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• Osama bin Laden is the leader of Al Qaeda, a group that funds and trains Islamic militants to carry out attacks spreading jihad, or holy war, across the globe.GlobalSecurity.org: Al Qaeda His specific whereabouts are unknown, although GlobalSecurity.org states that he is generally believed to be along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.GlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden

  On June 11, 2009, the CIA's director, Leon Panetta, said that intelligence agents had been deployed to Pakistan to assist Pakistani military forces in searching for Bin Laden.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/11/osama-bin-laden-pakistan-cia

• Fast Facts

  1. Full name: Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin LadenGlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden
  2. AKA: Usama bin Laden, Abu Abdallah Abd Al-Hakim, Mujahid ShaykhGlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden
  3. Born: 1957GlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden
  4. Birthplace: Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaGlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden
  5. Alma mater: King Abdul Aziz UniversityPBS: Osama bin Laden
  6. Degree: Civil engineeringPBS: Osama bin Laden
  7. Saudi citizenship revoked in 1994GlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden
  8. Saudi government has frozen his assetsPBS: Osama bin Laden
  9. Height: 6'4" - 6'6"FBI: Usama Bin Laden
  10. Weight: 160 lbsFBI: Usama Bin Laden
  11. Left handedFBI: Usama Bin Laden

• Bin Laden's Health

  1. Walks with a caneFBI: Usama Bin Laden
  2. Rumored to have kidney problemsABC News: Examination of Tape Raises Questions about Osama bin Laden's Health (January 16, 2009)
  3. January 2009 tape appears to show him short of breathABC News: Examination of Tape Raises Questions about Osama bin Laden's Health (January 16, 2009)
  4. In January of 2009, he called on Arab leaders to undertake jihad against Israel in response to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.ABC News: Bin Laden Urges Jihad Against Israel (January 14, 2009)
  5. One of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives

• Early Life

  Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, the 17th of 52 children of a wealthy businessman.PBS: Osama bin Laden His birth date is usually given as March 10, but has also been cited as July 30.GlobalSecurity.org: Osama bin Laden In 1979, after some time in college, bin Laden assembled Maktab al-Khadamat, a military league to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

• Al-Qaeda

  In 1988, bin Laden formed Al Qaeda in order to implement a jihad on non-Muslim nations. Al Qaeda has attacked dozens of locations around the world in the years since.

• 9/11 Attacks

  On September 11, 2001, four commercial airliners were hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, another crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the last plunged into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Bin Laden did not claim responsibility for the attacks until 2004.

• War On Terror

  One month after 9/11, President Bush launched a war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. As of 2009, the war continues, and bin Laden has still not been found. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million bounty for information on his location or possible death.

  Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock produced a 2008 documentary, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, that followed his personal manhunt for bin Laden in the Middle East.

• Saad bin Laden

  On January 16, 2009 the United States Treasury Department zeroed-in on four alleged Al-Qaeda operatives with ties to the organization's operations in Iran. The department issued executive order 13224, freezing the men's assets and prohibiting transactions between them and U.S. citizens. The purpose of such an order is to target the operatives as well as those that support them, and forces Iran to publicly accept responsibility for how it is meeting its international obligations regarding Al Qaeda. The four men, including Osama Bin Laden's third oldest son Saad bin Laden, Muhammad Rab'a al-Sayid al-Bahtiyti, Ali Saleh Husain and Mustafa Hamid, were allegedly detained by Iranian authorities in 2003, though it is believed Sa'ad bin Laden has been away from the country since at least September of 2008.Google News (AFP): US Treasury Targets Bin Laden Son, Al Qaeda with Iran Ties (January 16, 2009)

• Video Threats

  On June 3, 2009, Al Jazeera TV reported that Bin Laden warned the U.S. to "be prepared to receive the consequences" of former President Bush and current President Barack Obama's administrations. The statement came via an audio recording that was played on the Arab news network.Fox News: Bin Laden Tells... Bin Laden said Obama has "planted seeds of hatred and vengeance towards America" and has "followed the same path taken by his predecessor."CBS: Alleged Bin Laden Tape Blasts...

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  Omar bin Laden | Al Qaeda | Bin Laden Video | September 11 | George W. Bush | War on Terror | Afghanistan War | Terrorism | Saudi Arabia | Nawaz Sharif | Ayman al-Zawahiri | Waziristan Conflict | Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? | Adam Gadahn | Amin al-Haq | Hassan Nasrallah | Malika El-Aroud | Terrorism Calendar | Mullah Omar | Devil's Advocate TV Show | Adam Yahiye Gadahn | Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi| Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani | Saad Bin Laden Dead

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