>What will work out best, even in the short run, I believe, is that for
>all those in the U.S. who see the need at all for an organized
>resistance _outside_ electoral politics, devote themselves to that
>effort, and that it may even be especially important to do so when so
>many of the best and the brightest on the left are opting for a
>temporary 'alliance' with the DP.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/international/europe/07FPRO.html>:
>Mrs. bin Ladin's father-in-law, Muhammad bin Laden, an illiterate
>worker from Yemen who created the business, had already died. But
>Mrs. bin Ladin began to meet his offspring: 25 sons and 29
>daughters, begotten with 22 wives. Osama was just another brother,
>although more devout than most, Mrs. bin Ladin said. That changed in
>1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and he joined the
>volunteers to fight Communism with the support of the Saudi
>government. "The family talked a lot about him then. They admired
>what he was doing, he became a hero," she said.
>
>She has met Osama bin Laden a few times. At their first encounter,
>Mrs. bin Ladin was at home, in Jidda, when he came by looking for
>his brother, Yeslam. As soon as her brother-in-law saw her, she
>recalled, he turned his head and angrily waved her away. "My face
>was not covered by a veil," she said. "He couldn't bear it and
>walked off."
>
>Other relatives knew how stern and ostensibly pious he was, she
>continued. Once, during an outing to a family country home, she
>said, "Osama and his wife Najwah were there." Their infant son,
>Abdallah, was practically dehydrated in the 100 degree heat and the
>baby was howling, too small to take water by spoon.
>
>But he could not be given water from a bottle because "Osama had
>some dogmatic idea about not allowing the baby a rubber teat," said
>Mrs. bin Ladin, who protested. "The child's mother, the grandmother
>and none of the other women dared to intervene."