Counter-StrikeCounter-Strike (CS) is the common name given to a series of team-based tactical shooter games which originate with Counter-Strike, a total conversion mod of Valve Software's first-person shooter Half-Life. The series also includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source. Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in rounds of competition won by completing an objective or eliminating the opposing team. The latest incarnation of the game, Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S), is based on the Source engine developed for Half-Life 2. CS is widely acknowledged as the most successful and popular of the tactical shooter genre. Signs of CS's wide influence can be found in mods for Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and other standalone shooters such as Global Operations and Soldier of Fortune II. CS has been the most widely played online FPS for the past few years and has over 19.5 million legal owners. In 2002 there were over 30,000 Counter-Strike servers on the Internet (second place was Unreal Tournament with about 9,800). In 2004, GameSpy statistics showed over 85,000 players simultaneously playing Counter-Strike at any point in time, accounting for almost 70 percent of the online FPS audience. According to statistics gathered by Valve's content-delivery platform, Steam (1), these players contribute to over 4.5 billion minutes of playing time each month, making it the most popular online FPS in history. CS was originally played online through the WON gaming service, but it was shut down in 2004, forcing players to switch to Steam (although some players responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2). GameplayCounter-Strike is a team-based FPS in which players join either the Terrorists (T's) or the Counter-Terrorists (CT's). Server settings may automatically balance when one team has more players than the other. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously, as one of eight different default character models (four to choose from for both Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Each player generally starts with $800, two magazines of ammunition, a knife, and a pistol: a Heckler & Koch USP .45 Tactical for CTs or a GLOCK 18c for Ts. Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as Freeze Time) to buy equipment but not move. Players may buy equipment whenever they are in a buy zone for their team (some of which can be for both teams) and the round has not been in session for longer than a specified time (90 seconds is default). Surviving players retain their equipment in the next round; those who have died begin anew with pistol and knife. Picture of a Terrorist using a Desert Eagle on the map de_dust in the original (left) and Source (right) versionsStandard bonuses in the game are:
The scoreboard shows team scores plus data for each player: name, score, deaths, and ping/latency (ms) on the map. The scoreboard also shows whether each player is dead, carrying the bomb (in bomb defusal maps), or the VIP (in assassination maps), although the player must be dead during the round to obtain this information of players on the opposing team. Players killed become "ghosts" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names, nor can their chat/voice messages be received by the live players (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1). They are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in case of Internet cafes and players in the same rooms of their own homes, playing on the same server). This technique, known as "ghosting", is considered cheating in many tactical shooters. Counter-Strike is meant to be more realistic than futuristic FPSs such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament, but is also built to keep the action flowing faster than more realistic tactical shooters such as the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series. For example, relatively few shots will kill a player, and shots to different parts of the body deal different amounts of damage, but damage has no bearing on ability to run or jump, allowing a player with just a few hit points remaining to keep fighting. However, movement is restricted while taking damage from gunfire. There are several game types in Counter-Strike which define the objectives of each team in the game, and rules which determine which team wins. Each map is of a single game type. Bomb DefusalOne randomly selected Terrorist begins the round carrying a bomb. The Terrorists' objective is to plant the bomb at a bomb site (of which there usually are two in a map, Bombsite-A or Bombsite-B), and ensure its detonation. If the bomb has not been planted, if all the members of one team have been eliminated, then the surviving team wins. If the bomb has been planted and proceeds to explode, the Terrorists win, but if a Counter-Terrorist defuses the bomb (Counter-Terrorists can purchase an optional kit to speed up defusal times), the Counter-Terrorists win. When the round time expires, the Counter-Terrorists win. Deaths due to the detonation of the bomb do not increment the player's death count. Maps of this type are prefixed with de_ (e.g. de_dust and de_inferno). Professional tournaments are normally only played in Bomb Defusal maps. Hostage RescueThe map has hostages (usually four) generally placed near the Terrorist base. The Counter-Terrorists' objective is to escort the hostages to a hostage rescue point on the map. If all the members of a team have been eliminated, the prevailing team wins. If all the surviving hostages have been rescued, and that number is at least half of the initial hostage count, then the Counter-Terrorists win, and each Counter-Terrorist is awarded $2400. When round time expires, Terrorists win. Therefore, the game may effectively become a 'Terrorist hunt' game if enough hostages are killed, although server settings may be such that players are disconnected (kicked) from the server after killing a certain number of hostages (5 is default). When a Counter-Terrorist 'uses' a hostage (i.e. begins to rescue it), the Counter-Terrorist is awarded $150. Upon successfully escorting a hostage to a rescue point, $1000 is awarded. Killing a hostage incurs a penalty of $2250. There is also a penalty associated with injuring a hostage by gun fire or grenade shrapnel (hostages do not take damage for falling). Maps of this type are prefixed with cs_ (e.g. cs_office). AssassinationIn this mission, one Counter-Terrorist member chooses to become a VIP, a player with 200 units of Kevlar and nothing more than the Counter-Terrorist standard-issue USP pistol with one extra magazine. The VIP may not pick up dropped weapons other than the VIP's own pistol. The VIP's objective is to reach an extraction zone (1, normally), in which case the Counter-Terrorists win. If the VIP dies, the Terrorists win. As usual, if all Terrorists die, the Counter-Terrorists win. When time expires, Terrorists win. The lack of ammunition for the pistol means that a VIP should not expect to escape without the team's assistance; however, the pistol in conjunction with the special armour provides adequate protection. Maps of this type are prefixed with as_. Assassination maps are the least played of the three types of Counter-Strike gameplay and they were not ported to Counter-Strike: Source, although a VIP mod is being produced by the community for Counter-Strike Source and surprisingly for some, is being greatly anticipated. Members of the community who dislike the scenario argue that the Terrorists would just camp at the VIP's escape destination, shooting the VIP dead as he attempted the run to the exit. EscapeDiscontinued in the late-beta releases of Counter-Strike, this gameplay style put Terrorists against Counter-Terrorists in an escape-before-the-clock-expired mission. The Terrorists started in a position relatively far away from the Counter-Terrorists, armed with only knives and Glocks and unable to purchase additional weaponry/equipment. Weapons, armour, and grenades were placed in hidden locations near or around the spawn point of the Terrorists; the objective was for the Terrorists to secure weapons at the hidden location and then have all living members of the team reach an escape point before the clock ran out; eliminating all Counter-Terrorists would not complete the mission by itself. The Counter-Terrorists' objective was to prevent the escape of the Terrorists. Escape was discontinued because such maps gave an edge towards Counter-Terrorists. Maps of this type are prefixed with es_. While not included in the current Counter-Strike distribution, this mode can still be played. The most popular maps of this type are es_jail, es_riverside, es_frantic, and es_trinity. This mode is not found in Counter-Strike: Source. HistoryVersion history
