White House Situation Room
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly-renovated Situation Room on May 18, 2007
Building	Basement of the White House's West Wing
Location	Washington, D.C.
Country	USA
Purpose	Conference room and intelligence management center

The White House Situation Room is a 5,000-square-foot (460 m²)^[1] conference room and intelligence management center in the basement of the West Wing of the White House. It is run by the National Security Council staff for the use of the President of the United States and his advisors (including the National Security Advisor, the Deputy for Homeland Security and the White House Chief of Staff) to monitor and deal with crises at home and abroad and to conduct secure communications with outside (often overseas) persons. The Situation Room is equipped with secure, advanced communications equipment for the President to maintain command and control of U.S. forces around the world.

Origin and staff[link]

The Situation Room was created in 1961^[2] by President John F. Kennedy after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was attributed to a lack of real-time information. The room has secure communications systems built into it and the walls contain wood panels that hide different audio, video and other systems.

The Situation Room is staffed by approximately 30 senior officers from various agencies in the intelligence community and from the military. They stand watch on a 24-hour basis, constantly monitoring world events and keeping senior White House staff apprised of significant incidents.

Functions[link]

The mission of the Situation Room is to provide current intelligence and crisis support to the NSC staff, the National Security Adviser, and the President. The Situation Room staff is organized around five Watch Teams that provide 7-day, 24-hour monitoring of international events. A Watch Team includes three Duty Officers, a communications assistant, and an intelligence analyst. The number and composition of personnel varies, depending on shift requirements and workload.^{[citation needed]}

The day begins with the Watch Team's preparation of the Morning Book. Prepared for the President, Vice President, and most senior White House staff, the Morning Book contains a copy of the National Intelligence Daily, the State Department's Morning Summary, and diplomatic cables and intelligence reports. The Morning Book is usually in the car when the National Security Adviser is picked up for work. The morning routine also includes the President's Daily Brief, which is prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, hand-delivered, and briefed by an intelligence community officer to the President and other NSC principals.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, the Watch Teams produce morning and evening summaries of highly selective material. These summaries, targeted on current interagency issues, are transmitted electronically to the NSC staff.^{[citation needed]}

The Situation Room staff also provides alerts on breaking events to NSC and White House personnel. Responsibility for informing the President belongs to the National Security Adviser. Later, a written "Sit Room Note" will be prepared, summarizing the event with up-to-the-minute reports from other centers, perhaps including a photo, diagram, or map. The task of the Situation Room staff is to ensure that the President and National Security Adviser are informed not only of the current situation but also how the situation is being portrayed by the media.^{[citation needed]}

Another typical Situation Room activity is arranging the President's phone calls and other sensitive communications with foreign heads of state. This includes coordinating the timing of such calls at each end, providing interpreters where necessary, and ensuring appropriate security and recordkeeping. In this function, the Situation Room coordinates closely with the White House Communications Agency, which supplies communications technicians to the Watch Teams.^{[citation needed]}

2006–2007 renovations[link]

The only comprehensive renovation of the Situation Room took place from 2006 to 2007.^[3] Prior to the renovation, the room used cathode ray tubes for monitors and fax for communication and had computers and telephones with 1985-era technology.^[3] The room also had a small kitchen with no sink.^[3] Encrypted audio/visual equipment was also unreliable, and such equipment would sometimes go black, "prompting a presidential outburst."^[3] Henry Kissinger once described the Situation Room as "uncomfortable, unaesthetic and essentially oppressive,"^[4] while the New York Times termed the pre-renovation complex "something of a low-tech dungeon."^[3]

Planning for the renovation began before the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the project became more urgent afterward.^[3]

Renovations began in August 2006, when the Situation Room complex was gutted down to bricks and bare floor^[4] and rebuilt from the ground up. The complex was renovated over about four and a half months^[3] and was disruptive, particularly to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, whose office was directly above the Situation Room. The New York Times reported that "Staff members described sitting in his room and hearing ear-piercing noise or watching water ripple in glasses on his desk as the floor shook."^[3] The renovation yielded several pieces from decades before, including coaxial cables, columns and a frame window from a Franklin D. Roosevelt-era sunken courtyard that was later built over.^[3]

The renovations also included an expansion of the Situation Room's use from only the National Security Council to include the Homeland Security Council and office of the White House Chief of Staff.^[3] Some of the mahogany was removed to reduce noise, and three secure video rooms were added in addition to the two already in place. A secure direct feed to Air Force One was added.^[3] Additionally, the room was revamped to make future technological upgrades easier—"so you don't have to carve a hole in an antique mahogany wall to improve it," according to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Joe Hagin.^[3]

Sensors were installed in the ceilings to detect cellular signals to prevent unauthorized communications and bugging by mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and other devices.^[3] Before the renovation, the Secret Service confiscated phones but had no other means of preventing smuggled communication devices.^[3] The new complex includes a lead-lined cabinet near the reception area for the deposit of personal communications upon entry.^[4] Close by are glass-encased booths (which the Associated Press described as "retro-looking") for secure and private telephone calls.^[4]

The seating of the room was also changed to add "two tiers of curved computer terminals that can be fed both classified and unclassified data from around the country and the world"^[3] for watch officers (who before the renovation were "seated so they stared at walls rather than each other").^[3]

The new Situation Room has six flat panel display televisions for secure videoconferencing^[3] as well as telestrator-like capability.^[3]

The renovation was formally completed by mid-May 2007. On May 17, 2007, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair participated in a video conference with members of their Iraq teams from the newly renovated Situation Room.^[5] The following day, President Bush officially opened the newly refurbished Situation Room in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.^[6]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Situation Room: National Security Advisor Walt Rostow showing President Lyndon B. Johnson a model of the Khe Sanh area on February 15, 1968.

• 

  President Ronald Reagan is briefed on events taking place in Libya in the White House Situation Room, 1986.

• 

  President George W. Bush meeting with his war council in the Situation Room on March 21, 2003.

• 

  President Barack Obama holding a strategy review on Afghanistan in the Situation Room on September 30, 2009.

• 

  President Barack Obama and national security team monitor the military operation resulting in the Death of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.

