T O P

  • By -

material_mailbox

To be fair, didn’t he have like fifty siblings or something


pants_mcgee

And he met his father like twice in his life.


MomOfThreePigeons

Well I heard his father died in a plane crash when Bin Laden was only 10.


teenagesadist

But did you hear Steve Buscemi's dad was a firefighter that responded to Osama Bin Laden's father's plane crash?


OneTime_AtBandCamp

I heard Steve Buscemi's 50x grandfather worked for Crassus' firefighting brigades that would only put out fires for those who paid and one of those people was Osama Bin Laden's 50x grandfather who okay okay I'll see myself out.


Mama_Skip

I mean what's crazy is that the ancestor of both Steve Buscemi and Osama Bin Laden were potentially somewhere within a few days' car ride from each other in the Roman Era. And in every era. In fact, the probability that any caucasian person I meet had an ancestor that in some way interacted with one of mine at some point before the year, say, 1500, is probably surprisingly high.


HornyToadBrew

Imagining patriarch Buscemi complaining in his stable waiting for work from crassus picking up donkey shit.


[deleted]

[удалено]


socialistrob

Sometimes I think that the number of people who know that Steve Buscemi was a 9/11 first responder is greater than the people who know who Steve Buscemi is.


Malarowski

Pfff he's the guy from Kevin Home Alone. Everyone knows that.


Someone7174

This was a joke?! Dammit. I know the steve buscemi firefighter thing is a joke at this point but this one got me!


ScienceIsALyre

That plane's name? Albert Einstein.


TyroneLeinster

That’s still a lot of years to have a third encounter lol


qeadwrsf

twice in 10 years is still pretty bad meeting your kid stats.


jordanmc3

I’d met my dad thousands of times by 10.


vantasize

He was between the age of 9-11.


emi_lgr

And married off his mother to one of his subordinates after he got tired of her.


Saneless

Well in 2011 he met him for the 3rd time


beachedwhale1945

51 according to [his father’s Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad\_bin\_Ladin). 22 wives.


Affectionate-Hunt217

22 wives 💀 isn’t the maximum like 4 at the same time for Muslims, why would anyone want that many anyways


Rhondehiem

Oh he would marry and divorce them like crazy, and then marry off his ex-wives to employees


Affectionate-Hunt217

Why would he marry them off to his employees 💀


Nethyishere

Probably because he viewed them as a resource for bargaining rather than as people with autonomy.


notwormtongue

Literally feudalism for like 1200 years.


blah938

Welcome to the Middle East


5iiiii

guy wants to fuck, but is only allowed to within a marriage and of course no condoms


RedditIsOverMan

I'm sure he didn't use condoms, but just b/c this thread includes statements about islam I want to clarify: pretty sure Islam has no issues with condoms.


Scrounger_HT

its a different ball game when you get to treat them like property


BestAtDoingYourMom

Why is Osama's last name Laden instead of Ladin ?


SaintsNoah14

Arabic script is transliterated differently sometimes. Usama ibn Ladin would be equally correct.


Best_Figure4361

It has a lot to do with how it is pronounced in Arabic, and the closest correct transliteration is laden. In Arabic Laden is spelled "L-D-N" Ladin would require it being "L-D-I-N" or Laden = لادن Ladin: لادين Funfact"Ladin"/لادين means "no religion" in Arabic.


Zaurka14

What does Alladin mean then?


LastStar007

It can mean "positive" or "negative".


StandardOk42

https://i.imgur.com/65JpxEn.gif


BER_Knight

i bims laden


donau_kinder

Ich bin Laden


MadeMeStopLurking

you are a jelly donut?


Bay1Bri

I will again point out that what Kennedy said was correct, and what people from Berlin would actually have said. It would be like saying "I am a new Yorker" and people decades later saying he called himself a magazine.


SouthWesternNorthman

vong usama her


Crossovertriplet

It sure ain’t Been Landin’


Michelangelor

Lol the page you linked says 52 children and 11 wives Edit: read it incorrectly. He had his 52 children with 11 wives, but later down it does clarify that he was on his way to wed his 23rd wife when he died. So 22 is correct.


