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?


	Robert O. of Durham, N.C., asks:

	On the NewsHour, you talked about Osama's older brother in the past tense. What happened to him? Are any family members still in touch with Osama bin Laden? Helping him?

Steve Coll responds:

Salem bin Laden, Osama's elder brother, ran the family from 1967 until Salem died in an ultralight aircraft accident outside of San Antonio in May of 1988. The main bin Laden family broke with Osama in the mid-1990s. Osama's mother and one of his stepbrothers attended the wedding of Osama's second son in Afghanistan early in 2001, but these are the last known family contacts, apart from Osama's own wives and children.



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