The Eleventh Day

  64 Zawahiri: Wright, 128, 139–, Bergen, OBL I Know, 203, 319–, int. Huthaifa Azzam, 2006, courtesy PaladinInVision;

  65 Rahman: bin Ladens & Sasson, 130–, Wright 138, Bergen, OBL I Know, 68;

  66 Mohammed: McDermott, 121, Financial Times, 2/15/03, Bergen, OBL I Know, 300;

  67 Yousef: Reeve, 120, Miller & Stone, 78, Newsday, 4/16/95, Bergen, Holy War Inc., 138;

  68 Atta: McDermott, 15–, CR, 160;

  69 Hanjour/Jarrah/Shehhi: eds. Der Spiegel, 253–, McDermott, 50, The Independent (U.K.), 9/16/01;

  70 “concerned, sad”: Wright, 75–.

  71 “to reclaim”: Bergen, Scheuer, OBL I Know, 15, Osama bin Laden, 77. Suggestions that Palestine was not an issue for bin Laden do not appear well founded. It appears true, however, that he neither directed terrorist attacks on Israeli targets nor supplied funds to Palestinian groups. The Palestinian author and journalist Abdel Bari Atwan, who interviewed him in 1996, said Palestine “wasn’t actually No. 1 on his agenda … he wasn’t really that informed about Palestine. He didn’t like Yasser Arafat … maybe because he was involved with the Soviets … used to be considered an unbeliever.” For obvious reasons, organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been careful not to associate their groups with bin Laden (not a genuine: e.g., Gold, 10; Atwan: int., 2007; Hamas, etc.: Burke, 12).

  72 boycott: bin Ladens & Sasson, 61, 110, ed. Lawrence, 115;

  73 not drink: bin Ladens & Sasson, 60, Bergen, OBL I Know, 39.

  74 “The Americans”: ed. Lawrence, 115. Recalling this speech in an interview after 9/11, bin Laden said it occurred in 1986. Author Lawrence Wright, in his book The Looming Tower, cites a speech with almost identical wording that he made in 1990. That speech did not mention Palestine (ed. Lawrence, 115, Wright, 151, 405n);

  75 time and again: e.g., ed. Lawrence, 9, 36, McDermott, 253–, CBS News, 5/16/08.

  76 “America allowed”/“The idea”: Lawrence, 239. Then–U.S. secretary of state Alexander Haig was to insist that the United States was not a party to the Israeli invasion. Others, including the military correspondent for Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, have said Washington gave Israel “the green light” (Haig: Business Week, 2/20/10; others: Foreign Policy, Spring 1983, Fisk, The Great War, 1037);

  77 “The events”: MSNBC, 11/29/07.

  CHAPTER 19

  1 stocked up/despised Saddam/“will attack”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 79–, Coll, Bin Ladens, 373, Bergen, OBL I Know, 179;

  2 “The defense”: David Ottoway, “The U.S. and Saudi Arabia Since the 1930s,” Foreign Policy Research Institute, 8/09;

  3 “If you ask”: William Simpson, The Prince, NY: Regan, 2006, 205;

  4 delegation: ibid., 209–, Richard Clarke, 57–;

  5 “flooding”: H. Norman Schwarzkopf with Peter Petre, It Doesn’t Take a Hero, NY: Bantam, 1992, 353;

  6 “This is something”: int. Prince Amr ibn Mohammad al-Faisal, Frontline: “House of Saud,” www.pbs.org;

  7 religious study/“the last”: excerpts, Frontline: “Saudi Time Bomb,” www.pbs.org;

  8 Committee raids: Felice Gaer et al., “Report on Saudi Arabia,” U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Washington, D.C., 5/2/03;

  9 Censors: bin Ladin, 63;

  10 hall/phone recordings: New Yorker, 1/5/05;

  11 Bible: WSJ, 5/20/05;

  12 “The unbelievers”: ed. Nina Shea, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques,” Center for Religious Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1/28/05;

  13 debate/Abdullah urged: Rachel Bronson, Thicker than Oil, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, 194, Posner, Secrets, 135–;

  14 “Okay”: William Simpson, 209;

  15 female soldiers/​entertainers/​carols/​Sabbath/​Bibles/​Ramadan: Schwarzkopf, 386–, 430, 461–, William Simpson, 225–;

