Osama Bin Laden Biography

he Name Osama bin Laden is probably the most well known name in modern history. How could the son of a billionaire Saudi become one of the most wanted terrorist of all time? With wanted posters posted on every corner of the globe and a massive manhunt, Osama bin Laden evaded capture for over nine years, until his death in 2011. How could someone who was privy to a life of luxury resort to living in caves in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan. This paper will focus on how Osama bin Laden was able to have so much influence and power and who was the man held responsible for the deadliest attack on United States soil. This paper will examine the communication skills used to carry out deadly attacks from the beginning of Al-Qaeda and after
the death of Osama bin Laden. Before the introduction of Osama bin Laden a state usually sponsored terrorism but in the case of bin Laden he was a “terrorist who sponsored a state”.
From 1996-2001 he used his wealth and influence to buy protection from the Taliban, (the ruling party of Afghanistan) and formed the group al-Qaeda, that quickly became an interantional terrorist business (Kimmage, Bruce 2005). Osama bin Laden became more well known to the world after the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the remains and extent of his influence and power are still not exactly known. When Osama bin Laden first made claim to a holy war he sent his message by a fax machine and also declared war on America by email methods that were beamed from a satellite to sites all over the globe (Weinmann Gabriel
2004). Al-Qaeda members and bin Laden used CD’s and encrypted messages on laptops and Osama had the skills to communicate effectively with the technology he possessed. Osama bin Laden, on occasion, gave interviews to media sources. He would conduct interviews from a cave and would request a written form of questions that the reporter would ask before the interview took place (Lawrence, Bruce 2005). Osama gained a lot of support from young recruits from training camps he operated. He lobbied his family in Saudi Arabia to help support the cause in Afghanistan and stories from journalists were sent to Arabic newspapers with pictures of Osama bin Laden dressed in military garb thus creating a warrior like image of himself (Lawrence, Bruce 2005). Many youth were intrigued by him and wanted to join the cause and to be like their hero, Osama bin Laden. Training manuals were put on CD’s to teach people how to act out terrorist activities. After becoming an ally to the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Osama’s leadership took root and from Afghanistan he would call upon Western reporters to visit him so they could relay his message to the United States (Tessler, Mark 2003).
Other messages did not contain words but actions such as attacks in Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen this was the calling card of Al-Qaeda. In 1998, Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda received recognition from the United States as an international terrorist organization, that gave him more of the limelight and word of mouth about Al-Qaeda quickly spread (Huntington, Samuel 1997). Even if Osama was not responsible for the attacks of 9/11 he was given credit for it and he gladly accepted it as a way to tell the world just like the Soviets Al-Qaeda drove out of Afghanistan they could also harm the other superpower of the world, namely the United States of America. Al-Qaeda. Soon thereafter with the massive manhunt for him, Osama turned off all electronic devices that could point to his whereabouts and resorted to face to face communication and couriers, however the use of a courier was his downfall and eventually led to his death (Kimmage, Daniel
2008). Athe death of bin Laden and after Edward Snowden leaked intelligence about the NSA, terrorists organizations learned how to stay ahead of surveillance from chat rooms and various websites (Weinmann, Gabriel 2004). They were being taught to use fake phone numbers, special online software to hide IP addresses and physical locations, they use encrypted links to access Jihadi forums, basically the internet took the place of an actual base camp (Weinmann, Gabriel 2004). Face to face meetings are the preferred meetings of terrorists and they are doing everything they can to remain under the radar of all new technology to find them. Many terrorist groups use veiled speech, which is a form of using substitute words for other meanings and by using the very complicated Arabic language with so many dialects make it very difficult to translate. Jihad websites hide text in Arabic using URLS that change all the time (Tessler, Mark 2003). Another way to avoid detection is rotating computers with others, using internet cafes, changing SIM cards often and of Al-Qaeda techniques is called the “Dead Letter Box System” that uses a shared email account and they can safely leave messages in the drafts (Lawrence, Bruce 2005). With technology changing all the time it is a no win situation for either side, each time surveillance finds a way to detect terrorist activity, someone figures out they are being watched and from this they learn how to beat and or stay ahead of the system. Terrorist groups are very skilled at computers and technology and where there is a will to get their message out there, there will always be a way. There are always replacements for terrorist leaders however, there will never be another one quite like Osama bin Laden.