See also[link]

• The Situation Room (photograph)
• Cabinet Office Briefing Room or COBR—the United Kingdom version.
• National Military Command Center

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bohn, Michael (2004). Nerve Center: Inside the White House Situation Room. Potomac Books. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: White House Situation Room

• Inside the White House: The Situation Room - Video tour of the White House Situation Room with explanation of operations and history
• Inside The White House Situation Room: A National Nerve Center, CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence
• White House Museum: West Wing ground floor, with floor plan and historical images

v t e White House Complex White House Executive Residence Basement Basement Ground floor China Room Office of the Curator Diplomatic Reception Room Chief Floral Designer Library Map Room Vermeil Room State floor Blue Room Cross Hall East Room Entrance Hall Family Dining Room Grand Staircase Green Room Red Room South Portico State Dining Room Chief Usher Second floor Center Hall Dressing Room East Bedroom East Sitting Hall Family Kitchen Lincoln Bedroom Lincoln Sitting Room President's Bedroom President's Dining Room Private Sitting Room Queens' Bedroom Queens' Sitting Room Treaty Room Truman Balcony West Bedroom West Sitting Hall Yellow Oval Room Third floor Center Hall Diet Kitchen Linen Room Music Room Sun Room Work-out Room 80px West Wing Cabinet Room Executive Office Oval Office Press Briefing Room Roosevelt Room Situation Room East Wing Office of the First Lady Graphics and Calligraphy Office Presidential Emergency Operations Center Social Secretary Grounds The Ellipse Jacqueline Kennedy Garden Lafayette Square North Lawn President's Park Rose Garden South Lawn Annex Eisenhower Executive Office Building White House Conference Center Blair House Streets 15th Street 17th Street Constitution Avenue E Street East Executive Avenue H Street NW Hamilton Place Jackson Place Madison Place Pennsylvania Avenue State Place West Executive Avenue

The White House
The South Portico of the White House
Location in Washington, D.C.
General information
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Location	1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500 U.S.
Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N 77°2′11.58″W / 38.8976694°N 77.03655°W / 38.8976694; -77.03655
Current tenants	Barack Obama, President of the United States
Construction started	October 13, 1792; 219 years ago  (1792-10-13)
Design and construction
Architect	James Hoban

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban,^[1] and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage.^[2]

In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.

Today, the White House Complex includes the Executive Residence, West Wing, Cabinet Room, Roosevelt Room, East Wing, and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which houses the executive offices of the President and Vice President.

The White House is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. The term White House is regularly used as a metonym for the Executive Office of the President of the United States and for the president's administration and advisers in general. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of "America's Favorite Architecture".

History[link]

1789–1800[link]

President's House, Philadelphia. Occupied by Washington, 1790–97, and Adams, 1797–1800.

Following his April 1789 inauguration, President George Washington occupied two executive mansions in New York City: the Samuel Osgood House at 3 Cherry Street (April 1789 – February 1790), and the Alexander Macomb House at 39–41 Broadway (February – August 1790).

The July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction. The City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morris's city house at 190 High Street (now 524-30 Market Street) for Washington's presidential residence. The first president occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797, and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House. As part of a futile effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a presidential palace several blocks away, but Washington declined to move there.

President John Adams also occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800. In November 1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House. The President's House in Philadelphia became a hotel, and the unused presidential palace became home to the University of Pennsylvania.

Architectural competition[link]

Hoban's Charleston County Courthouse, Charleston, South Carolina, 1790-92, was admired by Washington.

The North Portico of the White House compared to Leinster House

The President's House was a major feature of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's's plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D.C.^[3][4] The architect of the White House was chosen in a design competition, which received nine proposals, including one submitted anonymously by Thomas Jefferson.^[5]

President Washington visited Charleston, South Carolina in May 1791 on his "Southern Tour," and saw the under-construction Charleston County Courthouse designed by Irish architect James Hoban. He is reputed to have met with Hoban then, and summoned the architect to Philadelphia and met with him there in June 1792.^[6]

On July 16, 1792, the President met with the commissioners of the federal city to make his judgment in the architectural competition. His review is recorded as being brief, and he quickly selected Hoban's submission.^[7]

Washington was not entirely pleased with the original submission, however; he found it too small, lacking ornament, and not monumental enough to house the nation's president. On his recommendation, the house was changed from three stories to two, and was widened from a 9-bay facade to an 11-bay facade. Hoban's competition drawings do not survive.

Design influences[link]

The building Hoban designed is verifiably influenced by the upper floors of Leinster House, in Dublin, Ireland, which later became the seat of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament).^[8] Several other Georgian era Irish country houses have been suggested as sources of inspiration for the overall floor plan, details like the bow-fronted south front, and interior details like the former niches in the present Blue Room. These influences, though undocumented, are cited in the official White House guide, and in White House Historical Association publications. The first official White House guide, published in 1962, suggested a link between Hoban's design for the South Portico, and Château de Rastignac, a neoclassical country house located in La Bachellerie in the Dordogne region of France and designed by Mathurin Salat. Construction on the French house was initially started before 1789, interrupted by the French Revolution for twenty years and then finally built 1812–1817 (based on Salat's pre-1789 design).^[9] The theoretical link between the two houses has been criticized because Hoban did not visit France. Supporters of a connection posit that Thomas Jefferson, during his tour of Bordeaux in 1789, viewed Salat's architectural drawings (which were on-file at the College) at the École Spéciale d'Architecture (Bordeaux Architectural College).^[10] On his return to the U.S. he then shared the influence with Washington, Hoban, Monroe, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe.^[9]

Construction[link]

Construction of the White House began with the laying of the cornerstone on October 13, 1792, although there was no formal ceremony.^[11] The main residence, as well as foundations of the house, were built largely by enslaved and free African-American laborers, as well as employed Europeans.^[12] Much of the other work on the house was performed by immigrants, many not yet with citizenship. The sandstone walls were erected by Scottish immigrants, employed by Hoban,^[13] as were the high relief rose and garland decorations above the north entrance and the "fish scale" pattern beneath the pediments of the window hoods. The initial construction took place over a period of eight years, at a reported cost of $232,371.83 (equal to $3,182,127 today). Although not yet completed, the White House was ready for occupancy on or circa November 1, 1800.^[14]

Shortages, including material and labor, forced alterations to the earlier plan developed by French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant for a "palace" that was five times larger than the house that was eventually built.^[13] The finished structure contained only two main floors instead of the planned three, and a less costly brick served as a lining for the stone façades. When construction was finished the porous sandstone walls were coated with a mixture of lime, rice glue, casein, and lead, giving the house its familiar color and name.^[13]

As it is a famed structure in America, many replicas of the White House have been constructed.

Architectural appraisal[link]

The principal facade of the White House, the north front, is of three floors and eleven bays. The ground floor is hidden by a raised carriage ramp and parapet, thus the facade appears to be of two floors. The central three bays are behind a prostyle portico (this was a later addition to the house, built circa 1830) serving, thanks to the carriage ramp, as a porte cochere. The windows of the four bays flanking the portico, at first-floor level, have alternating pointed and segmented pediments, while at second-floor level the pediments are flat. The principal entrance at the centre of the portico is surmounted by lunette fanlight. Above the entrance is a sculpted swag in relief. The roofline is hidden by a balustraded parapet.

The mansion's southern facade is a combination of the Palladian and neoclassical styles of architecture. It is of three floors, all visible. The ground floor is rusticated in the Palladian fashion. At the centre of the facade is a neoclassical projecting bow of three bays. The bow is flanked by 5 bays, the windows of which, as on the north facade, have alternating segmented and pointed pediments at first-floor level. The bow has a ground floor double staircase leading to a Doric colonnaded loggia (with the Truman Balcony at second-floor level), known as the south portico. The more modern third floor is hidden by a balustraded parapet and plays no part in the composition of the facade.

