早
在他引爆一系列最终把美国卷入两场持久战的事件之前，以及在美国把捉拿他当作本国外交政策首要目标之前，乌萨马•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)曾是一个富有的年轻人，他在成长过程中与沙特阿拉伯的政治精英互有往来，他的父亲还曾为恢复伊斯兰教圣地出过力。
Anjum Naveed/Associated Press
多年来行踪诡秘的基地组织领袖本・拉登上周日被美军击毙。他最后的藏身地是距离巴基斯坦首都伊斯兰堡约64公里处的一幢住宅。
不过，通过对“远敌“的成功打击，本•拉登成功定义了美国十年的外交政策。
虽然丧生在基地组织炸弹中的既有穆斯林，也有非穆斯林，但本•拉登却将恐怖行动想象为一种出于信仰的行为。
他曾在1999年向《时代》(Time)杂志的记者说，对美国怀有敌意是一项宗教责任，还把煽动1998年对美国驻坦桑尼亚和肯尼亚大使馆进行炸弹袭击的事揽到自己身上。他说，穆斯林能够终结所谓美国是超级大国这一神话，对此我有信心。
本•拉登在2001年9月完成了对美国发动恐怖袭击的“黑暗杰作”之后不久写信给塔利班(Taliban)领导人奥马尔(Mullah Omar)说，他这种做法是要迫使美国对基地组织的袭击行动做出过度反应，正如上世纪80年代前苏联在阿富汗做出过度反应一样。他在信中说，美国与基地组织之间即将开始的斗争将给美国造成“沉重的长期经济负担，造成经济一进步崩溃”，并最终导致美帝国的萎缩。
AFP/Getty Images
基地组织领袖、一手策划美国历史上最大规模恐怖袭击的本・拉登于当地时间周日在巴基斯坦身亡。美国总统奥巴马周日晚证实了这一消息。
穆罕默德•本•拉登还重新装修了麦加和麦地那的清真寺以及伊斯兰教最神圣的圣地之一、耶路撒冷的阿克萨清真寺(Al-Aqsa Mosque)。他有十几个妻子，50多个孩子，据说乌萨马•本•拉登是他第17个孩子。乌萨马10岁时，父亲在一次空难中丧生，据说给乌萨马留下了8,000万美元。
乌萨马的母亲阿利雅•加尼姆(Alia Ghanem)是叙利亚人，在穆罕默德•本•拉登的众多妻子中排名很低。据《纽约客》(New Yorker)杂志2005年的一篇文章说，乌萨马出生后不久，父母就离了婚，母亲改嫁他人，又生了四个孩子，而乌萨马是在母亲的家里跟这些弟妹一同长大的。
本•拉登上的是吉达最有名的私立中学，学校的学生都穿着英式预科生制服，而不是阿拉伯传统服装。同校的还有沙特阿拉伯的王子。课程要求严格，其中包括英语和数学课程，也有宗教课程。少年本•拉登的身材又高又瘦，常常因为高超的头球技术而被选为学校足球队的前锋。有关本•拉登在黎巴嫩和欧洲求学期间饮酒作乐的说法不一定为假，但至少没有得到证实。
基地组织领导人本・拉登在距巴基斯坦首都60多公里外被击毙，在未来几天内，安全形势趋紧。《华尔街日报》的Jake Lee、Carlos Tejada以及John Bussey对此进行了讨论。
这位变得激进的年轻沙特人、非常有钱的二流工科学生，成年时正逢伊斯兰世界处于政治动荡时期。伊朗的一场革命已经推翻了国王的统治，让宗教成为国民生活的中心。与此同时，苏联已经入侵并占领阿富汗，鼓动了很多年轻的逊尼派穆斯林。阿扎姆要求门徒们加入“圣战”组织抵抗苏联入侵。本•拉登后来对一家阿拉伯语报纸说，他当时愤怒不已，立即前往。
起初他发挥的是辅助性作用。他筹集资金并且自己也捐助资金，用于招募抵抗苏联的圣战者、为他们提供财务支持。
报道20世纪80年代初期那场战争的新闻记者们开始听闻一位高大帅气的男子，他穿着阿富汗长袍，但靴子是英国定制的，被称为“沙特王子”和“乐善好施者”。他拜访受伤的战士，用干果和巧克力安慰他们，并给他们的家人送钱。
本•拉登还帮助进口用于挖掘水渠、修建道路的重型建筑装备。后来他就老是夸耀自己的战斗本领，说他的AK-47步枪是从他打死的一名俄国军官尸体上缴获的，也就是资料片里显示他正在开火的那把。
1988年，在苏联人开始撤离已经成为战争泥潭的阿富汗之际，本•拉登和埃及医生、一个激进圣战组织的头目艾曼•扎瓦希里(Ayman el-Zawahiri)一起创建了致力于发动更大规模圣战的基地组织。
STR/European Pressphoto Agency
本•拉登（Bin Laden）建立了遍及全球的恐怖组织，并史无前例地成为这一极端事业的代言人。图为本•拉登1988年在阿富汗贾拉拉巴德地区的一个山洞堡垒里。
