How did Osama Bin Laden become the world’s most wanted man? This is how the Al Qaeda
leader went from nobody to monster. As a young man, the son of a Saudi
billionaire and his tenth wife, Osama Bin Laden had a fairly normal childhood.
He inherited millions of dollars from his father’s family, went to college for
economics and business administration, and combined a deep devotion for Islam with
a love of secular elements in culture - like soccer. He even studied briefly at Oxford and
became a fan of the English soccer club Arsenal. And his personal life didn’t give
away a future terrorist either. Osama Bin Laden got married for the first time
in 1974 - and then kept getting married. By 1987, he had four wives, although he was divorced
once. This wasn’t uncommon for Saudi elites, and he was soon a father many times over. He
was described as a strict father and someone who lived a humble, frugal lifestyle
- but certainly not a dangerous man. But tragedy would soon enter his life - and
that might have been his start of darkness. Bin Laden’s father died in 1967 in a plane
crash - caused by his American pilot. In 1988, his half-brother would also die in a plane
crash - while visiting the United States. Did these two family tragedies start him on the path
to hatred of the United States? It’s possible… But the roots of his hatred might
be found in another conflict. Bin Laden was a millionaire, and he chose to use
that money in an unlikely way - buying his way into an ongoing war. The Soviet Union was at war
with Afghanistan, having invaded the central Asian nation to ensure their hegemony in the region.
Bin Laden watched as the powerful army routed the Afghan rebels - and he was enraged. The devoutly
Muslim Bin Laden felt like he had to do something, so he traveled to Pakistan and joined the militant
Abdullah Azzam in funding the rebellion there. And that would be the beginning
of his descent into radicalism. While this was Bin Laden’s first
brush with war against a superpower, it would not be the trigger that made him
the most wanted man in the world. After all, the Soviets didn’t view him any differently
from any other Afghan soldier. As for the west, and particularly the United States? They
actually found him pretty useful! After all, the Soviets were their geopolitical enemies, and
anyone who could make their life more difficult was welcome. While he wasn’t directly trained by
the United States despite what some conspiracy theories claimed, he had a significant
relationship with Saudi intelligence, and the Mujahideen as a whole
were backed by the United States. Then things went horribly wrong. As the war went on and Bin Laden’s money helped
the Afghans turn the tide, he turned his little rebel startup into a larger operation. Soon,
training camps were showing up all around Pakistan and Afghanistan. Word started getting
around about the resistance against the Soviets, and Osama Bin Laden started becoming a name
in Arab media. He was seen as an underdog, ruthlessly defending Muslim land against a
superpower that thought it could take what it wanted. And as the war in Afghanistan wound down,
he would turn his attention to other targets. And that’s when things started to unravel. Why did he become so radicalized? Part of it
may have started in 1988, when Bin Laden was apparently involved in the Gilgit massacre - a
brutal targeting of Shia Muslims in Pakistan. This was reportedly in response to an attack on
Sunni villages, but it was the first time Bin Laden turned his attention to violent reprisals
against fellow Muslims instead of colonizing armies. And it was the first indication
that he could become a serious threat. But things were about to go south in a hurry. By 1988, Osama had split from the larger Afghan
resistance movement and created his own group - Al Qaeda. Unlike the larger, scrappier group,
Bin Laden treated his new organization like a well-oiled machine - only taking recruits if
they matched up with his strict moral beliefs. But it was still a minor player in world
affairs, focused on defending Muslim lands and training an army of radicals that would
resist the colonization of superpowers. And after years of being backed by the west, and he
had no reason to want to go to war with them, especially as they haven’t tried to take
over any other muslim power at the time. But that was about to change. Ironically, the start of Bin Laden’s
descent into madness wouldn’t be an invasion - but an invitation. He returned
to Saudi Arabia a conquering hero in 1989, where he used his resources to influence
Afghan and Pakistani politics from afar. He also tried to get involved in
the chaotic politics of Yemen, but was restrained by Saudi leaders. Then
the war came home - as Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the Persian Gulf nation
of Kuwait to seize its oil, and the entire world rallied to stop him. Part of that effort
was the stationing of western troops in Saudi Arabia as a convenient staging ground - and to
protect the Saudis if Saddam came for them next. But Bin Laden didn’t see it that way. While the Saudis saw the US forces as a guarantee,
Bin Laden saw it as an invasion. He met with the Saudi king to warn him not to allow US troops,
and was asked for his plan. His response? “We will fight him with faith”, which shockingly was
not deemed an acceptable answer. The US troops came to Saudi Arabia, and Bin Laden lost his
mind. He tried to rally the nation’s clerics to denounce the royal family, but they refused.
