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Article: The Mesmerizer: Born to wealth, bin Laden studied business administration--then turned to terror.(profile of Osama bin Laden)(Fighting Back)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- September 24, 2001
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Osama bin Laden likes to pose with an AK-47, yet he seems a bit awkward with a gun. He's a thin reed of a man--roughly 6 feet 5 and just 160 pounds, according to FBI Wanted posters--soft-spoken, languid in his movements, almost effeminate. His eyes twinkle. His immense charisma, in fact, derives not simply from his capacity for violence, but for the gentle manner in which he comports himself. He enjoys poetry, of a sort. The muse hit him during the wedding of his son Mohammed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, early this year--four months after the suicide bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors:
The pieces of the bodies of infidels were flying like dust ...