Osama bin Laden biography and personal life. “Osama bin Laden's family

American authorities will remove the classification of secrecy from information about the evacuation from the United States immediately after September 11 of relatives of Osama bin Laden and the king's family Saudi Arabia. According to a court decision, the FBI must tell the public why members of the family of “terrorist number one” were given special leniency by American authorities just two days after the terrorist attacks in New York.

The non-governmental organization Judicial Watch has been demanding from the FBI for three years to declassify documents on the transfer from the United States to the Middle East of the families of “America’s main enemy” Osama bin Laden and the King of Saudi Arabia.

“My relatives did not use any exceptional permission to leave the United States, bin Laden’s brother assured”

According to Judicial Watch, between September 11 and September 15, 2001, the US territory in urgently 142 Saudi Arabian representatives, including members, left on 6 charter airliners royal family and the bin Laden families and 160 other kingdom nationals who used commercial flights when American airspace was closed to commercial flights.

In their lawsuit, human rights activists argued that the American people have a right to know why charter planes and commercial flights were used to evacuate nearly 300 Saudi nationals, and how intelligence agencies even authorized the operation without conducting the necessary investigation and questioning. Let us remind you that out of 19 suicide bombers, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

American journalists established that bin Laden’s relatives hastily left the United States immediately after the terrorist attacks back in 2002. It is believed that King Fadh of Saudi Arabia personally sent an order to the embassy in Washington in September 2001 “to take measures to protect the innocent.”

After this, 24 representatives of the bin Laden family were able to leave the United States. Some of them were transported by special services to Washington from different cities of the country in the strictest secrecy, from where all members of the family flew to Saudi Arabia on a private plane.

In October 2003, FBI officials admitted that Saudi Arabian nationals, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, were indeed hastily leaving US territory. However, the FBI then explained this fact by the right to privacy.

But the intelligence services still refuse to provide all the details of this evacuation. On Tuesday in Washington, Judge Richard Roberts, after three years of proceedings, ordered the FBI to remove the classification of this information.

“We are pleased that the court refused to allow the FBI to cover its tracks and play games with the discovery process. The American people have the right to know why members of the Saudi Arabian royal family and the bin Laden family received special treatment in the days following September 11,” RIA Novosti quoted a statement from Judicial Watch as saying.

According to human rights activists, the FBI must provide all data to the plaintiffs and the court by December 15, 2006.

By the way, Osama bin Laden's brother Yeslam earlier in the interview French magazine VSD called the information that the American administration allegedly helped the Saudis leave the United States two days after the terrorist attacks a lie, which everyone can confirm.

Yeslam bin Laden made this statement after watching the film by American director Michael Moore “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which was about the evacuation of relatives of “America’s main enemy.”

“My relatives did not use any exceptional permission to leave the United States,” bin Laden’s brother assured, adding that his family members left the country on September 20, 2001 and headed to Saudi Arabia.

President of the U.S.A Donald Trump said that the son of “terrorist number one” Osama bin Laden Hamza bin Laden was destroyed during a special operation by American forces.

Bin Laden's son, for whom he was given a million dollars, was killed

"Hamza bin Laden, senior member of al-Qaeda ( Organization banned in Russia - Ed.) and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed during United States counterterrorism operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, Trump said in a statement. “The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives al-Qaeda of a figure with important leadership skills and a symbolic link to his father, but also undermines the group’s operational activities.”

The US President did not specify the place and time of the operation, as well as the circumstances under which Hamza bin Laden was killed. Earlier, American media claimed that the son of Osama bin Laden was killed in an airstrike.

Hamza bin Laden was called the most militant of all Osama's sons. True, there is very little reliable information about him. Since 2015, video messages from Hamza began to appear on the Internet with a call to continue the “holy war against the infidels.” In February 2019, the US State Department announced that a $1,000,000 reward would be offered for information on the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden. At the same time, Hamza was named the leader of Al-Qaeda.

Successful business of a Saudi loader

The bin Laden family gained worldwide fame after the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, the organizer of which is considered to be Osama bin Laden.

At the same time, the bin Laden clan renounced Osama back in 1994, when he spoke out against the Saudi authorities, accusing them of collaborating with the United States. At the same time, Osama also lost his Saudi Arabian citizenship.

