Former friend says 'Bin Laden loved Bonanza and picnics'

INFOSYSEC/Annanova/Sunday Hearld Sun ^ | 04/21/02 | Hearld Sun Staff

[prisoner6]

Former friend says 'Bin Laden loved Bonanza and picnics'

A Saudi newspaper editor who grew up with Osama bin Laden says the al-Qaida leader loved Bonanza.

Dr Khaled Batarfi says his former neighbour watched television until he was 17.

He added: "He loved action movies, particularly karate and cowboy movies.

"There was a movie, a series called Fury. It was American. Fury was a horse like his. He watched that. And he liked also Bonanza. That was one of the favourites.

He says bin Laden didn't appear to be anti-American then and later took his son there for treatment when he was ill.

Dr Batarfi also told the Sunday Herald Sun he enjoyed looking after his horses and playing football when he was a boy in Jeddah.

He later moved on to organising picnics when he got his first car, an American-built Lincoln Continental, the car used by US presidents.

Dr Batarfi added: "Osama almost always brought the sandwiches which he made himself in the family kitchen after getting the servant, a woman, to leave. It was not correct to share the room. His speciality was tuna sandwiches."

He says he felt "sick and disgusted" when he found out bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks and saw him on TV urging Muslims to kill Americans.

[prisoner6]

Frustrated when his childhood dreams of becoming either a cowboy or fry cook weren't realized, Osama turned to the Dark Side and Terrorism.
Makes sense to me.

Oh, if only he'd been watching say..."I Remember Mama", "The Goldbergs", "Beanie and Cecil", or that one about a Captain in the French Foreign Legion with the little 'Cuffy' kid...

prisoner6

[Persuasion]

I think he was just watching the wrong horse shows.

Mr. Ed would've done the trick!

[Friedrich Hayek]

Frustrated when his childhood dreams of becoming either a cowboy or fry cook weren't realized, Osama turned to the Dark Side and Terrorism. Makes sense to me.

Don't laugh. Remember, Fidel Castro became a Communist after he got cut by the New York Yankees.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Bonanza huh? Well, they say even Hitler loved dogs.......

[this_ol_patriot]

...Osama turned to the Dark Side and Terrorism....

He was a fallen Jeddah Knight.

[Frances_Marion]

Hitler loved dogs more than people (that much is obvious I guess). He was also a failed artist. And it's been theorized that his hatred of jews was almost a sort of dimentiatic grudge...he contracted syphilis from sleeping with a jewish prostitute back in his down-and-out artist days...

[weikel]

I think Vader and Palpatine would be very insulted if you compared them to the idiot raghead Osama.

[this_ol_patriot]

Yeah me too, I said Jeddah because that's where the article said he was a boy and it was a play on words.
By no means did I intend to insult "The Dark Side", Lucasfilms/LucasArts or Yoda.

[weikel]

Do not underestimate the power of the dark side.

[riley1992]

I wonder if he also likes Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain?

[looney tune]

LOL! He's not into yoga, but he's into champagne.

[riley1992]

If he likes making love at midnight in the dunes of the cape, then I'm the lady he's looked for.

[looney tune]

Oh no! Now you have to get together with him and plan your escape. Yikes!

[csvset]

He had a crush on Little Joe.

[FITZ]

almost a sort of dimentiatic grudge...he contracted syphilis from sleeping with a jewish prostitute

Maybe bin Laden contracted AIDS on one of his visits to this country. He looks like he has it.

[Ditter]

EEkkkk! I didn't know I had ANYTHING in common with Hitler. I love dogs, am an artist & my last painting is pretty much a failure. Thats where it ends tho', I don't hate Jews & I don't have syphills.

[Hoosier Patriot]

He had a crush on Little Joe.

True, but I believe he also fantasized about playing the role of Hoss's horse.

Ride 'em cowboy!

[B Knotts]

I think I see what you're getting at here. It may be that that song is so awful, hearing it may be the single event, above all others, that turned bin Laden against the West.

[Snowy]

...I believe he also fantasized about playing the role of Hoss's horse.

I was reading a message board and a gentleman posted a letter from his son who is in or near the action in the middle east. The son said that the local army personel were constantly "propositioning" the American service men. Apparently, that kind of man-man, man-boy "friendship" is very common in that part of the world. Has anyone else here heard of this, or was that father making up stories? I am trying very hard to understand the culture of arabs, and am finding it very difficult.