Naming conventions[link]

The building was originally referred to variously as the "President's Palace", "Presidential Mansion", or "President's House".^[15] The earliest evidence of the public calling it the "White House" was recorded in 1811.^[16] A myth emerged that during the rebuilding of the structure after the Burning of Washington, white paint was applied to mask the burn damage it had suffered,^[17] giving the building its namesake hue.^[18] The name "Executive Mansion" was used in official contexts until President Theodore Roosevelt established the formal name by having "White House–Washington" engraved on the stationery in 1901.^[19][20] The current letterhead wording and arrangement "The White House" with the word "Washington" centered beneath goes back to the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.^[20]

Although it was not completed until some years after the presidency of George Washington, it is also speculated that the name of the traditional residence of the President of the United States may have derived from Martha Custis Washington's home, White House Plantation in Virginia, where the nation's first President had courted the First Lady in the mid-18th century.^[21]

Evolution of the White House[link]

Early use, the 1814 fire, and rebuilding[link]

The White House as it looked following the conflagration of August 24, 1814

Jefferson and Latrobe's West Wing Colonnade in this nineteenth-century engraved view, is now the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

Principal story plan for the white house by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1807.

Earliest known photograph of the White House, taken c. 1846 by John Plumbe during the administration of James K. Polk.

On Saturday, November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to take residence in the building.^[13] During Adams' second day in the house, he wrote a letter to his wife Abigail, containing a prayer for the house. Adams wrote:

I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.^[22]

Theodore Roosevelt had Adams's blessing carved into the mantel in the State Dining Room.^[22]

Adams lived in the house only briefly before Thomas Jefferson moved into the "pleasant country residence"^[23] in 1801. Despite his complaints that the house was too big ("big enough for two emperors, one pope, and the grand lama in the bargain"^[24]), Jefferson considered how the White House might be added to. With Benjamin Henry Latrobe, he helped lay out the design for the East and West Colonnades, small wings that help conceal the domestic operations of laundry, a stable and storage.^[13] Today, Jefferson's colonnades link the residence with the East and West Wings.^[13]

In 1814, during the War of 1812, the White House was set ablaze by British troops^[25] during the Burning of Washington, in retaliation for burning Upper Canada's Parliament Buildings in the Battle of York; much of Washington was affected by these fires as well. Only the exterior walls remained, and they had to be torn down and mostly reconstructed because of weakening from the fire and subsequent exposure to the elements, except for portions of the south wall. Of the numerous objects taken from the White House when it was ransacked by British troops, only two have been recovered. First lady Dolley Madison rescued a painting of George Washington,^[25] and in 1939, a Canadian man returned a jewelry box to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, claiming that his grandfather had taken it from Washington. Some observers allege that most of these spoils were lost when a convoy of British ships led by HMS Fantome sank en route to Halifax off Prospect during a storm on the night of November 24, 1814,^[26][27] even though Fantome had no inolvement in that action.^[28]

After the fire, President James Madison resided in The Octagon House. Meanwhile, both architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Hoban contributed to the design and oversight of the reconstruction, which lasted from 1815 until 1817. The south portico was constructed in 1824 during the James Monroe administration; the north portico was built six years later.^[13] Though Latrobe proposed similar porticos before the fire in 1814, both porticos were built as designed by Hoban.^[29] An elliptical portico at Château de Rastignac in La Bachellerie, France with nearly identical curved stairs is speculated as the source of inspiration due to its similarity with the South Portico,^[30] although this matter is one of great debate.^[31] Italian artisans, brought to Washington to help in constructing the U.S. Capitol, carved the decorative stonework on both porticos. Contrary to speculation, the North Portico was not modeled on a similar portico on another Dublin building, the Viceregal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin, residence of the President of Ireland), for its portico postdates the White House porticos' design.^[30] For the North Portico, a variation on the Ionic Order was devised incorporating a swag of roses between the volutes. This was done to link the new portico with the earlier carved roses above the entrance.

Overcrowding and building the West Wing[link]

Entrance Hall in 1882, showing the new Tiffany glass screen.

By the time of the American Civil War, the White House had become overcrowded. The location of the White House was questioned, just north of a canal and swampy lands, which provided conditions ripe for malaria and other unhealthy conditions.^[32] Brigadier General Nathaniel Michler was tasked to propose solutions to address these concerns. He proposed abandoning the use of the White House as a residence and designed a new estate for the first family at Meridian Hill in Washington, D.C., but Congress rejected the plan.^[32]

The White House North Lawn in the 1860s, during the Abraham Lincoln administration

The Panic of 1873 had led to an economic depression that persisted through much of the decade. The Statue of Liberty project was not the only undertaking that had difficulty raising money: construction of the obelisk later known as the Washington Monument sometimes stalled for years.^[33]

When Chester Arthur took office in 1881, he ordered renovations to the White House to take place as soon as the recently widowed Lucretia Garfield moved out. Arthur inspected the work almost nightly and made several suggestions. Louis Comfort Tiffany was asked to send selected designers to assist. Over twenty wagons of furniture and household items were removed from the building and sold at a public auction.^[34] All that was saved were bust portraits of John Adams and Martin Van Buren.^[35] A proposal was made to build a new residence south of the White House, but it failed to gain support. In the fall of 1882 work was done on the main corridor, including tinting the walls pale olive and adding squares of gold leaf, and decorating the ceiling in gold and silver, and colorful traceries woven to spell "USA". The Red Room was painted a dull Pomeranian red, and its ceiling was decorated with gold, silver, and copper stars and stripes of red, white, and blue. A fifty-foot jeweled Tiffany glass screen, supported by imitation marble columns, replaced the glass doors that separated the main corridor from the north vestibule.^[36]

In 1891, First Lady Caroline Harrison proposed major extensions to the White House, including a National Wing on the east for an historical art gallery, and a wing on the west for official functions.^[32] A plan was devised by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham, which reflected the Harrison proposal.^[32] These plans were ultimately rejected however in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt and his family moved in to the White House and hired McKim, Mead, and White to carry out renovations and expansion, including the addition of a West Wing.^[13] (McKim designed and managed the project.) President William Howard Taft enlisted the help of architect Nathan C. Wyeth to add additional space to the West Wing, which included the addition of the Oval Office.^[32]

The West Wing was damaged by fire in 1929, but rebuilt during the remaining years of the Herbert Hoover presidency. In the 1930s, a second story was added, as well as a larger basement for White House staff, and President Franklin Roosevelt had the Oval Office moved to its present location: adjacent to the Rose Garden.^[13]

The Truman reconstruction[link]

Truman reconstruction, 1949–1952, a steel structure is built within the exterior shell.