The family traces its origins back to Awadh bin Laden from the village of Er-Rubat, located in Wadi Doan in the Tarim Valley, in the Yemeni governorate of Hadhramaut. Son of Avad Muhammad ibn Awad Bin Laden even before the First World War, he moved to the territory of modern Saudi Arabia. He worked as a loader in Jeddah, and in 1930 he created his own construction company. Mohammed bin Laden has attracted attention Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdurrahman ibn Faisal Al Saud, or simply Ibn Saud, the founder and first king of Saudi Arabia. Thanks to this, bin Laden's company began to receive the most profitable construction contracts. Mohammed bin Laden began to be called the “royal builder.”

Mohammed ibn Awad bin Laden. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Muhammad died on September 3, 1967, in a plane crash at the age of 59. However, the family business had more than enough successors: the “royal builder” had 56 children from 22 wives.

The bin Laden clan is called the most rich family Saudi Arabia, not counting the royal one. The Saudi Binladin Group, which is owned by the family, has an estimated annual profit of $2 billion. The company has offices in several countries around the world. The ever-growing clan is believed to number more than 600 people. It is divided into several groups: “Saudi”, “Syrian”, “Lebanese” and “Egyptian”.

Osama goes to war: how the Americans created a big problem for themselves

Osama bin Laden, The only son eleventh wife of Mohammed bin Laden Hamid al-Attas, was part of the “Syrian” group.

Osama, whose share of his father's inheritance was estimated at 25-30 million dollars, studied at a prestigious university, but in 1979 he decided to join the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, Osama bin Laden had strong ties with Pakistani intelligence, and through it, with the Americans, who did their best to support Islamic radicals fighting against the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan.

After withdrawal Soviet troops From Afghanistan, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a triumphant man. However, the war in the Persian Gulf put him at odds with royal family. Bin Laden believed that there should be no American bases in the kingdom. The terrorist that Washington viewed as "a great weapon against the Soviets" was out of control. Now Osama bin Laden was going to war with America. True, back in the early 1990s the conflict was not pronounced. Bin Laden financed detachments of Islamic militants who fought against the Serbs in Bosnia, and this did not cause protests in Washington.

It was only in 1998, when the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were blown up, that Osama bin Laden was included among the most dangerous terrorists on the planet.

Terrorist with many children

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, US authorities launched a hunt for bin Laden, which ended with his liquidation during the special operation “Neptune Spear” on May 2, 2011. “Terrorist number one” was killed not in a remote mountainous area, but in his own home, located 50 kilometers from the capital of Pakistan.

Official Islamabad denied in every possible way that it knew about bin Laden's whereabouts. At the same time, there is evidence that bin Laden lived quietly in his house for at least five years. And here questions arise not only for the Pakistanis, but also for the Americans: was there really a hunt for Osama? Or were they not going to eliminate him for the time being, using him as a bogeyman with the help of which more and more “anti-terrorist operations” around the world were justified?

It is known that Osama bin Laden had several wives. There is only estimated information about his children: it is believed that the terrorist had from 20 to 26 of them. Osama’s two eldest sons, as well as his fourth eldest son Lobster did not participate in terrorist activities and currently reside in Saudi Arabia. They have strict police control, which does not prevent them from successfully doing business.

Osama's third son— Saad bin Laden— was considered his father's successor in al-Qaeda but was allegedly killed during a US drone strike in 2009.

Another adult son of bin Laden was killed during Operation Neptune Spear: it is believed that he was Khalid.

Will bin Laden's grandchildren follow his path?

Hamza bin Laden was also buried several times, but all information about his death has so far turned out to be erroneous. True, the fact that this time the US President announced his death makes us think that it is true.

It is believed that Osama's offspring, who live legally, are under government control. It is unknown, however, how reliable it is. It is known that Hamza bin Laden was married to his daughter Muhammad Atta, who led the group of suicide bombers who carried out the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. It is possible that in the not too distant future, intelligence agencies will have to deal with the militant grandchildren of bin Laden.

The problem, of course, is not only and not so much with the bin Laden clan. Not even Saudi Arabia's wealthiest non-royal family could single-handedly become a global sponsor of terrorism. And the amazing slowness and indecisiveness shown by US intelligence agencies in relation to major figures and entire states supporting terrorist groups makes us think that Washington has not yet learned its lessons from own mistakes 1980s. But this is a topic for a separate article.

