Osama Bin Laden's son, Omar, says dad is evil in new memoir

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Omar Osama bin Laden says father gassed his dogs in chemical warfare experiments.

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S son Omar first realized the depth of his father's evil when his beloved dogs were taken away and gassed in a chemical warfare experiment, he says in a new memoir.

Omar also confirms whatU.S.officials have long believed - that his father was tipped off to a 1998 U.S. attempt to kill him.

He writes that Bin Laden got a secret communication and fled his Afghan camp two hours before cruise missiles struck it.

He does not identify the source of the tip, which the U.S. suspects was Pakistani intelligence.

Omar's book, "Growing Up Bin Laden," written with his mother, Najwa - theAl Qaedaleader's first wife - describes the ultimate dysfunctional family.

The Bin Ladens lived austerely as their father staked his horrific claim as the world's most wanted man. His son eventually concluded Bin Laden hated his enemies more than he loved his family.

Omar, 28, describes weeping as a teenager when told that Al Qaeda needed his pets to conduct chemical warfare tests.

"After I learned the truth about the puppies, I turned even further away from my father," whose jihad led only to death, Omar writes in the book set for release bySt. Martin's Presslater this year.

It has been widely reported that Bin Laden's goons tested nerve agents at theDeruntacamp inAfghanistan. In 2002,CNNobtained and showed video of dogs - fully grown - being gassed by visible toxic fumes.

Bin Laden's fourth son admits he knew in advance of plots against targets like the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies inEast Africa, where 224 perished.

He called the 9/11 attacks "horrific." They occurred after he was told by his best friend - Al Qaeda operativeAbu al-Haadi- that a "new mission" would be much bigger than the embassy bombings. Omar mourned al-Haadi's death in the resulting U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.