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03-02-2008, 07:22 PM
Some facts about Sept. 11, 2001 Osama bin Laden has been called America's most wanted terrorist suspect at least since the bombing in 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. State Department said bin Laden is "one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world." His code name, "The Contractor," is maybe the best indicator of bin Laden's link to terrorism. Officials in many countries including the United States say that bin Laden's money has paid for attacks in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His personal wealth is estimated at $250 million US. Osama bin Laden is believed to be the youngest of 24 brothers in a family that came from Yemen and built up one of the largest construction companies in the Arab world, Bin Laden Group, an empire based in the Saudi city of Jidda that made its fortune in building projects for the Saudi royal family. As a teenager and a young man, Osama bin Laden was reported to be a typical Saudi of his generation, a bit of a playboy who used his family fortune to have fun outside of Saudi Arabia in Europe and the Gulf states. The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1979 changed bin Laden's life. Like many young Islamists, he went to Afghanistan to help fight the invaders, to take part in the jihad against the infidel Soviets. He gave the family money and his own expertise gleaned from the family business to MAK, Maktab al-Khidimat, which recruited young Muslim men from around the world. He also used his fortune to help buy equipment for the Afghan resistance. In 1984, he helped Abdullah Azzam, founder of the Pakistani "Office of Services," establish training camps across the border in Afghanistan. The Office of Services' goal was to recruit and train Muslim volunteers. Bin Laden provided financial support and handling of military affairs. Two years later, in 1986, Bin Laden established his own training camp for Persian Gulf Arabs called al Masadah, or the Lion's Den. In 1988, as the Soviet occupation faltered in Afghanistan, bin Laden turned to a global crusade. He founded the group called al-Qaeda, Arabic for The Base. According to one report from the CIA in 2001, al-Qaeda had at least 5,000 trained militants, who created cells in 50 countries. The purpose of these camps was to take militants from around the world and shape them into an international network that would bring all Muslims under a militant version of Islamic law. In 1989, the collapsing Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to join his family's construction company. He kept up his contacts with al-Qaeda. In 1991, bin Laden moved the headquarters of al-Qaeda to Sudan, where a militant Islamic government had come to power. In 1993, a bomb exploded in an underground parking garage at the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people and injuring another 1,000. The attack was linked to al-Qaeda. In 1994, Saudi Arabia stripped bin Laden of citizenship for alleged terrorist links and his family disavowed him, at least publicly. In 1996, bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan for Afghanistan following intense pressure from the U.S. on the government. While in Sudan, bin Laden met a man who was probably a key ally, Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese said to be a leader of Hezbollah, wanted by the United States for kidnappings and killings during the civil war in Lebanon in the 1980s. By September of that year, the militant Taliban, capitalizing on the divisions in Afghanistan, which was torn by civil war between the mujahedeen factions, took over the country and imposed strict Islamic rule. Bin Laden's son Saad was with Osama when he returned to Afghanistan. By 1998, bin Laden had teamed up with an Egyptian militant, Ayman Zawahiri, to form "The International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders," which acted as an umbrella group for international militant groups. It issued a religious order saying it was a religious duty of Muslims to kill Americans anywhere possible. The group in effect declared war against the West, but the declaration was ignored by most of the media and discounted by many in the intelligence community. In October 1998, the U.S. Justice Dept. indicted bin Laden for his alleged role in ordering the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In 1999, bin Laden moved to the village of Farmifadda, Afghanistan, and later settled in a compound near Jalalabad. In October 2000, suicide bombers attacked the U.S.S. Cole in Aden harbour in Yemen. Bin Laden was proven as the person ordering the attack. On September 11, 2001, members of al-Qaeda hijacked American passenger planes and attacked New York and Washington. Osma bin Laden and his associates admitted to ordering the attack. They soon fled Jalalabad for the mountains. On Oct. 7, the United States and its allies began the attack on Afghanistan and the Taliban regime quickly collapsed. In December 2001, U.S. intelligence pinpointed bin Laden in a cave complex at Tora Bora. U.S. special and regular forces and Afghan allies attacked the caves, but bin Laden successfully slipped through their fingers and disappeared into the mountains.
__________________  Peace Through Superior Firepower ! 
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03-02-2008, 08:14 PM
| #2 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 2,904
| Nice post.
__________________ America: Love it and protect it or leave it |
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03-02-2008, 08:36 PM
| #3 |
| Member  Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 83
| Great history lesson, everyone should know this. I don't think Binladen is too effective anymore, we took the stinger out of him when we attacked the Talaban and killed or captured most all of their leaders. If he makes a phone call we know it. There will be a day when we get him, he can run but he can't hide. His days are numbered, we just don't know what the number is and neither does he, but we're going to get him. What he didn't count on is the timacity of the US and its military. He still can't believe how dedicated we are to kill him and we will do what it takes to get him. It's too bad the rest of the citizens of the US and congress does't feel the way we do. ________________________ I'm your huckleberry |
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03-02-2008, 08:55 PM
| #4 | |
| Member  Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 64
| Quote:
Nicely said | |
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03-02-2008, 10:32 PM
| #5 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Kentucky
Posts: 1,266
| i wish he would be in a crowd( yeah right) cause he is 6'5",3 feet above the average arab
__________________ Just LeDoux it |
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03-02-2008, 10:50 PM
| #6 |
| Member  Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 32
| if we don't get him God will....... |
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03-02-2008, 10:56 PM
| #7 | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Kentucky
Posts: 1,266
| Quote:
__________________ Just LeDoux it | |
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03-03-2008, 04:36 PM
| #8 | |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Anywhere The Department of Homeland Defense sends me. Tennessee, is my home.