On May 2, 2011, according to the CIA, Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. He was recognized as the No. 1 terrorist in the United States and other countries.

In this collection you will see very different photos Osama bin Laden and his relatives. In these pictures you will see Osama the teenager, Osama the loving father, Osama the soulmate, and finally Osama the leader of Al Qaeda.

1. Osama bin Laden (second from right) during a visit to the Swedish city of Falun in 1971. Pictured are several local residents, including Christina and Lars Akelblad, who owned the Astoria Hotel, where Osama and his brother Salem stayed during one of their trips to Sweden. In 1971, 23 members of the wealthy bin Laden family visited Falun, and one of the elders brothers held a business meeting at Volvo. Osama was remembered then as a calm, reserved 16-year-old boy who did not stand out in any way from total mass.

2. 1978: Osama bin Laden sits in a cave in the Jalalabad area of ​​Afghanistan. It was then that he first picked up a weapon.

3. 1980s: Osama bin Laden with Afghans in the Jalalabad area during the war against Soviet forces. Osama fought in this war for almost ten years.

4. 1989: Osama (right) in Afghanistan.

12. Osama bin Laden meets with a group of reporters in the mountains of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on December 24, 1998. Bin Laden was later involved in a series of terrorist attacks, including the World War II bombing. mall in New York in 1993, in the car bombing in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia in 1995, in the 1996 truck bombing at the barracks in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American soldiers, and in the attack in 1998 year at the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

14. The attention of the entire world community was focused on the personality of Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed about three thousand people. The picture shows a still from the Al Jazeera TV program, which was shown on the second anniversary of the September 11 tragedy.

15. Undated still from a video that aired in 2007. In this video, Osama talks about the importance of jihad and glorifies the martyrs who died in the name of Allah. Osama is believed to have crossed the Pakistani border after US and British troops launched an offensive in Afghanistan in late 2001.

17. Omar bin Laden, the 26-year-old son of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, with his wife Jane Felix-Brown before airing on Italian television in 2008.

18. Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza bin Laden, in an undated video taken during al-Qaeda training.

Terrorist No. 1 was killed in May 2011

Nearly 17 years after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden's family remains an influential part of Saudi society - but also a reminder of the darkest moment in the kingdom's history and one of the most tragic chapters for all humanity.

The mother, stepfather and brothers of Osama bin Laden, with the consent of the Saudi authorities, spoke with a journalist from the British newspaper The Guardian - for the first time since the former terrorist No. 1 was killed on May 2, 2011 in Pakistan as a result of a military operation by American special forces. Bin Laden's relatives, as well as representatives of Saudi and British intelligence, spoke about what kind of person bin Laden was and how he came to do what he did.

NV invites you to familiarize yourself with full translation The Guardian's reporting from the bin Laden family's home in Saudi Arabia.

"He was a very good kid"

A woman in a bright patterned robe sits expectantly in the corner of a sofa in a spacious room. The red hijab covering her hair is reflected in the glass cabinet: inside it, among other family heirlooms and valuables, a framed photograph of her first-born son takes pride of place. The smiling bearded man is dressed in a military jacket; he is also depicted in many photographs hanging in the room. Meanwhile, dinner is prepared on the large wooden dining table - Saudi meze [a selection of appetizers] and lemon cheesecake.

Alia Ghanem is the mother of Osama bin Laden and has the attention of everyone in the room. Sitting on adjacent chairs are her two surviving sons, Ahmad and Hassan, as well as her second husband, Mohammed al-Attas, the man who raised all three brothers. Everyone in the family has their own story about a person who is used to being associated with the rise global terrorism; but today it is Ghanem who holds court, describing the man who for her is still her beloved son, who once lost his way.

The Bin Ladens remain one of the kingdom's wealthiest families: their construction empire built much of modern Saudi Arabia and is deeply involved in the country's establishment

“My life was very difficult because he was so far from me,” she says with conviction. “He was very good child, and loved me so much." Ghanem, who is over 70 and whose health has already declined, points to al-Attas, a thin, slender man, dressed, like his two sons, in an immaculately ironed snow-white tobe - a robe-shirt, which worn by men Arabian Peninsula. "He [second husband Mohammed al-Attas] raised Osama from the age of three. He was good husband, and he was good for Osama."

