Bin Laden could then direct the money to support local institutions in many countries, in an attempt to radicalize those communities and give him a base to recruit and train.
Still, bin Laden is not thought to be poor. US officials found information in early 2000 indicating that from 1970 to 1994 bin Laden received US$1 million a year, the Sept. 11 commission found.
Bin Laden was effectively cut off from the money in a 1994 crackdown, the commission said, when the Saudi government revoked his citizenship, forced his family to find a buyer for his share of the company and later froze the proceeds of that sale. His family disavowed him.
However, in a recent interview, bin Laden's estranged sister-in-law said she does not believe that family members have cut him off entirely.
Carmen Binladin, who has changed the spelling of her name and lives in Switzerland, said bin Laden is not the only religious brother in the family, and she expects his sisters support him, too. "They are very close to Osama," she said.
RSS