That's what they say but I cannot imagine a mid-eastern family truly kicking a member out of their family. I think it means something different in their culture than it does in the US culture. I feel sure they still have contact of some sort with him.
This sort of reporting is no different then what Michael Moore tried to do. It is pure propoganda.
From a review of Fahrenheit 9/11:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/farenheight_911.htm
Also left out of the documentary are the facts regarding the relationship Osama had to his family. Instead of flashing photographs of Republican officials shaking hands with various Bin Ladens, Moore could have told us that Osama was the 17th of 51 siblings, expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1994, and publicly denounced by his family on at least three different occasions. According to ABCnews:
"When asked once by a reporter to list their names, he could barely recall a dozen before giving up amid his own laughter. But members of the bin Laden clan living in the United States weren't laughing in the days following the attacks. They were fearing for their lives — and fleeing the country." (11)
"Osama's father was an illiterate laborer who turned a construction business into a worldwide conglomerate. Now, the family members are "kind of like the Rockefellers or the Forbeses of Saudi Arabia," explains ABCNEWS consultant Jonathan Winer."(11)
"The second richest family in Saudi Arabia, The bin Laden family business employs 32,000 people in 30 countries, has a revenue of $5 billion a year and is invested everywhere from construction to manufacturing to financial services to insurance to biological research." (11)
"And some of the bin Ladens carry out their business ventures in the United States, based primarily on the East Coast, from as far south as Florida to as far north as Boston, and with offices in Rockville, Md., in between." (11)
"The Boston bin Ladens, for instance, own several units in a luxury condo and 16 percent of Hybridon, a Boston, Mass.,-based biotech company engaged in cancer research — and technology that someday could be used to defend against biological attacks." (11)
"The rupture with his family came in 1991 when Osama denounced the presence of America in Saudi Arabia to fight the Gulf War while other bin Ladens were making millions building airstrips and military housing for U.S. troops." (11)
"1994 [The family expressed] their "regret, denunciation and condemnation of all acts that Osama bin Laden may have committed, which we do not condone and we reject."" (12)
"His relatives also denounced him after the 1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa — attacks for which Osama bin Laden has been indicted in U.S. federal court." (13)
""All the family members condemn all violent and terrorist acts, even if Osama is behind them," the uncle [current family patriarch] told reporters [after September 11th]." (13)
Contrary to almost every reported news story and biography of Bin Laden, the 9/11 commission found:
"Bin Ladin never received a $300 million inheritance. From about 1970 until approximately 1994, he received about $1 million per year—a significant sum, but hardly a $300 million fortune that could be used to fund a global jihad." (19)
The Bin Laden's were involved in wide ranging philanthropies including:
"Last year, former President Carter met with 10 bin Ladens who donated $200,000 to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga." (11)
"They donated $1 million to Harvard Law school, and another $1 million for the study of Islamic art and architecture at Harvard's School of Design." (13)
"Harvard officials say they have no reason to believe that the donations were in any way linked to Osama bin Laden. Still, Harvard officials have spent the week explaining to angry alumni and radio talk show hosts that the bin Laden family group, who represent about 20 of Osama bin Laden's siblings, disavowed his politics and actions a long time ago." (13)
The preceding paragraph is especially interesting as Moore tries to get the same reaction out of his audience, playing the Bin Laden name throughout the film as if it were unconscionable that any government official or business man would have anything to do with such a villainous family. Although Moore doesn't cover this in his documentary, it is illuminating to note the connection between his smear of the Bin Laden family and the outrage on the left over alleged racial profiling and the detention of Muslims on immigration violations in the period after September 11th. This is not to suggest that the Bin Ladens should not have been investigated in an appropriate matter [which apparently they were even before 9/11], but to link the Bush family and other Republican officials to them in such a suggestive way demonstrates ignorance at best.