The family gathered in one corner of their mansion in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, which was home to several generations of the bin Laden clan. They remain one of the kingdom's wealthiest families: their dynastic building empire built much of modern Saudi Arabia and is deeply involved in the country's establishment.

The bin Laden home reflects their wealth and influence, with a large central spiral staircase leading to huge, spacious rooms. Ramadan has come and gone, and now tables around the house are lined with bowls of dates and chocolate to mark the end of the three-day holiday [Eid al-Fitr].

Large estates line the rest of the street; This is wealthy Jeddah, and although there are no guards outside, the bin Ladens are the area's most prominent residents.

Saudi Arabia's new leadership, led by the ambitious 32-year-old heir to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, agreed to my [The Guradian's] request to speak with the family. (As one of the country's most powerful families, the bin Ladens' movements and meetings are under close surveillance.)

9/11: "From the very beginning we knew it was Osama"

"Legacy" of Osama bin Laden - like a big one dark spot both on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and on his family, senior officials believe that by allowing the bin Ladens to tell their story, they can demonstrate that a rogue, not an agent, was responsible for the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Critics of Saudi Arabia have long argued that Osama had state support, and families of 9/11 victims have begun legal proceedings (so far fruitless) against the kingdom. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabian.

It is not surprising that Osama bin Laden's family is cautious at the start of our negotiations; they are not sure whether opening old wounds will be cathartic [purifying suffering] or will cause pain. But after a few days of discussion, they are ready to talk. When we meet on a hot day in early June, a Saudi government observer is in the room, although she makes no attempt to influence the conversation. (We were also joined by a translator.)

Sitting between Osama's half-brothers, Ghanem remembers his first-born as a shy boy, academically gifted. She said he became a strong, motivated, devout individual in his 20s while studying economics at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where his views also became radicalized. "The people at the university changed him," says Ghanem. "He became a different person."

Among the people he met was Abdullah Azzam, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was subsequently expelled from Saudi Arabia and became Osama's spiritual mentor. "He was a very good kid until he met certain people who brainwashed him when he was barely 20. You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause. I always told him to stay away from them and he never would not have confessed to me what he was doing, because he loved me very much,” says Aliya Ghanem.

He was a very good child until he met certain people who brainwashed him thoroughly when he was barely 20

In the early 1980s, Osama traveled to Afghanistan to take part in the fight against the Soviet occupation. “Everyone who met him in his youth treated him with respect,” [Osama’s brother] Hassan takes the floor, continuing the story. “At first we were very proud of him. Even the Saudi government treated him with respect and recognition. And then it was Osama’s time -Mujahid".

There is a long, awkward silence as Hassan struggles to explain the transformation from fanatic to global jihadist. "I'm very proud of him in the sense that he was my big brother," he finally continues. "He taught me a lot. But I don't think I'm proud of him as a person. He achieved superstar status on the world stage, but that was all to nothing".

Ghanem listens intently, becoming more animated as the conversation turns back to Osama's formative years. "He was very straightforward. He did very well in school. He really enjoyed studying. He spent all his money on Afghanistan - he sneaked out under the guise of family business." Did she ever suspect that he might become a jihadist? "It never occurred to me." How did you feel when you realized this fact? "We were very upset. I didn't want all this to happen. Why did he leave everything like that?"

The family says that last time they saw Osama in Afghanistan in 1999, when they visited his base near Kandahar twice. "It was a place near the airport that they captured from the Russians," says Ghanem. "He was very happy to host us. He showed us around every day we were there. He killed an animal and we had a party, he invited everyone."

Ghanem gradually opens up and talks about her childhood in the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, where she grew up in an Alawite family, representatives of one of the Shiite branches of Islam. Syrian cuisine is superior to Saudi Arabia, she says, as is the climate on the coast Mediterranean Sea, where the warm, humid summer air contrasts sharply with the acetylene heat of Jeddah in June. Ghanem moved to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1950s, and Osama was born in Riyadh in 1957. Three years later, she divorced his father and married al-Attas, who was then in charge of the fledgling bin Laden empire in the early 1960s. Bin Laden's natural father had a total of 54 children from at least 11 wives.

