All language subtitles for Bin.Laden.Tur

Man: [over radio] American 11
ident please or acknowledge.

American 20 will not
respond to me now.

[explosion]

[muffled screams]

Narrator:
9/11 still haunts us all.

The events of that day
have defined

much of the world ever since.

The hunt for bin Laden

drove the West
to invade Afghanistan.

Now they've left,
a new reign of terror begins.

How much do we really know
about the man Osama bin Laden?

He may be dead but his legacy
continues to impact us all.

- Growing up, I worshipped
everything about bin Laden.

He was a hero.

He was an icon verging on
mythical levels.

That's how hip he was for us.

- You can't tell your heart
who to like,

and my heart at that time
told me to love him.

Narrator: We know
bin Laden as the terrorist,

the world's most evil man.

For those once closest to him,
his story is more complex.

Now, some are ready to speak
for the first time.

- I felt that he was
the reassuring

older brotherly figure.

His charisma was what really
kept us all together as a glue.

Narrator: They tell us about
the man they knew,

the choices he made,
the points of no return.

People change,
and war change people.

That what happened to Osama.

- I was appalled by what
happened.

It filled my heart with horror.

I did not sign up for this.

We are going into the path of
endless, perpetual bloodshed.

- I prayed secretly
that he would die.

I mourned the person I knew
and loved,

but I didn't mourn the monster
he turned out to be.

[screaming, crying]

[call to prayer]

Khaled: I grew up in middle
class suburbs of Jeddah City.

It happened that my neighbour
was Osama bin Laden.

We were in our teenage years.

Osama was really a shy boy,
but he has charisma, somehow.

Even in his voice
you could see his smile.

Their house, it's like
any middle-class house,

where we have parties,
we have fun,

we listen to music, watch TV.

We all love cowboy movies.

Obviously, we were on the side
of the good guys.

Of course, with the cowboys,
because they had the guns.

Osama loved football,
but he wasn't a good player.

I remember Osama being attacked
by one of the opposite team.

You know, I came in and pushed
the guy away,

but he wasn't happy about it,
and he said,

"If you gave me just
a few minutes, Khaled,

"I would have resolved
this issue peacefully."

I'm saying a lot of good
things about him.

Now that's...
[laughs]

..will put me in trouble.

But I have to be honest.
He was good.

I don't know what happened
to him.

Narrator: Mohammed bin Laden
was a devout Muslim,

responsible for building
much of modern Saudi Arabia.

Osama was the 17th
of his 54 children.

- Bin Laden's family
was the elitest

you could get after royalty.

Growing up there, his name
was plastered in our heads.

Narrator: A'alia, bin Laden's
mother, came from Syria.

Her family were Alawites,
an offshoot of Shia Islam,

often vilified by conservatives
as an unorthodox cult,

incorporating Christian
and Pagan elements.

- His Syrian side was important,

because he lived with
one parent, his mother.

Narrator:
A'alia was 14 when she married.

Mohammed divorced her
within a year.

Khaled: They were very close.

She was trying to compensate for
not having a father around,

so she was both parents to him.

I loved his mother because
she was a mother to us too.

Narrator: Bin Laden's childhood,
like many across the Arab world,

was overshadowed
by two seismic events.

[bomb exploding]

The Israeli defeat
of Arab armies in 1967,

and its occupation of Palestine.

- It was a sickening feeling
that we were not able

to do anything to help
our brothers and sisters.

[chanting]

Osama would cry when he saw
footage

of Israeli soldiers hitting
women and children in Palestine.

He would swear that one day
we will have revenge.

[call to prayer]

Khaled: In high school,
his emotions were exploited

by Islamist teachers.

He stopped watching movies
and TV shows completely.

He moved away from us,
his childhood friends.

One day I was wearing shorts
going to a football game.

That was wrong in Islam.

He just looked at my legs

and then look at my eyes
and say..."Bye."

[foreign dialogue]

I could see in his eyes
he was thinking that was wrong.

His mother noticed that her son

was doing his prayers,
was not going with the bad guys

who would drink alcohol or go
with girls, and that was OK.

It was good for her.

But she didn't expect
that he would go all the way.

- I decided
to drop out of school

to achieve my goals and dreams.

I was surprised at the major
opposition to this idea,

especially from my mother,

who cried and begged me
to change my mind.

In the end,
there was no way out.

I couldn't resist
my mother's tears.

I had to go back
and finish my education.