The Counter-Strike team was formed by Minh Le ("Gooseman") and Jess Cliffe ("Cliffe") in 1999. Counter-Strike Beta 1.0 was released in June that same year, followed by a relatively quick succession of the beta releases (by the end of 1999, beta 5.0 had been released). CS gained in popularity just as rapidly. The Counter-Strike team was acquired by Valve to turn the fan-created mod into an official mod for Half-Life. In November 2000, Counter-Strike 1.0 — the first non-beta, official retail version of the game — was released. The retail version was a standalone alternative that does not include or require Half-Life; alternatively, existing Half-Life owners can download the Counter-Strike mod free. Later, Counter-Strike was bundled with Half-Life and several other expansions in the Platinum Pack. The newest version of CS was labeled Source, released in November 2004 through Valve's new distribution platform called Steam. Counter Strike:Source was developed using the new Half Life 2 enhanced graphics and physics engine (Source). Valve has also been attempting to cash in on the game's popularity by producing more Counter-Strike games. Valve released a version ported to the Xbox game console in November 2003. It features basic single-player gameplay against bots, but it focuses on multiplayer online play like the original. However, the Xbox version of the game (playable on Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service) has proved less successful than its PC counterpart for obvious reasons; the online Counter-Strike audience for Xbox is well outnumbered by the existing Counter-Strike PC community, a subscription cost required to pay online on Live (playing the PC version online is free), and mediocre graphics (only texture upgrades to original CS models) which are below what is expected for the Xbox. For similar reasons, Valve may have made no attempt to have Counter-Strike ported to the PlayStation 2. Counter-Strike: Condition ZeroA long-awaited single-player version of the game called Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released on March 23, 2004. It had been plagued by numerous delays, most notably when Valve dropped Gearbox Software (who had developed the highly acclaimed Half-Life: Opposing Force) as developer in favor of Ritual Entertainment, and when Ritual Entertainment in turn lost the project to Turtle Rock Studios partway through development. Though still very similar to CS 1.6, Condition Zero contains several graphical, sound, model and map changes, as well as including bots. However, the game was criticized for not being up to the standards of graphical quality expected of current commercial releases, due to the limitations of 1998's GoldSrc Half-Life engine. It sold poorly compared to the original. Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S)In 2004, original Counter-Strike developers Minh Le and Jess Cliffe, along with members of Valve and the Day of Defeat team, brought Counter-Strike into the Source engine as an obvious choice for the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2. Following a period when the game was available to select 'beta' testers, the alpha version of the game was released on October 7th 2004. Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) was released to ATI Radeon Voucher holders, in Half-Life 2 bundles available on Steam, and with the boxed retail version of the game. Changes include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and physics) as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes. It is available today for download over Steam, bundled with Half-Life 2, or purchased in a stand-alone retail box along with Day of Defeat: Source, another game converted to the new graphical engine. Map typesThere are three official types of maps in Counter-Strike, along with many more user-created types. The three official types include "cs_" (Hostage rescue), "de_" (Bomb defusal), and "as_" (Assassination). In earlier beta versions of the game another official type called "es_" (Terrorist Escape) also existed. List of Official Counter-Strike 1.6 mapsPlayer modelsCorresponding player models for both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists have appeared through development. The following eight are the original models which were to be (or are in the process of being) reproduced in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source. Condition Zero also added two additional models; the Midwest Militia for Terrorists and the Spetsnaz for Counter-Terrorists. On the matter of the best model for competitive play in Counter-Strike, Whisper's Wiki recommends that:
Counter-Terrorist modelsAll names are taken from real groups.
Terrorist modelsAll (understandably) fictional.
Other models
CultureCounter-Strike is famous for the culture surrounding it, which includes everything from professional gamers and leagues, to cheating and disruptive behavior. Certain professional teams (such as SK, Team 3D and Team NoA) and players (Ksharp and HeatoN, for example) have achieved a measure of fame. Legacy of Counter-StrikeWhile Counter-Strike is nowadays perhaps the most professionally played computer game in the world behind StarCraft in South Korea, most players simply ignore the professional side of the game and play for fun. The success of the game among both casual and competitive players highlights the wide appeal of Counter-Strike's simple game model. Counter-Strike has had a colorful and dramatic history which reaches far beyond what this document could hope to cover, and still remains extremely popular to this day. Half-Life and other contemporary games took full advantage of the advent of hardware graphics acceleration in the late 1990s, replacing earlier software-rendered games such as Quake. Likewise, gamers were expected to abandon the DirectX 5.0 Half-Life and its mods in favour of games utilising the hardware T&L capabilities of DirectX 7.0 graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce and ATI Radeon. However, the universal shift to the DirectX 7.0 level and beyond has not happened, and the continued popularity of CS has given older video cards such as the 3dfx Voodoo 3, ATI Rage 128, and Nvidia RIVA TNT2 continued usefulness. Indeed, one possible reason for Counter-Strike's continued popularity is that almost any PC made since 1997 can play it since the game does not need the powerful CPU and video card required of many current FPS games. But as the the criticisms of Condition Zero showed, many players feel that the GoldSrc engine has reached its limits in its capacity to evolve and to stay updated. Counter-Strike was realistic for its time, but is dated in comparison to more recent first-person tactical shooters. There is a growing frustration that the developers are unwilling to make official changes or add new features, maintaining the same map layouts and weapons to appease longtime CS players. Even Counter-Strike: Source has been criticised for not progressing the gameplay enough and failing to take full advantage of the Source engine. There have been a multitude of games claimed by their developers, reviewers and fans to be "Counter-Strike killers", but none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. Server statistics in 2002 showed that Counter-Strike servers outnumbered their Battlefield, Unreal Tournament 2003 or Quake III FPS counterparts at least 3 to 1. The prohibitively expensive cost of an up-to-date gaming PC makes it unlikely that another game will become as popular as Counter-Strike has been. Mods and scriptsEven though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it developed its own community of script writers and modders. There have been many different mods and scripts to:
See Metamod, AMX Mod and AMX Mod X for more information. CriticismsCounter-Strike has been criticised for its lack of realism. While it falls squarely into the tactical shooter category, the mod features some inaccuracies. The weapons are also notably inaccurate for the ranges they fire at: most engagements in Counter-Strike occur at less than 100 meters. The M249 SAW's rate of fire is much too slow, and many of the game's weapons have artificial sound effects. Perhaps the most notable criticism is the fact that weapons firing the same round (for instance, both the MP5 and Glock 18 both fire a 9mm round) do vastly different damages. Also, the M4A1 weapon model's animation features the player charging the weapon by pulling backwards on the forward assist, a feat impossible in real life. The Glock 18C fires in a fully automatic mode; in the mod it only fires a three round burst. This page about counter strike includes information from a Wikipedia article. Additional articles about counter strike News stories about counter strike External links for counter strike Videos for counter strike Wikis about counter strike Discussion Groups about counter strike Blogs about counter strike Images of counter strike |