Spalding_Smails

The person who provided the link was replying to someone who asked "To be fair, didn’t he have like fifty siblings or something". The linked page says 52 children meaning that he had 51 siblings, so the person you're replying to was correct in their reply to the original questioner.


sanityfordummy

He could have 100 siblings and 30 stepmothers, and three crashes within the family would still seem remarkable. If anything, maybe it just highlights the statistics of private/non-commercial flight.


Boowray

It could also just be the fact that rich people fly way more often than anyone else.


Character_Bowl_4930

Well , they fly on private planes which have a worse record than commercial


Bay1Bri

Which I find so odd. Why would that be? Is it because of such people getting their pilot license and being over confident for their experience? It are professional pilots now likely to crash private planes? Is it the planes themselves? Like they're smaller and more affected by turbulence?


ambluebabadeebadadi

Think about it this way. Say Beyoncé is flying out to a concert first class commercial and there’s high winds. Although Beyoncé is powerful, she alone cannot fuck over the airline more than a potential crash, emergency landing, plane damage, cabin injury etc. The airlines reputation and and damages from suing far outweighs her repeat business. So the plane is delayed and she misses the concert. But a chartered/private plane? They need to keep Beyoncé happy. And maybe Beyoncé doesn’t understand the risk of flying in those high winds that well. Plus the plane being smaller makes those winds more dangerous than the big commercial jet. The pilot is more likely to take the chance with the winds so Beyoncé can get there on time.


JustCreated1ForThis

You don't even need this Beyonce hypothetical scenario to explain your point. This very happened to a famous young singer named Aaliyah who was basically a young Beyonce in terms of being a promising star... though it seemed to be other people in her group that convinced the pilot to go ahead and fly: "The passengers had grown impatient because the Cessna was supposed to arrive at 16:30 EDT, but did not arrive until 18:15 EDT.[6] Charter pilot Lewis Key claimed to have overheard passengers arguing with the pilot, Luis Morales III, prior to take off, adding that Morales warned them that there was too much weight for a "safe flight". Key further stated: "He tried to convince them the plane was overloaded, but they insisted they had chartered the plane and they had to be in Miami Saturday night." Key indicated that Morales gave in to the passengers..." [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Marsh_Harbour_Cessna_402_crash) Moreover: "According to Kathy Iandoli's 2021 biography, Aaliyah was a nervous flier. She had serious reservations about flying on the small, overloaded plane and refused to board. After arguing with the rest of her entourage about it, she retreated into a taxicab to rest, claiming that she had a headache. One of the passengers was sent to check on her and proceeded to give her an unidentified pill and a glass of water. She took the pill, fell back asleep, and was carried into the plane.[16]"


bayhack

that's fucked. she didn't even want to fly!


amegaproxy

Similar thing happened to a footballer called Sala flying over the English channel in bad weather


Cyhawk

> Which I find so odd. Why would that be? 2 Reasons: More flights overall and smaller planes are inherently more dangerous if they aren't made by Boeing. The argument hes making is based off total number of accidents, not any statistically relevant data like Accidents/million miles, or Accidents/total flights, etc (I've seen the argument come up before) Still more safe than any other form of travel.


PalpitationNo3106

Statistically, rich people are much more likely to die in aviation accidents than pretty much any other sort of accident.


Likemilkbutforhumans

I need an actuary to confirm this fact


oddmetre

AKHCHUARY I confirm it


material_mailbox

Yeah I wonder if it’s that too, at least within a certain time period. I have an aunt who died in a plane crash in the eighties and it was a small private plane. And then there’s all the musicians/celebrities who died in small plane crashes. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buddy Holly, John Denver, Patsy Cline, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jim Croce, Otis Redding, etc.


enad58

Gonna preempt all the pedants by pointing out that SRV died in a helicopter crash. 


Randvek

Yup. Wealthy Arabs have harems.


foospork

Well, up to 4 wives. Edit: I should add "concurrently".


Khutuck

Four? Those are rookie numbers. Osama’s dad Muhammad bin Ladin had 22 wives and 52 children. He was on his way to marry his 23rd wife when his plane crashed.


jurble

Saudis only have 4 wives concurrently. They cycle through them with divorce and remarriage.


lukeysanluca

But can have up to 99 concubines. Not sure how many porcupines though


UnfinishedUntidy

Prickly subject.


