‘Financing extremists?’ History need not doubt

“WASHINGTON — The State Department identified a wealthy Saudi businessman Wednesday as ‘one of the most significant financial sponsors’ worldwide of extremist Islamic activities.

“Osama Bin Ladin, son of a Saudi construction magnate, has been indirectly linked to terrorist activities against Americans and U.S. facilities, including the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993….

“He also is said to have funneled money to Egyptian extremists and financed at least three terrorist training camps in northern Sudan…. ”

— From a wire-service roundup in the Durham Herald-Sun, Aug. 15, 1996

If not the first mention of bin Laden in a North Carolina newspaper (Nexis does have its limits), this item seems to have been among the first.

Headline: “Businessman financing extremists?”