Talk:Osama bin Laden

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Date of review: 2007-01-12
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some sections lack sources plange 06:36, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Contents


[edit] UBL writings

While he lived in Londinistan UBL wrote some sort of open letter against King Fahd. It mentions the arrest of Saudi "scholars" al-Ouda and al-Hawali. Anybody got this letter? Thx. LDH 04:02, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

It's in an open letter dated Dec 29, 1994 to bin Baz giving him a harm time for colaborating with al Saud. You can find the mention on page 8 in Messages to the World edited by Bruce Lawrence. --Leroy65X 19:35, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Thx LDH 03:41, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] three stepbrothers and one stepsister

"step" means they share no bloodline and only siblings or parent because of marriage...since they do share a bloodline via the mother they are his half siblings. --ahalfsister :-) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.153.29.140 (talk) 03:46, 8 February 2007 (UTC). Osama bin laden is awsome!

[edit] Two little slips

"Aymen Al Zawahiri" should say "Ayman al-Zawahiri".

Maktab al-Khidamat is referred to as Office of Order in one place but as Services Office in another. I would replace "Services Office" with "Maktab al-Khidamat".

LDH 09:33, 24 February 2007 (UTC) can anyone tell me lots about Osama bin Laden? Please tell all you know . I need to know for a project. Thank you for helping. =D

[edit] Awkard looking sentence

"While Azzam and his MAK organization acted as support for the Afghan fighters and provided relief to refugees and injured, bin Laden wanted a more military role in which the Arab fighters would not only be trained and equipped by the organization but also be commanded on the battlefield by Arabic."

Did the writer mean "Arabs" or "Arabic" as in the language? Brian Pearson 04:18, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Peter Bergen inconsistencies

The quality of the article could be greatly enhanced by cleaning up and linking references to Peter Bergen (who seems to be an important source for the article) and giving his credentials the first time he's used as a reference rather than late in the article. Ddigby 19:42, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Missing controvesy

This article is sub-standard as there is no mention of the possibility that this person "Osama Bin Laden" actually might not exist at all or the possible fact that he is co-conspiritor with the Americans to implement their domination over globe. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.248.159.240 (talk) 09:28, 8 March 2007 (UTC).

We might as well add the possibility that President Bush may or may not exist and that he's working solely for big oil. Without some sort of decent evidence and sources this is all just conjecture and there is no reason to add it.--24.84.51.247 22:37, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quote from Robin Cook

While correctly cited (the quote is Cook's words verbatim) I can't find any other source to suggest that what he says about "Al-Qaida" referring to a "database" is true. It seems that the word in Arabic simply means "The Base." Perhaps Cook's inference is correct, but I don't see any such indication.

Reference to the training camp and by extension those who have attended it as "the base" preceeded UBL's involvement. The suggestion that "the base" was derived from a reference to "database" may very well have come from whatever sources he suggests but it isn't a credible suggestion when the leadership which preceeded UBL established it's use independant of any database or such records. 220.233.94.28 13:56, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Illness

Lacks any reference to his the need for Kidney Dialysis. This topic comes up from time to time when you hear criticism of "why cannot we find a very out of place tall, 50 year old man, who needs a dialysis machine, in the desert". This topic is disussed Here in depth. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gmillerd (talk • contribs) 11:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Images

An editor User:Yonatanh has removed the copyright tags from the main images used in this article and then marked them for speedy deletion as not having copyright info...doh. Image:AQ00105.jpg and Image:Osama_1.jpg. I am no longer active on this wiki if there was another editor who could follow up. Cheers.--Paul E. Ester 21:22, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Attempted Capture by the USA

The wording in this section is in my opinion eerily similar to the article it cites. Perhaps this could be reworded in uhm.. "Wiki's own words" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by NeptuneMan (talk • contribs) 11:54, 16 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Unclear pronoun reference

He attended his son's wedding in January 2001, but since September 11 of that year he is believed only to have had contact with his mother on one occasion.[11]

What does "he" mean here? Osama bin Laden? (The sentence follow immediately upon mention of Osama's father.) I am guessing that the passage in intended to indicate that after 2001 Osama has had little or no contact with the family members with whom he grew up. P0M 22:17, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Phone number

Bin Laden's satellite phone number was 00873682505331. No kidding. LDH 20:28, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Love for Whitney Houston

Looking at the ref for this, it's not clear to me that the article is not satire. Can we get a better source for this? Maybe this, but I think it also seems a little too light-hearted.

Perhaps what I'm getting at is whether Kola Boof is even a reliable-enough source to use with attribution. I almost think that this paragraph should go into a "Osama bin Laden in popular culture" or something similar, because it seems deeply incredible and no source takes it seriously. See also Talk:Osama_bin_Laden/Archive_12#Kola_Boof_Affair_of_1996 Cool Hand Luke 03:43, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't it just be deleted instead? Apart from possibly Bobby Brown, who's bio could this be considered relevant to either way? 220.233.94.28 14:05, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I removed it a few days ago. We ought not include every crank's claim on a significant figure's biography. Cool Hand Luke 22:29, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. refused to hand over evidence to Taliban .... according to the Taliban

It is important to note that the Taliban was ready to have a trial for Bin Laden and if the USA's evidence showed Bin Laden was responsible, he would be handed over. This government never complied. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/11/world/main310852.shtml

What this article says is that Taliban claims the U.S. government did not show them Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. --Leroy65X 17:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

The United States government could have had Bin Laden already. President Bush at times did not care about Bin Laden, but come the 2004 election he did. If Bin Laden committed the September 11th attacks, he should be taken seriously. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Heresmyworld (talk • contribs) 12:23, 23 March 2007 (UTC).

Here is a source that verifies the US refused to prove binLaden responsible and gets rid of that pesky word "claim".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,573975,00.html
According to this link the Taliban offered to surrender bin Laden unconditionally before 9/11 but the Bush administration didn't take it up.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11012004.html Wayne 01:31, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Um this isn't new news. It's well established that the Taliban said they wanted evidence before they would hand over Osama but the US basically said fuck you and invaded them. Some people argue that the Taliban were just delaying. Others say the US just wanted to invade someone. Whatever the case, I remember this from before the invasion so it's clearly nothing new. Also, I would venture it has much more to do with the US invasion of Afghanistan then Osama so you really should be getting it there first Nil Einne 13:02, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bunk citations

There are multiple citations to Bin Laden taking responsibility for Septmember 11, 2001, attacks, but the quotes which are cited are never specific. I do not agree that those citations imply addmission of involvement specifically to Sept11. The quotes are addmission of desires, or general involvement to attacks in general, but are not specific to Sept11.

To give an example... just because I wanted the Blue Jays to win the World Series of baseball, and I did whatever was in my capacity to help them win, does not mean I was directly involved.

We, as wikipedians, should not be adding between the lines.

The Osama_bin_Laden Wikipedia page needs a major edit to regain neutrality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cendres (talk • contribs) 14:13, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

I've attempted to clean up September 11, 2001 attacks section, removing the word "admitted" and inserting quotes from him and more specific statements. --Leroy65X 15:40, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Family

Osama attended his son's wedding in January 2001, but since September 11 of that year he is believed only to have had contact with his mother on one occasion.[1]

I've removed this as it is badly written and misplaced. I'm not sure what it's supposed to say. Is his son's wedding supposed to be the last contact he had with his family (apart from his mother)? If so, this is what it should say. The citation doesn't even mention this as far as I can see!--Jack Upland 03:15, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

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