http://www.terra.com/specials/attack/articulo/html/new16476.htm
By Jean Milán
Terra Staff Writer

Yes, there have been previous acts of domestic terrorism, including bombings at the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993, and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on Apr. 19, 1995. Although these resulted in some damage to the perception of safety among the citizens of the United States, nothing prepared Americans for the extreme scale of these recent attacks.

In the case of the Oklahoma City bombing, the perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, was prosecuted and eventually executed for his crimes. Although Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was arrested for the previous attack on the World Trade Center, many sources indicate that the true mastermind was blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman. He, in turn, took his orders from the infamous Saudi terrorist, Osama bin Laden, who has yet to be prosecuted for the role he played in causing more than 1,000 civilian injuries and six deaths.

Although the Taliban, Afghanistan's devoutly Islamic, totalitarian conquerors, have publicly denounced the alleged terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, they currently harbor bin Laden.

Who is bin Laden?

A millionaire and powerful leader of a terrorist network, bin Laden is the primary suspect behind the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. He has also been accused by the U.S. government of orchestrating the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Born 1957 to a Syrian mother, Osama bin Laden was one of his father’s fifty children. The senior bin Laden, millionaire construction company head Mohammed Awad bin Laden was a fairly devoted Moslem and has been described as having had a very dominating personality.

The younger bin Laden lost his father when he was only 13 years old. He went on to marry a distant relative at the age of 17. Later, he received a degree in public administration from King Abdul-Aziz university in Jeddah.

Not previously political, during the first two weeks of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan bin Laden was taken to see the refugees and meet some leaders. He returned home, and at once started lobbying the Saudi kingdom to support Afghanistan's freedom. He succeeded in collecting vast amounts of money and material as donations for the proposed jihad.

House arrest

Accustomed to traveling back and forth between other Arab countries and Afghanistan, bin Laden was unexpectedly banned from traveling by the Saudi government in 1989. He was placed under house arrest until he managed to escape under the pretense that he had to leave the country to sort out some business matters in Pakistan. Though he promised to return, he never did.

For a short while in 1994 he fled from war-torn Afghanistan to the Sudan, and the Saudi government froze all his considerable assets. But eventually, in 1996, he came back to Afghanistan, renewed in his growing hatred of the United States and Israel.

Upon leaving the Sudan, bin Laden issued his "Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques." The following is an excerpt from that declaration:

"Muslims burn with anger at America... There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land... Due to the imbalance of power between our armed forces and the enemy forces, a suitable means of fighting must be adopted, i.e. using fast-moving, light forces that work under complete secrecy. In other words, to initiate a guerrilla war, where the sons of the nation, and not the military forces, take part in it."

By 1998, bin Laden announced the creation of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders, in association with extremist groups from Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He also issued an edict calling for attacks on all Americans, including civilians, stating "We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it."

The terrorist leader further stated, "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it."

Bin Laden Chronology

1957
Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden is born in Riyadh.

1979
Bin Laden graduates from King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah.

Later, on Dec. 26, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. Bin Laden leaves Saudi Arabia to join the Afghan resistance.

1980 – 1986
From the border with Pakistani, bin Laden raises funds to further the resistance.

1986 – 1987
Bin Laden participates in numerous battles as a guerilla commander.

1988
Bin Laden establishes al Qaeda, an international terrorist group which, according to the U.S. government, is dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence

1989
After the Soviets pull out of Afghanistan, bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia a hero. He then becomes involved in groups opposed to the Saudi monarchy.

At the end of June, the National Islamic Front (NIF) stages a military coup and takes control of the Sudan.

1990
On Aug. 2, Iraq invades Kuwait.

1991
Bin Laden flees Saudi Arabia, after being confined to Jiddah for his opposition to the Saudi alliance with the United States. He moves first to Afghanistan and then to Khartoum, Sudan by 1992.

U.S. troops take part in the Persian Gulf War. After their victory, the U.S. establishes a large permanent military presence in the region, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the home of most important sites in Islam -- Mecca and Medina.

