Monday, January 21, 2008

Bin Laden's Son Speaks My Father Should Change His Ways


CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Omar bin Laden has a message for his father, Osama: "Find another way."

The son of the most-wanted man in the world spoke Sunday to CNN in a quiet, middle-class suburb about an hour outside Cairo, Egypt.

Omar bin Laden, who works as a contractor, said he is talking publicly because he wants an end to the violence his father has inspired -- violence that has killed innocent civilians in a spate of attacks around the world, including those of September 11, 2001.

"I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,' " he said in English learned in recent months from his British wife.

He said that's not just his own message, but one that a friend of his father's and other Muslims have expressed to him. "They too say ... my father should change [his] way," he said.

He said he hasn't spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his father's blessings. He said he has no idea where his father is, but is confident he will never be caught because locals support him.

Asked if his father might be living along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said, "Maybe, maybe not."
"Either way, the people there are different," he said. "They don't care about the government."

Now, he and his wife are preparing to launch a movement far different from the one his father, Osama bin Laden, launched. They are pursuing a movement for peace.

At first glance, Omar bin Laden appears to have little in common with the man who has eluded international efforts to find him. The 26-year-old's hair is bound in neat braids, he drives a Jeep and is married to a British national twice his age.
See CNN for more>>

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