| 1957 |  | | | Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden is born in Riyadh. He is 17th of
52 children sired by Muhammad Bin Laden--Saudi Arabia's wealthiest construction
magnate. |
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| 1979 | | | | Bin Laden graduates from King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah with a
degree in civil engineering. |
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| December 26, 1979 | | | | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Bin Laden leaves
Saudi Arabia to join the Afghan resistance (mujahedeen). |
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| 1980-86 | | | | From the Pakistani border, bin Laden raises funds and provides the
mujahedeen with logistical and humanitarian aid. |
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| 1986-89 | | | | According to Islamic sources, bin Laden participates in numerous
battles during the Afghan war against the Soviets as a guerilla commander,
including the fierce battle of Jalalabad which led the Soviets to finally
withdraw from Afghanistan. |
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| 1988 | | | | Bin Laden establishes "al Qaeda," an organization of ex-mujahedeen and
other supporters. Its mission is to channel fighters and funds to the
Afghan resistance. |
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| June 30, 1989 | | | | The National Islamic Front (NIF) stages a military coup and
takes control of the Sudan. |
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| 1989 | | | | After the Soviets pull out of Afghanistan, bin Laden returns to Saudi
Arabia a hero. He becomes involved in opposition movements to the Saudi
monarchy while working for his family construction firm, the Bin Laden Group. |
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| August 2, 1990 | | | | Iraq invades Kuwait. |
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| April, 1991 | | | | Bin Laden flees Saudi Arabia, after being confined to Jiddah for
his opposition to the Saudi alliance with the United States. He moves first to
Afghanistan and then to Khartoum, Sudan by 1992 (Source: Newsweek
2/1/99). Sudan had begun to allow any Muslim into the country
without a visa, in a display of Islamic solidarity. Allegedly, hundreds of
suspected terrorists and ex-mujahedeen come to Sudan as a safe haven (Source: New
York Times 9/21/98). |
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| 1991 | | | | US troops fight Persian Gulf War. After victory, the US establishes a
large permanent military presence in the region, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi
Arabia is the land of "the two most holy places" in Islam--Mecca and Medina. |
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| 1992 | | | | According to the current indictment against bin Laden, from 1992 on, bin
Laden and other Al Qaeda members stated privately within the organization that
a) Al Qaeda should put aside its differences with Shiite Muslim terrorist
organizations, including Iran and its affiliated terrorist group Hezbollah, to
cooperate against the perceived common enemy, the United States and its allies;
b) the US forces stationed on the Saudi peninsula, including both Saudi Arabia
and Yemen, should be attacked; and c) the US forces stationed in the Horn of
Africa, including Somalia, should be attacked.
Bin Laden begins to set up legitimate businesses in the Sudan, including
a tannery, two large farms, and a major road construction company. When Saudi
Arabia began pressuring Pakistan to get rid of the mujahedeen near the border
with Afghanistan, bin Laden reportedly paid for 480 Afghan vets to come work
with him. The Sudanese leaders liked this wealthy Saudi who was enthusiastic
about investing in their fledgling Islamic state. |
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| December 29, 1992 | | | | A bomb explodes in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where US troops
had been staying while en route to a humanitarian mission in Somalia. The bomb
killed two Austrian tourists; the U.S. soldiers had already left. Two Yemeni
Muslim militants, trained in Afghanistan and injured in the blast, are later
arrested. US intelligence agencies allege that this was the first terrorist
attack involving bin Laden and his associates (Source: New York Times
8/21/98). |
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| 1993 | | | | Sudan is placed on State Department's list of countries that sponsor
terrorist activities (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98).
