Alia Ghanem bin Laden : Matriarch refuses to accept her son was evil

Alia Ghanem at home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, flanked by potrait of terror chieftain

No one can dispute the fact that the bin Ladens are one of the desert kingdom's wealthiest families. The family's construction empire was responsible for building much of modern Saudi Arabia. Not surprisingly, it is deeply woven into the country’s establishment.

It is interesting to discover that the matriarch of the family, Alia Ghanem bin Laden, is alive and well. She holds court at the family mansion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

For many years Ghanem refused to talk about Osama, this period included the two decades when he was leader of al-Qaida. This was the period that saw the strikes on New York and Washington DC. The terror mastermind later met his death in Pakistan at the hands of US special forces. The kingdom still monitors the family.

Recently, after obtaining permission from the government of Saudi Arabia, The GUARDIAN newspaper was able to have a chat with Alia Ghanem bin Laden.

In the interview, Ghanem described her firstborn as a shy boy who was academically capable. According to her, he became a strong, driven, pious figure in his early 20s while studying economics at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where he was also radicalised.

The former al-Qaida leader was said to have met Abdullah Azzam, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was later exiled from Saudi Arabia and became Osama’s spiritual adviser.

Hear the matriarch :
“The people at university changed him. He became a different man. He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause. I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much.”