Osama bin Laden - Most Wanted Man Quiz

Answer: 1957

He was born in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh in 1957.

Answer: Infidel, non-believer

Not terribly relevant to this particular quiz, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

Answer: Construction

His father made his fortune in the construction business.

Answer: Saudi Arabia permanently seized his passport

When Saudi officials seized his passport, it was allegedly under pressure from Egypt, Yemen and Algeria, all of whom accused him of fostering anti-government organizations within their borders (the Saudi intelligence service wanted their hands on him long before, but the passport cancellation effectively put the matter out of their hands).

This caused him to flee the relative comfort of the jet-set lifestyle to settle in Sudan, from where he would be driven to the even more distressed country of Afghanistan.

It's worth noting that a few years before, Saudis had almost completely denounced him anyway, and whether his citizenship was really lost in '94 or with the earlier declarations in '91 is a matter of definition.

Answer: He was expelled from Sudan

bin Laden has always maintained that he left Sudan to spare the government and his friends there any grief. It's more likely that his Sudanese 'friends' got fed up with harboring his activities at such great cost and forcefully expelled him, as they themselves claim. Once he was cornered in a place like Afghanistan, bin Laden undoubtedly knew it was the beginning of the end for him.

Answer: Syrian

This is actually not completely undisputed. His mother, one of the ten wives of his father, was as far as I have been able to discern, Syrian in origin. Her ethnic background is another matter. I found a few sources claiming her to be a Palestinian that lived in Syria, others that she was a Syrian that lived in Palestine, but most reliable sources said she was Syrian, so that's what I'm going with.

Answer: son of Laden

bin is written with a small b, because it's actually the word 'son' rather than a name. His father, interestingly enough, wasn't really called Laden, but Mohammed bin Laden. Without really knowing anything about the family's history, I assume (or, rather, I guess) this 'Laden' character was a major player in the family's history and his sons took the last name as a sign of respect.

Then again, who knows? :)

Answer: None of these answers is entirely satisfactory

This question raises some interesting issues. Just by taking a look at the details of his father's assets it becomes clear that the vast majority of his alleged wealth did NOT come from there. Since he was one among fifty siblings, his father would have had to possess 15 BILLION dollars at the time of his death, and I've seen reports on CNN claiming his dividable assets were worth considerably less. Considering that Osama's mother did not marry his father, it's at the very least doubtful they handed the largest part of the estate over to him.

As I see it, that leaves three options. Either the US$250-300 million estimate of bin Laden's assets is way too high, or the estimates of what it costs to run a terrorist network are way too high or he has some extremely lucrative source of income that provides him with far more than his inheritance did. Rumours abound ...

Answer: The Islamic Salvation Front

The Islamic Salvation Front was part of the loose alliance of foreign and domestic fighters that expelled the Soviets with the help of U.S. money and arms. Al Qaeda was formed after the end of the Afghan-Soviet war, but consisted mostly of veterans of that war. Islamic Jihad (as well as 'Hezbollah' or 'Hizbollah', meaning 'Party of God') is a common name for militant organizations and doesn't mean much unless preceded by their country of origin, for example the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Dhul Fiqar was the name of the prophet Mohammad's sword (saws), and I don't think it has been used as a name for any terrorist organization.

Answer: He's almost 6' 6' tall

He did eventually escape, to Pakistan, sometime during 2005. He was eventually located and killed in May 2011 by a special unit of the US military. The compound where he was hiding out, and murdered, was demolished by the Pakistani government in February 2012.