20 GID/CIA liaison: int. Prince Turki al-Faisal in Arab News, 9/18/02, Anthony Cordesman, “Saudi Security & the War on Terror,” paper for Center for Strategic & International Studies, 4/22/02, Posner, Secrets, 80–, int. Joseph Trento, Joseph Trento, Prelude to Terror, NY: Carroll & Graf, 2005, xiii, 100–, Coll, Ghost Wars, 79–, press briefing, U.S. Dept. of State, 11/2/07;
21 Azzam & OBL: Arab News, 11/7/01; Encyclopedia: Time, 10/21/01, Burke, 3;
22 “To our much”: Burke, 294n5.
23 “a man worth”: The authors have here used the translation provided by the Arab satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, but “worthy of a nation” might be more apt. The Arabic word bin Laden used was “umma“—which Professor Bruce Lawrence interprets as meaning “the global Islamic community, or Islamic supernation” (Transcript, “Usamah Bin-Ladin, the Destruction of the Base,” Al Jazeera, 6/10/99 & see ed. Lawrence, 4fn4, 77).
24 found al Qaeda: Wright, 129–;
25 economics: bin Ladens & Sasson, 29.
26 “God Almighty”: transcript, “Usamah bin-Ladin, The Destruction of the Base,” Al Jazeera, 6/10/99.
27 1377 hegira: Year 1 hegira relates to the year the Prophet Mohammed moved from Mecca to the city of Medina in—Western style—A.D. 622. The February 15 birth date is taken from the 2009 book by bin Laden’s first wife, Najwa, and her son Omar. Bin Laden himself said he thought he was born in the Islamic month that corresponds to January 1958. Other birth dates offered have included March 10, June 30, and July 30, 1957. The author who studied the family in greatest depth, Steve Coll, notes that most Saudis did not note birth dates. The Saudi government was not keeping records at the time bin Laden was born (hegira: ed. Lawrence, x; Feb. 15: bin Ladens & Sasson, 301; himself: Coll, Bin Ladens, 74; other birth dates: AP, 3/11/07, Jean-Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquié, Forbidden Truth, NY: Thunder’s Mouth, 2002, 226, German Nachrichtendienst note seen by authors).
28 full name/al-Qatani: bin Ladens & Sasson, 301;
29 “Lion”: e.g. entry, Muslim Internet Dictionary.
30 “I was named”: transcript, int. of OBL, ABC News, 1/2/99, & see “Usama’s Expedition,” www.al-islam.org. According to Bin Laden’s son Omar, “Ossama Binladen” is the more correct rendering. U.S. officialese, meanwhile, frequently renders the first name as “Usama.” The authors use “Osama bin Laden” because that is the version most commonly used in Western publications. Variations arise as a result of transliteration from the Arabic (bin Ladens & Sasson, 291 & re “Usama” e.g., “Most Wanted List,” www.fbi.gov).
31 “My father”: transcript, “Usmah bin-Laden, Destruction of the Base.” The exact year of Mohamed bin Laden’s birth remains unknown, but he was apparently born in the first decade of the twentieth century. Family biographer Steve Coll writes that he was fourteen or fifteen when he arrived in Saudi Arabia, while author Lawrence Wright reckoned he was twenty-three (Coll, Bin Ladens, 26, 583n11, Wright, 62, & see bin Ladens & Sasson, 292).
32 Mohamed legend/rise, etc.: For the historical background of the bin Ladens’ early lives, the authors have, except where indicated, drawn on Steve Coll’s definitive study, The Bin Ladens, and on Lawrence Wright’s authoritative The Looming Tower.
