Bin Laden to His Kids: Don't Join al-Qaida

By Jamie Tarabay

Updated: May 4, 2011 | 3:07 p.m.
May 4, 2011 | 11:08 a.m.

Bin laden poster from the FBI most wanted terrorists site. (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Osama bin Laden supposedly tells his children in his will, "Forgive me for giving you so little of my time."

A document dated 2001 that Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa reports is the terrorist mastermind's will has been made public. In it, bin Laden tells his wives "don't even think about getting married" while they still have children to raise and sacrifice for. Most tellingly, he instructs his children not to join his terrorist network. "I forbid you from working for al-Qaida," the document reads.

Mohammed al-Husseini, managing editor for Al-Anbaa, told National Journal that the document has been public for years and was actually published shortly after it was dated, in December 14, 2001, three months after the 9/11 attacks and in the grip of the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan. Bin Laden notes in the four-page document that he expects to be killed because of "betrayal."

Bin Laden had at least four wives and more than a dozen children. Saudi-born, he inherited nearly $30 million from his father, a construction tycoon in Saudi Arabia. The money is not mentioned in the will. Typically, Islamic law dictates that sons get two-thirds of the inheritance, and daughters get a third. The document is signed: "Your Brother, Abu Abdullah Osama Muhammad Bin Laden."

Bin Laden was killed on Monday (Pakistan time) during a U.S. commando raid on a large compound some 30 miles outside of Islamabad. One of his wives was wounded in the assault and at least one of his sons was killed in the raid alongside his father.

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