Osama bin Laden (ArB: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن ; spelling variations used in English include Usama for the first name and/or bin Ladin for the last name) (born March 10, 1957) is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda. In conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, bin Laden issued two fatwas in 1996 and then again in 1998 that Muslims should force the United States and its allies to withdraw their military forces from the Arabian peninsula, by attacking American military and civilian targets. As part of al-Qaeda, he has been indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists lists, and was indicted by the city of Madrid for involvement in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Although Bin Laden has not been formally indicted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, he has claimed responsibility for them. The attacks involved the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, and American Airlines Flight 77; the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York; severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and the deaths of 2,974 people excluding the hijackers.
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Usage variations of bin Laden's name

Because there is no universally accepted standard in the West for transliterating Arabic words and names into English, bin Laden's name is transliterated in many ways. The version often used by most English-language mass media is Osama bin Laden. Most American government agencies, including the FBI and CIA, use either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin", both of which are often abbreviated to UBL. Less common renderings include "Ussamah Bin Ladin" and "Oussama Ben Laden" (French-language mass media). The latter part of the name can also be found as "Binladen" or "Binladin".

Strictly speaking, Arabic linguistic conventions dictate that he be referred to as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden," as "Bin Laden" is not used as a surname in the Western manner, but simply as part of his name, which in its entirety means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of 'Awad, son of Laden". However, the bin Laden family (or "Binladin", as they prefer to be known) do generally use the name as a surname in the Western style. Consequently "bin Laden" has become nearly universal in Western references to him, Arabic convention notwithstanding.

Bin Laden also has several commonly used aliases and nicknames, including the Prince, the Sheikh, Al-Amir, Abu Abdallah, Sheikh Al-Mujahid, the Lion Sheik, the Director, Imam Mehdi and Samaritan.