He proceeded to gather his radical followers, and they decided that if the US troops
wouldn’t lose on their own, he would make them. And from here, things would escalate in a hurry. The first signs of how far he was willing to go
would come in November 1990, when the FBI raided the associate of an Al Qaeda operative living
in New Jersey. They were looking for evidence of terror plots - and they found them in spades.
The plans of Al Qaeda had apparently expanded from local ones, and now they were targeting
New York skyscrapers and prominent right-wing Rabbis - including one who was murdered only
three days before the raid! While they didn’t have airtight evidence tying the plots to Bin Laden
yet, it was clear who was pulling the strings. And the Saudis would soon take action. It was 1991 when the Saudis finally had
enough of Bin Laden publicly insulting their government over the US deal, and moved
to expel him from the country. He was stripped of his citizenship and sent abroad, first
settling in Afghanistan with his followers and eventually moving to Sudan. He favored
desert countries with a weak central government, so he could quietly build an arsenal and network
of training camps without the authorities getting involved. The United States was now aware of his
activities and viewed him as a potential threat, but he was still a minor factor
in the dying days of the cold war. But that was about to change. Around the world, explosions started
happening. First, a bomb went off at a hotel in Yemen where US troops were staying.
While the bomb went didn’t kill any soldiers, a second bomb at another hotel killed two
civilians. No one knew who was behind the attack yet, because Bin Laden was still staying
below the radar. When the World Trade Center’s underground garage was bombed in New York the
following year, killing six people, bin Laden was never formally charged - but the mastermind
was revealed to have trained under Bin Laden. From there, he would only escalate. He would successfully pull off his first
attack against American troops in 1995, on a facility in Saudi Arabia. Five
Americans and two Indians were killed, and it was the first time a government publicly
blames Al Qaeda for a terror attack. Bin Laden was still well underground, but the heat was
on. He was in Sudan at the time, and the US deployed CIA agents to apprehend him. However,
the Sudanese refused to cooperate, and there was no formal warrant out for Bin Laden at the
time. So he was left to continue his activities. That was a deadly mistake. It would be June 1996 when most people heard
Osama Bin Laden’s name for the first time, as a massive truck bomb hit the Khobar Towers
complex in Saudi Arabia. This was a base for US Air Force members, and 19 were killed in the
blase. At first, a branch of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was blamed for the attack
- but that would soon turn out to be false, as Osama Bin Laden decided to make a public
declaration of war on the United States. Known as his first fatwa, it blamed the United
States for its continued presence on Saudi soil, and spread elaborate conspiracy theories about
the US and Israel’s plans for the middle east. It was now clear to American authorities
that he was going to be a major threat. It wouldn’t be long before he struck again. Targeting American soldiers was one thing, and Bin
Laden was mostly seen as just another battlefield enemy to be conquered. But the core of his radical
view was that war wasn’t just necessary against American forces - all Americans and their
allies, no matter where they were, were legitimate targets for his forces. And he decided
to prove that with a series of attacks in 1998, against the most important and protected
sites in the diplomatic world - embassies. Attacking an embassy is considered one of
the highest crimes in international law, and Bin Laden wanted the world to
know how big of a threat he was. So he didn’t just attack one - he attacked two. Simultaneously on August 7th, 1998, a pair
of bombings took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya - hitting the US
embassies in both locations. These attacks killed more than two hundred people, most
of them civilians, and took place only weeks after the first major Al Qaeda congress
where they plotted their next moves. If the world hadn’t taken Osama Bin Laden’s
threat seriously before, they would now. And when the United States
government takes a threat seriously, they have a clear way of showing it. Osama Bin Laden had just earned himself a
place on the FBI’s ten most wanted list, with a hefty cash reward offered for his
apprehension. This list is usually known for hosting drug kingpins, murderers
on the run, and other domestic rogues, but it has been known to host terrorists and
international criminals - and few posed a bigger threat than bin Laden. But despite the cash
prize, Bin Laden was still on the run abroad, and few bounty hunters were willing to hunt
for him in the challenging territory of Sudan. So it fell to the government to find another way. In the aftermath of the embassy bombing, Bill
Clinton ordered missile strikes on terrorist training camps in Sudan, but they didn’t succeed
in targeting Bin Laden and were largely condemned by governments in the region. Bin Laden remained
on the loose, and continued collecting an army of militants to target Americans and their allies
around the world. As the turn of the millennium came, he would pull off another shocking attack,
bombing the USS Cole destroyer and killing 17 sailors. It was his first successful strike
against a major US military ship, and Bin Laden was now firmly in place as the #1 threat to US
security - and the most wanted man in the world. And he was just getting started… Want to learn more? Watch “How the CIA Funded
a Terrorist Organization” for more on Osama’s early days, or “How SEAL Team Took Down Osama Bin
Laden (Minute by Minute)” for how it all ended.
