Osama Bin Laden Biography

Osama bin Laden was an international terrorist, religious extremist, and founder of the radical jihad organization Al Qaeda. A devout Sunni Muslim, as a student bin Laden was devoted to religious study, and after graduating used his wealth to fund religious resistance fighters in the Soviet War in Afghanistan. The organizations he founded helped to supply arms, resources and training to militant religious factions in Saudi territory. When the Saudi Arabian government sanctioned the deployment of U.S. troops on Saudi soil, bin Laden spoke out vocally against his own country and was eventually banished to Sudan where he continued to grow his resources and fund jihad. After his organization failed an assassination attempt and was exiled from Sudan, he returned to Afghanistan and declared war on the United States with a fatwa entitled the 'Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places.' He began a series of coordinated attacks on the U.S. embassies in East African cities and many other international sites until his war crimes culminated with the ‘World Trade Center’ attacks. In the United States bin Laden became public enemy number one, and was wanted internationally for his violent attacks on unarmed civilians