A Family business: bin Laden’s eldest son is the new al-Qaeda leader

Talk about the possible death of Osama bin Laden should not be considered groundless. According to some sources, the al-Qaeda terrorist organization organized by bin Laden with his own money is now led by bin Laden’s eldest son, Saad bin Osama bin Laden, the Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat informs with reference to sources close to al-Qaeda leadership. The newspaper suggests that the information proves that Osama bin Laden is either dead or incapable of leading the terrorist organization because of a grave injury.

There is little information about bin Laden’s son; it is not even sure that it is he who is Osama’s eldest son. According to some sources, Saad has (or had) a brother named Omar who is two years older. Saad is very young; he was born in 1981. Osama bin Laden has 50 children, and the family is very fertile: Osama’s father Mohammed bin Laden had 52 children (Osama is 17th in the family).

However, it is not ruled out that bin Laden’s followers purposefully misled the Arab newspaper journalists in order to convince the world community of death of the al-Qaeda leader, or this could mean that the terrorist organization is disorganized without any centralized management. And what the explanation to the fact that bin Laden’s associates often declare that the extremist leader is alive and planning new terrorist attacks?

If the information published by Asharq Al Awsat is true and Osama bin Laden is alive, it seems that the number one terrorist is doing his best to make the world forget about him. Will he succeed?

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Photo from NTVRU.com archives

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/29/44830.html

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