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?


	Annetta S. of Silver Spring, Md., asks:

	I truly agree with how you described the great changes that family went through in a "very concentrated" period of time (the '80s). I'm wondering what is your insight as to what most of the "rest of us" were typically up to during that same period.

Steve Coll responds:

In researching the pressures and the struggles over identity that the bin Ladens of Osama's generation experienced, I was struck by some of the parallels with American experience, particularly the challenge of balancing personal religious faith, which many Americans hold deeply, with the temptations and choices of a free consumer culture.



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