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Al Qaeda is founded
Osama Bin Laden founded Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization, in 1988 to late 1989. Al Qaeda is a global organization that is based off of political Islam and militant wasys Bin Laden was the most widely known leader of this organization. -
Hatred towards the U.S.
Bin Laden's hatred towards the U.S. began in 1990, when the invasion Iraq on Kuwait occurred. The royal family of Saudi Arabia was put in danger. After the King refused Bin Laden's offer for protection services, the King allowed the U.S. to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia. This upset Bin Laden because he wanted no international presence within the Middle East. Bin Laden was then exiled to Sudan and was disowned by his family from humiliation of his out speaks against the King. -
World Trade Center Bombing
Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb that was intended to break the foundation of the first tower of the World trade Center in New York City and knock down the second one, leaving the entire complex destroyed. He hoped that 250,000 people would be killed in the bombing. However, the foundation of the towers was strong and the towers did not collapse. He did, in fact, manage to kill six people in the process. -
U.S. embassy bombings
U.S. embassy bombings occurred on August 7, 1998. Hundreds of people were killed from several truck bombings. These bombings occurred in East African capitals such as Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nairobi, and Kenya. Al Qaeda wanted to get rid of all foreign presence in the Middle East. -
9/11
World Trade Center Attack
The 9/11 twin towers plane crash occurred in New York City and Washington D.C. in 2001. AL Qaeda's attacks were often suicide bombings, meaning they would destroy an area but would die with the attack. September 11th is an example of Al Qaeda's suicidal attacks. -
Anwar al-Awlaki
U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was found to have ties with the 9/11 hijackers. He was a senior recruiter for Al Qaeda and a spiritual motivator. His sermons in the U.S. were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers. One of the three men, Nidal Malik Hanson, was accused of the Fort Hood shootings, another Al Qaeda attack, The U.S. intelligence intercepted emails from Hanson to Awlaki where Awlaki was praising Hason for the shootings. -
CIA Target List
President Barak Obama approved the targeted killing of Awlaki in April 2010. The approval had to be authorized by the U.S. National Security Council. This made Awlaki the first U.S. citizen ever placed on the CIA target list. -
Abu Ayyub Al-Masri
Abu Ayyub Al-Masri was a successor of the past Iraqi Al Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. and Iraq forces killed Abu Ayyub Al-Masri on April 18, 2010 in a targeted missiles attack in his safe house. -
Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden's death announced
On May 1, 2011, U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden. He was killed along with his son and three others. The U.S. took custody of 100 hard drives, five computers, and a journal handwritten by Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was killed because he was the most wanted terrorist in the world. This is partly because he constantly had people all over the world in danger. -
Bin Laden's plan
On March 16, 2012 it was reported that Osama Bin Laden had plotted to kill President Obama and the U.S. general David Petraeus. Bin Laden plotted to do this because he thought that if vice president Joseph Biden took over, the U.S. would be thrown into confusion and would be unprepared for any sudden attack.