Posts: 404
| Quote:
Yes, and I'm looking forward to it, the sooner the better.
__________________ Peace Through Superior Firepower ! | |
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03-06-2008, 08:00 PM
| #9 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Kentucky
Posts: 107
| Bin Laden is now an insignificant pimple on the butt of the world. He will be in hell soon enough! May God bless his heathenist bastard soul! (Not!!) |
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03-06-2008, 09:14 PM
| #10 |
| Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cherokee Co. Alabama
Posts: 66
| Wasnt gonna post this, but the events of that day stirred a 17 year old to give his dad and mom an early Christmas present, his enlistment papers to sign. Some time later he took us to Ground Zero. I cant describe what I felt that day, but havent felt anything like it, before or since. But i digress, bin Laden has had his day of death marked. |
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03-06-2008, 10:45 PM
| #11 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Kentucky
Posts: 107
| God help Bin Laden, etc God bless you, your wife and honored son!! |
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03-10-2008, 07:10 PM
| #12 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: New York
Posts: 579
| We all had a chance to get his entire family but we didn't take advantage of it. After 9/11, there was a total ban of all aircraft flying over US airspace, except for several planes flying Bin Ladens family out of the US, according to news sources.. |
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03-10-2008, 11:10 PM
| #13 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Kentucky
Posts: 107
| What would we want with his family? Hold them hostage? Osamma is kind of a black sheep of a family that disavowed his terrorist actions years ago. I'm proud that W got them safely home to SA before some nut like me did something to them, innocent or not. Perhaps those squaking about it would like to have seen a miniature japanese internment type thing happen/ I thought the "W haters" didn't like Guantanomo, Abu Graibe and other places where "enemy personell" are held? What would you have done if you had to make the decision to allow them safe flights home? Or thought if Clinton was still pres? What if the Saudies reacted to our holding them hostage by "holding" Americans in their country. The left never asks, mentally, "I wonder if any other foreigners asked to be allowed to fly out while the airspace is closed"? Was it a military plane and not subject to civilian no-fly? Just think "What would Clinton say", or do? What if it were my loved ones who died on 911? I'd have let them go and then beat sh-- out of the sponsoring nation. Then I'd kick some other terrorist bastrad's country's butt just to show the islamic idiots what happens when you mess with US. Wait, though, that's what W did? No more attacks on US soil. Hmmmm. I think the Islamic radicals are afraid of W and will enjoy a sigh of relief if we get a dem president as they must have when we got a dem congress. They read the papers, too? Dem Sen president Reid says "The war is lost" Dems say "bring home the troops, now" |
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03-11-2008, 07:31 AM
| #14 | |
| Resident Armed Liberal   Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Southern California
Posts: 8,230
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__________________ If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. -Anatole France | |
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03-11-2008, 12:22 PM
| #15 |
| "Blazing Saddles" GOV  Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Johnson Creek, WI
Posts: 1,864
| Why did Clinton NOT take Bin Laden when he was offered ? Most of this could possibly have been prevented. |
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03-12-2008, 11:10 AM
| #16 | |
| Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Millersville Pa.
Posts: 76
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03-13-2008, 04:09 AM
| #17 |
| "Blazing Saddles" GOV Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Johnson Creek, WI
Posts: 1,864
| well... the tramp was either Monica or Hillary... I'm thinking both. He obviously made a huge mistake... and almost 3000 people died because of it. |
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03-13-2008, 03:08 PM
| #18 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,868
| America's big problem Going back to Bush address to a joint session of congress immediately after 9-11 identifying Osama and his organization as the culprit has caused a major problem. We have moved through Afghanastan and Iraq yet we have stopped at the Pakistan border. From most world press accounts, Osama and group live a relatively good life in Pakistan. To be true to the Bush address after 9-11 we should have long since wrapped up this Osama business on Pakistani soil. Sadly (and I truly mean this), Osama has morphed from being a terror threat to being a symbol of our nation's rather fractured foreign policy. |
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03-23-2008, 10:01 AM
| #19 | |
| Resident Armed Liberal Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Southern California
Posts: 8,230
| Quote:
Oops, my mistake. Bush totally let him slide because he was too busy taking out Saddam Hussein instead, didn't he?
__________________ If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. -Anatole France | |
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03-23-2008, 12:01 PM
| #20 | |
| "Blazing Saddles" GOV Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Johnson Creek, WI
Posts: 1,864
| Quote:
President Bush was off on a tangent instead of truly hunting Bin Laden (who was not in custody) in Afghanistan and not pressuring Pakistan to do more in the fight against international terror camps taking refuge under their flag. So, both parties failed. If Clinton had taken the offer... would September 11th have happened? Would we be at war right now if that single act had occurred? We might... for different reasons that may not have passed through the bipartisan Senate and Congressional members. I'm not sure there would have been as much support to go after Saddam had there not been September 11th. The war in Afghanistan would not even be in the history books, at least not against the US. | |
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