  16 “Pollution”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 84;

  17 OBL meetings/​Sultan/​“kept asking”: MFR 04019365, 2/24/04, Snell et al. to Zelikow, “Summary of Interviews Conducted in Saudi Arabia,” 2/25/04, CF, Arab News, 11/7/01, bin Ladens & Sasson, 82–, ed. Lawrence, 257; Prince Sultan is the father of long-time Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar (William Simpson, 12);

  18 “didn’t care”: MFR 04019365, 2/24/04;

  19 “Don’t call”: transcript, Frontline: “House of Saud,” 11/23/04, www.pbs.org;

  20 OBL outraged/​“colony”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 83–;

  21 5,000 remained/bases: Alfred Prados, “Saudi Arabia, Current Issues and U.S. Relations,” Foreign Affairs, Defense & Trade Division, Congressional Research Service, Washington, D.C., 9/15/03, “Desert Stronghold,” Air Force Magazine, 2/99, BBC News, 4/29/03.

  22 groundswell: NYT, 3/7/04, Gold, 161, Yemen: int. of Abdul Bari Atwan for PaladinInVision, 2006, Miller & Stone, 158–, Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, 155;

  23 passport/movements: Lacey, Inside the Kingdom, Atwan, 161;

  24 cleared: CR, 57;

  25 “One day”/business: bin Ladens & Sasson, 85;

  26 conference: Coll, Ghost Wars, 231–;

  27 “We didn’t say”: int. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Frontline: “Looking for Answers,” www.pbs.org.

  28 “the U.S. government”: Coll, Ghost Wars, 231. Bin Laden himself would reportedly claim that, far from the Saudis having asked to protect him, the regime asked the intelligence services in Pakistan—his first stop on leaving his homeland—to kill him. (NYT, 1/14/01);

  29 “using the”: Scheuer, Osama bin Laden, 83, 218n27.

  30 “pledge”: Wright, 161. The PBS Frontline program, meanwhile, obtained a document stating that an unnamed bin Laden brother persuaded Naif’s younger brother, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, to lift the travel ban while Naif was out of the country (Prince Ahmed: Documents supplied to Frontline by an associate of OBL, “Hunting bin Laden,” www.pbs.org).

  31 “with help”: CR, 57. On the purported help from a “dissident” royal family member, the sources the Commission cited were self-confessed 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and fellow terrorist Tawfiq bin Attash—under interrogation after their capture—and bin Laden associate Jamal al-Fadl, who defected in 1996. (CR, 57, 467n33).

  32 “Go to Sudan”: Reeve, 172;

  33 property: Bergen, Holy War Inc., 78;

  34 wives/motorcade/guest: bin Ladens & Sasson, 94, Burke, 143–;

  35 Khartoum houses/no pictures/austerity: bin Ladens & Sasson, 94–, 107–, 111–, Bergen, OBL I Know, 123;

  36 “You know”: int. Jamal Khashoggi for Paladin InVision, 2006;

  37 no air conditioning: bin Ladens & Sasson, 115, Los Angeles Times, 12/19/09;

  38 no education for girls: bin Ladens & Sasson, 109–;

  39 more time: ibid., 96;

  40 “wooden cane”: ibid., 116;

  41 apoplectic/“Why do”: ibid., 164;

  42 “My husband”: bin Ladens & Sasson, 97;

  43 “agriculturalist”: The Independent (U.K.), 12/6/93;

  44 training/plotting: MFR 04013804, 12/4/04, Staff Statement 15, CO;

  45 “Jihad”: Burke, 73–;

  46 “every place”: ed. Lawrence, 49.

  47 Yousef Philippines: Fouda & Fielding, 94, Maria N. Ressa, Seeds of Terror, NY: Free Press, 2003, 26;

  48 Yousef names: statement by Michael McCurry, U.S. Dept. of State, 7/23/93, Reeve, 112.

  49 “emissary”: Zachary Abuzza, “Belik Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf,” Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 9/05. The source of the “emissary from bin Laden” quote was Edwin Angeles, a Philippines government agent who penetrated the separatist group. Angeles is variously described as having been an “undercover agent for the Defense Intelligence Group in the Philippines’ Defense Department”—penetrating the Abu Sayyaf group—or a defector. The Abu Sayyaf group launched some seventy attacks between 1991 and 1995, killed about 136 people and injured hundreds (“Balik-Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf,” WP, 6/5/95, Marites Dañguilan Vitug & Gl
enda M. Gloria, Under the Crescent Moon, Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo Center for Social Policy, 2000, 198–, 205).

