Osama Bin Laden founded the broad-based militant Islamist organization in the late 1980s. They began as a logistical network that supported Muslims that were fighting against the Soviet Union during the Afghan War. When they left Afghanistan in 1989, the organization separated but still continued to oppose what they think were corrupt Islamic regimes and countries like the US who are present on Islamic soil. In their many attempts to destabilize the United States, they have come up with some of the most ridiculous plans.
Al Qaeda, headed by Osama Bin Laden, actually considered kidnapping and assassinating Russell Crowe, the actor. This was supposedly a plot to destabilize the United States.
What is Al-Qaeda?
The term Al-Qaeda means the base in Arabic. Osama Bin Laden founded the organization in the late 1980s. It was intended to be a support system for Muslims that were fighting the Soviet Union during the Afghan War. By the time the Soviets withdrew their troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the organization had decided to separate but continue to fight what they seem to think are injustices against Islam. They went against corrupt Islamic regimes and foreigners that dominated Islamic lands.
The organization was based in Sudan in the early 1990s, and they soon moved to Afghanistan in 1996. They merged together with other extremist groups like the Taliban, Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Group. On several occasions, the organization had declared a holy war against the United States. (Source: Britannica)
Why is Osama Bin Laden So Angry with the United States?
On August 13, 1996, Osama Bin Laden declared war against the United States. Little did anyone know that it was the start of a two-decade-long war between the United States and the Islamic extremist group.
Bin Laden lived under Taliban protection. He issued a 30-page fatwa, Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places. This was published by the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
The people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Jewish-Christian alliance and their collaborators, the occupation of the land of the two holiest sites.
Osama Bin Laden
His concern was the presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Bin Laden offered to defend Saudi Arabia with his legion. Still, the Saudi royals declined his offer and decided that the US military would be a better option for them. Six years later, the United States Forcers were still in Saudi Arabia and plotting to contain Saddam Hussein. (Source: The Atlantic)
The Plot to Kidnap Russell Crowe
According to an Australian magazine, Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network wanted to kidnap Russell Crow as a part of their cultural destabilization plot. In an interview, Crowe explained how he found out about the threat months before accepting the Oscar for Best Actor in his role in the movie Gladiator. The FBI was in touch with him in 2001.
That was the first time I’d ever heard the phrase ‘Al-Qaeda,’ it was about — and here’s another little touch of irony — taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as sort of a cultural destabilization plot.
Russell Crowe
It was not clear if other celebrities were targetted, but Crowe said the FBI agents and private security guards shadowed him after the said threat. (Source: Today)