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Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born militant and founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization Al-Qaeda. The group is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various other countries. Under bin Laden, Al-Qaeda was responsible for the 11 September attacks in the United States and many other mass-casualty attacks worldwide.
The Bin Laden family, also spelled Bin Ladin, is a wealthy family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the Saudi royal family. It is the namesake and controlling shareholder of Saudi Binladin Group, a multinational construction firm. Following the September 11 attacks, the family became the subject of media attention and scrutiny through the activities of Osama bin Laden, the former head of the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
The Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.
Saʻd bin ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin, better known as Saad bin Laden, was one of Osama bin Laden's sons. He continued in his father's footsteps by being active in Al Qaeda, and was being groomed to be his heir apparent. He was killed in an American drone strike in 2009.
Osama bin Laden, the founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States and/or its allies for his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, his whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.
This article is a chronological listing of allegations of meetings between members of al-Qaeda and members of Saddam Hussein's government, as well as other information relevant to conspiracy theories involving Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Peter Bergen is an American journalist, author, and producer who is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America, a professor at Arizona State University and the host of the Audible podcast 'In the Room with Peter Bergen.' Bergen has written or edited ten books. Three of the books were New York Times bestsellers, four of the books were named among the best non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post, and they have been translated into 24 languages. Three books were turned into documentaries for HBO and CNN, which were nominated for an Emmy and won an Emmy. Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden (2001); The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader (2006); The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda (2011); Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad (2012); Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion (2013); Drone Wars: Transforming Conflict, Law, and Policy (2014); United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists (2016); Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos (2019); The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden (2021); and Understanding the New Proxy Wars (2022) He produced the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, which aired on CNN.
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was the leader of al-Qaeda in Somalia. He was listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list, for his association with multiple attacks in Kenya in 2002, as well as his possible involvement in the 1998 United States embassy bombings, in which over 250 people lost their lives.
On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, by United States Navy SEALs of SEAL Team Six. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led operation, with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), also known as the "Night Stalkers," and the CIA's Special Activities Division, which recruits heavily from former JSOC Special Mission Units. The operation's success ended a nearly decade-long manhunt for bin Laden, who was accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The Special Collection Service (SCS), codenamed F6, is a highly classified joint U.S. Central Intelligence Agency–National Security Agency program charged with inserting eavesdropping equipment in difficult-to-reach places, such as foreign embassies, communications centers, and foreign government installations. Established in the late 1970s and headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland, the SCS has been involved in operations ranging from the Cold War to the Global War on Terrorism.
Hamza bin Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, better known as Hamza bin Laden, was a Saudi Arabian-born member of Al-Qaeda. He was a son of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and, following his father's death in 2011 and the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, he was described as an emerging leader of the Al-Qaeda organization.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries, including its neighbours Afghanistan, India, and Iran, as well as by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense, while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups, as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de jure India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper, respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was reportedly, "with the possible exception of Iran, perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups... aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region; all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community." Daniel Byman, a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy, also wrote that, "Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism". In 2018, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on an official visit to the United States, acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth, particularly from the United States, for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror is a widely discussed topic among policy-makers of various countries, political analysts and international delegates around the world. Pakistan has simultaneously received allegations of harbouring and aiding terrorists and commendation for its anti-terror efforts. Since 2001, the country has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees who fled the war in Afghanistan.
At around 9:30 pm on September 11, 2001, George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told President George W. Bush and U.S. senior officials that the CIA's Counterterrorism Center had determined that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the September 11 attacks. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation connected the hijackers to al-Qaeda, a militant Salafist Islamist multi-national organization. In a number of video, audio, interview and printed statements, senior members of al-Qaeda have also asserted responsibility for organizing the September 11 attacks.