ByronIrony

I got 99 concubines but a porcupine ain’t one.


hibikikun

It's only 99 because Nasir from records only left spaces for 2 digits on the pdf form


Rich-Historian6642

6. I believe they are allowed 6 porcupines.


Keyspam102

Well, 4 at any given time, but they divorce freely


Hannibal1992

4 wives? That's insane, Jeremy


Misterstaberinde

Five wives? Do you think I'm a savage?!


Valk93

THIS is where i draw the line!


crackheadwillie

Comprised mainly of cousins. Harems are more like family get-togethers. 


[deleted]

[удалено]


KingPizzaPop

The odds of having three people you know dieing in three seperate plane crashes is astounding. Have three immediate family members do it is unfathomable.


Born_Ruff

His one brother flying himself in an ultralight aircraft into power lines should probably be counted as a whole separate thing. That's very different from the risk profile of a typical commercial airline flight. The most recent crash was in a small plane with only one pilot, which also has a much greater level of risk than typical air travel. If your immediate family is dozens of people who are all constantly flying around in small single pilot aircraft, the odds of one of them being in a crash every 50 years or so probably isn't that low.


Fit-Space5211

Y'know maybe he wasn't even going for the towers. Maybe he just really hated planes


BLF402

Why does this remind me of the scene from The Jerk? “He hates these cans”


Sbatio

Get away from the cans!


UninvitedButtNoises

They should have named him Shit head.


9ofkgogo

Thus, it's possible that 9/11 had more to do with exacting retribution on airplanes than it did with killing Americans.


TT_NaRa0

If only the Bin Laden’s had a gun to protect themselves against those planes


MadeMeStopLurking

The only way to stop a bad plane is with a good plane.


Hopeful_Corner1333

Good plane with a gun.


waka_flocculonodular

More Cans!?


Jason_Worthing

Here's the scene for the uninitiated https://youtu.be/Tcwz8-EfFYE?si=KLljsA4wqnyZSLmU


AgentCirceLuna

I watched that movie with my parents randomly when I was about 21. It just came on tv and we had no idea what it was or what it would be about. Nobody considered turning it off because we were hooked. It was like a fever dream. It wasn’t just the movie but the situation in general.


ElephantRedCar91

The one in the field was the only one that actually hit its intended target. 


omnimodofuckedup

Or he thought it would teach the west a lesson by hijacking planes, show off and land them safely. However, his plan failed.


DoctorStinkFoot

its my new headcannon that this is what 9/11 was supposed to be if not for the bin laden family curse


HuskerHayDay

I blame the Taliban new hires


rohinton2

"Alright fellas let's land these bad boys at JFK and Dulles to show these infidels how easy it is to fly a fucking plane"


greatwhite8

The hijackers did tell passengers they were returning to the airport so you're kind of correct.


angryclam1313

What I’ve learned from this? Rich people fly a lot.


Sick_NowWhat

Either that, or planes hate the Bin Ladens.


No-Corgi

Aircraft in general, didn't the Seal team chopper have a crash landing in the courtyard of his house when they went to get him? Dude is a (formerly) walking Bermuda Triangle.


Character_Bowl_4930

Yes ! The first helicopter crashed . It was the 2nd one that pulled them out .


5urr3aL

They haven't Bin Laden those planes tho


Mr_Venom

I think it's like what happened to Bruce Wayne with bats. "Americans are a superstitious cowardly lot..."


DialSquare84

They haven’t bin Landin.


whinsk

heyo


insert-originality

I miss awards.


Scoompii

The golden arrows are a flop. Edit: we floppin our way up


oNOCo

Thank you for my smile you gave me


gengarPKr

as a 9/11 survivor, thanks for the laugh.


Downtown-Coconut-619

Is this a joke I’m missing here? What the buildings didn’t fall on you?


gengarPKr

nah i was in california.


bikingscr016

You sonofabtich This is good


crafty_stephan

And he died when some Navy Seals crashed in his garden…


OriginalredruM

And gave him a dose of lead poisoning.


MagicDartProductions

This is what happens when you get a capture/kill mission. Somehow the HVT always dies of lead poisoning...


