Osama bin Laden, identified in United States government documents as "Usama Bin Laden," was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was believed to be the seventeenth son of Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni by birth who moved to Saudi Arabia and became a billionaire on the strength of his connections with the Saudi royal family. Osama bin Laden graduated from King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, where his dual interest in religion and politics is believed to have originated. He studied business in college and assumed control of $250 million of his father's assets.

Initially, bin Laden was an ally of the United States. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, he, like the United States, supported the rebels. From late 1979 through the mid-1980s, bin Laden invested his fortune and his faith in the rebels, even fighting with them. He also built schools and shelters for refugees...