From the very beginning we knew [it was Osama] within the first 48 hours. From the youngest to the oldest, we were all ashamed

When Ghanem goes to rest in the next room, Osama's half-brothers continue their conversation. It is important to remember, they note, that the mother is rarely an objective witness. "It's been 17 years [after 9/11] and she's still committed to trying to deny a lot of things about Osama," Ahmad says. "She loved him very much and refuses to blame him. Instead, she blames those around him. She only knows him as good boy- the side that we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side of him."

“I was shocked, stunned,” he says now about the first reports from New York [after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001]. "It was a very strange feeling. From the very beginning, we knew [it was Osama], within the first 48 hours. From the youngest to the oldest, we were all ashamed. We knew that we would all face terrible consequences. All Our family returned from abroad to Saudi Arabia." They were scattered throughout Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Europe. "There was a travel ban in Saudi Arabia. They tried their best to maintain control over the family," Ahmad says. The family says they were all questioned by authorities and were banned from leaving the country for a time. Nearly two decades later, the bin Ladens are free to move within and outside the kingdom.

The country that inspired jihadism

The formation of Osama bin Laden's personality in Jeddah took place during the years of relative freedom of the 1970s, before the Iranian revolution of 1979, aimed at exporting Shiite fanaticism to Sunni fanaticism. Arab world. Since then, Saudi Arabia's rulers have enforced a hardline interpretation of Sunni Islam - similar to that widely practiced in the Arabian Peninsula since the 18th century era of theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. In 1744, al-Wahhab entered into a pact with the then ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Saud, allowing his family to manage the affairs of the state while the hardline clergy determined the national character.

For many decades, Saudi Arabia remained an extremely conservative country, where religion set the tone public life/ Photo by EPA

When the modern kingdom was proclaimed in 1932, both sides - the clerics and the country's rulers - remained too powerful to overthrow each other, locking the state and its citizens into a society defined by hyper-conservative views: a strict separation of unrelated men and women ; uncompromising gender roles; intolerance towards other religions; and unwavering adherence to doctrinal teachings - all dogmas were sealed with the Saudi seal.

Many believe that it was this alliance that directly contributed to the emergence of global terrorism. The worldview of al-Qaeda - and its branches, Islamic State(ISIS) - was largely shaped by the scriptures of Wahhabism; and Saudi clerics were widely accused of encouraging the jihadist movement that expanded during the 1990s and was led by Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda's worldview was largely shaped by the scriptures of Wahhabism; and Saudi clerics have been widely accused of encouraging the jihadist movement

In 2018, Saudi Arabia's new leadership wants to draw a line under that era and introduce what bin Salman calls "moderate Islam." He sees it as essential to the survival of a state where the vast, restless and often disaffected youth population has had little access to entertainment for nearly four decades. social life or personal freedoms. The new rulers of Saudi Arabia believe that such tough social norms promoted by clerics can fuel extremists who take advantage of such frustration.

Reforms are beginning to permeate many aspects of Saudi society; Among the most notable was the June repeal of the women's driving ban. There have been changes in the labor market and in the bloated public sector; cinemas opened, and the fight against corruption began in the private sector and some sectors of government. The government also says it has stopped all funding for Wahhabi organizations outside the kingdom, which it has supported for missionary purposes for nearly four decades.

Such radical shock therapy is slowly being absorbed throughout the country, where local communities - after decades of the triumph of uncompromising doctrines - do not always know what to do with it. Contradictions abound: some officials and institutions shun conservatism, while others are fully open to it. Meanwhile, political freedoms remain banned: power has become more centralized and dissent is systematically suppressed.

Saudi intelligence on bin Laden: 'He was told to stop'

Bin Laden's legacy remains one of the kingdom's most pressing concerns. I met with Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud, who headed the Saudi intelligence [General Intelligence Service] for 24 years, from 1977 to September 1, 2001 (10 days before the September 11 attacks), at his villa in Jeddah. An erudite man in his 70s, Turki wears a thobe with green Saudi flag cufflinks on his sleeves. “There are two Osama bin Ladens,” he tells me. “One before the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and the other after it. The first was a very idealistic mujahideen. He was not a fighter. By his own admission, he once fainted during battle, and when he came to his senses, the Soviet attack on his position had already been repelled."

