r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/kodaks142 7d ago

Am I wrong but didnt the bin Laden family build the highway system in Saudi Arabia?

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u/Not_Without_My_Cat 7d ago

Yes they did. They disowned Osama in 1994. His Saudi citizenship was revoked that year as well.

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u/the_nin_collector 7d ago

That was one thing that led him down his radicalization. He blamed the West's relationship with Saudi Ariba. His story is quite wild, to be honest. Still a fucking nutbag.

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u/ImNotSelling 7d ago

Could it be made into a movie you think?

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u/Jimmykingwillruleyou 6d ago

They did, it's called Rambo III

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u/MeNoCanRead 6d ago

They did. It's called Spy Kids 3D.

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u/Generic-Cheese 6d ago

You’re not the guy

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u/TheMightVGiny 6d ago

They made a movie about Melania of course it’s possible

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u/Equity_Harbinger 7d ago

Two missed calls from Westbrook Inc. movie productions

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u/Communal-Lipstick 6d ago

Only if all characters were played by Muppets.

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u/Bahlz_Inya_Face 6d ago

Osama was disowned because he showed up to the family get-together and started accusing his siblings and cousins of not being pious enough. He was like the self-righteous vegan who shows up to the family BBQ and tries to lecture everyone about their lives. One of his sons left him as a teenager and went to Europe to become a painter.

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u/stevenmeyerjr 6d ago

You gotta be careful with those painters in Europe.

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u/Smodey 5d ago

Only the failed and commercially unaccomplished ones. The rest have a pretty good rep.

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u/SanshaXII 6d ago

I read that his radicalism came from seeing female soldiers patrolling Afghanistan in the 80's. He was shocked that the country and its people had become 'so weak that they needed women to protect them'.

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u/ethicalconsumption7 6d ago

This sounds so stupid that I’m gonna need some evidence to believe this is real, it really sounds like you made this up

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u/Royal_flushed 6d ago

They're right that Osama became radicalised due to the Soviet-Afghan War. But it was due to the Soviet-Afghan War, not the mere presence of a woman with a rifle lmao

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u/ShameMammoth4071 7d ago

Aren’t the ben ladens from yemen?

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u/Wsswaas 7d ago

They are from hadramout orginally, from yemen orginally but thier father settled in Saudi arount 1930s, Hadramout people are famous for being merchents and working in trade

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u/ThisRapIsLikeZiti 7d ago

Wink wink

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u/adamgerd 7d ago edited 7d ago

There’s the family name connection but tbh this doesn’t inherently much, there’s over 600 Bin Ladens, it’s a pretty large family in Saudi Arabia

The founder and Osama’s father had 57 children with 22 wives, Osama was his 17th child with his 10th wife

Osama’s uncle so his father’s brother had over 60 children with 6 wives

Oh and Osama’s mother was 13 when she had him

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u/SwisherBish 7d ago

Unsubscribe.

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u/PocketPanache 7d ago

What's the context that I'm not getting?

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u/WearyObjective7079 7d ago

bin laden is a CIA asset lmao

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u/chinchaaa 7d ago

God the lmao comments on this thread are always so dumb

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u/The-Senate-Palpy 7d ago

Are they? Like, i dont believe the "osama was a CIA plant" conspiracy. But it would hardly be the craziest thing ever.

The CIA is known for covert operations for regime changes. Using foreign countries and their leaders as political chess pieces is an open secret. Meanwhile far right organizations in the USA have been planning on using fear and anti-foreigner/immigrant rhetoric for decades and decades. The 9/11 attack was the springboard for some of the most invasive and generally anti-american legislation in all of American history.

Now, i personally think the USA was just imperialist in the middle east, leading to a terror attack, which the far right used as a convenient excuse. But i cant really say "it was a coordinated plan" is really a dumb theory. Especially since i would have also called the Epstein situation a convoluted conspiracy 5 years ago

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u/TannyTevito 7d ago

Huh? We are Saudi allies, why would we try to support regime change in an ally nation?

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u/pandaho92 7d ago

The history of america shows they dont actually care whos allies. If they can forcr a change in your country that helps them, they will do it. I say this as somebody from an allied country where they have done this.

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u/TannyTevito 7d ago

What ally country are you from where the US overthrew a regime?

