Osama Bin Laden The now infamous Osama Bin Laden was born on March 10 1967 in Saudi Arabia and is know to be a Saudi Arabian militant Islamist. Bin Laden is also believed to be one of the founders of the organization called Al Qaeda. Born to a wealthy Saudi family his parents divorced not long after he was born and he was raised with his mother’s new husband and stepbrothers and sisters in a devout Sunni Muslim household. He was publicly disowned by them in 1994 shortly before losing his Saudi citizenship for anti-government activity. The Saudi regime and many Muslims in the West regard him as a heretic while his supporters call him a jihadist and "lion of Islam”.It is believed that Bin Laden studied economics and business administration at the University of Jeddah. Other reports say he left university during his third year. Nevertheless, while at university Osama bin Laden met Islamic scholar Sheik Abdallah Azzam and became deeply religious and anti-West.Bin Laden's wealth and connections assisted his interest in supporting the mujahideen. He is suspected of funding both the November 1997 Luxor massacre in Egypt and the December 29, 1992, bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen.
The Egyptian government convicted bin Laden and sentenced him to death in absentia for the massacre. In 1993, al-Qaeda associate Ramzi Yousef used a car bomb to attack the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. It served to inspire Osama bin Laden to launch such an attack of his own. The United Nations Security Council headed by Kofi Annan have labeled al-Qaeda a terrorist organization. Al Qaeda and Bin Laden have all but admitted responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC. The attacks became the most devastating in American history, with almost 3,000 people killed, the destruction of four commercial airliners, the collapse of both World Trade Center towers, and the damaging of the The Pentagon. New York's Mayor at that time, Rudi Giuliani, won the admiration of the world with his cool handling of the tragedy. George W Bush declared the U.S. declaration of the War on Terrorism in 2001 following the attacks.
Other targeted areas include Indonesia, the 2002 Bali bombing, the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta and the bombings in August 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In response to the 1998 United States embassy bombings, President Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets that could be linked to Bin Laden. Clinton also signed an executive order, authorizing bin Laden's arrest or assassination. A website associated with al-Qaeda posted a video of captured American contractor Daniel Pearl being decapitated in Iraq. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center, Bin Laden has released several video tapes the first of which praised the Sept. 11 2001 hijackers, but stopped just short of claiming responsibility for them. In subsequent tapes, he threatened that more attacks against "the infidel" will occur and warned that "America will not live in peace." Bin Laden's whereabouts remain elusive, but he is thought to be somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The FBI has placed a $25 million bounty on his head and he now remains the number one person on the F.B.I’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitive list. ABB | 
