After the September 11 attacks of 2001 there were rumors circulating about members of the Bin Laden clan whisked out of the country by the CIA and of secret connections between the Bin Ladens and the Bush clan. Conspiracy theorists have spun elaborate tales based on these stories. So who are these Bin Ladens and were they really here and why? Steve Coll reveals the true story of the Bin Laden family as much as it can be known.

Osama is one of 54 sons and daughters of Mohamed Bin Laden, a building contractor from Yemen who built a business empire by serving the needs and the whims of the Al Saud dynasty for whom Saudi Arabia is named. Under his leadership and that of his oldest sons, Salem and Bakr the Bin Laden companies have grown into an international multi-million dollar operation, building highways, renovating the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the major mosques in Mecca and Medina, creating the Saudi telephone system and investing in satellite communications, fitting out luxury private aircraft in Texas and buying commercial real estate and condominium developments in Florida.

Returning from Afghanistan in the early 1990s, Osama Bin Laden became disenchanted with the society he found in his native Saudi Arabia. He soon broke with the Al Saud and king Fahd and exiled himself to Yemen and then Sudan. His family formally removed him from the Bin Laden business at this time. Theoretically he has been cut off from the Bin Laden family fortune since this time, before the embassy bombings, before the USS Cole and certainly before 911. By breaking with the Al Saud Osama broke with the golden goose from which the Bin Laden family fortune was laid.

There is some question whether Osama has received funds from any family members however. Al-Qaeda has relied on donations from within the Arab world for it's operating funds and Bin Laden has been a major factor in getting those donations.



Those mysterious Bin Ladens who were spirited out of the country? A half brother living in Beverly Hills, another attending Harvard Business School, many nephews and a few nieces attending various colleges throughout the country. They were taken to Paris on a flight chartered by the family, with the cooperation of, and after being questioned by the FBI. No connection to Al-Qaeda was found for any of them.

The Bin Laden business empire continues to prosper, building airports, palaces condominiums and resorts in the middle east. Osama continues to live in exile, somewhere in the Afghanistan/Pakistan borderlands.

I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book!

In this well received follow-up to Coll's book on Afghanistan, he artfully describes the fascinating Bin Ladens. Some of the material is available elsewhere but this one-volume work will remain the standard account of the Bin Laden family for some time. Not only is the dynamic father, Mohammed, portrayed but the equally intriguing Salem is illustrated as well. The primary interest is in Osama but the family as a whole is just as charismatic in their own right.

The family, as the Saudi royal family also, has a bigger influence in American politics than is generally recognized. As they old saying goes: `Politics makes strange bedfellows' and while checking out AARP's page I also noticed a supporting organization: The Islamic Society of North America. Although ISNA often claims to be a mainstream Muslim organization, it is actually a Wahhabi Muslim organization. The Wahhabi's originate from the extreme purist brand of Islamism characteristic of the Saudi royal family as well as representing the religious background of Osama Bin Laden and his family (Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens, pp. 81-83). Perhaps the Saudi royal family and al-Qaeda does not advocate sound health care practices for Americans and do not wish us well.

A fascinating book which gives background about the vast Bin Laden family. It gives incredible detail about the family structure and dynamics, in particular the difficulty managing the Western influence on a Muslim family. What it does not do is tell you what made Osama the man he is now. The focus is clearly the Bin Laden family, it addresses Osama in that context. Excellent non-fiction read. ( )

Steve Coll's books are reliably well-written, well-researched, and both deep and broad. Subject matter that could be incomprehensible, with so many unfamiliar dates, locations, names and events, is made clear through his engaging language and his ability to focus the reader in on a narrative.

I was expecting a book a bit more upon the lines of Ghost Wars, a description of history and policy leading towards September 11th, and instead I found something more like a family biography. It was a surprise, but a welcome one. If I'd ever been asked if I thought I should know about Mohamed, Abdullah (and Abdullah and Abdullah), Salem, Ghalib, Khaled, Yeslam, Bakr and Randa bin Laden, I would have said no. Yet learning about all these individuals has been fascinating.

It is easy to stereotype individuals from unfamiliar cultures, to lump all Saudi Arabians or Yemenis or Afghanis into one large box, but the diversity of the bin Laden family shows that the confluence of religion, technology, politics and geography can result in stunningly different personalities, attitudes and beliefs even in the members of a single family.

Valuable reading and a fascinating look into another culture. I've only just finished it (I personally tend to read quickly and then digest at leisure), and believe it will be worth going back to this book repeatedly for deeper understanding. ( )

Though the narrative glides along like a novel, I soon found myself in unfamiliar territory. Essentially, I had very little prior knowledge to provide context to my reading. After a while, I realized that I had shifted to textbook reading because this biography of an enormous family in an exotic land was loaded with learning for this reader.
I searched for and printed two maps of the Middle East to help me coordinate to the settings in the book. In fact, that is a suggestion I would make to the author. Including maps might be very helpful to readers who are not knowledgeable about that part of the world. I know that maps helped me very much!
This story is absolutely fantastic in its international scope, wealth beyond imagination, political and religious intrigue, and cast of characters. The only factor that tops all of that is that it is all chillingly true. Read an excerpt here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st... ( )