Growing Up Bin Laden - Jean P. Sasson [0]
ALSO BY JEAN SASSON
NONFICTION
The Rape of Kuwait
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind
the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Daughters of Arabia
Desert Royal
Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan
HISTORICAL FICTION
Ester’s Child
For more information on Jean Sasson and
her books, see her Web site at
www.jeansasson.com
Growing Up bin Laden
OSAMA’S WIFE AND SON TAKE US
INSIDE THEIR SECRET WORLD
JEAN SASSON
as told to her by
Najwa bin Laden and Omar bin Laden
A Oneworld Book
First published in Great Britain and the Commonwealth by
Oneworld Publications 2009
This ebook edition published by Oneworld Publications in 2010
Copyright © The Sasson Corporation 2009
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-85168-765-7
Maps and other illustrations by Evan T. White
Cover design by vaguelymemorable.com
Oneworld Publications
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We dedicate this book to every innocent person who has suffered pain or lost their life in terror attacks throughout the world, and the families who continue to suffer and mourn them.
We pray for peace all over the world.
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note to the Reader
PART I: EARLY DAYS IN SAUDI ARABIA
1. NAJWA: My Youth
2. NAJWA: Married Life
JEAN: A Note Regarding Osama bin Laden’s Political Activities
3. NAJWA: Mother of Many Sons
4. OMAR: Born the Son of Osama bin Laden 38
5. NAJWA: Marriage Surprises
6. OMAR: Growing Up bin Laden
7. OMAR: Moving to Medina
8. NAJWA: Many Children for Osama
JEAN: A Note Regarding Osama bin Laden’s Political Activities
9. OMAR: The Nightmare Begins
PART II: OUR LIFE IN KHARTOUM
10. NAJWA: To Africa
11. NAJWA: Family Affairs
12. OMAR: Golden Times in Khartoum
13. OMAR: The Scent of Death
14. OMAR: Journey into the Unknown
JEAN: A Note Regarding Osama bin Laden’s Political and Militant Activities
PART III: AFGHANISTAN
15. OMAR: Retreat to Afghanistan
16. OMAR: Tora Bora Mountain
17. NAJWA: A Far, Far Country
18. OMAR: My Father’s Army
19. NAJWA: Mountain Life
20. OMAR: The Violence Escalates
21. OMAR: Real War
22. OMAR: Jihad Vacation
23. OMAR: True Terror
24. OMAR: The Tightening Noose
25. NAJWA: Young Marriage
26. OMAR: The Beginning of the End
27. NAJWA: To Syria
28. OMAR: Return to Saudi Arabia
29. NAJWA: Leaving Afghanistan Forever
30. OMAR: September 11, 2001
Final Comments by Jean Sasson
Appendix A: Osama bin Laden’s Family: Who Were They? What Happened to Them?
Appendix B: Osama bin Laden Chronology
Appendix C: Al- Qaeda Chronology: 1988–2008
Index
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Omar, for your sincerity and integrity. Thank you, dear Najwa, for your sweet ways and your oh-so-careful responses to my endlessly intrusive questions at all hours of the day and night. Thank you, Zaina, for your devotion to Omar, and for your encouragement that Omar continue helping to make this book happen.
Thank you, Liza, my indefatigable literary agent, for believing in this project when others who should have believed did not. I am a most fortunate author to have you represent me. And Frank, my literary attorney, I thank you for being a rock throughout my literary career, for sixteen years now. Havis, I thank you for your generous nature and unfailing help. To Chandler, foreign rights connoisseur, I thank you for falling in love with this story and for presenting it to publishers worldwide with that love in your heart.
A special thanks to my editor, Hope. Liza had told me you are one of the great editors, and working with you has proven that to me. Laura, you never let me down and were always there to answer