Photographs of Osama Bin Laden on a visit to Oxford in 1971 have come to light after their owner recognised him in widely-publicised pictures from the same year.Too bad Bin Laden's stay in Britain didn't include attending the civilizing Rugby School of Dr. Thomas Arnold and Tom Brown's Schooldays--though he still might have ended up like Harry Flashman, V.C., K.C.B., K.C.I.E.
The pictures are owned by a Spanish woman and one has been published in a Spanish newspaper showing 14-year-old Bin Laden with two of his brothers and two glamorous Spanish girls as they attended a language course. . .Bin Laden on the right (source: BBC)
Saudi-born Bin Laden did not appear to be into rock music or fashion, and did not like the 1970s London scene, the El Correo newspaper reported.
He used to tell the Spanish girls that the foreigners who walked around London were a bit crazy.
The photograph was taken in an Oxford park, where the woman recalled going for a walk one evening after taking tea.
Bin Laden appears with his older brothers and seems a gangly teenager, with a slightly awkward smile.
(via Opinionated Bastard)
1 comment:
I sometimes wonder what in a person's life makes him turn a corner, leading him down a path to becoming a hero or a villain in the eyes of the world. If it weren't for his twisted ideology and the road he chose, would Osama be someone you could otherwise have gotten along with; had history unfolded differently, would he have been capable of leading a "normal", undistinguished life?
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