33 memory: Wright, 65;
34 Mohamed/Saudi royals/loan: Wright, Simon Reeve, The New Jackals, London: André Deutsch, 1999, 158–, Atwan, 40–;
35 “Religion”: Coll, Bin Ladens, 201;
36 Religion/royalty/banning/Wahhabism: Stephen Schwartz, The Two Faces of Islam, NY: Doubleday, 2002, 69–, 261, Posner, Secrets, 18–, Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 10–, Yaroslav Trofimov, The Siege of Mecca, NY: Doubleday, 2007, 13–, 16, Wright, 63;
37 “fascism”: Schwartz, 105;
38 beheading/crucifixion: Amnesty International, “Reported Death Sentences and Executions 2009,” 3/10, John R. Bradley, Saudi Arabia Exposed, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 144, Reuters, 2/22/09, Mark Hollingsworth with Sandy Mitchell, Saudi Babylon, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2006, 62, 228, UPI, 11/4/09, Amnesty International, “Man Beheaded & Crucified,” 6/1/09, AP, 8/19/10;
39 Human rights: Economist, 7/25/09, AFP, 7/23/09;
40 Women: Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 277, Qanta A. Ahmed, In the Land of Invisible Women, Naperville, IL: Source Books, 2008, refs.;
41 Mohamed devout/“Your highness”: transcript, int. OBL by Hamid Mir, 3/19/97, translated by FBIS, bin Ladens & Sasson, 17, Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, London: Gibson Square, 2007, 91.
42 Osama product: Osama told an interviewer he was one of twenty-five sons fathered by Mohamed bin Laden. Author Coll refers to twenty-five sons and twenty-nine daughters. Osama’s son Omar believes Osama was the eighteenth of twenty-two sons. The total number of Mohamed’s offspring must remain approximate (int. of OBL by Hamid Mir, 3/18/97, translation by FBIS, Coll, Bin Ladens, 126–, bin Ladens & Sasson, 292).
43 short marriage/Allia: bin Ladens & Sasson, 291–, Atwan, 41–, Wright, 72;
44 “a shocking”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 169;
45 remarried/loved “more”: Wright, 73, Atwan, 41, bin Ladens & Sasson, 166;
46 “In my whole”/“when he met”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 190, 168–, 40, Bergen, OBL I Know, 17;
47 “Most of us”: Evening Standard (U.K.), 5/26/06;
48 “very anti-Israel”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 7–, Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, 91, Der Spiegel, 6/6/05;
49 bellicose noises/tanks: John Ciorciari, “Saudi-US Alignment After the Six-Day War,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 2, 6/05, David Holden & Richard Johns, The House of Saud, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981, 251–. This according to the Pakistani editor Hamid Mir, citing one of his interviews with Osama bin Laden (Bergen, OBL I Know, 7–);
50 father/10,000: Coll, Bin Ladens, 128, Gunaratna, 17;
51 “right arm”: transcript, int. OBL by Hamid Mir, 3/19/97;
52 $1 billion: as calculated at www.measuringworth.com;
53 present/cars: bin Ladens & Sasson, 20, 169–;
54 “shy … aloof,” etc.: Atwan, 41, Coll, Bin Ladens, 138–, Bergen, OBL I Know, 8, In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, CNN, 8/23/06;
55 Quaker school Beirut/Saudi school: Coll, Bin Ladens, 140–, Wright, 75. Published reports have suggested that later, as a teenager, bin Laden indulged in Beirut’s fabled nightlife. That seems out of character, and family biographer Coll concludes that such stories are mere rumor. They may reflect confusion with one of Osama’s siblings (reports: e.g., see Rex Hudson, The Sociology & Psychology of Terrorism, Washington: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1999, 117, Reeve, 159–, rumor: Coll, Bin Ladens, 141);
56 “extraordinarily”/“not very”/mediocre: Bergen, OBL I Know, 8–;
57 “normal”: Wright, 75;
58 “No calculator”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 42;
59 “top fifty”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 8;
60 taller: Bergen, OBL I Know, 8, 214, Wright, 83;
61 soccer/movies/bully: In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, CNN, 8/23/06. Coll, Bin Ladens, 141, Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 57, Bergen, OBL I Know, 13–.