  50 on behalf of Rahman: WP, 6/5/95;

  51 OBL would claim: ed. Lawrence, 53.

  CHAPTER 20

  1 twenties/​lean/​degrees/​“hard-working”: Lance, 1000 Years, 9, 460n19, The Times (London), 10/18/97;

  2 “poised”/languages: Statement of Thomas Pickard, 4/13/04, CO;

  3 political/​“Palestinian”/​“the right”: The Times (London), 10/18/97, Reeve, 125, 127, Bergen, OBL I Know, 145;

  4 explosives/​“Chemist”: Bergen, OBL I Know, Abuzza, “Belik Terrorism”;

  5 phone call: U.S. v. Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman et al.

  6 “Boom!”: McDermott, 130. The friend, Abdul Murad, was later to become deeply involved in Yousef’s plotting and later—once captured—talked at length. The “chocolate” story is from the record of an FBI interview (FBI 302 of int. Abdul Hakim Ali Murad, 5/11/95, “Various Interrogation Reports,” B24, T1, CF).

  7 “break”/“exploding”: U.S. v. Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman et al., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd District, 189 F.3d 88, 8/16/99, “The Muslim Interfaith Charade,” 5/6/08, www.militantislammonitor.org, Daniel Benjamin & Steven Simon, The Age of Sacred Terror, NY: Random House, 2003, 6–. Heavy with implication as they are, one cannot read too much into the Blind Sheikh’s remarks. In captivity, Yousef would insist that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was his idea and his alone. His contact Abdul Murad, for his part, would reportedly claim he proposed the bombing—after Yousef asked him to suggest a suitable “Jewish” target (McDermott, 130, Lance, 1000 Years, 199, Peter Lance, Triple Cross, NY: Regan, 2006, 121);

  8 “targeting”: Village Voice, 3/30/93.

  9 flew NY/​passports/​suspicions/​asylum: Staff Report, “Monograph on Terrorist Travel, CO, The Times (London), 10/18/97, MFR 04020564, 3/22/04. The accomplice was Ahmad Ajaj. He would remain incarcerated until Yousef’s attempt to bring down the Twin Towers in February 1993, was later tried as an accomplice, and is serving a life sentence (Staff Report, “Monograph on Terrorist Travel,” CO).

  10 Al Khifa contact: The contact at the Al Khifa center was Mahmoud Abouhalima, an Egyptian-born veteran Yousef had reportedly known in Afghanistan. Yousef’s principal accomplices in the weeks that followed were Mohammad Salameh, a Palestinian whose grandfather and uncle had served time in Israeli prisons, Nidal Ayyad, a chemical engineer—like Yousef born in Kuwait—and a Jordanian named Eyad Ismoil. There was no hard evidence to implicate Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, but he was charged in the summer of 1993 with conspiring with others to commit bombings of other New York landmarks (Reeve, 143, 114, 62, Village Voice, 3/30/93, U.S. v. Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman et al., S5 93 Cr. 181, 1/17/96).

  11 Yousef acquired/​loaded/​rented/​escape: Reeve, 6–, 24–, 36–, Burke, 101;

  12 “largest”: Reeve, 154;

  13 earthquake/“like Christmas tree”/​devastation/​elevators/​dead: ibid., 10–, 13–, 15;

  14 “Achilles’ heel”: New Yorker, 3/30/93;

  15 bring down Tower: NYT, 6/9/02, Wright, 178;

  16 “Liberation”/“The American”/“Our calculations”/phoned in: Lance, Triple Cross, 116, Burke, 111, WP, 9/13/01.

  17 tracked down/identified: Reeve, 39–, 42–, 56, U.S. v. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef et al., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 8/01, CR, 72–.