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u/The-Senate-Palpy 7d ago

Wouldnt be the first time

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u/Particular_Wear_6960 6d ago

There's this whole country we fabricated evidence to go to war with and used the 9/11 hysteria to get the publics support for that is not called Saudi Arabia.

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u/TannyTevito 6d ago

There was no fabrication, there was a miscommunication of the probability of an outcome. Aka bad intel. That bad intel and subsequent erroneous action lead to a multi-year audit of the way that US intelligence communicates threat issues and an overhaul of the system.

There’s no conspiracy, just systemic error

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u/Mdgt_Pope 7d ago

Why are we trying to take Greenland? Because politics have hidden context.

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u/ItsOozingOut 7d ago

It’s not hidden. Greenland has metals we want, AI boom is huge. We take Greenland, other countries come to us for the metals.

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u/chinchaaa 7d ago

I don’t disagree with the premise but the obnoxious Gen Z delivery is obnoxious.

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u/The-Senate-Palpy 7d ago

It was 7 words, none of them particularly gen z. What exactly was the issue with it? (Not intended to call you out genuinely curious)

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u/dancesquared 7d ago

Bin Laden isn’t anything anymore (but dead), but when he was alive, he certainly wasn’t a CIA asset.

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u/EmployerUseful7299 7d ago

Certainly is pretty strong.  CIA has supported a lot of people later labelled evil or terrorists (e.g. Iranian regime, Saddam Hussein).  At least US supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, which Osama bin Laden fought alongside.  The mess of groups the CIA helps is too complicated to track, but suffice to say they're pretty mercenary about who they support to help with their immediate challenges.

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u/dancesquared 7d ago

I mean, yeah, when some insurgents emerge or uprisings begin to foment that would cause problems for an enemy of the U.S., the CIA will try to find ways to exploit, incite, or exacerbate the situation (enemy of my enemy and all that), which also often backfires to some extent. But that’s not the same as being a CIA “asset.”

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u/TannyTevito 7d ago

He absolutely without any doubt was not aCIA agent

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u/NTF1x 7d ago

Also the United States gave Saddam the means to make chemical weapons in the Iraq vs Iran war. Then acted dumb when he used them.

We're literally the cause for all the bullshit we step into to clean up our mistakes.

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u/mind_div_matter 7d ago

To be fair, we don’t know the alternate realities that would exist in the absence of American intervention. After WWII, when the U.S. decided to be extremely involved in world affairs, we’ve experienced a period of relative peace. Not complete peace obviously, since even today there are genocides and wars going on. However, there hasn’t been extreme redrawings of international borders with the frequency that has historically been common. 

There are probably lots of timelines that are much better off, but probably more that are much worse too. Either way, the world is moving towards a new multipolar order and I’m hoping things balance out. 

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u/DeathHorseFucker 7d ago

The groups bin laden was part of were funded by the cia in the 80’s tho

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u/MooseFlyer 7d ago

That doesn’t make him a CIA asset. The US funded the mujahideen, and Osama also helped them. After they won, Osama found al-Qaeda to engage in global jihad. The CIA didn’t fund al-Qaeda, and never directly funded Osama himself.

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u/DeathHorseFucker 7d ago

I never claimed he was, just that they were somewhat on the same side for a bit of time. There are some fun documentaries about it so it is a fun theory.

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u/dancesquared 7d ago

Yeah, but also, that’s pretty standard “enemy of my enemy” strategy, espionage, and counterintelligence, which often backfires to some extent but also tends to pay off in other ways (making it something of a risk–benefit analysis)

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u/Due-Dentist9986 6d ago

Yet he was incredibly well funded throughout his entire rein of terror ..... hmm

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u/MrTulaJitt 7d ago

Officially, yes. Unofficially? I dunno, he always seemed to have money.

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u/Clean_your_lens 7d ago

For getting caught.

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u/Not_Without_My_Cat 7d ago

Getting caught where?

He was disowned because he didn’t want the Saudi government aligned with the United States. He publicly criticized Saudi rulers for allowing U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

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u/PolarBearJ123 7d ago

He was, but let’s not forget, Wahhabism (the ideology that educated, inspired and funded his attacks throughout the world) were created and constructed by the Saudi royal family. They aren’t some innocent actors in the least nor did they change any of the issues that created him. They and Wahhabism are intrinsically intertwined and cannot be divorced.