62 Syria/camping/“soft-spoken”/“unanticipated”/wedding/“so conservative”/married life/11 children: bin Ladens & Sasson, 8–, 12–, 17, 19–, 22, 25, 270, Bergen, OBL I Know, 17;
63 arduous work: Scheuer, Osama bin Laden, 35;
64 shaking hands, etc./rules: Bergen, OBL I Know, 20–, 14–, bin Ladens & Sasson, 19–, 41, Carmen bin Ladin, The Veiled Kingdom, London: Virago, 2004, 76, 91, Le Monde, 10/13/02, Wright, 75–;
65 “Around 18 or 19”: “Dateline,” NBC, 7/10/04;
66 “His family”: Carmen bin Ladin, 77;
67 “following the example”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 22;
68 economics: transcript, int. OBL by Hamid Mir, 3/18/97, Bergen, OBL I Know, 16, bin Ladens & Sasson, 29;
69 “I was almost”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 16;
70 Osama no longer: ibid., 16, 21, Wright, 77, bin Ladens & Sasson, 187;
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71 “impassioned”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 22;
72 Syrian teacher/Muslim Brotherhood/Qur’an: Coll, Bin Ladens, 144–, Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 59–, Wright, 78;
73 wept re Palestine: Wright, 75–;
74 “religious chants”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 15;
75 ’73 war/embargo: Hollingsworth with Mitchell, 93–, 98, Dore Gold, Hatred’s Kingdom, Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2003, 84–;
76 new century: Peter L. Bergen, Holy War Inc., NY: Free Press, 2001, 48.
77 toppling monarchy Iran: Iran, of course, ascribes overwhelmingly not to the Sunni but the Shia branch of Islam. The former predominates in Saudi Arabia;
78 “For forty years”: int. OBL by Hamid Mir, 3/18/97.
79 Mahdi/Grand Mosque seizure: Trofimov, refs. & see esp. 46–, 66–, 69–, 160–. During the siege, according to Jamal Khashoggi, Osama and his half-brother Mahrouz were arrested on suspicion of involvement, but released. Osama’s friend Batarfi said Osama had thought it crazy to “seize the holiest place in Islam, then bring in weapons and kill people.” An Afghan journalist, on the other hand, has quoted him as saying that the men who seized the mosque were “innocent of any crime … true Muslims” (arrested: Trofimov, 247, Wright, 94; Batarfi: Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 59; Afghan journalist: Burke, Al-Qaeda, 57, 41).
80 40,000/100,000: “The 1978 Revolution & the Soviet Invasion,” www.globalsecurity.org;
81 terrible conflict: Coll, Ghost Wars, 49–.
82 “My father”: Bergen, Holy War Inc., 52;
83 “I was put”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 176;
84 “the nightmare”: Mail on Sunday (U.K.), 12/23/01.
CHAPTER 18
1 Badeeb: Coll, Bin Ladens, 248–;
2 “decent”: ibid., 249, citing Badeeb int. Orbit TV, 2001;
3 Turki: profile at www.saudiembassy.net;
4 GID/CIA liaise: Coll, Ghost Wars, 79–, Wright, 99;
5 shuttling/ISI/worked together: ibid., 82–.
6 “When the invasion”: The Independent (U.K.), 12/6/03, Scheuer, Osama Bin Laden, 49. Some historians doubt that bin Laden involved himself in the Afghan episode as promptly as he claimed, but there is no special reason to question his account. One can speculate that his early visit or visits, to Pakistan rather than Afghanistan itself, were made at bin Laden’s initiative—and triggered GID’s decision to use him.
7 “To confront”: France-Soir, 8/27/98, citing int. of 1995;
8 Turki admitted: Arab News, 11/7/01, & see int. Turki al-Faisal, “Inside the Kingdom,” www.pbs.org;
9 “had a strong”: Coll, Bin Ladens, 295–, citing Badeeb int. Orbit, TV, 2001;
10 “He was our”: Coll, Ghost Wars, 87;
11 “to provide”: Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2000, 131, int. of Robert Fisk, 3/5/07, www.democracynow.org;
12 spread/cultivate: Coll, Bin Ladens, 250–;
13 “will not end”: Bergen, Holy War, 53;
14 Saudi support/Azzam’s request: Coll, Bin Ladens, 254, 282, bin Ladens & Sasson, 51.
15 Beit al-Ansar: Rashid, Taliban, 13, Bergen, OBL I Know, 29, Wright, 103–, Coll, Bin Ladens, 256. While the building in Pakistan was “Beit” [Place of] al-Ansar, the apartment used in Germany by Mohamed Atta and his comrades was known by them as “Dar” [House of] al-Ansar. Translations vary—e.g. House of the Supporters v. House of the Followers (CR, 164, 495n82, Fouda & Fielding, 108).
