Who is Osama Bin Laden? Biography of a Terrorist

Osama Bin Laden is a difficult person to write about. His name calls for hard feelings, and sensitivity and special caution are needed. However, he is and will be an important part of History, and would be reckless to ignore him. Besides, "get to know your enemy so you can defeat him" is an old and wise war strategy. The information we have about him is little and sometimes confusing, difficult to prove completely.

Bin Laden was born in 1957, in Arabia Saudi, from a family who came from . His father, a poor and uneducated Yemeni, built a wealthy business as a building contractor, and he worked often for the Saudi Royal Family. Bin Laden was raised through the Sunni precepts, which are the Qur'an teachings and Islamic traditions. He attended elite private schools, were he contacted for first time with the world of the political activism, and he studied Islam at after school groups known by their active points of view of politics.

In College, Bin Laden studied and graduated in Civil Engineering, Economic, and Public Administration. He is also an expert in Islamic Jurisprudence. He is educated and reportedly a well-mannered man.

When Osama was 17 years old, he married his first wife, Najwa. He married trough his live four more women, but he only divorced one, Uam Ali. She said that she could not take any more Bin Laden's austerity and strict way of life. No showings of fortune were allowed in the Bin Laden's family. He fathered a big amount of children, around 12 and 24, but the numbers are difficult to assure.

In 1979, Osama went to to help in the fight against the Soviet invasion, and he used his money to found, in 1984, Maktab Al-Khadamat, a big group of fundamentalist Muslims ready to fight for the independence. He used this group as courier between Arabia Saudi and .

The Saudi Government pushed hard Bin Laden to leave the country, and in 1991, he left to . In 1994, Arabia Saudi revoked his citizenship for illegal activities. He establishes a new group in Khartoum, financed with money from his business and some charity funds, and he recruited fighters from all around the world.