美国军队驻扎于伊斯兰世界最神圣的地区让本•拉登很不满，于是他开始策划袭击行动。1993年发生在世界贸易中心(World Trade Center)的爆炸案，就是基地组织最早的袭击行动之一。
基地组织在1996年对美国宣战。本•拉登写道，伊斯兰人民觉醒了，意识到他们是犹太复国者-十字军同盟的主要进攻目标。本•拉登和扎瓦希里发布一份宗教法令，将袭击美国人称为“每一个穆斯林可在任何可以履行的国家的个人责任”。
随后在国内外发生了一系列针对美国的恐怖袭击事件。其中最引人注目的便是针对纽约世贸中心和五角大楼的恐怖袭击。此事令拉登迅速成为全球恐怖主义的代言人。悬赏通缉拉登的奖金最后高达2,500万美元。
后来播出的视频显示，拉登和其助手笑谈9/11恐怖袭击事件，期间拉登还对破坏规模表示出很大的惊异。拉登在视频中说，当人们看到一匹强壮的马和一匹瘦弱的马时，人们自然会喜欢那只强壮的。
六周后，拉登出逃以寻求保护。他和大约1,000名追随者动身前往阿富汗西南部的托拉博拉（Tora Bora）。十年前，在中央情报局的帮助下，人们在这里的群山中开凿了许多长约六英里的洞穴。拉登和大约300名追随者最后成功逃走。他们很可能是顺着当年的走私小道逃出群山并穿过巴基斯坦边境的。
Associated Press
2001年，本•拉登出现在一个秘密地点。
而拉登从美军特种部队和阿富汗盟军的眼皮底下逃走这一事实曾让美国的决策者非常困扰。接下来的九年里，尽管有高额赏金，但拉登的藏身之处始终是个谜团。多年来，反恐专家一直相信拉登藏匿于巴基斯坦西北部的法外之地。
在911恐怖袭击、美军入侵阿富汗以及拉登逃走之后，拉登对基地组织的个人影响变得不那么重要了。基地组织的分支附属机构接过了圣战的火炬，基本上靠自己的力量经营。这些分支机构一开始位于北非、随后又拓展到伊拉克、也门和巴基斯坦。拉登则不时通过图像和声音向阿拉伯世界新的媒体渠道透露信息，但是他的信息变得越来越漫无目的。
2003年初，他敦促穆斯林击退美军对伊拉克迫在眉睫的入侵。2004年，他向欧洲国家提出停战建议，条件是这些国家从穆斯林土地上撤军。2005年，他谴责即将进行的伊拉克大选。2009年，他说金融危机彰显了美国的衰落。2010年，他呼吁采取行动对抗气候变化。
2002年英国《卫报》在阿富汗采访了拉登的一位妻子（没有名字，只以代号AS示人），她透露在20世纪90年代后期，拉登生活非常节制，只吃面包、酸奶、蜂蜜和椰枣，很少吃肉。AS说拉登仍然参与建筑业，并与阿富汗慈善机构有接触。据AS透露，当塔利班政府关闭了世俗学校之后，拉登出钱聘请家庭教师教孩子英语、阿拉伯语、数学和科学。
据说拉登结过四次婚，最近一次是和一个年轻的也门女孩，他可能有十二个子女。
在接受《卫报》采访时，AS已经有一段时间没听到拉登的音讯了。当被问及是否认为她的丈夫已经死亡时，AS回答说，如果拉登遇害，那么全球都会知道。因为拉登的死讯无法隐藏。
Stephen Miller/Keith Johnson
（更新完成）
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20110503/bus170036.asp?source=whatnews2
That comfortable niche wasn't to be. Bin Laden, 54 years old when he was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan Sunday, became a pariah in his home country after forging al Qaeda in the crucible of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. When he died in the firefight in a Pakistani compound, his role as operational head of al Qaeda was years behind him and his quest to restore the Islamic Caliphate lay in tatters.
