Osama, This Is Your Life

1957

• July 30: Born
  in Riyadh to Yemeni bricklayer cum construction magnate Mohammed bin Laden
  and his fourth wife, reported variously as a Syrian or Palestinian woman.¹
• He is the 17 ^th
  of
  Mohammed's reported 52 children and the only child of his mother. ²

1968

• Inherits somewhere
  between $20 million and $80 million when his father perishes in a plane crash.
  Reports that his inheritance was between $200 and $300 million are generally
  viewed as inaccurate.
  ³

1975

• Begins school
  at King Abdel Aziz University in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.
  ⁴
  He
  is largely believed to study civil engineering, although some sources cite
  his field of study as economics, business administration, or management.
  ⁵
• Of particular interest
  to bin Laden are courses in Middle East politics under Sheikh Abdullah
  Azzam, a former PLO operative.
  ⁶
• Others, including
  a former barber, report that bin Laden was a "spoiled brat" and party
  animal, drinking heavily, gambling, and entertaining a penchant for belly
  dancers and bar brawls. ⁷

1979

• The Soviet Union invades
  Afghanistan. Bin Laden graduates from college and moves to Afghanistan to
  aid the mujahedeen against Soviet forces, using his considerable means and
  family's construction empire to deliver food, ammunition, weapons, and
  medical supplies to the guerrillas.
  ⁸
• He also builds a number
  of training camps, housing facilities, and logistical networks. The organization
  he establishes for the undertaking of these operations is known as Maktab
  al Khadimat (MAK) ⁹ which
  serves as a global recruiting network for the Muslim forces. ¹⁰
  This
  infrastructure later grows into the organization now known as al Qaeda
  (Arabic for "military base").
  ¹¹
  The
  group provides materiel and training to the guerrillas, as well as recruits new members and encourages
  like-minded groups. ¹²
• Al Qaeda will reportedly
  train over 5,000 militants in the coming years. ¹³
  Many
  of those trained are "sleepers," operatives blending in with their environs
  in host countries until ordered to strike.

1989

• Returns
  to Saudi Arabia after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Bin Laden harshly
  criticizes what he views as the ruling family's pro-Western politics. ¹⁴

1991

• Criticizes
  the Saudi ruling family for employing Western troops to fight Saddam Hussein
  in lieu of Saudi troops. Bin Laden considers the presence of Western troops in the
  same country as Mecca and Medina a desecration of sacred land. ¹⁵
• Moves to Sudan and expands his financial network to include an Islamic bank,
  a construction company, investment organizations, an agricultural business, and
  export firms.
  ¹⁶
  Sometime
  during the early 1990s he founds the London-based PR organization the Advisory
  and Reform Committee, distributing propaganda against the Saudi regime's
  pro-Western inclinations. ¹⁷ Such
  assets are suspected of funding and providing logistical support for al
  Qaeda operations.
• Bin Laden reports
  a number of assassination attempts against him while in Sudan. ¹⁸

1993

• February 26: World Trade
  Center is bombed, killing 6 and injuring more than 1,000. ¹⁹
  The mastermind of the bombings, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef,
  is later linked to the al Qaeda network. ²⁰
• October 3-4: Operatives
  of al Qaeda take part in an attack on U.S. miltary personnel on a humanitarian
  mission in Somalia. 18 Americans are killed.²¹

1994

• Bin Laden's Saudi
  citizenship is revoked. ²²
• Bin Laden's family
  allegedly disavows Osama, although some of his brothers have reportedly
  maintained contact with him. ²³
• Plots to assassinate
  the pope during his visit to the Philippines and to bomb the Israeli and
  American embassies in Manila are traced back to al Qaeda
  through Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade
  Center bombing. ²⁴

1995

• Plots to assassinate
  President Clinton during his visit to the Philippines and to bomb U.S. transpacific
  flights are also traced back to al Qaeda through Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. ²⁵

1996