1992
Bin Laden begins to set up legitimate businesses in the Sudan, and the Sudanese government supposedly liked this wealthy man who was investing in their country.

On Dec. 29, a bomb explodes in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where US troops had been staying while headed to a humanitarian mission in Somalia. No soldiers were hurt since they had already moved on, but the bomb killed two Austrian tourists.

Two Yemeni citizens, trained in Afghanistan and injured in the blast, are later arrested. US intelligence agencies then allege that this was the first terrorist attack involving bin Laden.

1993
Sudan is placed on State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorist activities.

On February 26, the World Trade Center is bombed.

1994
According to US intelligence analysts, by January 1994, bin Laden was financing at least three terrorist training camps in North Sudan.

In April, the Saudi government revokes bin Laden's citizenship and moves to freeze his assets in Saudi Arabia.

1995
Early in the year, Ramzi Yousef, one of the team behind the World Trade Center bombing, is captured in Pakistan and extradited to the United States. A search of his former homes leads investigators to believe he is linked to bin Laden.

In June, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the life of the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak. U.S. intelligence sources have cause to believe bin Laden was linked to this action.

In August, bin Laden wrote an open letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia calling for a campaign of guerrilla attacks in order to drive U.S forces out of the kingdom.

In November, five Americans are killed in the truck bombing of a U.S.-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh. Bin Laden denies involvement but praises the attack.

1996
In May, the Sudan expels bin Laden because of international pressure by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden then moves back to Afghanistan.

The four Saudi men accused of bombing the Saudi National Guard training center the year before are beheaded in Riyadh's main square. In their public confessions, they claim to have moved on the orders of bin Laden.

In June, a large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in Dhahran, killing 19 servicemen. The US military initially linked bin Laden and a Saudi Shiite group to the attack.

In August, A secret grand jury investigation begins against bin Laden in New York. Bin Laden reacted by issuing a declaration of Jihad against the United States and the Government of Saudi Arabia.

1998
Bin Laden issues joint declaration with the Islamic Group, al Jihad, the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh and the "Jamaat ul Ulema e Pakistan" under the banner of the "World Islamic Front." The declaration states that Muslims should kill Americans including civilians -- anywhere in the world.

A series of raids is conducted in Albania against a cell of an Islamic terrorist movement by security personnel from the U.S. and Albania. Four suspected employees of bin Laden are arrested.

In June, the grand jury investigation of bin Laden, issues a sealed indictment, charging bin Laden with "conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States."

In early August, an Egyptian Jihad group sent the United States a warning that they would soon be delivering a message to Americans, "which we hope they read with care, because we will write it, with God's help, in a language they will understand."

Two explosions then take place at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bomb is Nairobi, Kenya kills 213 people, and injure more than 4,500 . The bomb in Dar es Salaam kills 11 and injures 85.

A group of presidential advisors meets with Clinton, with evidence that bin Laden is looking to obtain weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons to use against US installations.

On Aug. 20, the United States retaliates against bin Laden by sending cruise missiles to a suspected terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

The United State adds bin Laden's name to list of terrorists whose funds are targeted for seizure by the U.S. Treasury.

In October, Arabic newspaper al-Hayat claims bin Laden has acquired nuclear weapons from Soviet Central Asian countries.

In November, a new superceding indictment is issued against bin Laden. He is charged, along with others, with the bombing of two U.S. embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad.

1999
In mid-January, the U.S. Attorney's office files its most complete indictment to date of Osama bin Laden and 11 other suspected members of his terrorist organization. The grand jury charges the men for conspiring to kill American nationals.

2000
In October, the warship USS Cole is crippled by a suicide bombing in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network were later linked to the attack.

2001
Four followers of Osama bin Laden are found guilty of charges stemming from the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, and Wadih El Hage are convicted of charges including murder, conspiracy and perjury.

In August, Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language news magazine, claims bin Laden issued a warning that stated he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack against U.S. interests for its support of Israel.

On Sept.11, the United States experienced terrorism on a scale it had never before imagined possible. Osama bin Laden denied all culpability, but congratulated the terrorists on their achievement.