“Osama bin Laden: sunflower enthusiast with a passion for fast cars”
By Ben Farmer in Kabul
Published: 8:43PM BST 16 Oct 2009
SNIPPET: “He also banned the use of electrical appliances in his home and tried to toughen up his sons by making them climb desert mountains without water.
Details from the home life of the founder of al Qaeda have emerged in the book Najwa has written with his fourth son Omar.”
SNIPPET: “Najwa married her cousin Bin Laden when he was 17 and she was 15 and went on to bear him seven sons, including Omar, and four daughters.
He went on to take a total of six wives and kept them in seclusion in spartan homes in Saudi Arabia and Sudan where they were not allowed to use electrical appliances, according to the book to be published in Britain in November.”
SNIPPET: “The young couple travelled to the United States soon after the 1979 Iranian revolution, where Bin Laden met Abdullah Azzam, the radical Palestinian cleric regarded as his ideological mentor.
Soon after he began journeying to Pakistan to support the anti-Soviet resistance.”
“...had at least one gold-coloured Mercedes and once bought a speedboat.”
SNIPPET: “However in lighter moments his sons admired his horsemanship and he liked to show off his mathematical ability by challenging people to beat his arithmetic with a calculator.”
"The young couple travelled to the United States soon after the 1979 Iranian revolution, where Bin Laden met Abdullah Azzam, the radical Palestinian cleric regarded as his ideological mentor.
Soon after he began journeying to Pakistan to support the anti-Soviet resistance."