ed his involvement in the Afghanistan war in the 80's. In 1979, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet troops bin Laden decided to leave his family business and to engage in the holy war, the jihad. Evidences are clear about his financing actions in the support of the Mujahideens but, even if it weren't so, one can assume it using deductive logics from the fact that he served as soldier during the battles. Thus, he began delivering humanitarian aid and food for the Afghan resistance. Fighting for the Afghan cause, although it was considered that he already made enough through the money provided to the Afghans , made bin Laden very popular within the Muslim world.
             The structure of what is known today as Al Qaeda is based on the former Afghani combatants and the networked used in the 80's. The main body of Al Qaeda is made up of fewer than 1,000 dedicated members2
             Together with his university mentor, the leader of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, Dr. Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden founded the Maktab al-Khidamat. 3. Their main goal was to recruit as many people as possible, to train and to send them to fight against the Soviet troops. All these expenses were supported by Osama himself. Another CRSS repot, indicates that between 20 000 and 60 000 people4 were mobilized for the war.
             By 1988, bin Laden established a database made up of Mujahideens with the help of Azzam. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989 and the death of Azzam in a car bombing5, bin Laden went back to Saudi Arabia, the Mak being transformed in Al Qaeda.
             After the war ended in 1989 bin Laden became a hero throughout the Muslim world and later that year, he returned to Saudi Arabia. However his extremist views brought him in contradiction with the new leaders. Another turning point in history was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In fact, this event made even more obvious the distinction between his beliefs and the Saudi foreign policy. The ...