  18 plot new mayhem: In July 1993, five months after attacking the World Trade Center, Yousef tried to bomb the home of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, then a candidate for prime minister. He suffered a serious eye injury when the detonator exploded, and spent months recovering. By early 1994 he was in Thailand and again preparing a bomb attack—on the Israeli embassy. That attack also failed at the last moment, when an accomplice crashed the van carrying the bomb to the target. Yousef mulled attacking President Bill Clinton, either with explosives or a rocket, when he visited Manila in November 1994. The following month, with Pope John Paul due to arrive in the city, he prepared a number of pipe bombs. He and accomplice Abdul Murad had already purchased priest’s clothing, Bibles, and crucifixes—as cover for those carrying the bombs to the target—when police raided their bomb factory (see text) (Bhutto: Reeve, 50–, 69, Vitug & Gloria, 231; Thailand: Reeve, 63–; Clinton: Reeve, 76–, CNN, 8/25/98; John Paul: Ressa, 31–, Reeve, 78, 85–).

  19 Pope/“Just some”/“Saeed” arrest: WP, 12/30/01.

  20 tortured/“Agents hit”: Vitug & Gloria, 223, McDermott, 153. The reporters were Marites Dañguilan Vitug, who has reported for Newsweek and The Christian Science Monitor, and Glenda Gloria, who holds a master’s degree in political sociology from the London School of Economics. The reporting cited here is from the award-winning book on the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao, in the eastern Philippines. (Vitug & Gloria, 222–).

  21 transcript: Murad Interrogation, 1/7/95, posted at www.thesmokinggun.com, & see NY Daily News, 7/24/96, Ressa, 39–;

  22 Murad/“to blow up”/​summoned/​disguises/​watches: FBI 302 of int. Abdul Hakim Ali Murad, 5/11/95, “Various Interrogation Reports,” B24, T1, CF, Lance, 1000 Years, 259;

  23 device in theater: Reeve, 77, Benjamin & Simon, 493, Lance, 1000 Years, 236–;

  24 Italian/bomb: Lance, 1000 Years, 237–, Reeve, 78–;

  25 Murad bomb/Parker pen/“cause”: FBI 302 of int. Abdul Hakim Ali Murad; United Flight 2: Philippine National Police (PNP) “After Debriefing Report,” 1/17/95;

  26 11 airliners/terrorists: Reeve, 90–, 94–;

  27 “TIMER”: WP, 12/20/01;

  28 airlines alerted/grounded: Richard Clarke, 93–, MFR 04017178, 11/21/03, Lance, Triple Cross, 441;

  29 4,000 could have died: Reeve, 90.

  30 “BOJINKA”: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly told CIA interrogators after 9/11 that bojinka was not a Serbo-Croatian word for “big bang,” as reported—just “a nonsense word he adopted after hearing it on the front lines in Afghanistan.” The authors have been unable to pin down a meaning for the word in Serbo-Croat, but there is a Croatian word bočnica, meaning “boom” (explosion: Time, 1/1/95; loud bang: WP, 5/19/02; big bang: www.FrontPageMagazine.com, 5/20/02; boom: www.eudict.com; “a nonsense”: CR, 488n7).

  31 Yousef arrested: Katz, 162–, 186–, Reeve, 101;

  32 cooperative Bhutto: John Esposito, Political Islam, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1997, 150;

  33 face trial: Reeve, 237;

  34 Found guilty/“I am”: ibid., 242, CNN, 9/5/96, 11/12/97;

  35 240 years: NYT, 4/5/03.

  36 helicopter/​“See”: Coll, Ghost Wars, 272. This exchange has been described several times, with varying details. They are summarized by author Peter Lance in his book 1000 Years for Revenge, 298, 482n13;

  37 prostrate: Lance, 1000 Years, 9–;

  38 mastermind: Coll, Ghost Wars, 273, NYT, 4/12/95—citing Al Hayat; leaders inspired: Coll, Ghost Wars, 272.