Yet by successfully striking out at 'the far enemy,' bin Laden succeeded in defining a decade of U.S. foreign policy.
Although al Qaeda's bombs killed Muslims and non-Muslims alike, bin Laden conceived of terror as an act of faith.
'Hostility toward America is a religious duty,' he told Time magazine in 1999, taking credit for instigating the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. 'I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.'
His method, he wrote to Taliban leader Mullah Omar shortly after his dark masterwork, the terror attacks of September 2001, was to force the U.S. to overreach in its reaction to al Qaeda attacks, as the Soviets had overreached in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The coming struggle would cause 'great long-term economic burdens, leading to further economic collapse' and, ultimately, the contraction of the American empire.
Decades before the 9/11 attacks, the man born Osama bin Awad bin Laden was steeped in anti-Western ideology that might seem surprising in one so blessed by good material fortune. Born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bin Laden grew up in a wealthy, cosmopolitan atmosphere where an afternoon's recreation might include riding at his stables, and in the evenings his mother dressed in Chanel. His father, Mohammed bin Laden, was born in Yemen, moved to Saudi Arabia and became wealthy building palaces and military installations for Saudi royalty. The Saudi Binladen Group is today a large multinational company.
Mohammed bin Laden also refurbished mosques at Mecca and Medina and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, among the most sacred shrines in Islam. He had a dozen wives and more than 50 children, of whom Osama was said to be the 17th child. The father was killed in a aircraft crash when Osama was 10, leaving his son a reported $80 million.
Bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, was a Syrian who ranked low in the hierarchy of Mohammed bin Laden's wives. His parents were divorced not long after bin Laden was born, according to a 2005 profile in the New Yorker. His mother remarried and Osama grew up in her home, along with four children she bore in a second marriage.
Bin Laden attended the most prestigious private school in Jeddah, where the students wore English-style prep uniforms rather than traditional garb, alongside Saudi princes. The curriculum was demanding, including instruction in English and mathematics, as well as religion. The teenage bin Laden was tall, almost gangly, and was often picked as a forward on his school soccer team for his superior ability to head the ball. Accounts of bin Laden carousing during his student days in Lebanon and Europe are at best unverified.
Married at 17 to a cousin, he attended King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, studying civil engineering and apparently intending to join his father's company. But he fell under the spell of Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who believed that devout Muslims should strive to reunite all lands that been under Islamic rule─essentially the restoration of the seventh century Caliphate. This would become bin Laden's, and al Qaeda's, guiding passion, later apparent in statements from bin Laden lamenting the loss of al Andalus, the name for the Iberian peninsula when it was under Muslim rule.
The radicalized young Saudi, a mediocre engineering student with plenty of money, reached adulthood when the Islamic world was in political ferment. In Iran, a revolution had deposed the Shah and put religion at the center of national life. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied Afghanistan, energizing many young Sunni Muslims. Azzam urged his protégé to join the jihad to resist the invasion. 'I was enraged and went there at once,' Bin Laden later told an Arabic-language newspaper.
At first, he played a supporting role. He raised money and contributed his own to recruit and financially support the mujahedeen, the holy warriors who fought the Soviets.