16 Azzam toured: Bergen, OBL I Know, 33, John Cooley, Unholy Wars, London: Pluto, 2002, 69–;
17 Azzam “enlisted”: corr. Barnett Rubin, 2010, New York, 3/27/95.
18 CIA ratcheted/deniability/Pakistan control/ISI: Cooley, xvii, 41–, 64–, 69, 87–, Bergen, Holy War, 63–, 54, Rashid, Taliban, 129–, 184, 248. Veteran intelligence officer Vincent Cannistraro, who was involved in Afghan policy at the time, has said that only half a dozen CIA officers—“administrators”—served in Pakistan at any one time. Milton Bearden, who was station chief in the Pakistani capital, said the agency “did not recruit Arabs.” More obliquely, Bearden has said he “stayed pretty much away from the crowd of Gulf Arabs who were doing the fund-raising.… They were not a major part of the war.” He also said, “We knew who bin Laden was back then.” (Cannistraro: Bergen, Holy War Inc., 65; Bearden: Coll, Ghost Wars, 155, BG, 9/23/01).
19 officers trained/Special Forces: Cooley, 13, 21, 64, 67–, 70, 75–. Jane’s Defence Weekly reported that Pakistani ISI operatives received instruction from “Green Beret commandos and Navy Seals in various U.S. training establishments.” (Jane’s Defence Weekly, 9/14/01;
20 cash went/collaborate OBL: Bergen, Holy War Inc., 68–, Cooley, 47, Rashid, Taliban, 132–;
21 Springmann: transcript of int. Michael Springmann, 7/3/02, www.btinternet.com, “Newsnight,” 11/6/01, http://news.bbc.co.uk, Michael Springmann, “The Hand that Rules the Visa Machine Rocks the World,” Covert Action Quarterly, Winter 01.
22 “former CIA”/“U.S. emissaries”: Reeve, 167, 176n33. Another allegation linking bin Laden to the CIA, however, is certainly unreliable. The author Jim Marrs reported a claim that bin Laden, under the name “Tim Osman,” was brought to America in 1986 to meet government agents. According to Marrs, the meeting was “confirmed” by one of those present, a former FBI agent named Ted Gunderson. Gunderson, however, has made other entirely bizarre assertions (Marrs, 103,415n103, www.tedgunderson.net);
23 OBL “was a product”: Guardian (U.K.), 7/8/05;
24 “I created”: France-Soir, 8/27/98, citing int. of 1995;
25 “Personally”: The Independent (U.K.), 12/6/96.
26 “The Saudi government”: transcript of int. OBL of 10/21/01, CNN, 2/5/02;
27 Najwa overheard/helicopter/“stop thinking”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 32–;
28 Jaji/running: Bergen, OBL I Know, 55, In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, CNN, 8/23/06;
29 Lion’s Den: Scheuer, Osama bin Laden, 61;
30 bravery: int. Huthaifa Azzam, 2006, courtesy Paladin InVision;
31 crying: Bergen, Holy War Inc., 12;
32 “thirst”: Wright, 106;
33 “martyrdom”: ibid., The Independent (U.K.), 12/6/93;
34 “requires”: Coll, Bin Ladens, 255–;
35 “As Muslims”: The Independent (U.K.), 12/6/93;
36 Russian pullout/new phase: Wright, 137, Coll, Bin Ladens, 334, Coll, Ghost Wars, 184–;
37 Jalalabad/“took charge”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 87–, Coll, Bin Ladens, 340;
38 disagreements: Bergen, OBL I Know, 62–, 68, Coll, Bin Ladens, 304, Wright, 112;
39 Azzam death: bin Ladens & Sasson, 78, Bergen, OBL I Know, 92–;
40 hero/Abdullah/feted/talks: Posner, Why America Slept, 44, Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 123, Posner, Why America Slept, 45, bin Ladens & Sasson, 73;
41 back to work: “The Sociology & Psychology of Terrorism,” Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 9/99, 117–, Rashid, Taliban, 133;
42 wives/“his aim”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 49–;
43 jokes: Bergen, OBL I Know, 47, Telegraph (U.K.), 7/23/07;
44 “I have”: ibid.;
45 children/divorce/annulment, etc.: bin Ladens & Sasson, 301–;
46 “I never”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 26;
47 “a good”/“corrupted”/forbade/milk/“We were”/“live just”/asthma/“From the time”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 42–, 54, 60–;
48 “how to be”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 26;
49 Abdullah war zone: bin Ladens & Sasson, 77, 305;
50 “like a”: Coll, Ghost Wars, 153 & see Miller & Stone, 185, int. of Fouad Ajami, 2006, courtesy of Paladin InVision;
51 “still, silent”: Canada Free Press, 9/14/06, www.mail-archive.com.