Decades of poor maintenance, the construction of a fourth story attic during the Coolidge administration, and the addition of a second-floor balcony over the south portico for Harry Truman^[37] took a great toll on the brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame.^[13] By 1948, the house was declared to be in imminent danger of collapse, forcing President Truman to commission a reconstruction and move across the street to Blair House from 1949 to 1951.^[38] The work, done by the firm of Philadelphia contractor John McShain, required the complete dismantling of the interior spaces, construction of a new load-bearing internal steel frame and the reconstruction of the original rooms within the new structure.^[37] The total cost of the renovations was about $5.7 million.^[39] Some modifications to the floor plan were made, the largest being the repositioning of the grand staircase to open into the Entrance Hall, rather than the Cross Hall.^[37] Central air conditioning was added, as well as two additional sub-basements providing space for workrooms, storage, and a bomb shelter.^[13] The Trumans moved back into the White House on March 27, 1952.^[13] While the house's structure was kept intact by the Truman reconstruction, much of the new interior finishes were generic, and of little historic value. Much of the original plasterwork, some dating back to the 1814–1816 rebuilding, was too damaged to reinstall, as was the original robust Beaux Arts paneling in the East Room. President Truman had the original timber frame sawed into paneling; the walls of the Vermeil Room, Library, China Room, and Map Room on the ground floor of the main residence were paneled in wood from the timbers.^[40]

The Kennedy restoration[link]

The Red Room as designed by Stéphane Boudin during the administration of John F. Kennedy.

Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy (1961–63), directed a very extensive and historic redecoration of the house. She enlisted the help of Henry Francis du Pont of the Winterthur Museum to assist in collecting artifacts for the mansion, many of which had once been housed there.^[41] Other antiques, fine paintings, and improvements of the Kennedy period were donated to the White House by wealthy philanthropists, including the Crowninshield family, Jane Engelhard, Jayne Wrightsman, and the Oppenheimer family. Stéphane Boudin of the House of Jansen, a Paris interior-design firm that had been recognized worldwide, was employed by Mrs. Kennedy to assist with the decoration.^[41] Different periods of the early republic and world history were selected as a theme for each room: the Federal style for the Green Room, French Empire for the Blue Room, American Empire for the Red Room, Louis XVI for the Yellow Oval Room, and Victorian for the president's study, renamed the Treaty Room. Antique furniture was acquired, and decorative fabric and trim based on period documents was produced and installed. The Kennedy restoration resulted in a more authentic White House of grander stature, which recalled the French taste of Madison and Monroe.^[41] In the Diplomatic Reception Room Jacqueline Kennedy installed an antique “Vue de l'Amérique Nord” wall paper which Zuber et cie designed in 1834. The wallpaper hung before on the walls of a mansion until 1961 when the house was demolished for a grocery store. Just before the demolition, the wallpaper was salvaged and sold to the White House.

The first White House guidebook was produced under the direction of curator Lorraine Waxman Pearce with direct supervision from Jacqueline Kennedy.^[42] Sale of the guidebook helped finance the restoration.

The White House today[link]

As a means of preserving the history of the White House, no substantive architectural changes have been made on the house since the Truman renovation.^[43] Since the Kennedy restoration, every presidential family has made some changes to their private quarters of the White House, but the Committee for the Preservation of the White House must approve any modifications to the State Rooms. Aimed at maintaining the historical integrity of the White House, the congressionally authorized committee works with the First Family—usually represented by the First Lady, the White House Curator, and Chief Usher—to implement the family's proposed plans for altering the house.^[44]

The Cross Hall, connecting the State Dining Room and the East Room on the State Floor.

Marine One prepares for landing on the South Lawn where State Arrival Ceremonies for visiting heads of state take place

During the Nixon administration (1969–74), First Lady Pat Nixon refurbished the Green Room, Blue Room, and Red Room, working with Clement Conger, the curator appointed by President Richard Nixon.^[45] Mrs. Nixon's efforts brought more than 600 artifacts to the house, the largest acquisition by any administration.^[46] Her husband created the modern press briefing room over Franklin Roosevelt's old swimming pool.^[47] Nixon added a single-lane bowling alley to the White House basement.^[48]

Computers and the first laser printer were added during the Carter administration, and the use of computer technology was expanded upon during the Reagan administration.^[49] A Carter-era innovation, a set of solar water heating panels that were mounted on the roof of the White House, was removed during Reagan's presidency.^[50][51] Redecorations were made to the private family quarters and maintenance was made to public areas during the Reagan years.^[52] The house was accredited as a museum in 1988.^[52]

In the 1990s, Bill and Hillary Clinton refurbished some rooms with the assistance of Arkansas decorator Kaki Hockersmith, including the Oval Office, the East Room, Blue Room, State Dining Room, Lincoln Bedroom, and Lincoln Sitting Room.^[53] During the administration of George W. Bush, first lady Laura Bush refurbished the Lincoln Bedroom in a style contemporary to the Lincoln era; the Green Room, Cabinet Room, and theater were also refurbished.^[53]

The White House is one of the first government buildings in Washington that was made wheelchair-accessible, with modifications having been made during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who needed to use a wheelchair because of his paraplegia. In the 1990s, Hillary Rodham Clinton—at the suggestion of Visitors Office Director Melinda N. Bates—approved the addition of a ramp in the East Wing corridor. It allowed easy wheelchair access for the public tours and special events that enter through the secure entrance building on the east side. The president travels from the White House grounds via motorcade or helicopter. President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to travel by helicopter to and from the White House grounds.^[54]

Layout and amenities[link]

Today the group of buildings housing the presidency is known as the White House Complex. It includes the central Executive Residence flanked by the East Wing and West Wing. The Chief Usher coordinates day to day household operations. The White House includes: six stories and 55,000 ft² (5,100 m²) of floor space, 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, twenty-eight fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators, five full-time chefs, a tennis court, a (single-lane) bowling alley, a movie theater, a jogging track, a swimming pool, and a putting green.^[20] It receives about 5,000 visitors a day.

White House Complex

West Wing

Ground floor

State floor

Second floor (residence)

Executive Residence[link]

The Yellow Oval Room in the private, second-floor family residence centered directly above the Blue Room.