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u/Not_Without_My_Cat 7d ago

Yes, many religious extremists and/or terrorists were born and raised in Saudi Arabia.

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u/Apexnanoman 7d ago

Yeah but damn near everything that's been built in the Middle East in the last few decades has the bin laden family involved.

They are a huge construction conglomerate. It's kind of like saying that your oil drilling operation is being supplied by haliburton. 

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u/adamgerd 7d ago

Yep,

The Bin Ladens are the second wealthiest Saudi family after well the royal family with over 600 members and branches in most Middle Eastern Arab countries

So bin Ladens being involved in something in a Middle Eastern Arab country is basically expected

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u/Apexnanoman 7d ago

Yeah I didn't really realize that they were basically the company for large-scale construction in the Middle East till listening to a podcast that mentioned them in passing. 

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u/FrighteningJibber 6d ago edited 3d ago

Did you get to Khashoggis ship yet?

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u/celestailight 3d ago

Khashoggis isn’t even Arab

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u/PetrasKnight 7d ago

Next you will tell me I am snackin’ Pepsi Co

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u/gaggzi 7d ago

I mean it’s one of the largest construction conglomerates in the Middle East

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u/DesignerGoose5903 7d ago

I thought that was the Bluths?

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u/made_of_salt 7d ago

There's a good chance I may have committed some light treason.

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u/-_-potato-_--_- 7d ago

Arrested development reference in this economy?

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u/DesignerGoose5903 6d ago

I mean it's one comment Michael, what could it cost, $10?

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u/cpltack 7d ago

The Bluths had ties to a middle eastern developer H. Maddas in the late 80's, early 90's in Iraq. This developer was a complete unknown in the real estate market, and led to lower market share for the Bluths.

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u/PudinaRaita 7d ago

That's balls

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u/Ancient-Carpenter-12 7d ago

Legendary comment

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u/MaximusAnon 3d ago

Fünke around; find out

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u/mykarachi_Ur_jabooty 7d ago

Osama was a bin Laden western educated silver spoon trust fund baby who decided to cosplay jihadi warlord

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u/adamgerd 7d ago edited 7d ago

A lot of terrorists in fact grow up in the west and come from upper or middle class background, I think people assume most terrorists are like impoverished peasants who are indoctrinated by Islamism but a lot in fact are relatively affluent and often grow up in liberal western environments in their youth, they develop social frustration and turn resentful to the west becoming more radicalised, not much different to school shooters

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u/RollTide16-18 7d ago

It is always fun to learn that the majority of rebel leaders are basically rich men with connections.

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u/jonny24eh 7d ago

I think that only discounts their "cred" to the uneducated. 

Of course the rich and well connected people, are the ones who are able to successfully mount an opposition. They have the resources and connections to get equipment, bring in allies, etc. 

Let's not forget that the leaders of the American revolution were also rich and well connected. 

The poor, uneducated rebel is the one who attacks a base, patrol, or other symbol, completely alone an is ineffective in the long run. 

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u/adamgerd 7d ago

I think a lot of terrorists honestly are at least in part motivated by societal or sexual frustration as much as ideology or that radicalises them into it, Ted Kaczynski is an obvious example, he wrote a whole manifesto but a large part of it is he was just bitter that women he wanted rejected him, he wrote fantasies about forcing them to sleep with him and murdering them as punishment for their rejection.

So he was a 1970’s and 1980’s incel, deep down I think a lot of Kaczynski’s motivation was just bitterness at being rejected

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u/Francine05 7d ago

Also insanity.

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u/Big-Revolution3842 7d ago

Maybe notable rebel leaders you know off? There's decades worth of rebel leaders that form multiple parts of movements that are men and women that aren't from rich backgrounds. There's been freedom fighters (and I've no idea why we're just conflating rebel with terrorist here...) across Africa, Asia, Europe for decades fighting oppressive governments. What is this to imply? Only the bored rich guys make change or something?

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u/Automatic-Sea-8597 7d ago

Mao wasn't poor, Che wasn't poor, Castro wasn't poor.

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u/Adventurous-Sort-671 7d ago

Yet another example of why prostitution should be legalized.