According to US government charges, bin Laden's followers try to obtain
components of nuclear weapons and begin to work with Sudan's NIF to develop
chemical arms (Source: US News and World Report 10/5/98). |
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| February 26, 1993 | | | | World Trade Center bombing. |
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| October 3 & 4th, 1993 | | | | Eighteen US troops are killed in an urban attack in
Mogadishu, Somalia. American law enforcement, intelligence and national
security officials are divided as to whether, as a federal indictment charges,
bin Laden and his adherents helped train and arm the men who killed the US
troops (Source: New York Times 2/8/99). |
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| January 1994 | | | | According to US intelligence analysts, by January 1994, bin
Laden was financing at least three terrorist training camps in North Sudan,
where rebels from a half-dozen nations received training. (Source: New
York Times 8/14/96) |
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| April 9, 1994 | | | | The Saudi government revokes bin Laden's citizenship and moves
to freeze his assets in Saudi Arabia because of his support for Muslim
fundamentalist movements. (Source: New York Times 4/10/94) |
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| 1995 | | | | According to U.S. intelligence sources, bin Laden establishes extensive
training and housing operations for foreign guerillas in northern Yemen near
Saudi border. (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98) |
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| February/March 1995 | | | | Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the World Trade Center
bombing, is captured in Pakistan and extradited to the United States. A search
of his former residences leads investigators to believe he is financially
linked to bin Laden. Also, he had stayed at a bin Laden financed guest house
while in Pakistan. |
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| June 1995 | | | | U.S.ccessful assassination attempt on the life of the President of
Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, in Addis Ababa. U.S. intelligence sources believe bin
Laden was somehow linked. |
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| August, 1995 | | | | Bin Laden wrote an open letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
calling for a campaign of guerrilla attacks in order to drive U.S forces out of
the kingdom. |
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| November 13, 1995 | | | | Five Americans and two Indians are killed in the truck
bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh. Bin
Laden denies involvement but praises the attack (Source: Washington Post
8/23/98). |
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| May 1996 | | | | The Sudan expels bin Laden because of international pressure by the
United States and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden then moves back to Afghanistan.
(Source: Jane's Intelligence Review 10/1/98) |
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| May 31, 1996 | | | | The four Saudi men accused of bombing the Saudi National Guard
training center in Riyadh are beheaded in Riyadh's main square. Before their
execution, they are coerced by the Saudi's into a public confession. In the
confession, they claim to have read bin Laden communiqués. |
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| Spring 1996 | | | | President Clinton signed a top secret order that authorized the
CIA to use any and all means to destroy bin Laden's network. |
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| June 25, 1996 | | | | A large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in
Dhahran called Khobar Towers, killing 19 servicemen. The US military initially
linked bin Laden to the attack but now believe a Saudi Shiite group was
responsible (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98). U.S. investigators still
believe bin Laden was somehow involved. |
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| August, 1996 | | | | A secret grand jury investigation begins against Osama bin Laden
in New York. |
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| August 23, 1996 | | | |  Bin Laden signed and issued a Declaration of Jihad outlining
his organization's goals: drive US forces from the Arabian Peninsula,
overthrow the Government of Saudi Arabia, liberate Muslim holy sites, and
support Islamic revolutionary groups around the world. He declares that Saudis
have the right to strike at US troops in the Persian Gulf. |
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| November, 1996 | | | | Gwynne Roberts conducts interview of bin Laden for the British
documentary program Dispatches. Bin Laden threatens to wage an Islamic holy
war against the United States and its allies if Washington does not remove its
troops from the Gulf region (Source: Reuters 2/20/97). |
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| May 1997 | | | | CNN airs an interview with bin Laden in which he criticizes US
"occupation of the land of the holy places." |
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| July 1997 | | | | According to Islamic sources, a US-backed multinational mercenary
force is formed with the aim of abducting or killing bin Laden. Witnesses
claim to see 11 black Land Cruisers crossing into the Afghan city of Khost
along with 2 helicopters. A source said force was composed of 1000 non-US
mercenaries. (Source: Mideast Mirror 7/14/97--al-Hayat & al-Arab) |
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| February 1998 | | | | Bin Laden issues joint declaration with the Islamic Group, Al
Jihad, the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh and the "Jamaat ul Ulema e Pakistan"
under the banner of the "World Islamic Front," which stated that Muslims should
kill Americans including civilians--anywhere in the world. |
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| May 1998 | | | | ABC's John Miller interviews bin Laden in Afghanistan. |
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| June 1998 | | | | A raid is conducted in Albania against a cell of an Islamic
terrorist movement by security personnel from the U.S. and Albania. Two
suspected employees of bin Laden are arrested. The CIA takes custody of a
van-load of documents and computer gear. Two weeks later, another raid was
conducted and two more suspected bin Laden associates arrested. They were
Egyptian nationals and were turned over to anti- terrorist officials in Egypt.
All were associated with the Islamic Revival Foundation. (Source: Washington
Post 8/12/98) |
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| June 8, 1998 | | | | The grand jury investigation of bin Laden, initiated in 1996,
issues a sealed indictment, charging Bin Laden with "conspiracy to attack
defense utilities of the United States." Prosecutors charge that bin Laden
heads a terrorist organization called al Qaeda, the base, and was a major
financier of Islamic terrorists around the world. |
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| June 10, 1998 | | | | ABC Nightline John Miller interview with bin Laden
broadcast. |
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| August 6, 1998 | | | | The Egyptian Jihad group sent the United States a warning:
they would soon deliver a message to Americans "which we hope they read with
care, because we will write it, with God's help, in a language they will
understand." (Source: New York Times 8/21/98) |
| | |
| August 7, 1998 | | | | This is the eighth year anniversary of United Nations
sanctions against Iraq and the ordering of U.S. troops into the Gulf region.