The original residence is in the center. Two colonnades—one on the east and one on the west—designed by Jefferson, now serve to connect the East and West Wings, added later. The Executive Residence houses the president's dwelling, as well as rooms for ceremonies and official entertaining. The State Floor of the residence building includes the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, State Dining Room, Family Dining Room, Cross Hall, Entrance Hall, and Grand Staircase.^[55] The Ground Floor is made up of the Diplomatic Reception Room, Map Room, China Room, Vermeil Room, Library, the main kitchen, and other offices.^[56] The second floor family residence includes the Yellow Oval Room, East and West Sitting Halls, the White House Master Bedroom, President's Dining Room, the Treaty Room, Lincoln Bedroom and Queens' Bedroom, as well as two additional bedrooms, a smaller kitchen, and a private dressing room.^[57] The third floor consists of the White House Solarium, Game Room, Linen Room, a Diet Kitchen, and another sitting room (previously used as President George W. Bush's workout room).^[58]

West Wing[link]

The West Wing houses the President's office (the Oval Office) and offices of his senior staff, with room for about 50 employees. It also includes the Cabinet Room, where the president conducts business meetings and where the United States Cabinet meets,^[59] as well as the White House Situation Room, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, and Roosevelt Room.^[60] In 2007, work was completed on renovations of the press briefing room, adding fiber optic cables and LCD screens for the display of charts and graphs.^[61] The makeover took 11 months and cost $8 million, of which news outlets paid $2 million.^[61] Some members of the President's staff are located in the adjacent Old Executive Office Building, formerly the State War and Navy building, and sometimes known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.^[61]

This portion of the building was used as the setting for the popular television show The West Wing.

East Wing[link]

The East Wing, which contains additional office space, was added to the White House in 1942. Among its uses, the East Wing has intermittently housed the offices and staff of the First Lady, and the White House Social Office. Rosalynn Carter, in 1977, was the first to place her personal office in the East Wing and to formally call it the "Office of the First Lady." The East Wing was built during World War II in order to hide the construction of an underground bunker to be used in emergencies. The bunker has come to be known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.

Grounds[link]

The White House and surrounding grounds

Overhead view of the White House grounds

The White House and grounds cover just over 18 acres (about 7.3 hectares). Before the construction of the North Portico, most public events were entered from the South Lawn, which was graded and planted by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson also drafted a planting plan for the North Lawn that included large trees that would have mostly obscured the house from Pennsylvania Avenue. During the mid-to-late 19th century a series of ever larger green houses were built on the west side of the house, where the current West Wing is located. During this period, the North Lawn was planted with ornate carpet-style flowerbeds. Although the White House grounds have had many gardeners through their history, the general design, still largely used as master plan today, was designed in 1935 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. of the Olmsted Brothers firm, under commission from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the Kennedy administration, the White House Rose Garden was redesigned by Rachel Lambert Mellon. The Rose garden borders the West Colonnade. Bordering the East Colonnade is the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which was begun by Jacqueline Kennedy but completed after her husband's assassination. On the weekend of June 23, 2006, a century-old American Elm (Ulmus americana L.) tree on the north side of the building, came down during one of the many storms amid intense flooding. Among the oldest trees on the grounds are several magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) planted by Andrew Jackson. Michelle Obama planted the White Houses' first organic garden and installed beehives on the South Lawn of the White House, which will supply organic produce and honey to the First Family and for state dinners and other official gatherings.^[62]

Public access and security[link]

Like the English and Irish country houses it was modeled on, the White House was, from the start, open to the public until the early part of the 20th century. President Thomas Jefferson held an open house for his second inaugural in 1805, and many of the people at his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol followed him home, where he greeted them in the Blue Room. Those open houses sometimes became rowdy: in 1829, President Andrew Jackson had to leave for a hotel when roughly 20,000 citizens celebrated his inauguration inside the White House. His aides ultimately had to lure the mob outside with washtubs filled with a potent cocktail of orange juice and whiskey. Even so, the practice continued until 1885, when newly elected Grover Cleveland arranged for a presidential review of the troops from a grandstand in front of the White House instead of the traditional open house. Jefferson also permitted public tours of his house, which have continued ever since, except during wartime, and began the tradition of annual receptions on New Year's Day and on the Fourth of July. Those receptions ended in the early 1930s, although President Bill Clinton would briefly revive the New Year's Day open house in his first term.

The White House remained accessible in other ways; President Abraham Lincoln complained that he was constantly beleaguered by job seekers waiting to ask him for political appointments or other favors, or eccentric dispensers of advice like “General” Daniel Pratt, as he began the business day. Lincoln put up with the annoyance rather than risk alienating some associate or friend of a powerful politician or opinion maker. In recent years, however, the White House has been closed to visitors because of terrorism concerns.

White House at night

In 1974, a stolen Army helicopter landed without authorization on the White House grounds. Twenty years later, in 1994, a light plane crashed on the White House grounds, and the pilot died instantly.^[63] As a result of increased security regarding air traffic in the capital, the White House was evacuated in 2005 before an unauthorized aircraft could approach the grounds.^[64]

On May 20, 1995, primarily as a response to the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, the United States Secret Service closed off Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicular traffic in front of the White House from the eastern edge of Lafayette Park to 17th Street. Later, the closure was extended an additional block to the east to 15th Street, and East Executive Avenue, a small street between the White House and the Treasury Building.^[65] The Pennsylvania Avenue closing, in particular, has been opposed by organized civic groups in Washington, D.C. They argue that the closing impedes traffic flow unnecessarily and is inconsistent with the well-conceived historic plan for the city. As for security considerations, they note that the White House is set much further back from the street than numerous other sensitive federal buildings are.^[66]

White House on Reverse of US $20 bill.

Prior to its inclusion within the fenced compound that now includes the Old Executive Office Building to the west and the Treasury Building to the east, this sidewalk served as a queuing area for the daily public tours of the White House. These tours were suspended in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In September 2003, they resumed on a limited basis for groups making prior arrangements through their Congressional representatives or embassies in Washington for foreign nationals and submitting to background checks, but the White House remains closed to the public.^[67] The White House Complex is protected by the United States Secret Service and the United States Park Police.

NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System) were used to guard air space over Washington, D.C. during the 2005 presidential inauguration. The same NASAMS units has since been used to protect the president and all air space around the White House, which is strictly prohibited to aircraft.^[68][69]

See also[link]

	Government of the United States portal
	District of Columbia portal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: White House

• Official website
• White House on Facebook
• The White House Historical Association, with historical photos, online tours and exhibits, timelines, and facts
• National Park Service website for the President's Park
• The White House Museum, a detailed online tour of the White House
• Detailed 3D computer model of White House and grounds
• Video of "White House Holiday Tour with Laura Bush", C-SPAN Dec 3, 2008
• 14 Video tours of different White House rooms, C-SPAN Dec 1, 2008
• Video of "White House Tour", C-SPAN Jul 7, 1998

