Growing Up Bin Laden - Jean P. Sasson [188]
2008: Osama bin Laden releases an audiotape condemning the publication of drawings that he said insulted the Prophet Mohammed, and warned Europeans of a severe reaction to come.
2009: In January, Osama bin Laden releases an audiotape urging Muslims to launch a Jihad against Israel. The head of al-Qaeda vows to open new fronts against the United States and its allies. The twenty-two-minute audiotape includes an appeal for donations to support the fight he is waging.
* Omar bin Laden reports that his father told his family that their real family name was al-Qatani, but that his father, Mohammed bin Laden, had never registered the name. This is not documented by any other sources.
Appendix C
Al-Qaeda Chronology: 1988–2008
With the end of the war with Russia in sight, Osama and the men around him began to dream of a global Jihad to spread the message of God and to bring the world under Islamic rule.
Osama’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam, a leading Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, was the first to recognize the necessity of an organized foundation from which believers could launch their struggle for a perfect Islamic world. But while the orator Azzam talked, the military man acted. Osama called for the first planning meeting of what would be named al-Qaeda to be held at his family home in Peshawar, Pakistan. Al-Qaeda was formed in August 1988.
Osama’s al-Qaeda organization has both an Islamic arm and a military arm, with the military arm growing in prominence. As new Muslim fighters arrived in Pakistan, they were sent to training camps inside Afghanistan, then dispersed to the various fighting fronts.
As the war with Russia slowed, Osama had more time to devote to the Islamic goals of al-Qaeda. The plan to make Islam the religion of the world gained momentum after he moved from Saudi Arabia to Sudan, and finally to Afghanistan. The organization slowly became a threat to innocent people around the world.
The following attacks are believed to have been conducted by, or inspired by, al-Qaeda:
December 29, 1992: Aden, Yemen: In an attack targeting American servicemen on their way to Somalia, bombs explode at two hotels in Aden. No soldiers are killed, but two Austrian tourists are.
October 3–4, 1993: Somalia: Somali militia shoot down two American Black Hawk helicopters, killing eighteen U.S. servicemen.
June 25, 1996: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: The Khobar Towers building, a U.S. military housing complex, is bombed, killing nineteen U.S. servicemen.
August 7, 1998: Kenya and Tanzania: The U.S. embassies of both African nations are car-bombed. More than 222 people are killed, most of them Africans.
October 12, 2000: Aden, Yemen: Two suicide bombers ram a small boat into the USS Cole while it is docked. Seventeen American sailors are killed.
September 11, 2001: Nineteen al-Qaeda suspects hijack four domestic American planes. Two planes are flown into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. One plane is flown into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashes into an open field in Pennsylvania when the passengers resist their hijackers. There are various reports of the number of innocent people murdered, but the most accepted figure seems to be 2,986 victims.
February 1, 2002: Karachi, Pakistan: American journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped and beheaded.
April 11, 2002: Djerba, Tunisia: The Ghriba synagogue is bombed by a natural gas truck. The attack kills fifteen tourists (fourteen Germans and one Frenchman) and six Tunisians. Thirty others are wounded.
October 12, 2002: Bali, Indonesia: Suicide bombers and car bombs detonate in or near the busy nightclub area, killing over 200 people; 164 tourists and 38 Indonesians. Over 200 others are seriously wounded.
November 28, 2002: Mombassa, Kenya: A car bomb crashes into the lobby of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel and kills sixteen people. During the same time, two surface-to-air missiles are fired at an Israeli charter plane. The missiles miss the plane, saving