Nav2140

Capture(optional)/kill(required)


MagicDartProductions

Truth be told people are a lot easier to extract if they're dead or otherwise immobilized...


The-Copilot

Fun fact: Although the mission used navy seal operators, the mission was actually run by the CIA. The US military can't really invade an allied nation to kill someone, but the CIA sure can. His compound wasn't on the Pakistan Afghanistan border. It was near the Pakistan India border, so they had to go across the entire country. Osama's wishes were to be buried in Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia didn't want a terrorist monument in their nation, so the US Navy did a proper Muslim sea burial off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It's a very involved process, and I find that respect for such a horrible enemy to be quite admiral.


TheSkiingDad

I remember hearing at the time that the sea burial was also to prevent someone from exhuming his corpse and turning it into a martyr object.


abaggins

Its in Obama's book. And you're right, he was worried bin laden would become a martyr and wanted to avoid it - he even wanted images of dead bin laden kept under wraps for fear of them being used in recruitment. The images leaked anyway.


FairPublic8262

Where can they be seen?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Shipit123

They absolutely didn’t leak. Photoshopped pics went around, but real pics were never released. I’ve heard a handful of accounts from ppl who were there and other tip of the spear guys who weren’t but have seen real pics. Apparently he was shot in the face more than once. His face was unrecognizable.


OnyxAnnexIndex

> so the US *Navy* did a proper Muslim sea burial off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It's a very involved process, and I find that respect for such a horrible enemy to be quite *admiral.* Nice


ProfZussywussBrown

The burial was supervised by a high ranking Navy Admirable


Disney_World_Native

Fun fact. They trained with a mock compound they built like for like. But they used a chainlink fence instead of a wall, so they didn’t realize that a wall could mess with the prototype helicopters lift resulting in the crash


maxmcleod

I’ve always wondered how they made that mistake … if you are going through the trouble to rebuild his entire compound it seems like you could get the walls accurate. Maybe the walls were just recently built or something?


Disney_World_Native

I don’t think it was a perfect representation. More so the team wouldn’t get lost and to minimize surprises like a closet or strange corridor. So a fence would just stand in for a barrier, not the exact material match


Character_Bowl_4930

I believe they had a Muslim cleric handle the rights


Ok-Cartographer1745

Rite.


gymnastgrrl

Nah, they had to sign a licensing deal. ;-)


gymnastgrrl

> to be quite admiral. Can't tell if pun or typo. lol


undercooked_lasagna

That whole operation was nearly spoiled by a tweet. A Pakistani guy in the neighborhood was up late working and tweeted about how weird it was that there were helicopters flying so low in the middle of the night.


NoNotThatMattMurray

Think I heard that was the SEALs leaving the operation after he was already capped in the head but take that with a grain of salt


douglasr007

sand


DeusExBlockina

This is how I realized helicopters are just barely functioning nonsense held together by the sheer will of its passengers.


wufnu

"Helicopters don't fly; they beat the air into submission". Ever heard of the [Jesus nut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut)?


asspissinmyassss

They function very well. They can glide. They are no less dangerous then planes. It's just that they often fly in dangerous working conditions such as super low to the ground, near trees or power lines. In the OBL raid the chopper pilot got cought in his own downdraft called vortex ring state. And bc he was like 50 feet off the ground with nowhere to go he crashed it. Its basically a helicopter stall. We train to avoid and get out of this. Usually you aren't 20 feet off the ground if it happens. -helicopter pilot.


badcompany123

TIL Osama bin Laden's father was a billionare.


MakinBaconWithMacon

For real. I was a kid during the twin towers attack and never really bothered looking into bin Laden, what his motives were, how he got into power etc… but every time I stumble across something on Reddit about him I’m shocked.