Coordinates: 38°53′52″N 77°02′12″W / 38.89767°N 77.03655°W / 38.89767; -77.03655

v t e White House Complex White House Executive Residence Basement Basement Ground floor China Room Office of the Curator Diplomatic Reception Room Chief Floral Designer Library Map Room Vermeil Room State floor Blue Room Cross Hall East Room Entrance Hall Family Dining Room Grand Staircase Green Room Red Room South Portico State Dining Room Chief Usher Second floor Center Hall Dressing Room East Bedroom East Sitting Hall Family Kitchen Lincoln Bedroom Lincoln Sitting Room President's Bedroom President's Dining Room Private Sitting Room Queens' Bedroom Queens' Sitting Room Treaty Room Truman Balcony West Bedroom West Sitting Hall Yellow Oval Room Third floor Center Hall Diet Kitchen Linen Room Music Room Sun Room Work-out Room 80px West Wing Cabinet Room Executive Office Oval Office Press Briefing Room Roosevelt Room Situation Room East Wing Office of the First Lady Graphics and Calligraphy Office Presidential Emergency Operations Center Social Secretary Grounds The Ellipse Jacqueline Kennedy Garden Lafayette Square North Lawn President's Park Rose Garden South Lawn Annex Eisenhower Executive Office Building White House Conference Center Blair House Streets 15th Street 17th Street Constitution Avenue E Street East Executive Avenue H Street NW Hamilton Place Jackson Place Madison Place Pennsylvania Avenue State Place West Executive Avenue

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vep:Vauged Pert'

Situation Room may refer to:

• White House Situation Room, in the basement of the West Wing of the White House
• The Situation Room, an afternoon newscast on CNN
• The Situation Room (photograph), a 2011 photograph taken during the killing of Osama bin Laden

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Osama bin Laden أسامة بن لادن
Born	Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (1957-03-10)March 10, 1957 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Died	May 2, 2011(2011-05-02) (aged 54) Abbottabad, Pakistan 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E / 34.16917°N 73.2425°E / 34.16917; 73.2425
Resting place	Arabian Sea
Nationality	Saudi Arabian (1957–1994) None (Stateless) (1994–2011)[1]
Years active	1979–2011
Successor	Ayman Al-Zawahiri[2]
Religion	Sunni Islam (Qutbism)[3][4]
Children	show all (20) Abdallah Saad Omar Hamza Abdul Rahman Amer Osman Mohammed Fatima Iman Laden Rukhaiya Nour Ali Safiyah Aisha Kadhija Khalid Miriam Sumaiya
Military career
Allegiance	Al-Qaeda
Years of service	1988–2011
Battles/wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan War on Terror: War in Afghanistan Battle of Tora Bora War in North-West Pakistan Operation Neptune Spear

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden ( /oʊˈsɑːmə bɪn moʊˈhɑːmɨd bɪn əˈwɑːd bɪn ˈlɑːdən/; Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011^a), was the founder of Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.^[5][6][7] He was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.^[8]

Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.^[9][10][11] From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the War on Terror, with a US$25 million bounty by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.^[12] On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs and CIA operatives in a covert operation ordered by United States President Barack Obama.^[13][14]

Early life and education[link]

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,^[15] a son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family,^[16] and Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas (then called Alia Ghanem).^[17] In a 1998 interview, bin Laden gave his birth date as March 10, 1957.^[18]

Mohammed bin Laden divorced Hamida soon after Osama bin Laden was born. Mohammed recommended Hamida to Mohammed al-Attas, an associate. Al-Attas married Hamida in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and they are still together.^[19] The couple had four children, and bin Laden lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.^[17] The bin Laden family made $5 billion in the construction industry, of which Osama later inherited around $25–30 million.^[20]

Bin Laden was raised as a devout Wahhabi Muslim.^[21] From 1968 to 1976, he attended the élite secular Al-Thager Model School.^[17][22] He studied economics and business administration^[23] at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest he earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979,^[24] or a degree in public administration in 1981.^[25] One source described him as "hard working",^[26] another said he left university during his third year without completing a college degree.^[27] At university, bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work.^[28] Other interests included writing poetry;^[29] reading, with the works of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle said to be among his favorites; black stallions; and association football, in which he enjoyed playing at centre forward and followed English club Arsenal F.C.^[30]

Personal life[link]

In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married Najwa Ghanem at Latakia, Syria;^[31] they were divorced before September 11, 2001. Bin Laden's other known wives were Khadijah Sharif (married 1983, divorced 1990s), Khairiah Sabar (married 1985), Siham Sabar (married 1987), and Amal al-Sadah (married 2000). Some sources also list a sixth wife, name unknown, whose marriage to bin Laden was annulled soon after the ceremony.^[32] Bin Laden fathered between 20 and 26 children with his wives.^[33][34] Many of bin Laden's children fled to Iran following the September 11 attacks and as of 2010^[update] Iranian authorities reportedly continue to control their movement.^[35]

Bin Laden's father Mohammed died in 1967 in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot misjudged a landing.^[36] Bin Laden's eldest half-brother, Salem bin Laden, the subsequent head of the bin Laden family, was killed in 1988 near San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, when he accidentally flew a plane into power lines.^[37]

The FBI described bin Laden as an adult as tall and thin, between 6 ft 4 in and 6 ft 6 in (193–198 cm) in height and weighing about 165 pounds (75 kg). Bin Laden had an olive complexion and was left-handed, usually walking with a cane. He wore a plain white turban and he had stopped wearing the traditional Saudi male headdress.^[38] Bin Laden was described as soft-spoken and mild-mannered in demeanor.^[39]

Name[link]

There is no universally accepted standard for transliterating Arabic words and Arabic names into English;^[40] bin Laden's name is most frequently rendered "Osama bin Laden". The FBI and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as other U.S. governmental agencies, have used either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin". Less common renderings include "Ussamah bin Ladin" and, in the French-language media, "Oussama ben Laden". Other spellings include "Binladen" or, as used by his family in the West, "Binladin". The decapitalization of bin is based on the convention of leaving short prepositions and articles uncapitalized in surnames; however, bin means "son of" and is not, strictly speaking, a preposition or article. The spellings with o and e come from a Persian-influenced pronunciation also used in Afghanistan, where bin Laden spent many years.

Osama bin Laden's full name, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of Awad, son of Laden". "Mohammed" refers to bin Laden's father Mohammed bin Laden; "Awad" refers to his grandfather, Awad bin Aboud bin Laden, a Kindite Hadhrami tribesman; "Laden" refers not to bin Laden's great-grandfather, who was named Aboud, but to a more distant ancestor.

The Arabic linguistic convention would be to refer to him as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden" alone, as "bin Laden" is a patronymic, not a surname in the Western manner. According to bin Laden's son Omar bin Laden, the family's hereditary surname is "al-Qahtani" (Arabic: القحطاني‎, āl-Qaḥṭānī), but bin Laden's father Mohammed bin Laden never officially registered the name.^[41]

Osama bin Laden had also assumed the kunyah "Abū ʿAbdāllāh" ("father of Abdallah"). His admirers have referred to him by several nicknames, including the "Prince" or "Emir" (الأمير, al-Amīr), the "Sheik" (الشيخ, aš-Šayḫ), the "Jihadist Sheik" or "Sheik al-Mujahid" (شيخ المجاهد, al-Muǧāhid Šayḫ), "Hajj" (حج, Ḥaǧǧ), and the "Director".^[42] The word ʾusāmah (أسامة) means "lion",^[43] earning him the nicknames "Lion" and "Lion Sheik".^[44]

Beliefs and ideology[link]

According to former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader was motivated by a belief that U.S. foreign policy has oppressed, killed, or otherwise harmed Muslims in the Middle East,^[45] condensed in the phrase "They hate us for what we do, not who we are."