At the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, the figure of bin Laden was one of the most discussed in the world / Photo EPA

As bin Laden left Afghanistan for Sudan, and as his relationship with Saudi Arabia soured, it was Turki who spoke to him on behalf of the kingdom. Since 9/11, these direct relationships have come under scrutiny. Then - as 17 years later - the relatives of some of the 2,976 killed and more than 6,000 wounded in New York and Washington refused to believe that a country that exported such a hyper-conservative form of faith had nothing to do with the consequences [of such "export" "].

Of course, bin Laden acted in Afghanistan with the knowledge and support of the Saudi state, which opposed the Soviet occupation. Along with America, the Saudis armed and supported those groups that fought against it. The young mujahid took with him a small part of the family fortune, which he used to gain influence. When he returned to Jeddah, inspired by struggle and defeat Soviet Union, he was already a different person, says Turki.

There are two Osama bin Ladens. One - before the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and the second - after it. The first one was a very idealistic mujahideen. He wasn't a fighter

"Since 1990, it has developed more Political Views. He wanted to expel the communists and South Yemeni Marxists from Yemen. I accepted him and told him that it would be better not to interfere. The mosques in Jeddah exploited the example of Afghanistan,” Turki refers to a narrow interpretation of the faith professed by the Taliban. “He incited them [the believers in Saudi Arabia]. He was told to stop," says the kingdom's former intelligence chief.

"He had an impenetrable face," Turki continues. "He never grimaced or smiled. In 1992, 1993, there was a huge meeting in Peshawar organized by the government of [Pakistan Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif." Bin Laden had by this time been sheltered by Afghan tribal leaders. "It was a call for Muslim solidarity to force all the leaders of the Muslim world to stop at each other's throats. I saw him [Osama bin Laden] there too. Our eyes met, but we did not speak. He did not return to the kingdom [to Saudi Arabia ] He went to Sudan, where he built a honey business and financed the road."

In exile, bin Laden's propaganda activities expanded. "He sent faxes to everyone. He was very critical. The family made attempts to dissuade him - through envoys and so on - but they were unsuccessful. He probably felt that the government did not take him seriously," says Turki ibn Faisal al Saud.

By 1996, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan. According to Turki, Saudi Arabia knew he was in trouble and wanted him back. Turki flew to Kandahar to meet with the then head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar. He said: "I don't mind handing him over, but he helped the Afghan people a lot." He also said that bin Laden was given asylum [in Afghanistan] according to Islamic injunctions. Two years later, in September 1998, Turki flew to Afghanistan again, and this time his demand was decisively rejected. “At this meeting he [Mullah Omar] was a different person,” says Turki. “Much more withdrawn and sweating profusely.” Instead of maintaining an acceptable tone, Omar said: "How can you persecute this worthy man who dedicated his life to helping Muslims?" Turki claims that he warned Omar that his actions were harming the people of Afghanistan, and he left.

Family curse

The family visit to Kandahar took place the following year, shortly after the American missile strike at one of bin Laden's hideouts - in response to al-Qaeda attacks against the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. It seems that the family's immediate circle had no difficulty in finding their relative, while Saudi and Western intelligence tried in vain to do so.

Home video footage of Osama bin Laden's family, released by the American CIA after his death:

According to officials in Riyadh, London and Washington, bin Laden had by then become the world's No. 1 counterterrorism target - a man determined to use Saudi citizens to drive a wedge between Eastern and Western civilizations. “There is no doubt that he specifically targeted Saudi citizens for the 9/11 plot,” a British intelligence officer tells The Guardian. “He was convinced it would turn the West against him.” home country. He did succeed in instigating a war, but not the one he expected."

Turki claims that in the months leading up to 9/11, his intelligence agency knew something alarming was planned: "In the summer of 2001, I received warning that something stunning was going to happen to the Americans, the British, the French and the Arabs. We didn't know where exactly, but We knew something was cooking."

If Salman [Saudi Arabia's reformist leader] doesn't break through, there will be many more Osamas. And I'm not sure that they [the bin Laden family] will be able to get rid of the curse

Bin Laden remains a popular figure in some parts of the country, highly regarded by those who believe he carried out God's will. However, the depth of support is difficult to measure. Those in his immediate family circle were allowed to return to the kingdom: at least two of Osama's wives (one of whom was with him in Abbottabad when Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces), and their children now live in Jeddah .