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The Glock 18C fires in a fully automatic mode; in the mod it only fires a three round burst. The weapons are also notably inaccurate for the ranges they fire at: most engagements in Counter-Strike occur at less than 100 meters. The January 18 tape made reference to the leaking of a British memo claiming that U.S. While it falls squarely into the tactical shooter category, the mod features some inaccuracies. forces (from Iraq and Afghanistan) was only one of several ``conditions [27][28][29] [30]. Counter-Strike has been criticised for its lack of realism. The speaker did not outline all the conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by the Arab news network, but he did say that the withdrawal of U.S. See Metamod, AMX Mod and AMX Mod X for more information. [26]. There have been many different mods and scripts to:. Lawrence cites, among other things, the lack of any quotations from the Qur'an or references to recent events in the January, 2006 tape. Even though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it developed its own community of script writers and modders. Some though have questioned the tape's authenticity, including Duke professor Bruce Lawrence, author of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden. The prohibitively expensive cost of an up-to-date gaming PC makes it unlikely that another game will become as popular as Counter-Strike has been. The American Central Intelligence Agency has stated that it believes the speaker to be Osama bin Laden. Server statistics in 2002 showed that Counter-Strike servers outnumbered their Battlefield, Unreal Tournament 2003 or Quake III FPS counterparts at least 3 to 1. On January 18, 2006, Arabic news network al-Jazeera received a tape, purportedly from Bin Laden, in which he warned that preparations for attacks in the United States were in place but also offered a truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been a multitude of games claimed by their developers, reviewers and fans to be "Counter-Strike killers", but none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time." [25]. Even Counter-Strike: Source has been criticised for not progressing the gameplay enough and failing to take full advantage of the Source engine. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. There is a growing frustration that the developers are unwilling to make official changes or add new features, maintaining the same map layouts and weapons to appease longtime CS players. On January 9, 2006, Michael Ledeen, a scholar with close ties to the Bush administration, wrote that "....according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. Counter-Strike was realistic for its time, but is dated in comparison to more recent first-person tactical shooters. In early December 2005, in a videotaped message posted on an Islamist website, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, was reported as saying that the group's leader was alive and still leading their "holy war against the West".[24]. But as the the criticisms of Condition Zero showed, many players feel that the GoldSrc engine has reached its limits in its capacity to evolve and to stay updated. On November 25, 2005, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said that he was informed that Bin Laden may have died in the October earthquake in Pakistan.[23]. Indeed, one possible reason for Counter-Strike's continued popularity is that almost any PC made since 1997 can play it since the game does not need the powerful CPU and video card required of many current FPS games. [22]. However, the universal shift to the DirectX 7.0 level and beyond has not happened, and the continued popularity of CS has given older video cards such as the 3dfx Voodoo 3, ATI Rage 128, and Nvidia RIVA TNT2 continued usefulness. authorities said they had no evidence of whether Bin Laden was hurt or killed as a result of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the disputed area of Kashmir, in northeastern Pakistan. Likewise, gamers were expected to abandon the DirectX 5.0 Half-Life and its mods in favour of games utilising the hardware T&L capabilities of DirectX 7.0 graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce and ATI Radeon. In October, U.S. Half-Life and other contemporary games took full advantage of the advent of hardware graphics acceleration in the late 1990s, replacing earlier software-rendered games such as Quake. He is said to have been keeping a low profile, with as few as ten men guarding him. Counter-Strike has had a colorful and dramatic history which reaches far beyond what this document could hope to cover, and still remains extremely popular to this day. On September 23, 2005, Bin Laden was believed by Pakistani officials to be on the Afghan-Pakistani border. The success of the game among both casual and competitive players highlights the wide appeal of Counter-Strike's simple game model. (See 2004 bin Laden video.). While Counter-Strike is nowadays perhaps the most professionally played computer game in the world behind StarCraft in South Korea, most players simply ignore the professional side of the game and play for fun. presidential candidates Bush and John Kerry had roundly condemned bin Laden, his ideas and his objectives, including an immediate removal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Certain professional teams (such as SK, Team 3D and Team NoA) and players (Ksharp and HeatoN, for example) have achieved a measure of fame. Bush but appeared to hedge his bets on the election outcome, remarking that "your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush..." Both U.S. Counter-Strike is famous for the culture surrounding it, which includes everything from professional gamers and leagues, to cheating and disruptive behavior. President George W. All (understandably) fictional. In the video bin Laden gave a carefully crafted speech in which he repeatedly insulted U.S. All names are taken from real groups. presidential election. Elite Crew is the skinniest and hardest to see model most of the time, and the GIGN model has the smallest head for Counter-Terrorists.". This release came just four days before the 2004 U.S. "5 guys popping in and out 1 at a time will look like the 1 guy if you all have the same skin. On October 29, 2004, the Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of bin Laden addressing citizens of the United States, discussing the reasons behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. And as Counter-Terrorists, the GIGN model. military operations in Afghanistan but none have been confirmed. As Terrorists you should choose the Elite Crew model. Rumors about his whereabouts have appeared from time to time since the start of U.S. Firstly, all players on one team should choose the same skin. A Spanish court indicted bin Laden and 34 others on charges related to terrorism on September 17, 2003. On the matter of the best model for competitive play in Counter-Strike, Whisper's Wiki recommends that:. Although he has been publicly disowned by his family, an estranged family member, Carmen bin Laden, speculates (without providing evidence) that unnamed family members may be providing financial support to bin Laden. Condition Zero also added two additional models; the Midwest Militia for Terrorists and the Spetsnaz for Counter-Terrorists. Presidential election. The following eight are the original models which were to be (or are in the process of being) reproduced in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source. This speculation was later undercut by newly released videos of bin Laden, alive and referring to current events such as the 2004 U.S. Corresponding player models for both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists have appeared through development. His death was speculated on by the Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf [20] and by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan [21]. In earlier beta versions of the game another official type called "es_" (Terrorist Escape) also existed. Bin Laden was rumored in the Pakistani press to have died in 2001 of pulmonary complications incident to catastrophic kidney failure in the absence of available hygienic dialysis. The three official types include "cs_" (Hostage rescue), "de_" (Bomb defusal), and "as_" (Assassination). Ayman al-Zawahiri, also an FBI Most Wanted Terrorist, is a physician and may have provided medical care to bin Laden. There are three official types of maps in Counter-Strike, along with many more user-created types. The media reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly kidney dialysis. It is available today for download over Steam, bundled with Half-Life 2, or purchased in a stand-alone retail box along with Day of Defeat: Source, another game converted to the new graphical engine. According to Gary Bernsten, in his 2005 book Jawbreaker, a number of al-Qaeda detainees later confirmed that Bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an easternly route through snow covered mountains in the area of Parachinar, Pakistan. Changes include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and physics) as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, or that he may have died of natural causes. Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) was released to ATI Radeon Voucher holders, in Half-Life 2 bundles available on Steam, and with the boxed retail version of the game. There had been suggestions that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. Following a period when the game was available to select 'beta' testers, the alpha version of the game was released on October 7th 2004. invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the death or arrest of many members of both Al Qaeda and the ruling Taliban, but bin Laden was not found. In 2004, original Counter-Strike developers Minh Le and Jess Cliffe, along with members of Valve and the Day of Defeat team, brought Counter-Strike into the Source engine as an obvious choice for the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2. The following U.S. It sold poorly compared to the original. government. However, the game was criticized for not being up to the standards of graphical quality expected of current commercial releases, due to the limitations of 1998's GoldSrc Half-Life engine. As the aggrieved nation in the September 11, 2001 attack, this was unacceptable to the U.S. Though still very similar to CS 1.6, Condition Zero contains several graphical, sound, model and map changes, as well as including bots. The Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden without proof or evidence of his involvement in the September 11 attacks and made a counter-offer to try bin Laden in an Islamic court or extradite him to a third-party country. It had been plagued by numerous delays, most notably when Valve dropped Gearbox Software (who had developed the highly acclaimed Half-Life: Opposing Force) as developer in favor of Ritual Entertainment, and when Ritual Entertainment in turn lost the project to Turtle Rock Studios partway through development. After the September 11 attacks, the United States demanded the Taliban authorities, who were not recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan by the United Nations or indeed most nations in the world, to deliver bin Laden to face trial for his crimes. A long-awaited single-player version of the game called Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released on March 23, 2004. However, as is the case with almost all tapes of bin Laden following September 11, the authenticity of this tape is also disputed widely. For similar reasons, Valve may have made no attempt to have Counter-Strike ported to the PlayStation 2. [19]. However, the Xbox version of the game (playable on Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service) has proved less successful than its PC counterpart for obvious reasons; the online Counter-Strike audience for Xbox is well outnumbered by the existing Counter-Strike PC community, a subscription cost required to pay online on Live (playing the PC version online is free), and mediocre graphics (only texture upgrades to original CS models) which are below what is expected for the Xbox. ...as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children. It features basic single-player gameplay against bots, but it focuses on multiplayer online play like the original. In October of 2004, a videotape was released purportedly of bin Laden:. Valve released a version ported to the Xbox game console in November 2003. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they stop from doing so.[18]. Valve has also been attempting to cash in on the game's popularity by producing more Counter-Strike games. We treat others like they treat us. Counter Strike:Source was developed using the new Half Life 2 enhanced graphics and physics engine (Source). And those individuals should stand for Allah, and to re-think and re-do their calculations. The newest version of CS was labeled Source, released in November 2004 through Valve's new distribution platform called Steam. And the general consensus is that most of the people who were in there were men that backed the biggest financial force in the world that spreads worldwide mischief [ta`ithu fil ardi fasaadaa]. Later, Counter-Strike was bundled with Half-Life and several other expansions in the Platinum Pack. It wasn't a children's school! And it wasn't a residence. The retail version was a standalone alternative that does not include or require Half-Life; alternatively, existing Half-Life owners can download the Counter-Strike mod free. As for the World Trade Center, the ones who were attacked and who died in it were a financial power. In November 2000, Counter-Strike 1.0 — the first non-beta, official retail version of the game — was released. Nevertheless, bin Laden has publicly praised the September 11 attacks in several instances and has taken credit for being their "inspiration." It is clear in many of his public statements that he views himself as an active participant in the attacks, whether or not he deserves the credit the West gives him as their "mastermind." A good example is this passage from his October 2001 interview with Al-Jazeera:. The Counter-Strike team was acquired by Valve to turn the fan-created mod into an official mod for Half-Life. In addition, bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks around the world." It is important to note that bin Laden is not accused by the FBI of carrying out the 9/11 attacks; officially, the FBI says that he has not yet been formally indicted, and until he is captured alive and interviewed, he is not officially considered a suspect. CS gained in popularity just as rapidly. These attacks killed over 200 people. Counter-Strike Beta 1.0 was released in June that same year, followed by a relatively quick succession of the beta releases (by the end of 1999, beta 5.0 had been released). The FBI's most wanted poster of bin Laden says, "Usama bin Laden is wanted in connection with the AUGUST 7 1998, bombings of the United States embassies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The Counter-Strike team was formed by Minh Le ("Gooseman") and Jess Cliffe ("Cliffe") in 1999. The extent to which bin Laden was involved in funding or overseeing the operation is unknown. This mode is not found in Counter-Strike: Source.. Khalid has been in United States custody since September 2003. The most popular maps of this type are es_jail, es_riverside, es_frantic, and es_trinity. One leading al-Qaeda member, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, claims (according to his interrogators) that the idea for the attacks came from him and not from bin Laden. While not included in the current Counter-Strike distribution, this mode can still be played. [17] The evidence presented to NATO was never presented to the public for security reasons. Maps of this type are prefixed with es_. Article 5 states that any attack on a member state is considered an attack against the entire alliance. Escape was discontinued because such maps gave an edge towards Counter-Terrorists. NATO's general secretary George Robertson described the evidence as clear and decisive and led the organization to invoke, for the first time in its history, article 5 in the NATO pact. The Counter-Terrorists' objective was to prevent the escape of the Terrorists. presented evidence to NATO of bin Laden's involvement in the September 11 attacks. Weapons, armour, and grenades were placed in hidden locations near or around the spawn point of the Terrorists; the objective was for the Terrorists to secure weapons at the hidden location and then have all living members of the team reach an escape point before the clock ran out; eliminating all Counter-Terrorists would not complete the mission by itself. In a closed door session in October 2001, the U.S. The Terrorists started in a position relatively far away from the Counter-Terrorists, armed with only knives and Glocks and unable to purchase additional weaponry/equipment. However, the video found in Jalalabad in December 2001 is still the most often cited as evidence for bin Laden's participation in the September 11 attacks. Discontinued in the late-beta releases of Counter-Strike, this gameplay style put Terrorists against Counter-Terrorists in an escape-before-the-clock-expired mission. He took credit for "inspiring" what he calls the "blessed attacks" of September 11 in several public statements. Members of the community who dislike the scenario argue that the Terrorists would just camp at the VIP's escape destination, shooting the VIP dead as he attempted the run to the exit. In subsequent statements and interviews he expressed admiration for whoever was responsible. Assassination maps are the least played of the three types of Counter-Strike gameplay and they were not ported to Counter-Strike: Source, although a VIP mod is being produced by the community for Counter-Strike Source and surprisingly for some, is being greatly anticipated. Several other videotapes have surfaced in the media (11.11.01 Sunday Times / Al-Jazeera 26.12.02 / 04.02 Al-Jazeera/AP / Sunday Times 19.05.02 / 09.02 Al-Jazeera etc). Maps of this type are prefixed with as_. (full text of the tape transcript). The lack of ammunition for the pistol means that a VIP should not expect to escape without the team's assistance; however, the pistol in conjunction with the special armour provides adequate protection. This is all that we had hoped for". When time expires, Terrorists win. (...Inaudible...) Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. As usual, if all Terrorists die, the Counter-Terrorists win. I was the most optimistic of them all. If the VIP dies, the Terrorists win. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. The VIP's objective is to reach an extraction zone (1, normally), in which case the Counter-Terrorists win. "We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. The VIP may not pick up dropped weapons other than the VIP's own pistol. translation of this tape bin Laden says:. In this mission, one Counter-Terrorist member chooses to become a VIP, a player with 200 units of Kevlar and nothing more than the Counter-Terrorist standard-issue USP pistol with one extra magazine. According to the official U.S. cs_office). Still, because of the anomalies surrounding this video, the authenticity of the tape remains highly disputed. Maps of this type are prefixed with cs_ (e.g. However, this is also disputed by higher resolution photos of the same video which show a man who does resemble bin Laden [16]. There is also a penalty associated with injuring a hostage by gun fire or grenade shrapnel (hostages do not take damage for falling). [15] In some low resolution pictures of the video, bin Laden appears smiling with a more round face and a nose which is different to the one seen in previous images of him. Killing a hostage incurs a penalty of $2250. This idea has been disputed by numerous videos and photos of Bin Laden wearing the same ring on many different occasions. Upon successfully escorting a hostage to a rescue point, $1000 is awarded. Furthermore, he is shown wearing a gold ring, which some claim is forbidden for men by orthodox Islam. begins to rescue it), the Counter-Terrorist is awarded $150. However, the quality of the tape is poor, and bin Laden is seen writing with his right hand, although according to the FBI he is left handed. When a Counter-Terrorist 'uses' a hostage (i.e. forces in Afghanistan captured a videotape during a raid on a house in Jalalabad, which allegedly shows bin Laden discussing the September 11th attacks with a group of followers. Therefore, the game may effectively become a 'Terrorist hunt' game if enough hostages are killed, although server settings may be such that players are disconnected (kicked) from the server after killing a certain number of hostages (5 is default). In December 2001 U.S. When round time expires, Terrorists win. General Noriega was made a drug baron by the CIA and, in need, he was made a scapegoat.". If all the surviving hostages have been rescued, and that number is at least half of the initial hostage count, then the Counter-Terrorists win, and each Counter-Terrorist is awarded $2400. Drug Enforcement Department are encouraging drug trade so that they could show performance and get millions of dollars worth of budget. If all the members of a team have been eliminated, the prevailing team wins. The people in the U.S. The Counter-Terrorists' objective is to escort the hostages to a hostage rescue point on the map. These agencies do not want to eradicate narcotics cultivation and trafficking because their importance will be diminished. The map has hostages (usually four) generally placed near the Terrorist base. secret agencies. Professional tournaments are normally only played in Bomb Defusal maps. Drug smugglers from all over the world are in contact with the U.S. de_dust and de_inferno). I will give you an example. Maps of this type are prefixed with de_ (e.g. Now they will spend the money for their expansion and for increasing their importance. Deaths due to the detonation of the bomb do not increment the player's death count. Where will this huge amount go? It will be provided to the same agencies, which need huge funds and want to exert their importance. When the round time expires, the Counter-Terrorists win. You see, the Bush Administration approved a budget of 40 billion dollars. If the bomb has been planted and proceeds to explode, the Terrorists win, but if a Counter-Terrorist defuses the bomb (Counter-Terrorists can purchase an optional kit to speed up defusal times), the Counter-Terrorists win. So, they first started propaganda against Usama and Taleban and then this incident happened. If the bomb has not been planted, if all the members of one team have been eliminated, then the surviving team wins. They needed an enemy. The Terrorists' objective is to plant the bomb at a bomb site (of which there usually are two in a map, Bombsite-A or Bombsite-B), and ensure its detonation. This [funding issue] was not a big problem till the existence of the former Soviet Union but after that the budget of these agencies has been in danger. One randomly selected Terrorist begins the round carrying a bomb. intelligence agencies in the U.S., which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year. Each map is of a single game type. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself... There are several game types in Counter-Strike which define the objectives of each team in the game, and rules which determine which team wins. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle... However, movement is restricted while taking damage from gunfire. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. For example, relatively few shots will kill a player, and shots to different parts of the body deal different amounts of damage, but damage has no bearing on ability to run or jump, allowing a player with just a few hit points remaining to keep fighting. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Counter-Strike is meant to be more realistic than futuristic FPSs such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament, but is also built to keep the action flowing faster than more realistic tactical shooters such as the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. This technique, known as "ghosting", is considered cheating in many tactical shooters. "I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. They are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in case of Internet cafes and players in the same rooms of their own homes, playing on the same server). However, in an interview published in Ummat Karachi, on 28 September 2001, but largely ignored by Western media, bin Laden stated:. Players killed become "ghosts" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names, nor can their chat/voice messages be received by the live players (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1). Immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the United States government named bin Laden as the prime suspect. The scoreboard also shows whether each player is dead, carrying the bomb (in bomb defusal maps), or the VIP (in assassination maps), although the player must be dead during the round to obtain this information of players on the opposing team. offered a US$25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's apprehension or conviction and, in 1999, convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him. The scoreboard shows team scores plus data for each player: name, score, deaths, and ping/latency (ms) on the map. The U.S. Standard bonuses in the game are:. The attack failed to harm bin Laden but killed 19 other people. Surviving players retain their equipment in the next round; those who have died begin anew with pistol and knife. military launched an assassination attempt using cruise missiles. Players may buy equipment whenever they are in a buy zone for their team (some of which can be for both teams) and the round has not been in session for longer than a specified time (90 seconds is default). In August 1998, the U.S. Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as Freeze Time) to buy equipment but not move. Clinton also signed an executive order authorizing bin Laden's arrest or assassination. Each player generally starts with $800, two magazines of ammunition, a knife, and a pistol: a Heckler & Koch USP .45 Tactical for CTs or a GLOCK 18c for Ts. In response to these attacks, President Bill Clinton ordered a freeze on assets linked to bin Laden. