Many top terrorism leaders joined Al Qaeda during this time, and still support Bin Laden today. The Saudis expelled him from the country in 1994, and he set up in Sudan, who expelled him in 1996, partly due to pressure from the United States. They felt his expulsion would "neutralize" the organization and cut it off from his funding operations in the Sudan. However, that was not the case. "Far from being neutralized by his expulsion from Sudan, bin Laden took the offensive against the country he saw as the enemy of Islam and God. On August 23, he issued 'The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places [Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia]' (Piszkiewicz 108). This was aggravated by the U.S. presence in the country after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991 that led to the Gulf War. Another writer notes, "Part of bin Laden's opposition to the presence of U.S. military, presence in Saudi Arabia resulted from the fact that U.S. troops were infidels on or near holy Islamic ground" (Munson). He returned to Afghanistan and began supporting the Taliban fundamentalist movement, which took control of the country in the fall of 1996. The Taliban sheltered him in return for terrorist training, weapons, and funding, and when the Taliban was overthrown by the United States, Bin Laden retreated to hiding in Pakistan. With the success of his terrorist attacks, he has attracted more funding and more ties to other groups. Author Thackrah continues, "As with other terrorist groups operations...

It is a growing international group with links in over 55 countries" (Thackrah 10). Thus, Bin Laden enjoys the support of numerous terrorist leaders across the world, and his influence keeps spreading the longer he remains free.
Bin Laden has extremely close ties to fundamentalism. He is a practicing Sunni Muslim, and was raised by a strict family who adhered to Muslim principles such as multiple wives (his father supposedly sired 55 children). He attended conservative schools in Saudi Arabia, and many biographers believe that some of his professors helped instill fundamentalist beliefs in him at a young age. In addition, like many fundamentalists, Bin Laden has a fanatical desire to see Israel removed from the Arab world, and he targets anyone who supports Israel, such as the United States. Another expert writes, "There will also always be some Muslims (like Osama bin Laden) who will refuse to accept any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than the destruction of the state of Israel" (Munson). His fundamentalist beliefs make him a danger to the western world, and a deadly ally to many other terrorist groups determined to removed American "infidels" from the globe.