"We had very a good relationship with Mohammed bin Nayef Al Saud (former crown prince), tells me step-brother Osama Ahmad while the servants set the nearby dining table. “He allowed the wives and children to return.” But for now they only have freedom of movement within the city - they cannot leave the kingdom.

Osama's mother rejoins the conversation. “I talk to his harem almost every week,” she says. “They live nearby.”

Osama's half-sister Fatima al-Attas was not present at our meeting. From her home in Paris, she later wrote to e-mail, which strongly objects to an interview with her mother and has asked to re-arrange the conversation through her. Despite the agreement of her brothers and stepfather, she was sure that her mother was forced to talk. Ghanem herself, however, insisted that she was happy to talk and could talk longer. Probably, such disagreements are a sign of the difficult position of the family in the kingdom.

I ask the family about youngest son bin Laden, 29-year-old Hamza, who is believed to be in Afghanistan. Last year the US officially designated him a "global terrorist" and he appears to have taken over the mantle from his father, under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the new leader of al-Qaeda and former deputy to Osama bin Laden. Hamza's uncles shake their heads. "We thought it was all over," Hassan says. "Then I heard Hamza say, 'I'm going to avenge my father.' I don't want to go through that again. If Hamza were in front of me now, I would said to him: “God is leading you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don't follow in your father's footsteps. You tap into the worst parts of your soul."

29-year-old Hamza bin Laden, Osama's son, followed in his footsteps:

The continued rise of Hamza bin Laden may overshadow the family's efforts to move past its past. It may also hinder efforts crown prince Saudi Arabia open new era, in which bin Laden is relegated to the role of a generational anomaly, and in which the rigid doctrines once sanctioned by the kingdom no longer lend legitimacy to extremism. While Saudi Arabia has attempted change before, it has never been as extensive as the current reforms. How firmly Muhammad bin Salman will stand up to a society that has been indoctrinated with such an uncompromising worldview remains an open question.

Saudi Arabia's allies are optimistic, but also sound a note of caution. A British intelligence officer The Guardian spoke to told me: "If Salman doesn't break through, there will be many more Osamas. And I'm not sure they [the bin Laden family] will be able to break the curse."

To be honest, when I started reading the book “The Family of Osama bin Laden. Life behind a stone wall,” I didn’t really count on anything. After all, its author, Jean Sasson, is the same American writer who created horror films called “Memoirs of a Princess” about the life of princesses in Saudi Arabia. And anyone who has ever visited the Middle East without a tour, or even better, if he lived there for a couple of months, begins to notice that “Memoirs” is a purely pro-American book, written with so many Eastern traditions and customs that do not correspond to the truth, generalized to the point of impossible, or so inverted and distorted that one can only wonder and wonder.

But then Jean Sasson, in the preface to “The Family of Osama Bin Laden,” herself commented that this time her personal opinion would not be in the book (more precisely, she would give it later), but she wrote the book based on the stories of Najwa, Osama’s first wife bin Laden, and Omar, their fourth son. More precisely, not even based on their stories, but these are their stories. I’ll say right away that the book is really divided into chapters where the narrative is told in the first person: first by the wife, then by the son.

So, Osama bin Laden. Terrorist, leader of the Al-Qaeda group, who admitted his involvement in terrorist attacks September 11, 2001 in New York, as well as many others. But the book says very little about these terrorist attacks and practically nothing about the preparation for them. As Omar and Najwa say, they simply did not know all the details, and therefore tried not to touch on these topics. Omar was born in 1981, and when Osama bin Laden began preparing the first terrorist attacks - for example, bombings at the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, he was still just a young man. Najwa was just a woman, she only took care of children and housework, she didn’t leave the house at all when they lived in Afghanistan and, of course, Osama never shared the details with her. He did all the preparation and negotiations with the militants not in his home. Therefore, the book describes the details only of his personal life, relationships with his wives and children, his vision of the external and internal world.

To be honest, when I started reading The Family of Osama Bin Laden, I literally immediately began to get the impression that this man was mentally unstable. Of course, this did not appear immediately. As Jean Sasson writes, "People are not born terrorists and do not become terrorists overnight." But step by step, step by step...