Bin Laden also said only the restoration of Sharia law would "set things right" in the Muslim world, and that alternatives such as "pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy" must be opposed.^[46] This belief, in conjunction with violent jihad, has sometimes been called Qutbism after being promoted by Sayyid Qutb.^[47] Bin Laden believed that Afghanistan, under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban, was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world.^[48] Bin Laden consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believed were injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states,^[49] the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the United States to withdraw from the Middle East. He also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury", in an October 2002 letter.^[50]

Bin Laden's ideology included the idea that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad.^[51][52] Bin Laden was anti-Semitic, and delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next."^[53] Shia Muslims have been listed along with "heretics, [...] America, and Israel" as the four principal "enemies of Islam" at ideology classes of bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.^[54]

Bin Laden opposed music on religious grounds,^[55] and his attitude towards technology was mixed. He was interested in "earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants" on the one hand, but rejected "chilled water" on the other.^[56]

His viewpoints and methods of achieving them had led to him being designated as a terrorist by scholars,^[57][58] journalists from The New York Times,^[59][60] the BBC,^[61] and Qatari news station Al Jazeera,^[62] analysts such as Peter Bergen,^[63] Michael Scheuer,^[64] Marc Sageman,^[65] and Bruce Hoffman^[66][67] and he was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.^[68]

Bin Laden's overall strategy against much larger enemies such as the Soviet Union and United States was to lure them into a long war of attrition in Muslim countries, attracting large numbers of jihadists who would never surrender. He believed this would lead to economic collapse of the enemy nation.^[69] Al-Qaeda manuals clearly outline this strategy. In a 2004 tape broadcast by al-Jazeera, bin Laden spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy".^[70]

Militant activity[link]

Mujahideen in Afghanistan[link]

After leaving college in 1979, bin Laden went to Pakistan, joined Abdullah Azzam and used money and machinery from his own construction company to help the mujahideen resistance in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[71][72] He later told a journalist: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan."^[73] Under Operation Cyclone from 1979 to 1989, the United States provided financial aid and weapons to the mujahideen^[74] through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Bin Laden met and built relations with Hamid Gul, who was a three-star general in the Pakistani army and head of the ISI agency. Although the United States provided the money and weapons, the training of militant groups was entirely done by the Pakistani Armed Forces and the ISI.

By 1984, bin Laden and Azzam established Maktab al-Khidamat, which funneled money, arms and fighters from around the Arab world into Afghanistan. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune^[75] paid for air tickets and accommodation, paid for paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihadi fighters. Bin Laden established camps inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and trained volunteers from across the Muslim world to fight against the Soviet puppet regime; the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. It was during this time that he became idolised by many Arabs.^[76]

Formation and structuring of Al-Qaeda[link]

By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat. While Azzam acted as support for Afghan fighters, bin Laden wanted a more military role. One of the main points leading to the split and the creation of al-Qaeda was Azzam's insistence that Arab fighters be integrated among the Afghan fighting groups instead of forming a separate fighting force.^[77] Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20, 1988, indicate al-Qaeda was a formal group by that time: "Basically an organized Islamic faction, its goal is to lift the word of God, to make his religion victorious." A list of requirements for membership itemized the following: listening ability, good manners, obedience, and making a pledge (bayat) to follow one's superiors.^[78]

According to Wright, the group's real name was not used in public pronouncements because "its existence was still a closely held secret".^[79] His research suggests that al-Qaeda was formed at an August 11, 1988, meeting between "several senior leaders" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Abdullah Azzam, and bin Laden, where it was agreed to join bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and take up the jihadist cause elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.^[80] Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as a hero of jihad, who along with his Arab legion "had brought down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union.^[81] However, he was angry at the outbreak of internecine tribal fighting among the Afghans.^[82]

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein on August 2, 1990, put the Saudi kingdom and the House of Saud at risk, with Iraqi forces on the Saudi border and Saddam's appeal to pan-Arabism potentially inciting internal dissent. Bin Laden met with King Fahd, and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan, telling them not to depend on non-Muslim assistance from the United States and others, offering to help defend Saudi Arabia with his Arab legion. Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed, and the Saudi monarchy invited the deployment of U.S. forces in Saudi territory.^[83] Bin Laden publicly denounced Saudi dependence on the U.S. military, arguing the two holiest shrines of Islam, Mecca and Medina, the cities in which the Prophet Mohamed received and recited God's message, should only be defended by Muslims. Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led them to attempt to silence him. The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division landed in north-eastern Saudi city of Dhahran and was deployed in the desert barely 400 miles from Medina.^[82]

Meanwhile, on November 8, 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of El Sayyid Nosair, an associate of al-Qaeda operative Ali Mohamed, discovering copious evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers. This marked the earliest discovery of al-Qaeda terrorist plans outside of Muslim countries.^[84] Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and later admitted guilt for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City on November 5, 1990.

Bin Laden continued to speak publicly against the Saudi government, for which the Saudis banished him. He went to live in exile in Sudan, in 1992, in a deal brokered by Ali Mohamed.^[85]

Sudan and return to Afghanistan[link]

In Sudan, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations in Khartoum. He bought a house on Al-Mashtal Street in the affluent Al-Riyadh quarter and a retreat at Soba on the Blue Nile.^[86][87] During his time in Sudan, he heavily invested in the infrastructure, in agriculture and businesses. He built roads using the same bulldozers he had employed to construct mountain tracks in Afghanistan. Many of his labourers were the same fighters who had been his comrades in the war against the Soviet Union. He was generous to the poor and popular with the people.^[88][89] He continued to criticize King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and in response, in 1994, Fahd stripped bin Laden of his Saudi citizenship and persuaded his family to cut off his $7 million a year stipend.^[90][1] By now bin Laden was being linked with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which made up the core of al-Qaeda. In 1995 the EIJ attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The attempt failed, and the EIJ was expelled from Sudan.

The U.S. State Department accused Sudan of being a 'sponsor of international terrorism' and bin Laden himself of operating 'terrorist training camps in the Sudanese desert. Sudan therefore began efforts to expel bin Laden. The 9/11 Commission Report states:

In late 1995, when Bin Laden was still in Sudan, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned that Sudanese officials were discussing with the Saudi government the possibility of expelling Bin Laden. CIA paramilitary officer Billy Waugh tracked down Bin Ladin in the Sudan and prepared an operation to apprehend him, but was denied authorization.^[91] U.S. Ambassador Timothy Carney encouraged the Sudanese to pursue this course. The Saudis, however, did not want Bin Laden, giving as their reason their revocation of his citizenship. Sudan's minister of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Laden over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Laden. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding against bin Laden in any country.^[92]

The 9/11 Commission Report further states:

In February 1996, Sudanese officials began approaching officials from the United States and other governments, asking what actions of theirs might ease foreign pressure. In secret meetings with Saudi officials, Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. U.S. officials became aware of these secret discussions, certainly by March. Saudi officials apparently wanted Bin Laden expelled from Sudan. They had already revoked his citizenship, however, and would not tolerate his presence in their country. Also Bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, and paid for by the CIA.

