| Undertoad |
05-26-2008 09:45 AM |
That's possible. The fact that this was originally a Sun item does not speak much to its truthiness.
All Snopes has to say is "...he has never been to the West (save for brief excursion to Sweden as a child and a tour of Oxford in 1971)..." But as proof of that statement they point to a Frontline bio that doesn't mention Sweden. Maybe Frontline edited after getting more detail.
This Guardian article from shortly after 911 seems rather certain it's real:
Quote:
America's most wanted fugitive is wearing flares and a skinny-rib jumper, and smiling broadly, craning his neck so the camera will not miss him. Judging by his smile, and those of his 21 brothers and sisters, he grasps the absurdity of the situation. An improbably large group of fashionable Saudi siblings, sitting on a gas-guzzling American car in the middle of a faded copper-mining town in central Sweden on a bright day in 1971: the photographer from the local daily would hardly have been doing his job had he not requested a group shot. Osama bin Laden and his older brother Salem had first visited Falun the year before, arriving in Copenhagen in a private jet carrying a Rolls-Royce, in which they completed their journey. They were millionaires by then, but they stayed at the cut-price Astoria hotel, where the owner, Christina Akerblad, recalled them spending the days out "on business" and the evenings eating dinner in their rooms. "I remember them as two beautiful boys - the girls in Falun were very fond of them," she said. "Osama played with my two sons, Anders and Gerk, who were seven and five." They kept themselves to themselves. They bought silk shirts. They provided short-lived excitement to bored local policeman who thought they might be drug dealers. They liked it so much they came back the next year, with brothers and sisters in tow. The biggest alleged murderer in modern peacetime history was 14.
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This Guardian item interviews the original journalist who was there for the photo and talked with bin Laden's father for the item. It also suggests the original item from 2001 ran in the Daily Mail as well.
I say it remains an interesting note that he mentioned Sweden in his tape and either he, or just the rest of his family, had a nice vacation there. |
