The Bin Laden Eighteen, Captives of Three Fundamentalisms…………….
“The Times reported on Thursday that the group included a wife and children who disappeared from bin Laden's Afghanistan camp at the time of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001. It said other relatives found out last month that the group - including one of bin Laden's wives, six of his children and 11 of his grandchildren - had been kept in a high-security compound outside Tehran for the past eight years. Abdul Rahman bin Laden, bin Laden's fourth son, had told Al Jazeera earlier this week that he had been unaware whether his relatives were alive until Iman contacted him a month ago. He then told her to go to the Saudi embassy. He told Al Jazeera that he was concerned for his sister's health and he called on Tehran to release his relatives. He also called for the Saudi government to ensure his sister's departure from the country. The Times quoted Omar bin Laden, 29, who it said was Osama bin Laden's fourth-oldest son, as saying he had no idea that his brothers and sisters were still alive until they called him in November. They told him how they had fled Afghanistan just before the 9/11 attacks and walked to the Iranian border. They were taken to a walled compound outside Tehran where guards said they were not allowed to leave "for their own safety". Omar bin Laden said that his relatives lived as normal a life as possible, cooking meals, watching television and reading. They were allowed out only rarely for shopping trips. "The Iranian government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe. For that we owe them much gratitude, and thank Iran from the depth of our heart," he said………….”
Saudi media is running away with this, the fact that the Bin Laden girl went to the Saudi embassy to get out of Iran. Their royalist propaganda columnists, especially in Asharq Alawsat, are making the most (or least) of the girl’s, and the family’s dilemma. They are treating it as an endorsement of a regime when all she wants to do is get out of Iran and go to her home country; that has nothing to do with rulers or endorsing them.
The Iranians should let them exercise their right to go home; and the Saudis should let them exercise their birthright to go home in peace (and privacy).
Cheers and Happy Holidays
mhg
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