52 CIA thought: Coll, Ghost Wars, 182–.
53 “tactical alliance”/“In our struggle”: France-Soir, 8/27/98, citing int. of 1995. During the anti-Soviet conflict, bin Laden appeared grateful for the American contribution??
?in private. “In the mid-eighties,” Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar, who was his country’s ambassador to the United States, told CNN’s Larry King, “he came to thank me for my efforts to bring the Americans, our friends, to help us against the atheists” (Larry King Live, CNN, 10/1/01).
54 “Every Muslim”: ed. Lawrence, 87.
55 Rohrabacher: speech, 5/5/04, USA Today, 9/18/01. Rohrabacher, a Republican who was elected to Congress in 1989, is a controversial figure. Given the corroborative accounts that follow, however, this story about bin Laden is credible (controversial: e.g., “Rogue Statesman,” www.ocweekly.com, 9/5/02, Telegraph (U.K.), 9/13/08);
56 Girardet: National Geographic, 12/1/01, In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, CNN, 8/23/06;
57 Simpson: John Simpson, Simpson’s World, NY: Miramax, 2003, 82–, Telegraph (U.K.), 9/16/01, Bergen, Holy War Inc., 65.
58 “vanguard”/“al qaeda”: Bergen, OBL I Know, 75, Gunaratna, 3–;
59 discussed plans: “TAREEKHOSAMA/50/Tareekh Osama,” minutes of meeting 8/11/88, INTELWIRE, Coll, Bin Ladens, 336–, Bergen, OBL I Know, 74–, Wright, 131–, Burke, 1–, ed. Lawrence, 108.
60 never heard/first used: Flagg Miller, “Al-Qaeda as a ‘Pragmatic Base,’ ” Language & Communications, Vol. 28, 2008, “On ‘The Summit of the Hindu Kush’: Osama bin Laden’s 1996 Declaration of War Reconsidered,” speech by Flagg Miller, supplied to authors, int. Huthaifa Azzam, 2006, courtesy Paladin InVision. Only in 1996 did a CIA report refer to “al-Qaeda.” The word was first used by the State Department in 1998 (ed. Lawrence, 108fn);
61 “He rang”: Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 148;
62 “playing”: Rashid, Taliban, 129;
63 “I mentioned”: Benazir Bhutto, Daughter of the East, London: Simon & Schuster, 2008, 410. Bhutto said she first heard of bin Laden in 1989, when told he had bribed members of parliament to vote against her in a no-confidence motion. In 2008, after Bhutto’s assassination, a newspaper editor in Pakistan claimed to have been present when bin Laden tried to bribe then–Pakistan Muslim League party leader—later prime minister—Nawaz Sharif to see that the no-confidence motion was tabled. The newspaper editor had reportedly himself been prosecuted on a separate matter, and the authors have seen no corroboration of this allegation (Bhutto, 405–, Bergen, Holy War Inc., 61, Coll, Ghost Wars, 212, Daily Frontier Post [Pakistan], 7/1/01, & see Reeve, 171, 179).