LOS ANGELES TIMES: He used his great wealth to fund a terrorist campaign fueled by a puritanical vision of Islam and a hatred for the West.
Reporting from Islamabad— Osama bin Laden, a scion of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, became the grim apostle of a strain of Islamic radicalism that exalted violence against non-believers, and the leader of a terrorist network that launched repeated attacks in the West, most spectacularly in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2011.
Born in 1957 to a life of privilege, Bin Laden was one of more than 50 offspring of a Saudi construction magnate. He spent his youth in mansions filled with crystal chandeliers, gold statues and Italian tapestries.
Yet he became a figure of worldwide influence as a supporter of Muslim freedom fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s and, later, as an organizer and financier of terrorist cells who concealed his whereabouts, living in safe houses, remote camps and even caves in Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The world's most wanted man was killed during a firefight Sunday with U.S. forces in Abbotabad, about 30 miles northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. He had a $25-million bounty on his head set by the U.S.
Yossef Bodansky, a terrorism expert who wrote a biography of Bin Laden, labeled him "the man who declared war on America." For former President George W. Bush and countless Americans, he was simply "the evil one."
In 1994, Saudi Arabia stripped Bin Laden of his citizenship. Many members of his family, closely linked to the monarchy, had disavowed him long before. Hatred for America » | Monday, May 01, 2011
LA TIMES PHOTOGALLERY: The death of Osama bin Laden: Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda network that executed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was killed as the result of a U.S. military operation, President Obama has announced. The world’s most wanted terrorist was 54. »| Times Editors | Sunday, May 01, 2011
