Bin Laden Brother Says Family is not to Blame

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Bin Laden Brother Says Family is not to Blame

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Breaking the official family silence the bin Ladens have kept since Sept. 11, Abdullah bin Laden, one of Osama's 53 siblings, says the bin Ladens should not be blamed for the actions of their notorious relative.

"We are a big family," Abdullah bin Laden said. "We have so many brothers and sisters, and a member took a different direction. The rest shouldn't be blamed for the act of an individual."

Abdullah bin Laden, the designated spokesman for the large bin Laden clan, has a law degree from Harvard and was living in Boston at the time of September's terrorist attacks.

He said the family was "horrified" by the attacks and the subsequent news that Osama was behind them.

"We went through a tough time. It was difficult... We felt we are a victim as well," he said. "But no matter what happened to us, our tragedy is not as bad, we don't feel as those victims, the families of the victims in New York. ... Our tragedy compared to their tragedies, there is no comparison, and we do feel for them."

The bin Laden family, which runs one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East and has business interests around the world, publicly distanced itself from Osama in 1993. Abdullah said the family cut all personal and financial ties to Osama, and that no family member has contact with him or provides any kind of support for him.

"We don't want to feel guilty by association," he said. "We don't want people to accuse us of being guilty because we carry the same name."

At 35, Abdullah is nine years younger than Osama. The two are both sons of the family patriarch, Mohammed bin Laden, but have different mothers. Abdullah said he has no idea why his brother turned away from the family business and toward a militant brand of Islam. He said he last saw Osama in the late 1980s at the funeral of an older brother, and said he barely knows him.

The bin Ladens reportedly hired high-profile political consultants and publicists in the weeks after the attacks, in an effort to protect the family's name and business interests. But immediate family members did not talk to the media directly. Abdullah bin Laden was initially reluctant to give a television interview, but agreed to in order to make the case that he and his siblings are not guilty by association with their brother.

Source: Agencies

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