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A large number of unverified claims about his status and location have been made, including rumours of his death in 2005 and 2006, and claims of his visits to various countries. However, there are no video recordings of him discussing current events where the video and audio are paired since October 2004 and some believe he died as early as December 2001.
A large number of unverified claims about his status and location have been made, including rumours of his death in 2005 and 2006, and claims of his visits to various countries. However, there are no video recordings of him discussing current events where the video and audio are paired since October 2004 and some believe he died as early as December 2001.


[[Islamic funeral|Muslim burial practices]]<ref>[http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503545494 ''Islam Online''] Site with Quranic verses stating the requirements.</ref> favor a possible future forensic determination.
[[Islamic funeral|Muslim burial practices]]<ref>[http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503545494 ''Islam Online''] Site with Quranic verses stating the requirements.</ref> favor a possible future forensic determination.{{fact}}


== Alleged sightings ==
== Alleged sightings ==

Revision as of 20:35, 9 August 2010

The current location of Osama bin Laden, a major figure involved in international terrorism and one of the most wanted people sought by the United States and several other governments, is unknown. There have been occasional reports of his death, though none have ever been confirmed.

Osama was the leader of Al-Qaeda and was identified as the alleged instigator of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed and injured thousands of people, as well as subsequent incidents.

A large number of unverified claims about his status and location have been made, including rumours of his death in 2005 and 2006, and claims of his visits to various countries. However, there are no video recordings of him discussing current events where the video and audio are paired since October 2004 and some believe he died as early as December 2001.

Muslim burial practices[1] favor a possible future forensic determination.[citation needed]

Alleged sightings

After the September 11 attacks, the United States demanded that the Taliban authorities deliver bin Laden to face charges of terrorism. The Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden without proof or evidence of his involvement in the September 11 attacks and made a counter-offer to try bin Laden in an Islamic court or extradite him to a third-party country. Both of those offers were rejected by the U.S. government.

Rumours surfaced that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, or that he died of natural causes. According to Gary Berntsen, in his 2005 book, Jawbreaker, a number of al-Qaeda detainees later confirmed that bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an eastern route through snow covered mountains in the area of Parachinar, Pakistan. The media reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly kidney dialysis. Ayman Ja Mes Baigent al-Zawahiri, a physician and an FBI Most Wanted Terrorist, is thought to have provided medical care to bin Laden.

The Central Intelligence Agency believes that Osama bin Laden is alive and hiding in North-West Pakistan, largely cut off from the daily operations of al-Qaeda.[2][3]

2006

  • January 9. Michael Ledeen, a neoconservative with close ties to the Bush administration, wrote that, "....according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Hajj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time".[4]
  • Sep 21. L'Est Républicain reported that unnamed Saudi police sources believe Osama bin Laden died a few days after contracting typhoid fever in Pakistan on August 23, 2006.[6]

2007

  • June. Taliban leader Mullah Bakht Mohammed claimed "The latest proof that he is alive is that he sent me a letter of condolences after the martyrdom of my brother. He advised me to follow my brother's path."[7]
  • September 7, counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke speculated that Bin Laden's "phony looking beard" in a recent videotaped message may mean his original beard has been shaved to help him blend into different Muslim communities. Clarke told ABC News, "One place where a beard would stand out would be southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia. No one's thought he was there, but that is an environment where most men, Muslim men don't have beards."[8]
  • November 2, the late Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto during an interview with Sir David Frost made a reference to bin Laden as being "murdered" by Omar Saeed Sheikh. During her answer to a question pertaining to the identities of those who had previously attempted her own assassination, Bhutto named Sheikh as a possible suspect while referring to him as "the man who murdered Osama bin Laden."[9] Neither Bhutto nor Frost attempted to clarify this statement.

2008

  • February 17, a report was published by a research team led by Thomas W. Gillespie and John A. Agnew of UCLA. They described using satellite-aided geographical analysis to pinpoint three compounds in Parachinar as likely hideouts of bin Laden.[10]
  • March, the New York Daily News reported that the hunt for bin Laden had centered in the Chitral District of Pakistan, including the Kalam Valley. According to the report, author Rohan Gunaratna states that captured Al Qaeda leaders have confirmed that Chitral is where bin Laden is hiding.
  • April 27, according to the Irish Times, Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari announced that the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery, and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.
  • July 12, Pakistan's Interior Minister states Bin Laden is not in Pakistan. The TimesOnline reports that the terrorist leader is still hiding in Afghanistan; Kunar Province being not far from Tora Bora.[11]

2009

  • November 29, News report states Bin laden is living in Pakistan and Gordon Brown orders Pakistan to do more to break Al-Qaeda and find Osama Bin Laden.[12]
  • December 4, BBC reports of informant having knowledge of Bin Laden in Ghazni, south east Afghanistan in early 2009.[13] Ghazni is a Taliban stronghold and many areas do not permit coalition forces. The detainee was involved in kidnappings and fundraising operations for Taliban operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel is quoted as saying:

"The entire Western intelligence community, CIA and FBI, have been looking for Osama Bin Laden for the last seven years and haven't come upon a source of information like this."[14]

2010

  • January 15, The FBI publishes digitally aged pictures of Bin Laden. Spanish newspaper El Mundo reveals that pictures of a Spanish politician, Gaspar Llamazares, were used for that purpose. The FBI has admitted to this and removed the image from its website.[15]
  • May 3, an Icelandic documentary on the relationship between falconry and Al Qaeda claims in an intervew with an Iranian warlord that Osama bin Laden has been living with relative freedom in Iran since 2003.[17]
  • June 13, Gary Brooks Faulkner (an American national) was apprehended attempting to hunt down Bin Laden in the Chitral Mountains in Pakistan, armed with a broadsword, gun, dagger and religious paraphernalia. [18][19]
  • June, Gary Brooks Faulkner has been detained since June 13 after authorities found him in the woods of northern Pakistan with a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment. He has been released. His brother said Faulkner left Pakistan early Wednesday June 23rd and arrived in Denver later in the day. Faulkner states he'll return to resume the hunt and reveal more details by the end of August 2010. If he is successful or provides information leading to Osama bin Laden's capture, he will receive a $50 million reward through the State Department's Rewards for Justice program targeting international fugitives, especially alleged terrorists, plus $2 million through a program developed and funded by the Air Line Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.

See also

References

  1. ^ Islam Online Site with Quranic verses stating the requirements.
  2. ^ Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'
  3. ^ 'Osama bin Laden's son 'killed in US drone strike
  4. ^ Leeden: One Moment in Time
  5. ^ Bin Laden on the Move; New Sightings in Pakistan
  6. ^ French paper reports bin Laden dead
  7. ^ Taliban: Bin Laden alive and well
  8. ^ New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive
  9. ^ Frost over the World - Benazir Bhutto - 2 Nov 2007
  10. ^ Gillespie, Thomas W.; et al. (2009). "Finding Osama bin Laden: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery" (PDF). MIT International Review. Retrieved 2009-02-17. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
  11. ^ Stop bombing us: Osama isn’t here, says Pakistan
  12. ^ news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8384994.stm
  13. ^ news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8394470.stm
  14. ^ news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8394470.stm
  15. ^ elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/01/16/internacional/1263598044.html
  16. ^ "Søndagsrevyen". Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. 17 January 2010.
  17. ^ foxnews.com/world/2010/05/03/usama-bin-laden-living-comfortably-iran-documentary-asserts/
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ [2]
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