Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in some of the bloodiest attacks to hit the US, honed his guerrilla skills in the 1980s commanding Arab fighters funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
A Muslim militant and multi-millionaire who sees himself as waging a holy war that God will reward, bin Laden was fighting alongside Afghan Muslim guerrillas against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan at the time.
His war with the US, which has put a US$5 million bounty on his head, is believed to have begun after US forces deployed in Saudi Arabia during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Bin Laden saw their presence as desecrating the land of Islam. He is also believed to blame the sufferings of the Palestinian people on US support for Israel.
No rush to judgement
US authorities did not rush to accuse anyone of organizing Tuesday's simultaneous attacks on commercial and military nerve centers in New York and Washington.
But US officials said privately that those who hijacked planes and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington may have had links to bin Laden and his organization.
Names of suspects with possible ties to bin Laden's organization had been found on the passenger rosters of the hijacked planes, one government source said.
Few besides bin Laden are perceived to have the cash or expertise to mount such attacks.
Holed up in the mountains of Afghanistan, the tall, bearded 44-year-old militant leader commands Islamic fundamentalists willing to die attacking the US which they see as the ultimate enemy.
He has been the target of a massive US effort since 1998 when bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people and injured 4,000.
Protected by Taliban
Bin Laden is believed to live amid tight security near the Taliban's spiritual capital in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar or in the eastern town of Jalalabad, and the Taliban have rebuffed all attempts from abroad to secure his deportation.
Born in the Saudi capital Riyadh in 1957, bin Laden was raised in a wealthy family that made its fortune from Saudi Arabia's oil-fuelled construction boom.
His own fortune is reckoned by US officials to be worth about US$300 million.
Arab journalists who have interviewed bin Laden and his aides say his men often talk of plans to hit US targets.
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newsmagazine, said on Tuesday that bin Laden warned three weeks ago that his followers would carry out an unprecedented and massive attack on US interests for its support of Israel.
Atwan said that Islamic fundamentalists led by bin Laden were "almost certainly" behind an attack on the World Trade Center.
"Personally we received information that he planned very, very big attacks against American interests. We received several warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to see what would happen before reporting it," Atwan said.
Atwan has interviewed bin Laden and maintains close contacts with his followers.
In June, the Arabic satellite television channel MBC said its correspondent spent at least two hours with bin Laden and a large group of his followers, during which his aides spoke of planning a severe blow against American interests.
Bin Laden smiled but did not make any comment to the threats by his aides, MBC said then.
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