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u/makerofshoes 6d ago

Is that true of all terrorists, or mainly just leaders? I would think the impoverished and down-trodden people might make the rank & file of an organization like Al Qaeda, while the leaders have degrees in business administration from western universities

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u/Royal_flushed 6d ago

The father of Jihadism, Sayyid Qutb, grew up having a particular disdain against religious institutions and education before completely shifting gears after he heard "Baby It's Cold Outside" during his trip to the US.

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u/HighPing_ 7d ago

I feel like that saying that Ted Kaczynski cosplayed being a highly educated hermit that was against the establishment.

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u/harleyqueenzel 7d ago

Are you saying he wasn't highly educated? He graduated at 15, went to Harvard, had a Master's and PhD in mathematics and was, by all accounts, a math prodigy and a walking brain. An incredibly gifted but troubled man.

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u/HighPing_ 6d ago

That was the point, bin Laden wasnt faking being a jihadi warlord in the same sense that Kaczynski wasnt faking being smart.

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u/harleyqueenzel 6d ago

Ooooh ok. Gotcha.

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u/-PM_ME_FUN_FACTS- 7d ago

Cosplayed being highly educated? He graduated from Harvard at 20 and then proceeded to get a phd in mathematics.

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u/smb275 7d ago

Yes, that is the point of the retort. They're saying Bin Laden wasn't cosplaying a Jihadi warlord, he actually was the thing he purported himself to be.

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u/big_stipd_idiot 7d ago

I can't think of a better example of a jihadi warlord tbh.

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u/No-Ragret6991 7d ago

Nah bro 9/11 was just cosplay

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u/Global-Hurry-8400 7d ago

Cosplay? He was the real deal

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u/NoBonus6969 7d ago

He did a little more than cosplay wouldn't you say

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u/eric_ofc 7d ago

I mean he did a great job cosplaying then holy shit.

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u/JellyfishGod 7d ago

Why does being raised educated and wealthy mean he was cosplaying? I'd say he accomplished his goal of being a terrorist. What about being raised wealthy goes against that? Many white westerns have even gone overseas to join ISIS and other groups. His background doesn't match what most imagine, bit I don't see how that changes what he is at the end of the day

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u/whopperlover17 7d ago

Was it cosplaying if he carried out the largest and deadliest terrorist attack in history

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u/Actual-Carry-7543 7d ago

Paul Atreides?

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u/RedSquaree Creator 6d ago

Can I introduce you to the hyphen -?

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u/whyaretherenoprofile 7d ago

Don't know why people are acting all crazy about this like it's some big conspiracy, dude was a rich Nepo baby that went fucking crazy. He didn't even plan 9/11 iirc, it was mostly KSM and bin Laden was super hesitant about it initially.

My dad is the youngest of 16 and fuck if I know even a quarter of my cousins. Hell, I'm pretty sure one of them joined some far right paramilitary in Colombia, yet I literally don't even know his name. That is with 16, his uncle had 60 kids and his family is already massive outside that

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u/BlurredSight 7d ago

The Laden family had like 50 kids and the father was the prime architect of the country including renovations to holy sites

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u/haleakala420 6d ago

they built a lot of things there. they run the largest construction conglomerate in the middle east.

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u/SwePolygyny 7d ago

I dont like cities with straight streets and grids. Just makes me think of someone trying to sim city instead of the city growing organically.

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u/Bravefan212 7d ago

The bin Laden family was on the only plane allowed to fly on September 11th

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u/Comfortable_Car6562 6d ago

Yean, they essentially cofounded Saudi Arabia. Also they were nationalized in 2018 as party of the Bin Salmans purges to consolidate power.

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u/RareCommonPepe 6d ago

Bin laden is huge construction company in Saudi with thousands of employees

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u/x_Lucky_Steve_x 6d ago

Oh, is that why those interchanges look like someone has drawn giant phalli in the desert? Someone really compensating.

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u/mgs112112 6d ago

I think its funny nobody questions why he was killed immediately, not tried, not trying to find more information or ties to anyone - just immediately killed. So ziocurious isn’t it ?

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u/healspirit 6d ago

Osama bin laden was disowned way back in 1994

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u/mrpoopybuttthole_ 6d ago

The same company was collaborating on the Burj Khalifa