Bin Laden family

Bin Laden
Bin Laden
Current region Arabian Peninsula
Place of origin Yemen
Members Osama bin Laden
see Family members
Office building of the bin Laden family

The bin Laden family (Arabic: بن لادن, bin Lādin), also spelled bin Ladin, is a wealthy family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the Saudi royal family. The family was thrown into the media spotlight through the activities of one of its members, Osama bin Laden, the former head of Al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on US government and commercial buildings. The financial interests of the bin Laden family are represented by the Saudi Binladin Group, a global oil and equity management conglomerate grossing US$2 billion annually, and the largest construction firm in the world, with offices in London, Dubai, and Geneva.

Beginnings

The family traces its origins to a Hadhrami named Awad bin Laden from the village of Al Rubat, in the Wadi Doan in the Tarim Valley, Hadramout governorate, Yemen. His son was Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (died 1967). Mohammed bin Laden was a native of the Shafi`i (Sunni) Hadhramaut coast in southern Yemen and emigrated to Saudi Arabia prior to World War I. He set up a construction company and came to Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's attention through construction projects, later being awarded contracts for major renovations in Mecca, where he made his initial fortune from exclusive rights to all mosque and other religious building construction not only in Saudi Arabia, but as far as Ibn Saud's influence reached. Until his death, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden had exclusive control over restorations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Soon the bin Laden corporate network extended far beyond construction sites.

Mohammed's special intimacy with the monarchy was inherited by the younger bin Laden generation. Mohammed's sons attended Victoria College, Alexandria, Egypt. Their schoolmates included King Hussein of Jordan, Zaid Al Rifai, the Kashoggi brothers (whose father was one of the king's physicians), Kamal Adham (who ran the General Intelligence Directorate under King Faisal), present-day contractors Mohammed Al Attas, Fahd Shobokshi and Ghassan Sakr and actor Omar Sharif.

When Mohammed bin Laden died in 1967, his son Salem bin Laden took over the family enterprises, until his own accidental death in 1988. Salem was one of at least 54 children by various wives.

Bin Ladens and King Fahd

The two closest friends of King Fahd were Prince Mohammed bin Abdullah (son of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's youngest brother) who died in the early 1980s and Salem bin Laden who died in 1988, when an ultralight aircraft that he was flying flew into power lines in San Antonio, Texas.[1]

Family members

American and European intelligence officials estimate that all the relatives of the family may number as many as 600. In 1994, the bin Laden family disowned Osama and the Saudi government revoked his passport.[2] The Saudi government also stripped Osama bin Laden of his citizenship,[2] for publicly speaking out against them regarding their permitting U.S. troops to be based in Saudi Arabia in preparation for the 1991 Gulf War.

The groupings of the family, based on the nationalities of the wives, include the most prominent "Saudi group", a "Syrian group", a "Lebanese group," and an "Egyptian group". The Egyptian group employs 40,000 people as that country's largest private foreign investor. Osama bin Laden was born the only son of Muhammed bin Laden's eleventh wife, Alia[3] Hamida al-Attas, who was of Syrian origin,[4] making Osama a member of the Syrian group.

First generation

Second generation

Third generation

Family tree

Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (1908–1967)
His sons were:
  1. Salem bin Laden (1946–1988) married Caroline Carey
  2. Ali bin Laden
  3. Thabet bin Laden (d. 2009)
  4. Mahrous bin Laden
  5. Hassan bin Laden
  6. Bakr bin Laden
  7. Khalid bin Laden
  8. Yeslam bin Ladin (born 1950) married Carmen bin Ladin (born 1954)
    1. Wafah Dufour (born 1978)
    2. Najia Dufour (born 1979)
    3. Noor Dufour (born 1987)
  9. Ghalib bin Laden
  10. Yahya bin Laden
  11. Abdul Aziz bin Laden
  12. Issa bin Laden
  13. Tarek bin Laden
  14. Ahmed bin Laden
  15. Ibrahim bin Laden
  16. Shafiq bin Laden
  17. Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) married Najwa Ghanem (born 1960)
  18. Khalil bin Ladin
  19. Saleh bin Ladin
  20. Haider bin Laden
  21. Saad bin Laden
  22. Abdullah bin Laden
  23. Yasser bin Laden
  24. Mohammad bin Laden (born 1967)

Osama bin Laden's children

Osama bin Laden's known children, from his respective wives, include

The bin Laden flights

At least 13 relatives of Osama bin Laden, accompanied by bodyguards and associates, left the United States on a chartered flight with Ryan International Airlines (Ryan International Flight 441)[24] eight days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to a passenger manifest released on July 21, 2004.[25] The passenger list was made public by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who obtained the manifest from officials at Boston's Logan International Airport. None of the flights, domestic or international, took place before the reopening of national airspace on the morning of Sept. 13 and the 9/11 Commission found "no evidence of a political intervention".[26]

Among the passengers with the bin Laden surname were Omar Awad bin Laden, who had lived with OBL nephew Abdallah Awad bin Laden who was involved in forming the U.S. branch of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Alexandria, and Shafig bin Laden, a half brother of OBL who was reportedly attending the annual investor conference of the Carlyle Group.[25]