In May 1996, due to increasing pressure on Sudan, from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States, bin Laden was permitted to leave for a country of his choice. He chose to return to Jalalabad, Afghanistan aboard a chartered flight, and there forged a close relationship with Mullah Mohammed Omar.^[93][94] Despite his ambitions and organizational skills, when bin Laden left Sudan, he and his organization were significantly weakened.^[95]

In August, 1996, bin Laden declared war against the United States. Despite the assurance of President George H.W. Bush to King Fahd in 1990, that all U.S. forces based in Saudi Arabia would be withdrawn once the Iraqi threat had been dealt with, by 1996 the Americans were still there, citing the continued existence of Saddam's regime (which Bush had chosen not to destroy). Bin Laden's view was that "the 'evils' of the Middle East arose from America's attempt to take over the region and from its support for Israel. Saudi Arabia had been turned into 'an American colony".^[96] The fatwā was first published in Al Quds Al Arabi, a London-based newspaper. It was entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places."^[97] Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. The reference to 'occupation' in the fatwā referred to US forces based in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of controlling air space in Iraq, known as Operation Southern Watch.

In Afghanistan, bin Laden and al-Qaeda raised money from "donors from the days of the Soviet jihad", and from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to establish more training camps for Mujahideen fighters.^[98] Bin Laden effectively took over Ariana Afghan Airlines, which ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash and opium through the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan as well as provided false identifications to members of bin Laden's terrorist network.^[99] Viktor Bout helped to run the airline, maintaining planes and loading cargo. Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, concluded that Ariana was being used as a "terrorist taxi service".^[100]

Early attacks and aid for attacks[link]

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1997

It is believed that the first bombing attack involving bin Laden was the December 29, 1992, bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden in which two people were killed.^[101]

It was after this bombing that al-Qaeda was reported to have developed its justification for the killing of innocent people. According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find their proper reward in death, going to Jannah (Paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers.^[102] The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.

In the 1990s bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993 bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded but the war that followed killed 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with Islamist surrender to the government.

Bin Laden funded the Luxor massacre of November 17, 1997,^{[103][104][105]} which killed 62 civilians, but outraged the Egyptian public. In mid-1997, the Northern Alliance threatened to overrun Jalalabad, causing bin Laden to abandon his Nazim Jihad compound and move his operations to Tarnak Farms in the south.^[106]

Another successful attack was carried out in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped cement his alliance with the Taliban by sending several hundreds of Afghan Arab fighters along to help the Taliban kill between five and six thousand Hazaras overrunning the city.^[107]

In February 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to "liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip".^[108][109] At the public announcement of the fatwa bin Laden announced that North Americans are "very easy targets". He told the attending journalists, "You will see the results of this in a very short time."^[110]

Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri organized an al-Qaeda congress on June 24, 1998.^[111]

The 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the United States public for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list.

In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center reported to President Bill Clinton that al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the United States of America, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.^[112]

At the end of 2000, Richard Clarke revealed that Islamic militants headed by bin Laden had planned a triple attack on January 3, 2000 which would have included bombings in Jordan of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman and tourists at Mount Nebo and a site on the Jordan River, the sinking of the destroyer USS The Sullivans in Yemen, as well as an attack on a target within the United States. The plan was foiled by the arrest of the Jordanian terrorist cell, the sinking of the explosive-filled skiff intended to target the destroyer, and the arrest of Ahmed Ressam.^[113]

Yugoslav Wars[link]

A former U.S. State Department official in October 2001 described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a safe haven for terrorists, after it was asserted that militant elements of the former Sarajevo government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Osama bin Laden.^[114] In 1997, Rzeczpospolita, one of the largest Polish daily newspapers, reported that intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish SFOR Brigade suspected that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries was located in the Bocina Donja village near Maglaj in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, hundreds of volunteers joined an "all-mujahedeen unit" called El Moujahed in an abandoned hillside factory, a compound with a hospital and prayer hall.

According to Middle East intelligence reports, bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was Karim Said Atmani who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the United States of America.^[115] He is a former roommate of Ahmed Ressam, the man arrested at the Canadian-U.S. border in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials.^[116][117] He was convicted of colluding with Osama bin Laden by a French court.^[118]

A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former mujahideen who were linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists, and had lived in the area 60 miles (97 km) north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. Khalil al-Deek, was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites; a second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Osama bin Laden. In its June 26, 1997, report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, The New York Times noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslims forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Osama bin Laden.^{[119][120][121]}

In 1999 it was revealed that bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and Bosnian passports in 1993 by the government in Sarajevo. This information was denied by the Bosnian government following the September 11 attacks, but it was later found that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation, a new explanation was given that bin Laden "did not personally collect his Bosnian passport" and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who bin Laden was at the time.^{[119][120][121]} The Bosnian daily Oslobođenje published in 2001 that three men, believed to be linked to bin Laden, were arrested in Sarajevo in July 2001. The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, were Egyptian nationals. The paper said that two of the suspects were holding Bosnian passports.^[119]

In 1998 it was reported that bin Laden was operating his al-Qaeda network out of Albania. The Charleston Gazette quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Confirmation of these activities came from Claude Kader, a French national who said he was a member of bin Laden's Albanian network.

By 1998 four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) were arrested in Albania and extradited to Egypt.^[122]

During his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević presented FBI documents that verified bin Laden's al-Qaeda had a presence in the Balkans and aided the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was identified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization shortly before the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Milošević had argued that the United States aided the terrorists which culminated in its backing of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War.^[123]

September 11, 2001 attacks[link]

"God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the Towers, but after the situation became unbearable—and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon—I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed—when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way: to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."

— Osama bin Laden, 2004^[124]

United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower

After his denial,^{[125][126][Full citation needed]} Osama bin Laden finally claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States in 2004.^{[127][128][129]} The attacks involved the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft,^[130] the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,^[131] and the deaths of 2,973 people^[132] and the nineteen hijackers.^[133] In response to the attacks, the United States launched a War on Terror to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's Special Activities Division was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.^[134]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified^[135] evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the September 11 attacks is clear and irrefutable.^[136] The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11 attacks, although the government report notes that the evidence presented is not necessarily sufficient for a prosecutable case.^[137]

Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.^[138]

In a videotape recovered by U.S. forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge.^[139] The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."^[140]

2001 video of bin Laden

In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he stated he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers.^[128][141] In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President George W. Bush of negligence on the hijacking of the planes on September 11.^[128]

According to the tapes, bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.^[142]