Word: osama
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...have been a case of hitting the target but missing the opportunity. Reports last week said Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's fourth son and a midranking al-Qaeda operative, was killed by a recent CIA Predator strike. But six years ago, the U.S. had an opportunity to get him alive - and lost it when the Bush Administration decided to pull away from cooperation with Iran. (Read "Obama's Unlikely Ally: Iran Signs On to Afghan Plan...
...death has not yet been confirmed, but U.S. officials believe he was one of the victims of a missile strike earlier this year in northern Pakistan. A counterterrorism official tells TIME, "There are some indications that he may be dead, but it's not 100% certain." (Read "Archive: Osama's Son Also Rises...
Believed to be in his late 20s, Saad is one of two bin Laden sons known to be actively involved in their father's jihadist enterprise; his older brother Mohammed is still at large, believed to be in Pakistan. (Osama has at least nine other sons and six daughters.) Saad had only recently returned to the Afghan-Pakistani border after nearly six years under house arrest in Iran. He was one of several al-Qaeda commanders, including military chief Saif al-Adel, captured by Iranian authorities in the spring and summer of 2003 as they tried to sneak across...
...National Security Council and one of a handful of Americans involved in negotiations with Tehran, says the Iranians were concerned that if Saad snuck in, they would not be able to repatriate him to his native Saudi Arabia, because authorities in Riyadh were unwilling to accept any of Osama...
...never know. Saad "was a small player with a big name," says the counterterrorism official. "He has never been a major operational figure." (His brother Mohammed is thought to be more influential.) But terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, author of Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden, points out that having Saad bin Laden in custody "would have been a great propaganda victory" for the U.S., greater than his death could be. Adds the Western intelligence official: "Think of how Americans would feel about Guantánamo if one of Osama's sons was among the detainees...