Also on board was Akberali Moawalla, an official with the investment company run by Yeslam bin Ladin, another of Osama bin Laden's half brothers. Records show that a passenger, Kholoud Kurdi, lived in Northern Virginia with a bin Laden relative.[25]

The bin Laden flight has received fresh publicity because it was a topic in Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

The 9/11 Commission found that the: "FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights. The Saudi government was advised of and agreed to the FBI's requirements that passengers be identified and checked against various databases before the flights departed. The Federal Aviation Administration representative working in the FBI operations center made sure that the FBI was aware of the flights of Saudi nationals and was able to screen the passengers before they were allowed to depart."[26]

References

  1. PBS "Frontline"
  2. 1 2 bin Laden, Osama. The History Channel website. Retrieved on 8 April 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 Steve Coll (12 December 2005). "Letter From Jedda, Young Osama, How he learned radicalism, and may have seen America". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 December 2005.
  4. "Salon.com News – The making of Osama bin Laden". Salon.com. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
  5. "Abdullah bin Laden hasiisoososos". infoplease.com. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
  6. Kenneth C. Crowe (26 May 1976). "The Dichotomy of Saudi Arabia".
  7. Boston Herald, 9/2/01
  8. "Osama claims responsibility for 9/11". The Times of India. May 24, 2006.
  9. Interview with Osama bin Laden's Brother Yaslam bin Laden
  10. Eric Alterman, Mark J. Green (2004). The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America. Penguin. ISBN 9781101200810. Retrieved 2014-02-22. The extremely influential Carlyle Group has arranged similar gatherings during the previous fourteen years, beneath the radar of most of the mass media, between former politicians like Bush, James Baker, John Major, former World Bank treasurer Afsaneh Masheyekhi, and interested parties looking for some extremely expensive, high-powered lobbying services. On September 11, 2001, the Group happened to be hosting a conference at a Washington hotel. Among the guest of honor: investor Shafig bin Laden, another brother to Osama.
  11. James K. Glassman (June 2006). "Big Deals. David Rubenstein and His Partners Have Made Billions With the Carlyle Group, the World’s Hottest Private Equity Firm. How Have They Made All That Money? Why Are They in Washington?" (PDF). The Washingtonian. Retrieved February 2014.
  12. "The Carlyle Group: C for Capitalism". The Economist. 2003-06-26. Archived from the original on 2005-12-12. Retrieved 2014-02-22. ON the day Osama bin Laden's men attacked America, Shafiq bin Laden, described as an estranged brother of the terrorist, was at an investment conference in Washington, DC, along with two people who are close to President George Bush: his father, the first President Bush, and James Baker, the former secretary of state who masterminded the legal campaign that secured Dubya's move to the White House.
  13. Ed Vulliamy (2002-05-16). "Dark heart of the American dream". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2014-02-22. On 11 September, while Al-Qaeda's planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Carlyle Group hosted a conference at a Washington hotel. Among the guests of honour was a valued investor: Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama.
  14. Michel Chossudovsky (2013-04-13). "Is Kissing a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" a "Terrorist Act"? Political Satire". NSNBC. Archived from the original on 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2014-02-22. There is nothing wrong, therefore, in socializing and doing business with family members of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, including the late Salem bin Laden and Shafiq bin Laden of the Carlyle Group.
  15. "The House of bin Laden". The New Yorker. November 5, 2001. Retrieved June 20, 2006.
  16. 1 2 Associated Press (March 15, 2010). "Bin Laden's son says Iran should free his siblings". USA Today. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  17. 1 2 Greg Miller (January 17, 2009). "Osama bin Laden's son may be in Pakistan too". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  18. 1 2 Christina Lamb (May 7, 2012). "Iran double-crossed Osama bin Laden". The Australian. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  19. http://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article109486119/Al-Qaida-bestaetigt-Tod-von-Bin-Ladens-Sohn-Saad.html
  20. http://ojihad.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/al-qaida-confirms-sa%C2%B4ad-bin-laden-is-dead/
  21. Scott Wilson, Craig Whitlock, and William Branigin, "Osama bin Laden killed in U.S. raid, buried at sea", The Washington Post, May 2, 2011.
  22. "The pulse-pounding excitement is set to continue at the third Motor Sport Club Raceday.". thermo.ae. March 16, 2006. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  23. bbc.co.uk
  24. PENTTBOM Team (April 13, 2007). "Response to October 2003 Vanity Fair Article (Re: Binladen Family Departures After 09/11/2001)" (PDF). Federal Bureau of Investigation (hosted at JudicialWatch). p. 34. External link in |publisher= (help)
  25. 1 2 3 Dana Milbank (July 22, 2004). "Plane Carried 13 Bin Ladens: Manifest of Sept. 19, 2001, Flight From U.S. Is Released". Washington Post. p. A07.
  26. 1 2 9/11 Commission. "9/11 Commission Report".

Further reading

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