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Bin Laden Concerns

Peace ambassador/Frank Zappa look-alike Omar bin Laden has been denied British residency, and his tattooed cougar of a wife is irked about it. Gulf Times: 

CAIRO: Osama bin Laden’s son Omar is to appeal after his application to move to Britain with his British wife was rejected because his presence might cause “considerable public concern,” his wife said yesterday.

Omar bin Laden, 27, married Zaina Alsabah, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne, in Omar’s homeland of Saudi Arabia last year and the couple had hoped to move to Britain to be near the rest of Zaina’s family.

Zaina Alsabah said that the couple’s lawyers are appealing the decision, which she described as “illegal” and prompted by a flurry of recent media reports about and interviews with Omar Osama bin Laden.

A statement from the couple’s attorneys cited an unnamed British consular official in Cairo as saying that bin Laden’s son was rejected because his presence in Britain would cause “public concern” due to statements he has made to the Press.

Omar, who says he hasn’t seen his father since he left Afghanistan in 1999 at the age of 19, now lives in Cairo with Alsabah, whom he married in 2006. The couple wants to settle in Britain. Omar applied for a residency visa last October and was interviewed at the British Embassy in Cairo on April 17.

“He didn’t even know about 7/7. He said ‘Now I know about it of course I’m sorry.’ It’s not Omar’s fault. There are obvious reasons he won’t say his father, or anyone else, is a terrorist.” UK-based lawyer Amjad Malik released the embassy’s assessment which said his “exclusion from the United Kingdom is conducive to the public good.” The British embassy said it did not comment on individual visa applications.

“Omar is a good man - he’s fighting for peace,” Zaina said.

“He’s always condemned bombings and the killing of civilians, no matter where they’re from.” Lawyer Malik said that “an individual’s rights have been overridden by newspaper articles and his biological relationship to his father… this refusal is discriminatory because he has no control over choosing his parents.”

The AP’s version adds that the Brit consular officer wrote bin Laden’s presence “would not be conducive to the public good.”  Too bad.  I have a feeling this guy will prove to be an entertaining wackjob, and despite his ambivalence about the old man, maybe even useful.  I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the 3,000-mile horse race for peace. Sounds a lot more interesting than John and Yoko doing a week’s worth of press conferences in bed.

Dashing, adventurous lad, in the family tradition. I’m looking forward to years of tabloid fodder.  I’m with Becks H in comments, who says let him in. Better to keep him where you can see him. He’ll be good fun and he can’t do much more harm than your average Royal. Anyway, icing him out is just likely to send him back to Dad.

I was hunting around for that great shot of Mrs. bin Laden’s tats that ran when she and young bin Laden first hit the news. Can’t find it. Found the one purporting to be of her tits, but it’s off some Romanian site and I’m not touching that. So here’s a more demure cougar, as she might be seen, say, at a bin Laden family gathering:

Hang on, who else but Theo Spark to the rescue. If you don’t care to see more of Mrs. bin Laden, scroll no farther:

Topics: al qaeda, Britain

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:33 pm on Thursday, May 1, 2008

5 Responses to “Bin Laden Concerns”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   May 1st, 2008 at 10:32 pm

   I can’t speak to Mr. bin Laden’s political or religious views (although they seem not to be those of his father, whom he probably barely knows, being one of a litter of offspring by different wives), but in America, we call that a “green card wedding”.

   Britain should let him in. He’s bound to be high profile, so how much trouble could he be? Other than the obvious ones of brawls in nightclubs and paternity suits and messy divorces?

2. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   May 1st, 2008 at 11:38 pm

   Maybe Theo will sponsor him?

3. MikeH Says:
   May 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 am

   Leave him in Cairo! Better that than finding out what the unintended consequence was.

   The whole brood winding up in Britain? They have enough trouble with the unintended consequences they already have in country.

4. Fatty Bolger Says:
   May 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 am

   I understand completely. Best not to let this one harmless man into the country, lest he cause “considerable public concern,” while they carefully ignore the much bigger and very real problem staring them in the face.

5. Michael Lonie Says:
   May 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 am

   The woman in those pictures is 52? Sorry, I don’t believe it.

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