For many in the Bin Laden family, the announcement from Hamza was anything but welcome news. Life had finally become normal for them after the death of Osama and now, with this latest threat, it could pull them back into a mess that was not their making.
They once again become a target of international opposition to terrorism. Others in the family may welcome it, even though it has little chance of working out for them. Al Qaeda does not have the resources they once had and their manpower has been decimated by war and by defection to other Islamic terrorist groups.
“We thought everyone was over this,” Hassan bin Laden, an uncle of Hamza, told The Guardian.
“Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying, ‘I am going to avenge my father.’ I don’t want to go through that again. If Hamza was in front of me now, I would tell him: ‘God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don’t retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul.'”
After the September 11 attacks, some members of bin Laden’s family remained in touch while others led a quiet life under the supervision of the Saudi government and international intelligence agencies.
Many of the bin Ladens have sought to put their history behind them by avoiding media and politics, but Hamza’s apparent support of his father’s ideas suggests Osama bin Laden’s embracing of terrorism may have come back to haunt them.
At this time his boast does not resonate because he would not have the powerhouse his father built, nor does he have the experience in the war his father gained against the Russians. Still, one would have to be a fool to ignore the problem.