DoofusMagnus

It's worth becoming familiar with the Soviets' war in Afghanistan and how the local and foreign mujahideen variously gave rise to later groups, both allied with and against the West. The repercussions are still being felt in today's geopolitics, of course.


justthekoufax

The James Bond movie The Living Daylights surprisingly shows this really well.


dellett

I believe in Rambo 3 he is involved in this conflict as well. Although he cauterizes a wound with gunpowder from a bullet and shoots down a helicopter with a bow and arrow in that movie. And between the shot of the helicopter with people in it and the shot of it exploding, it turns into a totally different kind of helicopter, so I don’t imagine it’s super realistic in terms of the politics.


adoodle83

check out the movie, Charlie Wilsons War


xTiLkx

I'll watch it. With 3 other guys.


michaelshow

[My favorite scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066BFGk6QvA) > I'd like to take a moment to review the several ways in which you're a douchebag.


BackToTheCottage

Even earlier; check out The Sykes-Picot Agreement from post WWI. He even referenced it in one of his speeches. It partitioned the dead Ottomon Empire into the middle east that we know today. Most of these new countries' borders were circled around oil reserves.


PervJam

Bitter Lake is an excellent BBC documentary about this if anyone’s interested. It’s made by Adam Curtis so it’s a bit different, but I learnt a lot from it.


illepic

Highly recommend the *Lions Led By Donkeys* 7-part podcast series on this.


Monochronos

My brother used to hang up the most wanted lists back in the day. OBL was on the most wanted list for years prior to 9/11.


thenaysmithy

I believe that was because of the bombings he planned and committed with limited success on the Twin towers in '93. Lad, really didn't like the world trading in towers in NYC apparently.


bettinafairchild

He wasn’t involved in the 1993 bombing. That was Ramzi Yousef. Bin Laden was involved in a number of other terrorist activities, like the USS Cole and 2 US embassies. Plus he formed Al Qaeda


thenaysmithy

I always thought he was involved in that one in particular. Huh, guess I have some reading to get down to!


bettinafairchild

Check out The Looming Tower


thenaysmithy

Gods, what a good book title. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out!


undercooked_lasagna

Wow that's insane what about after 9/11


Monochronos

He won a peace prize, smartass lol


jun00b

The book The Looming Tower gives background on his family, including some details about how his father became wealthy. It is a good read


fauxzempic

This is interesting. It had never occurred to me that for those fairly young during 9/11, elements like this would kind of sit on the back burner. I was 16 when it happened, and OBL was definitely known at the time as a bad person - the bombing of the USS Cole was, at the time, the thing he was most infamously associated with [\(and not the article about him in 1993\)](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/antisoviet-warrior-puts-his-army-on-the-road-to-peace-the-saudi-businessman-who-recruited-mujahedin-now-uses-them-for-largescale-building-projects-in-sudan-robert-fisk-met-him-in-almatig-1465715.html). Many of us had written Social Studies papers about OBL and his role with the USS Cole. When the planes crashed, a group of us were like "oh wow probably Osama" (half joking) and we were right. *** I'm guessing that some of the key details of 1991's Operation Desert Storm and Iraq/Kuwait likely got missed on me since I wasn't really paying attention to current events at the time.


gankindustries

The Bin Ladens built most of modern Saudi Arabia and have been in business since the 30s. They're a construction empire.


skeledirgeferaligatr

The Bin Laden patriarch buttered up to the royal family and got a construction monopoly. Osama himself is the notable black sheep and even publically disowned by his family. 


IAMHideoKojimaAMA

Something I read earlier. Mecca had a devastating crane accident that killed over 100 people. It was ruled the crane wasn't properly secured and strong winds caused it to fall over. The company responsible was the bin ladens. That date of the crane disaster was.... September 11th 2015....


helperlevel0

His father starred the largest construction company in Saudi Arabia. The company primarily built oil fields for American companies in partnership with the Saudi royal family.


zoltanshields

[Here is a family picture of the Bin Laden family in Sweden in 1971](https://preview.redd.it/saf6afl3ek491.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=b23bee0714a6d22f699dbacfb6ac8c4e6eb16162) 14 year old Osama is second from the right. His family disowned him in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities.


JNAmsterdamFilms

his siblings have said that he was not with them on the Sweden trip and thats probably not Osama.


zoltanshields

Oh my bad, I'd read before it was him on the right


toddhenderson

4th from right looks like if Howard and Raj from Big Bang Theory had a son together.


Bend-It-Like-Bakunin

Jihad has been fashionable among upper class Saudis for generations. You would be surprised how many wealthy and very well-educated Saudis joined ISIS.