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). The al-Qaeda organization was allegedly responsible for the successful USS Cole bombing in October, 2000. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously, as one of eight different default character models (four to choose from for both Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist. Al-Qaeda was allegedly involved in several unsuccessful conspiracies, including the 2000 millennium attack plots to bomb Los Angeles airport, several tourist sites in Jordan and the USS The Sullivans, and well as the subsequent Paris embassy terrorist attack plot. Server settings may automatically balance when one team has more players than the other. Since June 1999, bin Laden has been listed as one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. Counter-Strike is a team-based FPS in which players join either the Terrorists (T's) or the Counter-Terrorists (CT's). Bin Laden is officially wanted by the United States in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 225 people and injured more than 4000. . This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.'" For more information, see Osama bin Laden Fatwa. CS was originally played online through the WON gaming service, but it was shut down in 2004, forcing players to switch to Steam (although some players responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2). In 1998, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad) co-signed a fatwa (binding religious edict) in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, declaring, "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. According to statistics gathered by Valve's content-delivery platform, Steam (1), these players contribute to over 4.5 billion minutes of playing time each month, making it the most popular online FPS in history. Bin Laden and the Indonesian militant known as Hambali allegedly funded, then aborted the Operation Bojinka conspiracy when police discovered the plot in Manila, Philippines on January 6, 1995. In 2004, GameSpy statistics showed over 85,000 players simultaneously playing Counter-Strike at any point in time, accounting for almost 70 percent of the online FPS audience. soldiers, part of Operation Restore Hope, had been staying at the hotel for two weeks but had left two days earlier for Somalia. In 2002 there were over 30,000 Counter-Strike servers on the Internet (second place was Unreal Tournament with about 9,800). About 100 U.S. CS has been the most widely played online FPS for the past few years and has over 19.5 million legal owners. December 29, 1992, bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen that killed a Yemeni hotel employee and an Austrian national, and seriously injured the Austrian's wife. Signs of CS's wide influence can be found in mods for Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and other standalone shooters such as Global Operations and Soldier of Fortune II. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and sentenced him to death in absentia for the massacre. CS is widely acknowledged as the most successful and popular of the tactical shooter genre. The Egyptian government convicted Bin Laden's colleague, one of the leaders of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Dr. The latest incarnation of the game, Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S), is based on the Source engine developed for Half-Life 2. Bin Laden is suspected of funding the 1997 massacre of 62 tourists in Luxor, Egypt conducted by Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian militant Islamist group. Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in rounds of competition won by completing an objective or eliminating the opposing team. Bin Laden supported the Taliban government with financial and paramilitary assistance and, in 1997, he moved to Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold. The series also includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source. After spending a few months in the border region hosted by local leaders, bin Laden forged a close relationship with some of the leaders of Afghanistan's new Taliban government, notably Mullah Mohammed Omar. Counter-Strike (CS) is the common name given to a series of team-based tactical shooter games which originate with Counter-Strike, a total conversion mod of Valve Software's first-person shooter Half-Life. He chartered a plane and flew to Kabul before settling in Jalalabad. Features include: varieties of teamkill punishes, auto-kick by certain triggers, rank system, advanced map changing and voting etc. Thus, in May 1996, under increasing pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, Sudan expelled bin Laden to Afghanistan. One of the most successful, if not the only one, "Mani Admin Plugin", is met on nearly every dedicated server nowadays. However, Saudi Arabia refused because of the political difficulties of accepting such a controversial figure into their custody. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have become very popular. Sudanese officials whose government was under international sanctions offered to extradite bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1990s. Give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his/her server. and Saudi military bases in Riyadh and Dahran. The weapon's attributes remain the same.). In 1995, the Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship after he claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. Only the user sees the differences. Around this time, bin Laden and his associates began developing and executing a series of meticulously-planned terrorist attacks. Provide options for weapon improvement (AKA Skinning: Affects the way guns look and sound to the user but remain unchanged to anyone else in the game. The funding from these ventures was used to run several training camps on his farmland, where Islamist militants could receive instruction in firearms use and the use of explosives from former Afghan mujahideen. Keep track of player statistics and scores. Bin Laden's operations in Sudan were protected by the powerful Sudanese government figure Hassan al Turabi. Control players not following set rules. Bin Laden also invested in business ventures, such as al-Hajira, a construction company that built roads throughout Sudan, and Wadi al-Aqiq, an agricultural corporation that farmed hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum, gum arabic, sesame and sunflowers in Sudan's central Gezira province. Create different modes of play. Assisted by donations funneled through business and charitable fronts such as Benevolence International established by his brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations in Sudan to disseminate Islamist philosophy and recruit operatives in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Make the game more humorous. Bin Laden's increasingly strident criticisms of the Saudi monarchy led the government to expel him to Sudan in 1991. Give players superhuman powers (powers from units in Warcraft III, for example.). forces in Saudi Arabia continued to undermine the Saudi rulers' legitimacy and inflamed anti-government Islamist militants, including bin Laden. Remove features of the games which players felt were annoying. After the Gulf War, the establishment of permanent bases for non-Muslim U.S. Improve gameplay. troops in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Gulf War profoundly shocked and revolted bin Laden and other Islamist militants because the Saudi government claims legitimacy based on their role as guardians of the sacred Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina. Add bots to make a LAN game multiplayer although there is only one computer. According to reports (by the BBC and others), the 1990/91 deployment of U.S. VIP - Used in maps prefixed 'as_' eg: as_oilrig. military and demanded an end to the presence of foreign military bases in the country. Hostage - used in maps prefixed 'cs_' eg: cs_italy. Bin Laden publicly denounced his government's dependence on the U.S. Their disgust for American lifestyle was demonstrated in their 1982 bombing of a school bus full of Rock and Roll musicians.". After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bin Laden offered to help defend Saudi Arabia (with 12,000 armed men) but was rebuffed by the Saudi government. Guerilla Warfare - Added in CS beta 6.5 - "A terrorist faction founded in the Middle East, this group has a reputation for ruthlessness. