Binladin Group Severed Ties with Osama Long Before 9/11

By Pamela Mortimer

The Saudi Binladin Group, a multinational engineering company, has declared that it is not responsible for the 9/11 attacks even though Osama bin Laden was once a shareholder in his family’s company. In papers filed U.S. District Court on Friday, attorneys for the Binladin Group claimed that the company was not involved in the activities of Osama bin Laden, a former shareholder in the company. The papers were filed in response to a number of lawsuits claims initiated by representatives, survivors, and insurance carriers of the 9/11 victims. The plaintiffs allege that the Saudi Binladin Group, along with numerous individuals, banks and charities worldwide, provided support to al-Qaida prior to the attacks. They seek billions of dollars in damages.

The company, founded by Osama bin Laden’s father, Mohammed bin Laden, who built a construction empire which elevated his family to the height of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families. Bin Laden’s 50 children shared in the fortune amassed by their father. Bakr bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's brother and the senior member of the bin Laden family, serves as chairman of Saudi Binladin Group. Lawsuits have accused family members of being principal financiers for al-Qaida, and therefore, the 9/11 attacks.

In the Friday filing, attorneys for The Saudi Binladin Group claimed that Osama bin Laden had been forced out of the family business fourteen years ago, and that Bakr Binladin publicly renounced Osama bin Laden in February 1994, two months before the Saudi government revoked Osama bin Laden's citizenship and froze his assets.

The filing also stated that those actions occurred well before the United States placed Osama bin Laden on its list of designated terrorists and organizations in August of 1998.

According to the Sept. 11 Commission, the Sudanese government captured Osama bin Laden's assets in 1996, when he departed from the Sudan.

"He left Sudan with practically nothing," the commission reported. "When bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan, he relied on the Taliban until he was able to reinvigorate his fundraising efforts by drawing on ties to wealthy Saudi individuals that he had established during the Afghan war in the 1980s."

In July, the Binladin Group was ordered by a judge to provide additional information regarding the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden's 2 percent stake in the company. Attorneys for the bin Laden family companies have stated that Osama never received a buyout payment and that Saudi authorities directed them to place the money in trust outside Osama bin Laden's reach.