WEB DESK
The mother of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has said that her son had been a shy and “good child” growing up, but was “brainwashed” at university.
Alia Ghanem, in an interview to British newspaper the Guardian from the family’s home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said: “He was very straight. Very good at school. He really liked to study. He spent all his money on Afghanistan – he would sneak off under the guise of family business.”
Did she ever suspect he might become a jihadist? “It never crossed my mind.” How did it feel when she realised he had? “We were extremely upset. I did not want any of this to happen. Why would he throw it all away like that?”
The organisation Osama ran was believed to be behind a number of terror attacks worldwide, including the 9/11 attacks in the US
The family say they last saw Bin Laden in 1999, two years before the 9/11 attacks, when he was in Afghanistan.
By that time he was considered a major global terror suspect, after moving to the country initially to fight the invading Soviet forces in the 1980s.
The Bin Laden family remain one of the most influential families in Saudi Arabia after gaining vast wealth in construction.
Bin Laden was eventually killed in a compound raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy Seals
Bin Laden’s father, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, divorced Alia Ghanem three years after Osama’s birth, and had more than 50 children in total.
After the 9/11 attacks, the family say they were interrogated by the Saudi government who then limited their travel and movement.
“From the youngest to the eldest, we all felt ashamed of him. We knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences. Our family abroad all came back to Saudi,” Ahmad told the newspaper.
He also said his mother remains “in denial” about Bin Laden 17 years on from the 9/11 attacks, instead blaming the people around him.
When Ghanem leaves to rest in a nearby room, Osama’s half-brothers continue the conversation. It’s important, they say, to remember that a mother is rarely an objective witness. “It has been 17 years now [since 9/11] and she remains in denial about Osama,” Ahmad says. “She loved him so much and refuses to blame him. Instead, she blames those around him. She only knows the good boy side, the side we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side.