- I met Osama bin Laden
in the 1990s

when I became, you know,
a bomb maker for Al-Qaeda.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia
in the '80s,

where the call for the jihad
was in every mosque I attended.

Osama bin Laden lost
his father at young age,

and was looking for a place
for himself in the world.

And then you have that,
you know,

amazing figure
of Abdullah Azzam,

who is not an empty suit

teaching and preaching
in a university.

No,
he practices what he teaches,

devoting his time
and his effort to the cause.

- Osama wasn't smart.

He was repeating whatever
people who believed in told him.

So, that's his weakness.

And Abdullah Azzam was
the one he trusted most.

He became more and more Islamist
in his views,

and more and more intent
in changing the world

and making a difference.

But he went down a road
that only lead to hell.

Jihad is to fight against
your own wrong desires.

And it's also Jihad to defend
your country if it's attacked.

Narrator: In 1979,
when bin Laden was 21,

the Communist Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan,

a Muslim country.

Jimmy Carter:
It is a deliberate effort

of a powerful,
atheistic government,

to subjugate an independent
Islamic people.

Reporter: Addressing a large
number of Afghan refugees

near Peshawar this morning,
the Saudi Crown Prince

said the entire Islamic world
fully supports

the greatest struggle and
supreme sacrifice

of the people of Afghanistan

for the protection
of their faith and religion.

- I was enraged
and went there at once.

I arrived within days
before the end of 1979.

- Osama,
like many Saudi volunteers,

went with the help and support
of the Saudi government.

He promised his mother that
he would go

only in humanitarian missions
to deliver help to refugees,

Afghanis in Peshawar.

Even that wasn't to her
happiness, but she agreed.

Osama stuck to Azzam
like a shadow.

- I had a fear of getting
involved physically in the war.

People close to me
talked me out of it,

and seemed to have good reasons.

I later felt deeply remorseful
about that.

Narrator: Instead of going to
the front line,

bin Laden helped Azzam
set up an organisation,

to recruit, fund and train
foreign fighters.

They called it
the Service Bureau.

Reporter: Peshawar,
in the north-west frontier,

the operations base
for the mujahideen,

the freedom fighters
of Afghanistan.

From here, teams are constantly
sent across the border.

- Every time he travelled,

he make it a law in his life
to call his mother every day,

to tell her, "I'm fine, I'm OK,"
and to ask about her news.

And he promised not to go
to the front line.

[prayer chant]

- Allahu Akbar!

Narrator: Four years
after arriving in Peshawar,

bin Laden finally crossed into
Afghanistan, to the front line.

He was 26.

- I was surprised by the state
of the equipment

and everything else -
weapons, roads and trenches.

I asked forgiveness
from God Almighty,

feeling that I had sinned
because I listened

to those who advised me
not to go.

I felt that this four-year delay

could not be pardoned
unless I become a martyr.

Narrator: But if bin Laden
was going to get into battle,

he needed someone to train him
to fight.

[singing]

Khaled: People don't understand.

They think people
once started good

they had to be good
all their life,

or born criminal or born saints.

It's not.

People change,
and war change people.

That's what happened to Osama.

[muttering in Russian]

Narrator: For a year, bin Laden

had been fighting the Soviets
with the Afghan mujahideen,

led by Commander Wahidyar,
AKA Fearless.

[foreign dialogue]

[explosions]

- I saw with my own eyes
the remains of a Russian.

He came to tear apart
the mujahideen,

but God tore him apart
in the worst way.

All we found of him were
three fingers

and his cheek
with an ear and hair.

The Afghans came
and took his picture

as if he was a skimmed ram.

[chanting in foreign language]

- I saw him when he was back
from one of his trips

and he still has
the same quality of voice

and reasoning, but he went
into war, he killed people.

When his mother found out

that he was going
to the front lines,

she was like any mother -
heartbroken and worried

and couldn't sleep at night.

When he finally called
to tell her, "I'm fine,"

she would cry
and ask him to come back,

but he was adamant about it.

Narrator:
Throughout the conflict,

the Americans supported
and armed for Afghan resistance

in their fight against
the Soviet Union.

How honoured I am by these
visitors that we have with us,

six of the Afghanistan
freedom fighters.

- I'm the grandson
of one of the leaders

of the mujahideen against
the Soviets, Hekmatyar.

Osama bin Laden was
one of his closest friends.

Bin Laden's money
was very vital,

supporting Azzam
and his movement.