Iraq informed the US Security Council that it was not going to tolerate the
continuation of the sanctions beyond the eighth year anniversary. (Source:
Daily Telegraph 8/12/98)
Two simultaneous explosions at US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania. The bomb in Nairobi, Kenya kills 213 people, including 12 US
nationals, and injure more than 4,500 . The bomb in Dar es Salaam kills 11 and
injures 85. No Americans died in the Tanzania bombing. |
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| August 12, 1998 | | | | The Small Group of presidential advisors meet with Clinton,
reportedly with evidence that bin Laden is looking to obtain weapons of mass
destruction and chemical weapons to use against US installations (Source: New
York Times 9/23/98). US intelligence also reportedly intercepted a mobile
phone conversation between two of bin Laden's lieutenants that implicated them
in the embassy bombings. (Source: Newsweek 8/31/98) |
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| August 20, 1998 | | | | 
US retaliation against bin Laden--cruise missiles attack a
suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Al Shifa, a
pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum. US intelligence claims that Al Shifa is tied
to the production of chemical weapons for bin Laden. The Sudanese government
vehemently denied these claims.
US adds bin Laden's name to list of terrorists whose funds
are targeted for seizure by US Treasury in order to shut down the financial
pipelines that allegedly subsidize bin Laden's terrorist activities. (Source:
Washington Post 8/28/98) |
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| September 23, 1998 | | | | US senior administrative officials admit that they had no
evidence that directly linked bin Laden to the Al Shifa factory at the time of
retaliatory strikes on Aug 20. Intelligence officials found financial
transactions between bin Laden and the Military Industrial Corporation--a
company run by the Sudan's government. (Source: New York Times 9/23/98) |
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| October 1998 | | | | The Sunday Times of London reports that bin Laden is sending
Islamic mercenaries to Kashmir to support an Islamic secession campaign. |
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| October 7, 1998 | | | | Arabic newspaper al-Hayat claims bin Laden has acquired
nuclear weapons from Soviet Central Asian countries using a network of
"influential friends". Others are skeptical. (Source: UPI 10/7/98) |
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| November 4, 1998 | | | | A new superceding indictment is issued against bin Laden,
Muhammad Atef and a host of other suspects. They are charged with bombing of
two US embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against
Americans abroad. Two rewards of $5 million each are offered for Atef and bin
Laden. Atef is described as bin Laden's chief military commander. |
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| December 22, 1998 | | | | Bin Laden summons Rahimullah Yusufzai, a reporter for
Pakistan's The News, Time Magazine and John Miller of ABC News, to his tented
encampment in Afghanistan's Helmand province for interviews. |
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| December 23, 1998 | | | | TIME correspondent conducts interview with Osama bin
Laden. |
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| December 24, 1998 | | | | ABC's second interview with Osama bin Laden is broadcast on
ABC News. |
| | |
| January 11, 1999 | | | | TIME and Newsweek publish interviews with Osama bin Laden
that were conducted in late December. |
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| January 16, 1999 | | | | The US Attorney's office files its most complete indictment
to date of Osama bin Laden and 11 other suspected members of his terrorist
organization. The grand jury charges the men for conspiring to kill American
nationals. The first count of the indictment charges that several of the
co-defendants, acted with other members of "al Qaeda," a worldwide terrorist
organization led by bin Laden, in a conspiracy to murder American citizens. The
objectives of the terrorist group allegedly include: killing members of the
American military stationed in Saudi Arabia and Somalia; killing United States
embassy employees in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and
concealing the activities of the co-conspirators by, among other things,
establishing front companies, providing false identity and travel documents,
engaging in coded correspondence, and providing false information to the
authorities in various countries. |
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| May 29, 2001 | | | | Four followers of Osama bin Laden are found guilty of charges stemming from the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, and Wadih El Hage are convicted of charges including murder, conspiracy and perjury after a nine-week federal trial during which prosecutors called over 90 witnesses, including al Qaeda informants and survivors of the bombings. Owhali and Mohamed face the death penalty at their sentencing, while Odeh and El Hage face life in prison. |
