Osama bin Laden: ArsenalIn early 1994, notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden spent three months in London. He visited supporters and bankers in search of funding for terrorist ventures. He also went to see the famous British soccer club Arsenal play four times (even buying his sons gifts from the club's souvenir shop before narrowly avoiding extradition to Saudi Arabia and returning to Sudan).
Thereafter a curious chant was often heard emanating from the Arsenal stands: "He's hiding near Kabul / He loves the Arsenal / Osama / Oh oh oh oh!"
[Bin Laden, who was involved in a plot to massacre the American and British teams at the 1998 World Cup in France, once told friends that he had never seen passion like that of soccer fans. According to bin Laden biographer Yossef Bodansky, Al Qaeda bombed the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 (killing 224 people) in part because of "the failure of the primary operation, an attack on the soccer World Cup."]
Bin Laden, Osama (1957- ) Saudi Arabian Islamist and terrorist [noted for his extreme Islamist views and for his spiritual leadership of the Al Queda terrorist group which claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11th, 2001]
[Sources: New York Times magazine, 2002/05/26]More Osama Bin Laden anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Fans Sports Terrorism Soccer Chants
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