The World's Most Wanted Man

Only a hand full of terror organisations are considered capable of organising attacks aimed at the heart of a world super power. Only a well-financed, well-oiled militarily body could pull off such a massive assault against the United States of America.

All fingers point in one direction, to Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden, multimillionaire and the leader of the international Muslim army, called al-Qaida, has his lair. His name appears again and again as we try to unravel the magnitude of the nightmare unfolding in Washington and New York.

According to intelligence sources, he is probably the only terrorist leader who could mount such a complex, coordinated attack. Only three weeks ago, Bin Laden boasted that he was planning to attack American interests in a supposedly "unprecedented" manner, Arab journalists reported at the time.

Osama Bin Laden has the track record. The US blames him for attacks on its embassies in East Africa in August 1998, killing 224 people, and for the attack on the US destroyer Cole in Yemen last October, killing 17 sailors.

So who is Osama Bin Laden? He was born in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957, the son of wealthy parents. His personal fortune is estimated at 300 million Dollars. During the Afghan war of the 1980s Bin Laden supported the Islamic rebels' struggle against the Soviet Union. He not only paid for thousands of Muslim volunteers from the Middle East to join the mojahedin but also went there to fight himself.

Bin Laden also funded the Egyptian militants of Islamic Jihad, one of Israel's principal tormentors. In 1997 they were responsible for the assassination attempt on a bus with German
tourists in Luxor, Egypt. Furthermore he is involved in the activities of
the Islamic terrorist organization Al Faran, operating in India. This group
is believed to be responsible for the execution of five tourists in Kashmir.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Bin Laden was accused of conspiracy against
Saudi Arabia‘s royal family whereupon his citizenship was revoked. In 1989 he moved to Sudan but is now back in Afghanistan, where he is shielded by the Taliban regime. They continue to shield him, despite UN sanctions which have been imposed on Afghanistan to force the fundamentalist regime to hand over Bin Laden.

According to Taliban sources, Bin Laden is currently not involved in
international terrorism. But from his hide-out in Afghanistan he is suspected to be the brains behind the “Islamic front”, planning and co-ordinating terrorist attacks simply using a satellite telephone. The “Islamic front” consists of terrorist groups from Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir.

Bin Laden’s prominent status in international terrorism, his network of
radical Islamic allies and his abilities to handle the logistics of terror
make him the prime suspect in the latest terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading
to the apprehension or conviction of Osama Bin Laden.