- The Afghans treated the Arabs
as glorified guests,

not as real mujahideen.

We should take responsibility
for ourselves,

I know we can provide
more rigorous training.

Narrator: Bin Laden had
the money and power

to build his own base
to train Arab fighters.

He chose the mountains of Jaji,

a few kilometres
from enemy lines.

He called it al-Masada -
the lion's den.

- When I joined the fight,
we visited the place.

This was the place where,
you know, you go,

this is like
the museum of jihad,

if you can call it this way.

This is where all, you know,
the famous battles are fought.

You know, the myth was created.

The mountains of Jaji
represented

an impregnable
mountain fortress,

as well as a supply line

from Pakistan to the mujahideen
in Afghanistan.

It needed to be smashed.

[foreign dialogue]

- I was only 30 metres
from the Russians

and they were trying
to capture me.

I was under bombardment
but I was so peaceful

in my heart that I fell asleep.

[playful laughter]

[gunshot]

Aimen: After Jaji, Osama
bin Laden became mythologised.

That simple young man
from Saudi Arabia

without any military training,

who stood along the other
mujahideen factions

in Afghanistan

against the might of
the Soviet Union and they won.

The videos that were being
sent to us

inside Arabia to watch

shifted from Abdullah Azzam
to Osama bin Laden.

When we were growing up
in Saudi Arabia

we never had superheroes on TV,
we had early Muslim warriors,

you know, the knights
in the shining armour

as you have in the West.

You know, it's similar to that.

The Battle of Jaji
was the watershed moment

when suddenly somehow
Osama bin Laden

turned into a living
Muslim warrior.

He was a hero.

We heard stories of how
young Afghan boys

with stones will throw it,
you know, at a battalion

of Soviet tanks and they will
explode in balls of fire.

All of this was nonsense,
but nonetheless

it was such believable nonsense

that there was an explosion
in the number of people

who would travel from Saudi
Arabia, from Kuwait, from Yemen,

from Algeria, from Egypt,
from everywhere

around the Muslim world,

to go and join the Afghan jihad
with Osama bin Laden.

[foreign dialogue plays on TV]

You have that moment
shaping the world view

of Osama bin Laden for years
to come,

because he started to be
seduced by this myth,

the invincible Osama bin Laden,
who would become the symbol

of enduring jihad against
mighty empires in the future.

Narrator:
Until the Soviet withdrawal,

bin Laden had fought

under the spiritual leadership
of Abdullah Azzam.

But once the infidels had left,
a different philosophy emerged.

We are here. We are here.
We are here!

The real Islamic front

against Zionism, communism
and imperialism.

Narrator: For men like
the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri,

jihad was far from done.

They wanted to take
their struggle

to the rest of the world.

- Osama believes in Azzam's idea
of the defensive jihad,

of dispelling the infidels
from occupying Islamic land,

until he ends up rubbing
shoulders

with Ayman al-Zawahiri, a member
of the Muslim Brotherhood.

And they are a group of people
that have been prosecuted

by the Egyptian government,
tortured for years.

So, they have a lot of hate.

We believe in our religion,

both as an ideology
and practice and, hence,

we tried our best to establish

this Islamic state
and Islamic society.

[men shout]

Khaled: I believe this is
the turning point in his life.

He wasn't a scholar,
he wasn't smart,

he has the charisma, he has
the face, he has the myth.

And that was used by people like
Zawahiri and the rest of them.

- There's an interesting
change in character

where he goes from being
the disciple of Abdullah Azzam

to being this person who aligns
with Zawahiri in his thinking.

Narrator: In May 1988, bin Laden
and other extremists

began to sketch out
a new organisation.

Its world view
was radically different

to that of its old mentor
Azzam's.

- That's when it turned from
an Arab movement

that was fighting the Soviets
within Afghanistan

into an international
organisation

that was going to serve

as the base for jihad
around the world.

Narrator: A few days after
the founding of Al-Qaeda,

the Arab jihadis,
backed by the Saudi government,

voted to oust Azzam
and install bin Laden

as their overall leader, emir,
in Afghanistan.

- Most of the donations were
coming from Saudi Arabia

and they wanted to have
Saudi control over it

and they thought Osama bin Laden
was our man.

- I started to feel sad
because that wasn't him.

That wasn't my childhood friend,

the peaceful boy
who I grew up with.

I felt I lost him.

He went down that dark valley.

Captioned by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv