Africa.

His plan was to bomb two U.S. Embassies in
different African countries.

On August 7th, simultaneous attacks in Kenya
and Tanzania killed hundreds of people.

Although he denied responsibility, the international
the community were unanimous that bin Laden was

behind the attacks.

As a result, the U.S. stepped up its attempts
to take him out, with an airstrike on October

20th known as Operation Infinite Reach.

It destroyed three terrorist training camps
in the Afghani mountains, but bin Laden remained

at large.

Target: USA

A year later, he was connected to an attack
on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole.

The ship had stopped to refuel in the port
of Aden, Yemen, when terrorists blasted it,

killing seventeen sailors.

Less than a month after that, two planes smashed
into the twin towers of the World Trade Center

in New York City, striking a devastating blow
at the very symbol of American business and

achievement.

Within moments it had been transformed into
a full-blown war zone.

About 45 minutes later, the terror struck
again.

A hijacked airliner that had departed from
Virginia was spearheaded into the Pentagon

– the nation's military headquarters.

The horrific, shocking attack, the deadliest
since Peral Harbor, was a major wake up call

for the United States.

A $25 million reward was offered for bin Laden
and antiterrorist task forces were set up.

Despite a full-on effort to bring him to justice,
bin Laden was able to remain at large, plotting

further attacks for another decade.

Sometime in the mid-2000s, he slipped into
Pakistan.

For a while, he stayed in rural mountain villages
protected by local tribal leaders.

Then he moved to the Abbottabad compound with
three of his wives (he now had five) and thirteen

of his children.

It was there that the Americans finally got
their man.

The End
In the early morning hours of May 2nd,2011,

about twenty-five Navy SEAL commandos descended
on the Abbottabad compound.

They quickly breached the 18-foot walls and
then stormed the house, using explosives to

gain entry.

Two men encountered on the first floor were
killed, and then the commandos rushed upstairs

where they identified and killed bin Laden.

He was shot in the chest and the forehead.

One of his wives was also shot in the leg
when she lunged at a SEAL.

To make sure that they had gotten their man,
one of the SEAL’s took a photo and then

quickly put it through facial recognition
software.

The result showed a 95 percent likelihood
that this was Osama bin Laden.

Later DNA testing put it beyond a shadow of
doubt – the world’s number one terrorist

was dead.

Osama bin Laden was buried at sea shortly
after the raid.

Unfortunately, the terror organization that
he created remains.

MKRdezign

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