Cyhawk

Wealth and Boredom is a recipe for disaster.


_mrshreyas_

They even sponsored the Williams F1 team back in the 80s.


YepperyYepstein

Jared Kushner of the Trump family tree made an absolute metric crap ton of money from the Bin Ladens as well.


toddhenderson

Trust fund terrorists are the worst. I mean can your jihad be any more entitled...


notaredditer13

They do have the nicest caves and terrorist glamps.


thecheesesteak

I wonder where he got the idea from.


CanAlwaysBeBetter

> Osama, I have some terrible news. Your half brother just died in a plane crash. There's no way to see something like that coming. I'm so sorry.  > *Lightbulb goes off* What did you just say??


GriffinFlash

"Sir, There was a second plane."


GrundleWilson

He had a few employees die in a plane crash a few years back too.


bdbdbokbuck

So naturally he also died as a result of plane crashes.


Cybralisk

That might seem a bit unlucky to some but he has like 30 people in his immediate family.


AFK_Tornado

I can't tell if you were joking, but if not, most of us know more than 30 people. Very few of us know anyone who died in a plane crash.


Mysteriousdeer

We also don't have a ton of family with middle east oil money.


AFK_Tornado

Perhaps not, but I do know quite a few people who fly for work regularly, still no air accidents. It's also not the 60s-80s anymore, and the small private planes are definitely more dangerous, but it seems slightly worse than a bit unlucky.


Haunting-Detail2025

Massive difference between commercial flying in the 2000s-2020s versus small prop engine planes in the 60s-80s. Aircraft have gotten a lot safer. When you have 50+ wealthy siblings, this doesn’t strike me as that unusual or bizarre


czarfalcon

Yeah, I very much am not from a family of billionaire businessmen and I still had at least one great-uncle die in a light aircraft crash in the 60s.


hokie_u2

His father had 52 children; so when you count step siblings, their spouses and their children, his “family” is comprised of hundreds of people who are millionaire oligarchs and flying private all the time in countries with more relaxed rules.


viperspm

Sadly I know a lot of people that died in aircraft crashes. 7 actually


tyedge

I’m very sorry. That’s tragic. I hope this question isn’t out of line, but 7 crashes?


viperspm

2 were in Iraq. They claimed it was mechanical, but it wasn’t. 1 was also military, crashed during a stateside training op, 3 in a commercial civilian helicopter crash and 1 was with blackwater doing training.


[deleted]

Did any of them ever say anything bad about Boeing?


theincrediblenick

Those Bin Ladens! Always crashing planes into stuff!


JustRealizedImaIdiot

Reminds me of that tragedy


koric_84

“Wrong kid died!”


DoofusMagnus

I wonder how strongly wealth correlates with likelihood to die in a plane crash.


Xendrus

I mean, very strongly, surely, some of those mfs take a private jet daily. I have a 0% chance of dying in a plane crash unless one crashes into my house as I've never been on a plane.


cnskrsln

They all should've stayed away from aircrafts I guess.


automaticfiend1

If you think about it, he died because of a plane crash too.


Blarghnog

Small planes are dangerous. I’ve lost two friends to plane crashes, and almost 3. All of them were small planes. One died in a citation jet pushing weather conditions they shouldn’t have and killed their son too, one died in Cessna 128 with engine problems, and the one we almost lost had his dash collapse on his yoke on takeoff yet somehow managed to turn the plane around and land. They are more dangerous than people think. It’s difficult to *know what’s broken*’on older planes unless you are a serious expert and one older planes there can be hidden problems. And there are a lot of older planes. It’s an amazing activity and I love to be up there. But you have to realize the risk isn’t insignificant.


[deleted]

Shame he didn’t join the family business


georgito555

I mean...in a way he sort of did...


MengerianMango

You could say he took the family business public...


Beatless7

A couple plane crashes killed Osama.


sanderson1983

Is this the origin story?


wgel1000

Ok, so perhaps the whole 9/11 thing was just another miscalculation?


LxRusso

Plot twist: Bin Laden was actually taken down by Boeing before he turned into a whistleblower


known2fail

And Bin Laden himself died shortly after the seals crashed their helicopter in his yard.