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 and bin Laden was lauded as a mujahideen hero in Saudi Arabia. Infamous for their bombing of the Canadian embassy in 1990.". government, which included many of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. Arctic Avengers - Added in CS beta 6 - "Swedish terrorist faction founded in 1977. By 1988, bin Laden had split from the MAK and established a new militant group, later dubbed al-Qaeda by the U.S. Elite Crew(L33t Krew prior to CS 1.6) - Added in CS beta 3 - "Middle Eastern fundamentalist group bent on world domination and various other evil deeds.". 59, emphasis added). Formed shortly after the breakup of the USSR.". involvement in that Afghan-Soviet war." (Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p. Phoenix Connexion - First appeared in initial CS beta - "Having established a reputation for killing anyone who gets in their way, the Phoenix Connexion is one of the most feared terrorist groups in eastern Europe. "The global Salafi jihad," he writes, "is without doubt an indirect consequence of U.S. Consisting of no more than 100 men, the GIGN has earned its reputation through a history of successful ops.". support for the Arab Afghan volunteers was funnelled through the Pakistani ISI at Pakistan's insistence. GIGN - Added in CS beta 3 - "France's elite counter-terrorist group, the GIGN, was designed to be a fast response force that could decisively react to any large-scale terrorist incident. 201) and calls the notion of CIA training of future al Qaeda terrorists "sheer fantasy," he also notes that U.S. Their role in WW2 involved intelligence gathering behind enemy lines and executing sabotage strikes and assassinations against key targets.". And while Marc Sageman, former CIA officer who worked closely with the mujahedin under Milton Bearden, makes clear that he does not believe the CIA ever came in direct contact with the foreign volunteers (an account refuted by Coll, see p. SAS (Special Air Service) - Added in CS beta 5 - "World-renowned British SAS was founded in the Second World War by a man named David Stirling. 129.) This account is also substantially backed up by John Cooley, Unholy Wars : Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, New York, Pluto Press, 2002. GSG-9 - Added in CS beta 6 - "GS-9 was formed out of the tragic events that led to the death of several Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, Germany.". None of the players reckoned on these volunteers having their own agendas, which would eventually turn their hatred against the Soviets on their own regimes and the Americans." (Ahmed Rashid, Taliban New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000, p. ST-6 was placed on permanent alert to respond to terrorist attacks against American targets worldwide.". And the Saudis saw an opportunity to promote Wahabbism and get rid of its disgruntled radicals. SEAL Team 6 - First appeared in initial CS beta - "ST-6 (to be later known as DEVGRU) was founded in 1980 under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Richard Marcinko. Washington wanted to demonstrate that the entire Muslim world was fighting the Soviet Union alongside the Afghans and their American benefactors. CS: Source - 7 October 2004. The ISI had encouraged this since 1982 and by now all the other players had their reasons for supporting the idea. CS: Condition Zero - 23 March 2004. According to Ahmed Rashid, Central Intelligence Agency Chief William Casey in 1986 "committed CIA support to a long-standing ISI initiative to recruit radical Muslims from around the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Afghan Mujaheddin. Version 1.6 - 15 September 2003. The accounts of some journalists and investigators, however, do suggest that CIA money and weapons reached the Afghan Arabs and bin Laden indirectly through the ISI [14]. Version 1.5 - 12 June 2002. 64-66.]. Version 1.4 - 24 April 2002. The 'let's blame everything bad that happens on the CIA' school of thought vastly overestimates the Agency's powers, both for good and ill." [Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden (New York: The Free Press, 2001), pp. Version 1.3 - 19 September 2001. So the notion that the Agency funded and trained the Afghan Arabs is, at best, misleading. Version 1.1 - 10 March 2001. The CIA did not need the Afghan Arabs, and the Afghan Arabs did not need the CIA. Version 1.0 - 8 November 2000. the Afghan Arabs functioned independently and had their own sources of funding. Beta 7.1 - 13 September 2000. .. Beta 7.0 - 26 August 2000. There was simply no point in the CIA and the Afghan Arabs being in contact with each other. Beta 6.6 - 22 June 2000. .. Beta 6.5 - 5 June 2000. the Afghans thought they were a pain in the ass." Similar sentiments from Afghans who appreciated the money that flowed from the Gulf but did not appreciate the Arabs' holier-than-thou attempts to convert them to their ultra-purist version of Islam. Beta 6.1 and 6.2 were "Server Only" updates, not for client/user machines. There were hundreds of thousands of Afghans all too willing to fight, and the Arabs who did come for jihad were "very disruptive . Beta 6.0 - 10 March 2000. Former CIA official Milt Bearden, who ran the Agency's Afghan operation in the late 1980s, says, "The CIA did not recruit Arabs," as there was no need to do so. Beta 5.2 - 10 January 2000. The Afghan Arabs generally fought alongside those factions, which is how the charge arose that they were creatures of the CIA. Beta 5.0 - 23 December 1999. ISI in turn made the decisions about which Afghan factions to arm and train, tending to favor the most Islamist and pro-Pakistan. Beta 4.1 - 1 December 1999. The United States wanted to be able to deny that the CIA was funding the Afghan war, so its support was funneled through Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). Beta 4.0 - 5 November 1999. The truth is more complicated, tinged with varying shades of gray. Beta 3.1 - 16 September 1999. "While the charges that the CIA was responsible for the rise of the Afghan Arabs might make good copy, they don't make good history. Beta 3.0 - 14 September 1999. The State Department quotes CNN analyst Peter Bergen as saying:. Beta 2.1 - 17 August 1999. [13]. Beta 2.0 - 13 August 1999. aid went only to Afghan fighters, and that Afghan Arabs had their own sources of funding, an account also supported by Al Qaeda itself. Beta 1.2 - 20 July 1999. government, which maintains that U.S. Beta 1.1 - 27 June 1999. This account is vehemently denied by the U.S. Beta 1.0 - 19 June 1999. Some argue that MAK was supported by the governments of Pakistan, the United States[12] and Saudi Arabia, and that the three countries channelled their supplies through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Kill an enemy: $300. (See: the History of Afghanistan.) By 1984 he had established an organization named Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Order in English), which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the world into the Afghan war. Lose a round: $1500. His wealth and connections permitted him to pursue his interest in supporting the mujahideen, Muslim guerrillas fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Win a round: $3500. Bin Laden has several aliases and nicknames, including the Prince, the Emir, Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shayekh, Hajj, and the Director. For this reason, although the Arabic convention would be to refer to him either as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden," using "bin Laden" is in accordance with the family's own usage of the name and is the near-universal convention in Western references to him. The family company is known as the Binladin Brothers for Contracting and Industry and is one of the largest corporations in Saudi Arabia. His full name means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of `Awad, son of Laden." However, the bin Laden family (or "Binladin," as they prefer to be known) generally use the name as a surname, in the Western style. Strictly speaking, under the Arabic naming convention, it is incorrect to use "bin Laden" as though it were a Western surname. Officials at the United States Department of Defense encourage the now more commonly used "Osama" transliteration when his name became associated with the September 11th attacks in order to avoid confusion with U.S.A.M.A., the United States Army Medical Association. The latter part of the name can also be found as ibn Laden, Binladen or Binladin. Less common renderings include Ussamah Bin Ladin and Oussama Ben Laden (used in French-language mass media). Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld). The FBI and Fox News use Usama bin Laden, often abbreviated to UBL (favored by U.S. The form used here, Osama bin Laden, is used by most English-language mass media, including CNN and the BBC. Osama bin Laden's name can be transliterated in several ways. He reportedly suffers from various medical conditions including kidney disease. No proof of this claim, nor any supporting evidence, has ever surfaced. This belief has been expressed several times, from many quarters [11]. He is commonly thought to employ more than one. military figures claim that Bin Laden employs at least one double to act as a decoy, in order to evade would-be captors. U.S. It is because of his quiet personality that many wonder how he could be the leader of a resistance movement. In personality, Bin Laden is described as a soft-spoken, mild mannered man, and despite his rhetoric, he is said to be charming, polite, and respectful. He wears a plain white turban and no longer dons the traditional Saudi male headdress. He has an olive complexion, is left-handed and usually walks with a cane. Bin Laden is often described as lanky; the FBI describes him as tall and thin, being 6' 4" (193 cm) to 6' 5" (195 cm) tall and weighing 160 pounds (75 kg). There he began to build al-Qaeda and much of its current militant and governmental structure. Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia in 1992, moving to Sudan at the behest of its Islamist government. Disagreements and squabbling between Bin Laden and the Saudi royal family soon exploded into full-blown hostility, especially after US forces remained in Saudi Arabia upon liberating Kuwait. Bin Laden, who had hated the United States even before the Gulf War, was outraged; he considered the presence of non-Muslim forces on Saudi soil as an affront to himself and to Muslims in general. Instead the government invited a coalition made up of forces from the United States and other non-Muslim nations to establish a base in Saudi Arabia. When Iraq under Saddam Hussein ordered a military invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, Bin Laden called for jihad against Saddam and asked the Saudi government for permission to send jihadists to protect the country and help liberate Kuwait. Bin Laden eagerly sent money, supplies, and weapons to the jihadis in Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in a call to arms by religious leaders all over the Muslim world to liberate the country from pro-Soviet rule. He attended his son's wedding in January 2001, but since 9/11 is believed only to have had contact with his mother on one occasion. In 1994 bin Laden's family publicly disowned him, shortly before the Saudi Arabian government revoked his citizenship. branch of the World Congress of Muslim Youth in Falls Church, Virginia during the 1990s. Omar and Abdallah were reportedly organizing the U.S. Najwa, a Syrian and his mother's niece, reportedly had 11 children by bin Laden, including Abdallah, Omar, Saad, and Muhammad. [citation needed] Bin Laden has fathered at least 24 children. A female author named Kola Boof claims she was kept in Morocco against her will as a mistress for bin Laden in 1996, but the credibility of her claim is disputed. Bin Laden reportedly married four other women, divorcing one. In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married his first wife (and first cousin), Najwa Ghanem. Salem, Osama's oldest brother, took over the family business. After his father died in 1967, bin Laden inherited part of his father's estate in the form of shares in the family company. He earned a degree in economics and public administation from King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah in 1981. As a college student, bin Laden studied business and project administration. [10]. These claims, though widely reported in the British press in the aftermath of 9/11, are generally regarded by most other researchers as being somewhat dubious and unsubstantiated. Bin Laden is supposed to have been in attendance at midweek European Cup Winners Cup fixtures in March and April of that year, and may even have travelled to Copenhagen in May to attend the Cup Winners Cup final. In his book Bin Laden: Behind The Mask Of Terror, author Adam Robinson claims that Bin Laden is a fan of the famous London-based soccer club Arsenal, and that he actually visited London several times in 1994 to attend matches at Arsenal's Highbury stadium. government has said it has never issued a visa for bin Laden; and it is possible bin Laden has never traveled outside of the Middle East. Even the truth of these trips has been called into question; the U.S. According to The New Yorker [9], bin Laden only traveled outside of the Middle East three times: once to London for treatment when he was ten years old, to East Africa sometime in the 1970s, and once to the United States about 1978. [8]Locals also claim he visited Sweden as an adult to buy real estate. Reports and photos exist of 22 members of his family holidaying in Falun, Sweden in 1971, dressed in the height of Western fashion. Although it has been disputed, bin Laden may have visited the West several times. From 1968 to 1976, bin Laden attended the Al-Thager Model School in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A woman who in 1971 had attended an English language course with bin Laden recalled him saying with some sadness that his mother was a concubine [7]. Osama is the only son of the elder bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, who is reportedly of Syrian descent. The large number of bin Laden siblings is the result of polygyny; his father was married ten times, although to no more than four women at a time per Islamic law. His family originally came from Hadhramaut, Yemen and he was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. In addition, various accounts place Osama as his seventeenth son, while others say he was the last of 25 sons. There is no definitive account of the number of children born to Muhammed bin Laden, but the number is generally put at 55. Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Muhammad Awad bin Ladin, a wealthy businessman involved in construction and with close ties to the Saudi royal family. . While the FBI has a huge reward for his capture, the CIA seeks to kill him. The West, particularly the United States, persistently sees him as the leader of a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, that seeks the destruction of the State of Israel and the USA and perhaps even the downfall of Europe. Bin Laden continues to have an immense amount of support and loyalty from much of the Muslim world. The authenticity of these tapes, while still disputed, has been confirmed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. [4] In January 2006, audiotapes purportedly from bin Laden were aired on all popular news media (audio [5], transcript [6]). The second report that bin Laden died in June 2005 was published in a Pakistani newspaper and although it has not been conclusively confirmed or refuted, few Western publications decided the news was worth reporting. The first report in December 2001 was quickly disproven when bin Laden issued a videotape. Twice newspapers have reported his death. With the inhospitable mountainous terrain and uncertainty about the cooperation of Pakistani intelligence, the United States faces many difficulties in pursuing his capture, despite a wide array of sophisticated eavesdropping sensors deployed in the region [3]. If bin Laden is in Pakistan, it is possible that he benefits from local support by the Waziri. While bin Laden's current whereabouts are unknown, the most popular assumption is that he is hiding in Pakistan's tribal region of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, or, more specifically, near the small Pakistani market town of Chitral [1], [2]. An additional reward of $2 million is being offered by the Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association. The United States Department of State is offering a reward of $25 million for information leading to bin Laden's capture. withdrew from these bases in 2003, stating that they were no longer necessary for their campaign in Iraq. The U.S. According to a tape released after bin Laden's September 11 attacks, bin Laden's main grievances against the West and especially the United States, include support for the State of Israel, United States support for several dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, and the presence of United States military bases in Saudi Arabia, where the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina are located. In addition to the attacks, several armed Islamist revivalist movements have been connected to Al Qaeda. There is evidence linking bin Laden and al-Qaeda to several attacks worldwide, the most destructive of which was the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., which killed at least 2,985 people. Usāmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin Lādin (born March 10, 1957; Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن), commonly known as Osama bin Laden, or Usama bin Laden, (Arabic: أسامة بن لادن) is an Islamic fundamentalist and the founder of the militant organization al-Qaeda. |