  39 “substantial”: Staff Statement 15, CO, Peter Lance, Cover-Up, NY: Regan, 2004, 209—the staff member was Douglas MacEachin;

  40 camp: Corbin, 46–, Reeve, 120, Benjamin & Simon, 8, 503n14, Los Angeles Times, 9/11/02 & see Evan Kohlmann, “Expert Report I: U.S. v. Oussama Kassir,” 3/09;

  41 “emissary”: Abuza, “Balik Terrorism”;

  42 separatist: Time, 6/17/02, Reeve, 136, 156–;

  43 manual: NYT, 1/14/01, 6/9/02, Lance, 1000 Years, 110;

  44 calls: Reeve, 47–, Lance, 1000 Years, 234;

  45 Beit Ashuhada: “Summary of Captioned Investigation as of 11/4/01,” PENTTBOM, 11/5/01, authors’ collection, Cooley, 102, “State Dept. Fact Sheet on Bin Laden,” 8/14/96 reprinted in Brisard & Dasquié, 169.

  46 “good friend”/“trenches”: transcript int. of OBL for ABC News, Frontline: “Hunting bin Laden,” www.pbs.org, Miller & Stone, 138–, 189. The separatist leader with whom Yousef had early contact in the Philippines was Abdurajak Janjalani, the founder of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group. As identified in a previo
us note, the companion refused admission was Ahmad Ajaj. The Yousef accomplice who had fought with bin Laden was Wali Kahn Amin Shah (Reeve, 136, 156–, CR, 59).

  47 Shaikha/​“Imagine”: CNN, 11/24/04, 9/24/06, Bergen, OBL I Know, 46–, Wright, 97–;

  48 “missionary”: “Mohammad Khalifa’s Network in the Philippines,” in ed. J. M. Berger, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Vol. 1, INTELWIRE, 2007;

  49 “philanthropist”: The Inquirer (Philippines), 1/22/07, Vitug & Gloria, 208, 213, 235–;

  50 OBL Philippines: Ressa, 16;

  51 spreading money: ibid., 27, 73, 107, 227n22, Christian Science Monitor, 2/1/02;

  52 introduced Yousef: Ressa, 108;

  53 left country/police report: Ressa, 10–, 16;

  54 arrested: “Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support for Motion re Return of Property,” Mohammad Jamal Khalifa v. U.S., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Cr 95–, in ed. Berger;

  55 phone book: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation, Inc. et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 02 CR 0414, 4/29/02, in ed. Berger;

  56 bomb factory: J. M. Berger, “Mohammad Jamal Khalifa: Life and Death Secrets,” 1/31/07, INTELWIRE;

  57 explosives/weaponry: “In the Matter of Mohammad J. Khalifah, Respondent,” U.S. Dept. of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, A29–457–661, 3/10/95, in ed. Berger; Khalifa, entry for OBL: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation, Inc., et al.; card in suitcase/Khalifa alias: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation Inc., et al.; co-conspirator: ed. Berger, Khalifa, iii.

  58 “alleged financier”: JI, Report, 128. The “alleged financier” reference also appears in a post-9/11 FBI report. A CIA investigation, the BBC was reportedly told by an agency interviewee in 1998, indicated that bin Laden was “Yousef’s principal financial backer.” The overall story of the way Khalifa was handled by U.S. authorities in 1995 remains complex and unsatisfactorily explained. His U.S. visa had been withdrawn on the ground that he had “engaged in terrorist activity,” not in the United States but in Jordan, where he had been convicted in absentia in connection with a bombing campaign. Khalifa was subsequently deported to Jordan, retried, and acquitted—though he admitted that he had known the bombers and sent them funds. Khalifa was then allowed to leave for Saudi Arabia. He claimed in interviews after 9/11, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that he and bin Laden had been estranged since the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Khalifa was killed by unknown assailants in Madagascar in 2007—days after Interpol had forwarded a bulletin on him to U.S. agencies. Relevant Interpol documents are heavily redacted. (“alleged financier”: “Summary of Captioned Investigation as of 11/4/01,” PENTTBOM, 11/5/01, authors’ collection; “Yousef’s principal”: Vitug & Gloria, 234; “engaged”: Mohammad Jamal Khalifah v. U.S., Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Motion for Return of Property, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, CR 95–, 3/6/95; in absentia/​retried/​acquitted: ed. Berger, Khalifa, ii–; admitted: John Doe v. Al Baraka Investment & Development Corporation et al., Complaint, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; estranged: e.g. CNN, 9/2/07, Wright, 113; killed/Interpol: J. M. Berger, “U.S., Interpol Tracking Khalifa in Days Before Madagascar Murder,” 2/16/07, INTELWIRE).