Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Osama Bin Laden in the White House?! September 18, 2014

This is a very improbable story that has just come out of the Italian gossip industry. It is unbelievable, incredible… but as its cast includes the world’s most famous building, an American president, Osama Bin Laden and an Italian singer with bizarre dress sense, Beach couldn’t resist flagging it up here.

First, enter, from left stage, Loredana Bertè. Loredana is a rather eccentric and now rather ancient Italian songstress who has three claims to fame: her weird wardrobe, her ex-husband Bjorn Borg and her startling voice. LB also though has a memory which will soon be picked over by Sept 11 ‘truthists’. She once found herself at dinner with Osama Bin Laden in the White House. This revelation came on the Italian station Radio 2, 15 Sept, with the singer herself, though she has actually been muttering such stuff for a few months.

I was at that meal with Bjorn Borg, who at that time was my husband. I was very interested in what Bin Laden said, sitting at a table next to mine… Bin Laden found himself seated among the Bush family. I remember very well that Bush himself explained the importance of Bin Laden for the CIA.
Ero a quella cena con Bjorn Borg, che all’epoca era mio marito. Ero molto interessata a quello che diceva Bin Laden, seduto al tavolo a fianco al mio… Bin Laden si trovava in mezzo alla famiglia Bush. Ricordo perfettamente che lo stesso Bush mi spiegò l’importanza di Bin Laden per la Cia.

Some background here. The ‘Bush’ in question was Bush senior (1989-1993). It would be fundamental to understand when in those four years (of Bush’s single term) LB ate at the Whitehouse: there must be guest lists. Beach has only been able to find two clues: Bush played tennis with Borg at the White house in May 1989 and Borg and Loredana split up in 1992. Very possibly 1989 then, certainly not 1993. A little research would almost certainly narrow this down: can anyone help, drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com

As to Osama the best book in English on the Lion of Arabia claims that he only ever travelled once to the UK, in search of medical assistance for one of his children: though he did briefly consider looking for sanctuary there. He travelled only briefly to the US in 1979 also for medical reasons. As to 1989-1992, in 1989 he was still in Afghanistan, where the Soviet Union was rapidly retreating from their Vietnam. He then returned to Saudi Arabia and, finally, went into exile in Sudan, in 1991, the turning point in his life. In Sudan he changed, of course, from being a wealthy mujahedeen to an international terrorist: ask, for instance, the hundreds of thousands of innocents murdered in Algeria, a civil war he helped fund. He was disowned in 1991 and 1992, by his own and by the Saudi royal family.

It is credible perhaps that between 1989 and 1991 Osama Bin Laden might have gone to America and met the Bushes: it is even possible he was invited over to tea whilst in town. There were two obvious links on the American side: one the desire to cultivate the scion of an important Gulf family, something that all American presidents have been keen to do since the 1970s (there are also tenuous connections between the Bushs and the Bin Ladens); second, OBL had fought in Afghanistan, in part, with American money, perhaps he was invited as an ally, see the comments above about the CIA.

But if there is nothing incredible about Bin Laden being in the White House there are also problems. I) No biographer or official records have Bin Laden in America save the short visit in 1979: though there are no end of urban legends. II) The prolix and opinionated Bin Laden himself never described a visit to the White House, and what an anecdote it would have made.

These two could be allowed to slip: after all, both sides might have preferred to cover up traces of a visit once hostilities were properly announced: OBL declared war on America in 1996. But there is a more troubling point. III) Bin Laden was unknown at this date in the West: isn’t it incredible that Loredana remembered him and his name from way back then? Surely, the easiest explanation is that she, high on the occasion, saw an attractive Saudi, possibly even a Bin Laden (a big family after all), and in her memory, when Osama Bin Laden began to become known on European television screens in the mid 1990s, she projected Obama’s face onto the man of her memory? The depressing ‘they-all-look-the-same’ mentality seems to be hardwired into us as far as other ethnic groups are concerned: we certainly more easily mistake individuals from other ethnicities than from our own. Then, it must also be said that Loredana is very much on the old Italian left (anti-American and philo-communist). Without accusing her of dishonesty (she certainly isn’t) this may have been a memory worth constructing as it fit so well with her world view.

28 Sept 2014: LTM an old friend of this blog writes ‘Loredana Bertè is confusing Osama Bin Laden with his half-brother and cousin Salem Bin Laden. Salem was a Bush family friend who died in Texas. The family is huge as the original, Mohammed, had fifty kids. Larry Wiki says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_bin_Laden Considered the eldest son of Mohammed bin Laden, the founder of Saudi Binladin Group and a half-brother and cousin of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was educated atMillfield and acted as the patriarch of the bin Laden family after the 1967 death of his father. Salem managed the family’s extensive investment portfolio (thought to be valued at around $16 billion) and was in charge of family income distribution. He also oversaw the individual education plans for each of his (half-) brothers and (half-) sisters. Just like his father, he highly valued close relationship of the bin Ladens with the Saudi royal family. He provided means and support to the family during the Mecca uprising of 1979.[1] He owned a house in Orlando, Florida and often used it for vacation stays.[2] Death Salem bin Laden died on May 29, 1988 when he accidentally drifted into high voltage electrical power lines adjacent to the Kitty Hawk Field of Dreams Ultra-Lite Flying Field at the edge of Schertz, a northeastern San Antonio suburb. The Sprint ultralight aircraft he was flying fell 115 feet to the ground after the wire strike. Salem, who was not wearing a safety helmet, died of head injuries from the resulting fall. The National Transportation Safety Board did not conduct an accident investigation since the aircraft was an ultralight aircraft, which was not covered under their mandate due to exemption while operating under FAR Part 103 Provisions required by Federal law. The Schertz Police, who attended to the incident, stated in the report that Salem died in a freak accident.’ Thanks LTM, the problem is that the date seems to be too early. Does anyone have access to White House guest lists. They must exist…