[资源] Bin Laden's son to father: Change your ways

The son of the most-wanted man in the world spoke Sunday to CNN in a quiet, middle-class suburb about an hour outside Cairo, Egypt. Omar, who works as a contractor, said he is talking publicly because he wants an end to the violence his father has inspired -- violence that has killed innocent civilians in a spate of attacks around the world, including those of September 11, 2001. "I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,' " Omar said in English learned in recent months from his British wife. He said that's not just his own message, but one that a friend of his father's and other Muslims have expressed to him. "They too say ... my father should change [his] way," Omar said. He said he hasn't spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his father's blessings. He said he has no idea where his father is, but is confident he will never be caught because locals support him. Asked if his father might be living along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said, "Maybe, maybe not." "Either way, the people there are different," he said. "They don't care about the government." Now, Omar and his wife are preparing to launch a movement far different from the one his father Osama launched. They are pursuing a movement for peace. At first glance, Omar appears to have little in common with the man who has eluded international efforts to find him. The 26-year-old's hair is bound in neat braids, he drives a Jeep and is married to a British national twice his age. But the physical resemblance quickly sinks in, even without the long beard his father favors. It is a resemblance Omar doesn't avoid. "Being Osama's son, I don't hide it. I don't hide my name," he said. "I am proud by my name, but if you have a name like mine you will find people run away from you, are afraid of you." He said he doesn't consider his father to be a terrorist. When his father was fighting the Soviets, Washington considered him a hero, he said. "Before they call it war; now they call it terrorism," he said. He said his father believes his duty is to protect Muslims from attack. "He believes this is his job -- to help the people," he said. "I don't think my father is a terrorist because history tells you he's not." However, Omar -- who was 14 when he began training in al Qaeda camps -- said he differs greatly with his father over the killing of civilians. Was 9/11 a just attack? "I don't think 9/11 was right personally, but it happened," he said. "I don't think ... [the war] in Vietnam was right. I don't think what's going on in Palestine is right. I don't think what's going on in Iraq is right. "If we make what is right and not right, we will make a very big list," he said. Omar said he left al Qaeda because he did not want to be associated with killing civilians. Omar said his father did not try to dissuade him from leaving al Qaeda. "I told him I was going, and wanted to try life and see what it was like outside because, from a young age I was with my father, and I only saw and heard my father and his friends. My father told me, 'If this is what your choice -- your decision -- is, what can I tell you? I like you to be with me, but this is your decision.' " So father and son went their separate ways. But for Omar, there has been no running from the bin Laden name, not after the events of 9/11. On that day, Omar was in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from. Asked if, upon learning of the news, he knew his father had been behind it, he replied, "Yeah, maybe." Omar said he felt sadness for those killed. "I don't think 9/11 was right personally," he said. "I don't agree with 9/11 or with any war where only civilians are dying." Asked why he did not protest more strongly his father's role in the killing of civilians, Omar said it is up to the religious clerics close to his father to tell Osama to change tactics in the name of Islam. And even if that most unlikely scenario were to occur, he said, al Qaeda would not stop. "My father doesn't have the power to stop the movement at this moment." Sitting by his side throughout the hour-and-a-half interview was Omar's wife, Zaina. The two are organizing a multi-month horse race through North Africa in the name of peace, set to kick off this year. But getting sponsors to line up behind the name bin Laden has been difficult. "It would probably have been easier to do a race without having Omar's name, but then the race would just be a race, it wouldn't be a race for peace," Zaina said. Omar said his relationship with his father was limited. He is the fourth of 11 children born to Osama's first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama has fathered. "Most of the time he busy, so busy, all the day he's busy [with] his friends. He was working a lot." Omar is now undertaking perhaps an impossible task: trying to rebrand the name they share. But he said he is not looking for approval from his father. "My life, I take care of my life," he said. "My father he take care of his life."

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