Obviously, the guy has resources better than a savings account at a NY bank.
Also, surely somebody has noticed the movement of the money?
The old fashioned way: he inherited it. His father was a saudi billionaire who, in spite of having about 50 children, left him about 250 million.
Good choice, Dad! Of all those kids, you HAD to leave all that money to the biggest asshole. :rolleyes:
250 million is no where near enough; what, did he invest it all in MS?
There has got to be a lot more than a few million involved here, like billions.
Also, I notice he has a really cool new-looking american camouflage fatigue jacket. Was he in the army?
Yes, he was in the army. The Afghanistan army trained by the CIA during the 80s to fend off the Soviet Unions advances into that country.
Most of his money comes from the construction business.
Why? When people are trained to use box cutters to make cruise missiles out of commercial airliners, how much money is really needed? Also, consider that he is a spiritual leader. Many of those who would follow him commit all that they have and expect nothing in return but death.
Not quite true. If they are followers of Osama bin Laden, they believe in a fanatic cult variation of Islam. According to this, any person who dies as a suicide martyr goes instantly to a luscious heaven.
But I agree with the cost thing. Train some people to fly planes, get fake passports, co-ordinate which planes to be on (hey, expedia.com) and grab some boxcutters and razorblades.
I had read (cnn.com? bbc.co.uk? news.yahoo.com?) that Saudi Arabia had stripped him of his citizenship and frozen his assets after he started agitating against the current royal family. If that’s true, where’s he getting his money now? Is there anyway we can go after it?
Done as a PBS Frontline series a year or two ago. Explains where he got/gets his money, and a good deal about the man in general.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html
I would also stress to my fellow dopers, please don’t jump to conclusions about who was behind these acts. There is evidence to be found, let’s wait until it’s in? I agree with justice being served, but I am not willing to comprimise and get a known terrorist on these charges if we’re not 1000000000% sure he did it. No doubt should be left, not because I believe bin Laden wouldn’t deserve it if he got it, but because I believe we shouldn’t leave even the slightest chance that the real person would get away in our haste to get bin Laden.
Steven
The biography I linked to in my previous post has some good tidbits on how he has influenced the religious leaders to publish opinions which support his political and economic goals. As such, he has helped create this “variant of Islam” and should be considered a prime driving force behind it.
I disagree, however, on how easy this attack was. Here is my main basis, learning to fly a jumbo jet(and it is obvious that the regular pilots were not at the controls) is non-trivial. The manuals are not available in paperback at Wal-Mart. The plotting of courses which would take them, within very tight timeframes(all happened within 45 minutes, even though the plane was originally far away from target, and it had to be done quickly before air defense could be scrambled), to their targets when they couldn’t be exactly sure of when they would be compeltely in control of the plane, all these things point to highly trained individuals. Possibly the most damning evidence was the video of the second WTC strike. The airplane performed a sharp turn at the last minute. Experts watching that video have commented more than once on how difficult that turn would be for a novice pilot. There is speculation that bin Laden is in posession of a jumbo-jet flight simulator. These are higly specialized pieces of equipment and are all custom-made. If he has this, it points to money and connections, in a big way. This was NOT a simple thing to do.
Steven
He comes from a very very rich family. He is worth $200M US dollars, but if the dollar falls, perhaps less.
“that Saudi Arabia had stripped him of his
citizenship”
Don’t believe everything you read, there is a lot of crappy news lately based on nontruths. Some day it’ll all be sorted out.
Frankly, I don’t think he did it, it was too complicated for him.