Steve Coll Explores Bin Ladens

Forum Introduction

		In his book "The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century," Steve Coll chronicles the lives and fortunes of the family from which Osama bin Laden came. He answers your questions here.

Are the Bushes linked to the bin Ladens? Why were bin Laden family members flown out of the U.S. after 9/11?

What happened to Osama bin Laden's older brother?

If Osama bin Laden removes the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, etc., can he create the new caliphate in this modern world?

How could Osama bin Laden's father have the influence you allege given his death when the child was but 9 years old?

How do you feel the U.S. entry into the Gulf War affected our relations with Arab countries?

How many of the bin Ladens' other 53 children of Mohammed have joined or support Osama?

What is, in your view, Osama bin Laden's ultimate goal?

You describe how the bin Ladens changed during the 1980s. What were the rest of us typically doing?


	Theresa G. of Modesto, Calif., asks:

	Michael Moore claimed in one of his films that the Bush family has sinister ties to the Saudi royal family. Are the Bushes linked to the bin Laden clan? Should members of the bin Laden family have been allowed to leave the U.S. after 9/11?

Steve Coll responds:

There were some business ties between the Bush and bin Laden families but they did not run very deep. As to the group that left after 9/11, so far as I can tell after looking into it, virtually all of them were of no significance to U.S. investigators, although there may have been one nephew of Osama who left on that flight who had previously been a subject of FBI inquiries. This nephew is the one exception that I could find, but the facts about that case are a bit murky.



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