February 11, 2009 4:34 PM
- Text
British Granny Married Bin Laden Son
(CBS/AP)
A British divorcee has married one of the sons of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, she told British television Wednesday.
Jane Felix-Browne, a 51-year-old grandmother from Moulton, Cheshire, in northwest England, married 27-year-old Omar bin Laden in Egypt in April, she told ITV's GMTV program.
Felix-Browne, who also uses the name Zaina Mohamad, is a local councilor with three children and five grandchildren. It is her sixth marriage.
She told The Times and Sun newspapers, which initially reported the story, that she met Omar bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader's fourth son, while riding a horse near the Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt. She had been in the country to undergo medical treatment for multiple sclerosis, she said.
The couple held Islamic marriage ceremonies in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Felix-Browne said.
In a new audiotape on Tuesday, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri threatened Britain with more attacks, accusing London of defying the Islamic world by honoring novelist Salman Rushdie.
Last month, attackers failed in two car separate car bombing attacks in London and Glasgow. In July 2005, four suicide bombers killed over 50 in coordinated bombings on London's transit system.
Felix-Browne said she "married the son, not the father."
"I just married the man I fell in love with — to me he is just Omar," she told The Times. "I hope people will take a step back and think what it is like when they fell in love."
She told GMTV that she would one day like to meet her father-in-law to find out if he really is the mastermind behind the terrorist atrocities he is accused of.
"You know, the newspapers say he did it and certain newspapers say they don't know, so I would ask, that is one question I would ask. 'Did you do it?' Because I don't know," she said in a telephone interview broadcast live.
She said her husband, a scrap dealer and one of 18 brothers, was raised in Sudan and Afghanistan after his father was expelled from Saudi Arabia for anti-government actions. She added that father and son last met in Afghanistan in 2000.
"He left his father because he did not feel it was right to fight or to be in an army. Omar was training to be a soldier and he was only 19."
Felix-Browne said she has become Omar bin Laden's second wife, and is hoping to arrange a visa for her new husband to visit Britain, but acknowledged it would be difficult.
"Because my husband's name is bin Laden he finds it very difficult to travel anywhere," she told The Sun.
A spokesperson for the British Consulate said Omar bin Laden's application was rejected because he had failed to provide them with his father's permanent address, CBS News has learned.
The couple last met in April when Felix-Browne spent three weeks at her new husband's home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
News of the nuptials has caused a ripple of excitement in Moulton — a quaint English country village more accustomed to community fairs than hosting the world's media.
"It gave me goose bumps when I heard the news," said nursery supervisor Gill Targett. "It's all very scary considering what Osama bin Laden has done to so many innocent people. He's still a relation and blood is thicker than water."
Jane Felix-Browne, a 51-year-old grandmother from Moulton, Cheshire, in northwest England, married 27-year-old Omar bin Laden in Egypt in April, she told ITV's GMTV program.
Felix-Browne, who also uses the name Zaina Mohamad, is a local councilor with three children and five grandchildren. It is her sixth marriage.
She told The Times and Sun newspapers, which initially reported the story, that she met Omar bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader's fourth son, while riding a horse near the Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt. She had been in the country to undergo medical treatment for multiple sclerosis, she said.
The couple held Islamic marriage ceremonies in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Felix-Browne said.
In a new audiotape on Tuesday, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri threatened Britain with more attacks, accusing London of defying the Islamic world by honoring novelist Salman Rushdie.
Last month, attackers failed in two car separate car bombing attacks in London and Glasgow. In July 2005, four suicide bombers killed over 50 in coordinated bombings on London's transit system.
Felix-Browne said she "married the son, not the father."
"I just married the man I fell in love with — to me he is just Omar," she told The Times. "I hope people will take a step back and think what it is like when they fell in love."
She told GMTV that she would one day like to meet her father-in-law to find out if he really is the mastermind behind the terrorist atrocities he is accused of.
"You know, the newspapers say he did it and certain newspapers say they don't know, so I would ask, that is one question I would ask. 'Did you do it?' Because I don't know," she said in a telephone interview broadcast live.
She said her husband, a scrap dealer and one of 18 brothers, was raised in Sudan and Afghanistan after his father was expelled from Saudi Arabia for anti-government actions. She added that father and son last met in Afghanistan in 2000.
"He left his father because he did not feel it was right to fight or to be in an army. Omar was training to be a soldier and he was only 19."
Felix-Browne said she has become Omar bin Laden's second wife, and is hoping to arrange a visa for her new husband to visit Britain, but acknowledged it would be difficult.
"Because my husband's name is bin Laden he finds it very difficult to travel anywhere," she told The Sun.
A spokesperson for the British Consulate said Omar bin Laden's application was rejected because he had failed to provide them with his father's permanent address, CBS News has learned.
The couple last met in April when Felix-Browne spent three weeks at her new husband's home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
News of the nuptials has caused a ripple of excitement in Moulton — a quaint English country village more accustomed to community fairs than hosting the world's media.
"It gave me goose bumps when I heard the news," said nursery supervisor Gill Targett. "It's all very scary considering what Osama bin Laden has done to so many innocent people. He's still a relation and blood is thicker than water."
Popular Now in World
- Iran allegedly cuts off Internet access
- Pakistani fishermen reel in 40-foot whale shark
- Iran: We can attack U.S. interests "anywhere"
- Syria rebels bloodied, battered, but defiant
- "Voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse abandons Qaddafi
- Girl with Two Heads Born in Philippines
- Booze and bikinis in a new Egypt
- Cockpit error sent 737 into Pacific nose dive
- Israel To U.S.: Don't Delay Iraq Attack
- 23 women convicted of child pornography in Sweden
- Syria's Christians stand by Assad
- Stephen Hawking: Heaven is "a fairy story"
- 130 Doctors Without Borders staff go missing
- GlobalPost: Qaddafi apparently sodomized
- Greek Cruise Ship Sinks
- Costa Concordia wreck seen from space
- Iran helping al Qaeda? War "hysteria" builds
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook
on CBS News
- Mistrial declared for woman accused in baby death
- Arrest in Pa. party shooting that killed 1, hurt 7
- Miss. man executed for convenience store killings
- Memo offers new account of ATF agent's NY shooting
on Facebook
- Adele sings a cappella for Anderson Cooper
- Josh Powell had "incestuous" images on his home computer, authorities say
on CBS News