On May 2, 2011, United States President Barack Obama confirmed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in his compound in Abbottabad, northeastern Pakistan. Bin Laden's death was welcomed throughout most of the world as a fitting end to a figure who had inspired mass bloodshed, and a positive and significant turning point in the fight against al-Qaeda and related groups. Those who welcomed it included the United Nations, European Union, NATO, and some nations in Asia, Africa, Oceania, South America, and the Middle East, including Yemen, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, Indonesia, Somalia, the Philippines, Turkey, Iraq, Australia, Argentina, and the rebel Libyan Republic.
The death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, gave rise to various conspiracy theories, hoaxes and rumors. These include the ideas that he had died earlier, or that he lived beyond the reported date. Doubts about bin Laden's death were fueled by the U.S. military's supposed disposal of his body at sea, the decision to not release any photographic or DNA evidence of bin Laden's death to the public, the contradicting accounts of the incident, and the 25-minute blackout during the raid on bin Laden's compound during which a live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the U.S. special forces was cut off.
Osama bin Laden's compound, known locally as the Waziristan Haveli, was a large, upper-class house within a walled compound used as a safe house for Saudi militant Islamist Osama bin Laden, who was shot and killed there by U.S. forces on 2 May 2011. The compound was located at the end of a dirt road 1,300 metres southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, a suburb housing many retired military officers. Bin Laden was reported to have evaded capture by living in a section of the house for at least five years, having no Internet or phone connection, and hiding away from the public, who were unaware of his presence.
Allegations of a support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden have been made both before and after Osama bin Laden was found living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011. The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan's premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad. In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, US-President Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden. "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan", Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was." In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned. However, the documents recovered from bin Laden's compound 'contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected or supported by the Pakistani officials'. Instead, the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attack against the Pakistani military installations.
The Abbottabad Commission Report is a judicial inquiry paper authored and submitted by the Abbottabad Commission, led by Justice Javaid Iqbal, to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 4 January 2013. The report investigates the circumstances surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Upon submission, the report was immediately classified by the Prime Minister and its findings were not made public.
Manhunt: The Ten Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad is Peter Bergen's fourth book on the subject of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. It was originally published in 2012 and became a New York Times bestseller later that year. It would then become the basis for an HBO documentary, Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden.
References
- ↑ Risen, James. "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration", 2006
- ↑ Adam Liptak (2007-08-26). "Spying Program May Be Tested by Terror Case". New York Times . Retrieved 2009-01-24.
After a bloody raid by American military forces on an enemy camp in Rawah, Iraq, on June 11, 2003, a Defense Department report took inventory. Eighty suspected terrorists killed. An enormous weapons cache recovered. And, in what the report called "pocket litter," a notebook with the name and phone number of the imam of a mosque halfway around the world, here in the state capital.
- ↑ Erik Lacitis (2005-11-14). "Career found in translation". Seattle Times . Retrieved 2009-01-24.
But with the sheer volume of documents coming through the pipeline — from pamphlets to newspaper editorials to "pocket litter" — the need for translators is never-ending... 'Pocket litter' is any piece of paper with writing that has been taken from someone brought in for questioning.
- ↑ Steven Berbeco (2003-04-14). "Right job, wrong place". Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ↑ David Benjamin (2004-09-12). "Cheney's No Terrorism Expert". Los Angeles Times . p. M2. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
From the time Al Qaeda emerged in the 1990s, the central approach for attacking it has been to identify terrorists through signals and human intelligence as well as information from other intelligence services around the world. Security forces of the country in which the terrorists were located would then move in and capture or, if necessary, kill them. Information from these busts, whether "pocket litter" or computer files, would be used to find more operatives and dismantle cells.
- ↑ Everette Howard Hunt, Greg Aunapu, William F. (FRW) Buckley (1974). "American Spy". ISBN 9780471789826 . Retrieved 2009-01-24.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Bin Laden troubled by crumbling Muslim trust: Al-Qaeda leader's final letters from Pakistan compound are released by U.S." CBC News. 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
The report said the Special Forces troops in the bin Laden raid were trained to search the home afterward for thumb drives, printed documents and what it described as "pocket litter" that might produce leads to other terrorists. "The end of the raid in Abbottabad was the beginning of a massive analytical effort," it said.