Osama to Kids in Will: Don't Join al-Qaeda

He's sorry for for being lousy dad in purported final wishes in 2001 document
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2011 1:40 AM CDT
Osama bin Laden Will Urges His Children to Avoid Jihad
Osama bin Laden speaks to a selected group of reporters in the mountains of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan in 1998.   (AP Photo/Rahimullah Yousafzai, File)

Osama bin Laden didn't want his wives to remarry or his 24 children to become terrorists after his death, according to what a Kuwaiti newspaper says is a copy of his will. In the document—written on a computer, dated December 2001, and signed by "your brother Abu Abdullah Osama Muhammad bin Laden"—bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11 and many other terrorist attacks, the Guardian reports. He laments betrayal around him, apologizes for being a neglectful dad, and advises his children not to join al-Qaeda or to join "the front" to wage jihad.

"I have chosen a path fraught with dangers and endured hardships, disappointment and betrayal. If it wasn't for betrayal, things would be different today," the will states. "As for you, my sons, forgive me if I failed to devote more of my time to you since I answered the call to jihad." The Kuwaiti paper hasn't revealed how it obtained the will or if it was able to authenticate it. If it is genuine, Osama must have changed his mind about his children joining the fight: His youngest son appeared in terror videos and died in Sunday's raid. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)

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