He married Najwa for love, and she gave birth to 11 children over the 25 years of her life with him. Besides her, Osama had five more wives. And, of course, when he told Najwa that he wanted to take a second wife, she, like any woman, felt a pang. But Osama explained to her that this was only for the sake of the children, for the Prophet Muhammad called for there to be many of them. Najwa calmed down and even later became friends with the other wives. That is, from his youth (and he married Najwa when he was only 17 years old) bin Laden was drawn to religion. And he gradually turned on her to such an extent that he came to the conclusion that there were enemies all around. And first of all, the enemies are Americans who belittle Islam and Muslims.

His extremist tendencies gradually reached the leadership of all the countries in which he lived. First he had to leave Saudi Arabia for Sudan, then from Sudan, where he lived for five years, to Afghanistan. Moreover, together with his family, with all his wives and children. Osama bin Laden considered himself so religious that he himself interpreted the Koran as he wanted. And this affected not only his activities, but, above all, the life of his family. For example, he forbade the installation of air conditioners in the house, and even in the most terrible heat (just imagine what it is like in Sudan!) all household members had to do without them, since he considered it evil. And only when one of high-ranking officials, while visiting him, he almost lost consciousness from the heat, he ordered the purchase of fans. Osama bin Laden forbade the children to watch television and use any technology, forced them to eat the simplest food - rice and vegetables, and sleep on the floor on hard mattresses. At the same time, he was an extremely rich man and had money in order to create normal conditions family, he had.

However, the way he treated children is something I just can’t wrap my head around. For example, for any offense by one of his sons, he called them all to his office, stood them in a row and beat them with a special stick, which he bought for such cases. Beat everyone! But compared to his other actions, these are trifles!

So, being already in Afghanistan, he loved to walk in the mountains with Omar (he wanted to make him his successor). The young man was about 17 years old at the time. And the mountains in Afghanistan are very steep and precipitous. One day Omar tripped and almost fell into the abyss - he barely managed to grab the edge. Osama stood silently and watched as his son tried to get out. He never helped him. When Omar got out, he directly asked: “Father, you didn’t help me. What would have happened if I had fallen and been killed now?” - “I would bury you, son!” - was the answer.

But these are also minor things. But the next story just killed me. Omar, by the way, too. And it was after her that he completely broke with his father, fled from Afghanistan himself and took his mother and younger children from there. Here is how it was. At that time, their family lived in one of the militant training camps. Osama not only prepared them to fight with weapons in their hands, but also often read sermons to young people. And in the mosque there was a piece of paper where, after these sermons, those who wished to sign themselves on the death list. Omar emphasizes that bin Laden did not force anyone to become suicide bombers, but the sermons were such that many (especially the very young, with fragile brains) recorded themselves.

“One day the father called all his sons, even the smallest ones. When we sat at his feet, the father said:

Listen to me, sons, there is a leaf hanging on the wall of the mosque. It is for men who want to prove themselves as good Muslims. For those who volunteered to become suicide bombers by detonating a bomb.

He looked at us expectantly, his eyes sparkling. Father did not tell us that we should add our names to the death list, but his words and the expectation clearly visible on his face implied that by doing so we would bring him great happiness.

Nobody moved. The father repeated his words. And then one of mine younger brothers, too young to understand what life and death are, rose to his feet and nodded to his father with reverence in his eyes, and then ran towards the mosque. A little boy volunteered to become a suicide bomber.

I was furious and finally found the power of speech:

Father, how can you ask such a thing from your sons?

He stared at me with obvious hostility and waved his hand:

Omar, you need to understand something. You occupy no place in my heart more space than any other man or boy in this country. - He looked at my brothers. “This applies equally to each of my sons.”

Can a normal person say this?

The book ends with the events of September 11, 2001. Jean Sasson published it in 2009, that is, when Osama bin Laden was still alive. The Americans found and killed him at his estate in Pakistan last May.

What more can I say? According to the author of the book, Omar contacted her himself, and then persuaded his mother to talk about the details of her life with her father. Overall, the book is written in simple language, is very easy to read, descriptions of difficult moments are rare in it. However, after reading, a very unpleasant aftertaste remains, which is not surprising when we're talking about about such a person.

I recommend reading it to those who are interested in the details of the personal life of terrorist No. 1. But still, I repeat that I don’t know how deeply one can believe what has been stated. To be honest, I did sense some pro-Americanism in the book.