[Shermy]

All analyses and speculation is appreciated.

[American Soldier]

To those of you who have read extensively about Hitler and his feelings toward his mother: Any sense of deja vu? The man with flawed relations with his mother, shame about his birth (Osama the son of a concubine vs. Hitler's possible Jewish ancestry), etc...?

[geaux]

she was, after all, surrounded by a small army of ex-wives who could have been described as concubines.

So, he would marry, divorce....and then keep them around and continue supporting them? That doesn't make sense to me.

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for the input. Bump.

[onyx]

She liked to shop for Western clothes in Italy,.... a bit of a hussy for the Muslim world?

[Patria One]

Women don't wear burkas in Saudi Arabia. They wear Abaiyas. There is a difference.

[dr_who]

bin Laden's family is f***ed.

[dead]

I thought he was the bastard son of 1,000 maniacs.

[muawiyah]

For all intents and purposes marriage in Saudi is prostitution and/or slavery - you may take your pick.

The Saudis deny this, but it's a situation obvious to everyone else.

Saddam Hussein has a similar problem - his mother was divorced by his father and tossed into the streets. Young Saddam, however, was raised by his mother (an unusual situation) in close proximity to her family who cannot be differentiated from street thugs and cut-throats.

Of such human debris are the ruling houses of the Middle East made - or at least Osama Bin Laden would like that to be the case. The ruling Saudi family are a totally different type of trash than his family. We know the Saudi ruling house in the West mostly from their drinking and carousing. Osama, on the other hand, is just your ordinary, garden variety religious fanatic who has decided a lot of other people should die for his beliefs.

[giotto]

How is it possible to have any real discourse with a culture as weird as this? Dozens of children by tens of wives, women treated like chattel. And the 19 hijackeres were all Saudi. But we need their oil, so I guess we have to look the other way.

[Robcon777]

“But they were all exceptionally beautiful.” I can't imagine anybody hiring a blind pilot.

[Salman]

“She shunned the burka when abroad in favour of dark Chanel trouser suits,” he says

Who else dresses like that? Hmmmm?

[MissAmericanPie]

An intelligent man, with a huge ego, who thinks his abilities have not been appreciated, hiding his rage and suicidal tendencies from himself behind religion? He has certainly gotten even with the entire world now hasn't he. He can never afford to self examine very deeply because his soul is running on empty. The Quaran gives him the perfect excuse to still look at himself as a good, self sacrificing, albeit manic depressed man, hated by infidels, while allowing him to release his homocidal rage.

He has a very narrow world view, of both religion, and society at large. This is not a man of great imagination or empathy, someone else makes the plans, he funds and gives the go ahead. He does not see himself in anyway as evil. At least that is my guess.

[demkicker]

Bin Laden's Mother always felt inferior (like her son) amongst her husband's other wives: