On the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the world remembers the devastating day when 2,753 people were killed after two hijacked planes were flown into New York City‘s World Trade Center.
A further 184 people died when another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while 40 passengers and crew were killed when those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 bravely fought back against hijackers, sending the plane crashing into an empty field in Pennsylvania.
In the years after the attack, the death toll in New York rose to 2,996 as a result of the harm caused by exposure to the dust at Ground Zero.
Thousands more still suffer long-term health problems, including emergency service workers who risked their lives to rescue as many people as possible.
And one man was responsible for the terror and destruction of that day, and the subsequent decades-long wars in the Middle East: Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden founded Al-Qaeda in 1988, and admitted to orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.
Satisfied with his work, he went to ground immediately after the attack and was hunted by the US and its intelligence partners for a decade, before being killed in his home and unceremoniously dumped in the sea.
Although the name bin Laden will forever be associated with terror and fear, the Al-Qaeda leader has many relatives who are not only living very different lives from him, but actively seek to combat the poisonous legacy he left behind.
Bin Laden founded Al-Qaeda in 1988, and admitted to orchestrating the 9/11 attacks
Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11
One of these is Noor bin Laden, the terror leader’s niece, who has become a vocal critic of ‘radical Islam’, which she blames for many of the world’s problems.
She was raised in Switzerland by her mother, author Carmen Dufour and kept a relatively low profile until 2020, when she gave her first public interview.
The now 39-year-old then told the world that she was a passionate Trump supporter.
‘I have been a supporter of President Trump since he announced he was running in the early days in 2015. I have watched from afar and I admire this man’s resolve’, she defiantly told the New York Post.
‘He must be re-elected … It’s vital for the future of not only America, but Western civilisation as a whole.’
‘You look at all the terrorist attacks that have happened in Europe over the past 19 years. They have completely shaken us to the core … [Radical Islam] has completely infiltrated our society. In the US it’s very worrying that the left has aligned itself completely with the people who share that ideology.’
In 2021, she was seen waving a ‘Trump Won’ flag while on a boat in Geneva, referring to the claim that the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden.
Noor’s support for America and Trump stands in stark contrast to her uncle, who infamously proclaimed in 1999: ‘We believe that the biggest thieves in the world and the terrorists are the Americans.
She was just 14 when her uncle carried out the 9/11 attack. Even at that tender age, she knew her life would never be the same.
‘I was so devastated,’ she recalled. ‘I had been going to the States with my mom several times a year from the age of 3 onwards. I considered the US my second home.’
Noor was raised in Switzerland by her mother, author Carmen Dufour and kept a relatively low profile
Noor’s support for America and Trump stands in stark contrast to her uncle
In 2021, she was seen waving a ‘Trump Won’ flag while on a boat in Geneva
Another public figure is glamour model and singer Wafah Dufour, Noor’s older sister. She lives in London and is the lead singer of band Deep Tan.
Wafah has attempted to distance herself from her uncle, and has previously spoken in detail about how the 9/11 attacks destroyed her future in America.
She was with her mother in Geneva, Switzerland, on the morning of September 11 2001.
She had spent the summer in New York after getting a master’s degree in law from the city’s Columbia University.
Wafah was meant to fly back to the US to stay in her Soho apartment, but was forced to lay low for six months with her mother.
She told GQ in a now-famous story published in 2006: ‘I wanted to disappear. There were a lot of articles saying things about me, and I just couldn’t cope with it.
‘[They were] saying that I fled before, that I knew about the attack and I was living the high life, that I was partying like a mad animal. Yeah, I was partying a bit, after my exams.’
‘I was crying all day. I was saying, “How can I be me?” For me it was an identity crisis, because I didn’t want to be related to something so awful. I’m like the victim, but I’m also part of what hits the target.
‘And in my head, I know exactly where I stand, but it’s so tiring that I always have to explain myself, that I have nothing to do with anything.’
She then moved to London for several years where she was heavily scrutinised for her relation to the terrorist mastermind, before moving back to New York in the autumn of 2004.
Though she went to great efforts to keep a low profile, she was eventually found out. The New York Post, still reeling from the vicious terror attack, described the terrorist’s niece as a ‘pushy spoiled brat,’ a ‘wannabe’ who ‘wants to be a pop star but no record company will have her’.
Dejected, she moved back to London to further her music career and distance herself from the actions of her terrorist uncle, recording her first album in 2009.
Wafah has attempted to distance herself from her uncle, and has previously spoken in detail about how the 9/11 attacks destroyed her future in America
Wafah was meant to fly back to the US to stay in her Soho apartment, but was forced to lay low for six months with her mother
Wafah lives in London and is the lead singer of band Deep Tan
Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden’s son Omar, who had previously led a quiet life as an artist in France, was back in the spotlight two years ago after being made to leave for glorifying terrorism via social media, according to French authorities.
French officials said that he published comments on social media on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death in May 2023 that glorified ‘terrorism and al Qaeda’.
Though Omar was the son of the infamous terrorist, he knew from a very early age that he could not follow in his father’s footsteps, escaping at the age of 19. He revealed in 2022 that his father was a vicious and cruel man, who raised him to be the heir to his empire.
That meant beatings, desert survival sessions, and the trauma of hearing how chemical weapons were tested on his pet puppies.
He told VICE in 2021 that despite his father’s cruelty, he tapped into his mother’s side to fuel his creativity.
He told the outlet: ‘Some of my mum’s side of the family are very artistic. My mum loves painting, and so does one of my sisters. My uncle was also a very good artist. So the need to draw and paint runs in my blood.’
He eventually met and married British citizen Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah – born Jane Felix-Browne. They met in 2006, and spent hours making art with each other, and he eventually began selling his work, much of it drawing inspiration from his childhood.
‘I miss the fun times I had, the times when I was too young to know and too innocent to see the world around me. I miss the vast stretches of desert dunes and rolling seas. I miss the peace of childhood’, he told the magazine.
He currently lives in Qatar after leaving France, according to reports, where he focuses on his art.
Osama bin Laden’s son Omar, who had previously led a quiet life as an artist in France, was back in the spotlight two years ago after being forced to leave
Omar bin Laden met and married British citizen Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah
Bakr bin Laden, currently in his late 70s, shares little more than a father with his half-brother, Osama.
While Osama dedicated his life to raising hell in the Middle East and the wider world through the terror group he founded, Bakr found his calling in the world of business.
As an American-educated civil engineer, he took control of his family’s construction business, the Saudi Binladin Group, in 1988, following his father’s untimely death caused by a plane crash.
Developing the already-strong relationship his family and company had with Saudi royalty, he substantially grew the firm by winning more and more contracts to build the infrastructure in the rapidly developing nation.
Wall Street Journal reporters Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck wrote in their book ‘Blood and Oil’ that Bakr was helped immensely in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack by the country’s then-ruler Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the crown prince, who refused to punish the bin Laden family for Osama’s crime.
He pulled this off ‘thanks in part to a keen understanding of what the Al Saud wanted,’ just as his father and Salem had done, Hope and Justin Scheck wrote.
‘If that meant building a palace for a new wife in a matter of months, they’d get the job done. Payment could come much later or never at all; the bin Ladens wouldn’t make a peep’, they added.
But this once-thriving relationship with the Saudi ruling family came crashing down in 2017, when he and his brothers were arrested as part of a mass anti-corruption purge ordered by newly-ascendant crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He was held without trial, first at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh then at a publicly unknown location for years, before being released in January 2019.
Though he was freed, he paid a severe price while under arrest.
In April 2018, a year into his detention, he transferred his investment stake in SBG, more than a third of the company, to the government of Saudi Arabia, 30 years after he took control of the firm.
Since then, he has gone almost completely off the radar.
While Osama dedicated his life to raising hell in the Middle East and the wider world through the terror group he founded, Bakr (pictured) found his calling in the world of business
And little is known of Osama bin Laden’s three widows, with the last reports of their whereabouts dating back to 2012.
In April of that year, they were deported to Saudi Arabia after serving brief prison sentences in Pakistan for illegally entering and remaining in the country following the 2011 US raid that killed their husband.
Since they arrived in Saudi Arabia, his two Saudi wives, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, and his Yemeni wife, Amal al-Sadah, have reportedly lived under a form of state-monitored protection resembling house arrest.
They were reportedly placed in a secure residential compound in Jeddah funded by the bin Laden family.
The Saudi government provided them with accommodation and living expenses on humanitarian grounds, but reportedly imposed strict conditions on their lives.
They are prohibited from giving interviews, publishing accounts or communicating freely with the outside world.