Journalists covering the war in the early 1980s began hearing of a tall, dapper man in Afghan robes but English-made bespoke boots who was called the Saudi Prince and the Good Samaritan. He visited wounded fighters, consoling them with nuts and chocolates, and sent money to their families.
Bin Laden also helped import heavy construction equipment used to dig tunnels and build roads. He would later crow about his prowess in combat, boasting that he took his AK-47 rifle, the same weapon he is shown firing in stock footage, off the corpse of a Russian officer he had killed.
In 1988, as the Soviets began withdrawing from what had become an Afghan quagmire, bin Laden and Ayman el-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor and the head of a radical jihadist group, joined to create al Qaeda, dedicated to a more expansive view of holy war.
Al Qaeda roared into action after the U.S. military rushed to protect Saudi Arabia in the wake of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia had rejected bin Laden's offer of mujahedeen help and subsequently kicked him out of the country for his radical views.
The presence of U.S. troops in the land of Islam's holiest shrines infuriated bin Laden and led him to start plotting attacks. Among al Qaeda's first efforts was the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Al Qaeda declared war on the U.S. in 1996. Bin Laden wrote, 'The people of Islam awakened and realized that they are the main target for the aggression of the Zionist-Crusaders alliance.' In a fatwa, or religious decree, bin Laden and Zawahiri called for Americans to be attacked as 'an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.'
A series of attacks ensued against the U.S., both domestically and abroad. Most dramatic was the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, events that speedily made bin Laden the literal poster child of terror around the world. His Wanted poster would eventually come with a reward of $25 million.
Video later emerged of bin Laden laughing and chatting about 9/11 with associates in which he expressed amazement at the scale of the destruction. 'When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like a strong horse,' bin Laden said in the video.
Six weeks later, bin Laden was running for cover. He and about 1,000 followers headed for Tora Bora, a complex of caves about six miles long carved into the mountains of southwestern Afghanistan a decade earlier with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency. Bin Laden and about 300 followers made their escape, presumably following old smuggling trails out of the mountains and across the Pakistani border.
Bin Laden suspected Tora Bora might be his grave. On December 14, 2001, he composed his will. 'Allah bears witness that the love of jihad and death in the cause of Allah has dominated my life and the verses of the sword permeated every sword in my heart,' he wrote. He apologizes 'to his children for devoting himself to jihad,' according to a Senate report on the battle of Tora Bora.
That escape, from under the noses of U.S. Special Forces troops and Afghan allies, haunted U.S. policy makers. His whereabouts were a mystery for the next nine years, despite the bounty on his head. For years, terrorism experts believed bin Laden was hiding in the lawless territory of northwest Pakistan.
In the wake of 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and his flight, bin Laden's personal oversight of al Qaeda became less important. The group's affiliates and offshoots─first in North Africa, then Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan─took up the torch of jihad and operated largely on their own. Bin Laden emerged from time to time in video and audiotape messages to Arab new media outlets, but his messages grew increasingly scattershot.
In early 2003, he urged Muslims to repel the imminent invasion of Iraq. In 2004, he offered a truce to European nations if they withdrew from Muslim lands. In 2005, he condemned coming elections in Iraq. In 2009, he said the financial crisis showed America's decline. In 2010, he called for action on climate change.
In a 2002 interview in Britain's Guardian with one of bin Laden's wives in Afghanistan, identified only as 'AS,' she revealed that in the late 1990s he had lived abstemiously, eating bread, yogurt, honey and dates but rarely meat. She said bin Laden was still involved in the construction business and with Afghan charities. When the Taliban government banned secular schools, she added, bin Laden hired tutors to teach them English, Arabic, math and science.
Bin Laden was said to have married four times, the last time to a young Yemeni girl, and he had perhaps a dozen children.
At the time of the Guardian interview, bin Laden hadn't been heard from in some time. Asked if she thought her husband was dead, AS replied, 'If he had been killed, then the entire world would have known about it, because Osama's death is not something that can be concealed.'
Stephen Miller/Keith Johnson
没有评论:
发表评论