Group 1: The War in Afghanistan * Find facts about al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
Osama Bin Laden
Born Sheikh Osama bin Muhammad bin ’Awad bin Laden, was born in March 10th 1957 in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. He was the founder of the Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda, an organization that was responsible for many attacks in different parts of the world killing thousands of civilians as well as the high-profile targets. He did most of his work under the name of the Islamic religion and specially the sharia law.
Osama was born in a very wealthy family, to a Saudi Arabian father and a Syrian mother; he had a total of 52 siblings. In his early ages Osama studied engineering, economics, business administration and religion where he specified in interpreting the Quran and Jihad at King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.
Osama got married when only 17 years old, to his second cousin from his mother side of the family. Throughout his life Osama got married five times, and ended up having about 24 children.
His strong religious conviction got him to join the local Islamic groups, in 1973. And in 1979 he took to Afghanistan, after the then Soviet Union had invaded the country, and in the 1980’s he officially joined the war in Afghanistan as a volunteer, against the soviet occupying power.
One of his main struggles in live was the growing influence of the United States in the Middle East. He felt that the policies of the US government were the prime reason of the unhappiness of the people living in the Middle East region. His first attack against the Americans was in 1992 when he attacked a hotel in Yemen. The attack, that succeeded was made to kill the members of the US Army who were heading to Somalia.
Though he was responsible for many terrorist attacks throughout the years, the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center was his biggest destruction, and for his also an achievement.
For the years leading to his death Osama was number one, on the most wanted list made by the American government and the FBI, and a reward of 25 million dollars, was offered for information about his residence.

Al-Qaeda
Maktab al-Khidamat blev oprettet af mujahedinere, hellige krigere, der i 1980’erne fik økonomisk og militær hjælp fra den amerikanske efterretningstjeneste, CIA. Da de sovjetiske styrker havde trukket sig ud af Afghanistan ville de to ledere af Maktab al-Khidamat, Osama Bin Laden fra Saudi Arabien og Abdallah Azzam fra Palæstina to forskellige ting. Osama Bin Laden ville brede Maktab al-Khidamats budskab og udførelse af hellig krig (jihad) ud til hele verden, hvorimod Abdallah Azzam hellere ville fokusere på muslimerne i Afghanistan. Dette førte til en opdeling af Maktab al-Khidamat. Osama Bin Ladens ønske om at brede den hellige krigsførelse til resten af verden lykkedes, da Bin Laden i 1990 kontaktede krigsveteraner fra Afghanistan krigen, der var flyttet til andre dele af verden. Flere steder i verden begyndte nu der at komme netværker op der havde forbindelse til Bin Ladens, der nu gik under navnet Al-Qaeda. Det begyndte nu ikke kun at være ældre mænd der blev rekrutteret, men også unge mænd der boede andre steder i verden hørte om Al-Qaedas ekstremistiske udgave af islam, for det meste igennem moskeer, der førte denne form for prædiken.

Al-Qaedas struktur
Al-Qaeda kan deles op i fire grupper: De økonomiske, de militære, de religiøse og dem der tager sig af pressen. Hver gruppe har naturligvis hver sin opgave. Hver gruppe har flere undergrupper, der ligger rundt omkring i hele verden. Disse undergrupper kan eksistere i flere år uden at få nogle opgaver og uden at nogle ved at den findes. Al-Qaeda har kendetegn fra mafiaen fra de gamle dage. De grupper og undergrupper de er delt op i, kender ikke alle der er med i Al-Qaeda. Den lavest rangerede kender kun dem i sin egen undergruppe, han ved ikke hvem der giver dem den ordre de får, det er kun lederen af den lille respektive undergruppe der ved hvem han der giver den en ordre er, ham der giver ordren kender heller ikke alle dem der er over sig, han kender nogle i sin egen undergruppe, hvor de kun kender hinanden og sådan fortsætter den helt op til lederen. Omvendt kender lederen heller ikke alle dem der er under sig, han har nogle rådgivere, Shura Majlis, tæt ved sig, som muligvis kun er dem han kender. På denne måde gør de det næsten umuligt for deres fjende at optrevle og bekæmpe hele netværket, hvis et medlem bliver fanget, kan han ikke give meget information om hele Al-Qaeda, men kun meget lidt om sin egen undergruppe.