March 20, 2002	Wednesday	Muharram 5, 1423

WASHINGTON, March 19: Osama bin Laden’s half brother told CNN on Monday that the world’s most sought-after man is not only alive, but also thtat he does not suffer from a kidney disease that would require dialysis.

Sheikh Ahmad also said his brother Osama was not behind the Sept 11 suicide attacks.

“He is my brother. I know him. I lived with him for years. I know how much he fears God,” Sheikh Ahmad, who did not want his family name used, said in an interview with CNN.

Sheikh Ahmad and Osama have the same mother but different fathers. He said their mother learned through a telephone call three weeks ago that Osama was well, without revealing the source of the call.

The Osama family owns a large construction company in Saudi Arabia and have criticized Osama for condemning the Saudi royal family for siding with the United States against Iraq in the Gulf War.

Sheikh Ahmad, 36, owns an advertising production company that is part of the Osama empire.

He told CNN that he visited Osama a few times in Sudan, and last year in Afghanistan. He said he was “very worried” about his brother after the United States declared him a wanted man, but that his concerns have since eased.

“It’s easier now. We got used to it. We know any minute it’s possible that we will hear some bad news,” he told CNN.

Ahmad deplored the Sept 11 suicide attacks. “Any Muslim wouldn’t accept this,” he said.

There is “no way,” he said, that Osama could have been involved.

Sheikh Ahmad said he and his mother last saw Osama bin Laden at the wedding of one of his sons in Afghanistan in January 2001.

It was there, he added, that Osama told him that reports saying he needed kidney dialysis were false.

“He loved his family and friends, gatherings. He especially adores his mother. First comes God, then his mother.”

That is the side of his half brother that Sheikh Ahmad said he wanted to share, in spite of what others may think of him.

“We grew up together in the same house,” he said. “Osama is known for being a simple person, very merciful, a very soft heart. It’s impossible that anyone would sit with him and not like him or get bored. Frankly, Osama is very close to the heart and very popular.”—AFP