The Mother of Mohammed
Page 39
Page 298, ‘go after America’: Testimony of Abdurahman Khadr, 13 July 2004.
Page 298, Health and Education Projects International: ‘National Post Apologises to Human Concern International’.
Page 299, ‘Zaynab, his daughter’: see also Wright, pp. 251–5.
Page 299, Taliban’s objections: ‘The Khadr Legacy’; Shepard; Bell, ‘Khadrs Reveal’.
Page 300, letter of introduction: Original sighted by author.
Page 300, British government urged: Stewart Bell, ‘UK Intelligence ID’d Canadian as Bin Laden Aide’, National Post, 12 October 2001.
Page 300, C$70 000: Testimony of Abdurahman Khadr.
Page 301, Ahmed Khadr was killed: ‘Canadian Al-Qaeda Suspect Dead’, CBC News, 24 January 2004,
Page 301, shot in the spine: Shepard; Amnesty International, ‘Pakistan: Human Rights ignored in the “War on Terror”’, 2006,
Page 301, Another son, Omar, was captured: Shepard.
Page 301, threw the grenade: Steven Edwards, ‘Secret Document Casts Doubt on Khadr’s Guilt’, CanWest News Service, 5 February 2008,
Page 301, youngest detainee: ‘Guantanamo’s Youngest Detainee Faces His Judges’, France 24 International News, 12 December 2008; ‘UNICEF Defends the Rights of a Child Soldier Still Held in Guantanamo’, 5 February 2008,
Page 301, still being held: Janice Tibbetts, ‘Harper to Wait for US Decision on Khadr’s Charges’, Canwest News Service, 26 January 2009.
Page 302, ‘medical genius’: Wright, p. 139.
Page 302, ‘cerebral taciturn man’: Bergen, p. 206.
Page 303, penned the 1998 fatwah: Wright, pp. 259–60.
Page 303, tree-lined street with open drains: Author visit to Karti Parwan, Kabul, July 2008.
Page 306, Saj Gul women’s hospital: Author visit, July 2008.
Page 307, lobbied strongly against it: Vahid Brown.
Page 309, Bin Laden and his wives: Wright, p. 248.
Page 309, Rabiah was the midwife: Mamdouh Habib with Julia Collingwood, My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2008.
Page 310, Azza Nowair: Wright, p. 43.
Page 311, bin Laden separated his key leaders: Wright, p. 331.
Page 312, Albright: Rashid, p. 65.
Page 312, Initially welcomed: Bergen.
Page 312, ‘We want to live’: Rashid, p. 43.
Page 312, ‘Islam as a rescuing religion’: Decree announced by the General Presidency of Amr Bil Maruf and Nai Az Munkar (Religious Police), Kabul, November 1996.
Page 312, ‘We have given women their rights’: Peter Marsden, The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan, Zed Books, London, 1998.
Page 313, shut down 63 schools: Rashid, p. 108.
Page 313, ‘women must be completely segregated’: Maulvi Qalamuddin, head of the Taliban Religious Police, in Rashid.
Page 313, 30 000 female students: Afghanistan, Aid and the Taliban: Challenges on the Eve of the 21st Century, Report by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, Stockholm, 1999, p. 62.
Page 313, ended at the age of twelve: Bergen.
Page 314, humanitarian disaster zone: Rashid.
Page 315, Mohammed Abbas: Rashid; ‘UN List of Affiliates of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban’, United Nations, 17 October 2007.
Page 315, disappear on military duties: Rashid.
Page 316, Al Haramein: ‘US Based branch of Al Haramain Foundation Linked to Terror: Treasury Designates US Branch’, The Office of Public Affairs, US Treasury, 9 September 2004.
Page 317, Jack ‘Jihad’ Thomas: Information from Thomas’s trials, Queen v Joseph Terrence Thomas, Supreme Court of Victoria, February 2006 and September 2008; Sally Neighbour, ‘The Convert’, Four Corners, ABC TV, 27 February 2006.
Page 318, met Rabiah’s patron Ahmed Khadr: Information provided by Jack Thomas to the Australian Federal Police.
Page 318, Turkish guesthouse: Jack Thomas, interview with Four Corners.
Page 319, met with bin Laden’s lieutenant: Information provided by Thomas to AFP and interview with Neighbour, Four Corners.
Page 319, ‘They wanted to organise’: Jack Thomas, interview with Neighbour, Four Corners.
Page 321, Mustafa Hamid … Abu Walid al Misri: Vahid Brown. (The Arabic term for ‘the Egyptian’ is rendered variously as ‘al Misri’ or ‘al Masri’.)
Page 321, born in 1945: Mohammed Al Shafey, ‘The Story of Abu Walid al Masri: The Ideologue of the Afghan Arabs’, Asharq Alawsat, 11 February 2007.
Page 321, Muslim Brotherhood Youth Scouts: Summary of Abu Walid’s book, written in the al-Faruq camp, Khost, Afghanistan, 7 August 1994,
Page 321, He worked as: Al Shafey.
Page 321, ‘did not feel very religious’ and ‘dreamt of jihad’: Summary of Abu Walid’s book.
Page 321, ‘great opportunity’: Summary of Abu Walid’s book; Steven R Corman and Jill S Schiefelbein, ‘Communication and Media Strategy in the Jihadi War of Ideas’, Arizona State University, 20 April 2006,
Page 321, series of books: The Story of the Afghan-Arabs from the Time of their Arrival in Afghanistan Until their Departure with the Taliban, published in seven issues of Asharq Alawsat, December 2004; and Chatter on the Roof of the World, a copy of which was found by US forces in Afghanistan.
Page 321, little time for self-serving warlords: Vahid Brown.
Page 321, ‘full of worthless characters’: Al Shafey.
Page 322, Abu Walid was left in charge: Vahid Brown.
Page 322, member of the governing shura: Vahid Brown.
Page 322, ‘political course’: Vahid Brown.
Page 322, director of the Kandahar bureau … al Jazeera: Al Shafey: according to this account Abu Walid held the position from 1998 to 2001. Also see Nibras Kazimi, ‘The Caliphate Attempted’, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, vol. 7, Center on Islam, Hudson Institute, 2008.
Page 322, ‘well-mannered’: description by Abu Walid’s sister-in-law, Safiyah al Shami, in Al Shafey.
Page 322, fluent English: Vahid Brown.
Page 322, ‘a really nice guy’: Author interview with Jack Thomas, November 2006.
Page 322, ‘calming influence’: Jack Thomas.
Page 323, Wafa: Al Shafey.
Page 324, a commandeered diplomatic house: Author visit to Abu Walid’s former house in Wazir Akhbar Khan, Kabul, July 2008.
Page 325, travelled to Kandahar: For the journey I have also drawn on Bergen and Rashid.
Page 325, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Kandahar: Rashid.
Page 325, served at the table: Rashid.
Page 325, Tarnak Farm: Wright, Coll.
Page 326, a plan to attack: Coll.
Page 328, long-time internal critic: The quotes that follow are from Abu Walid’s writings, cited in Vahid Brown.
Page 330, Saif el Adel: Vahid Brown; and ‘Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa’, Report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, based on al Qaeda documents released by the US Department of Defence, May 2007,
Page 330, Jack Roche: Based on Roche’s testimony to the District Court of Western Australia, The Queen and Jack Roche, 27 May 2004; and translation by Indrawati Zifirdaus of Indonesian notebook seized from the premises of Jack Roche, exhibit 111a, entered in evidence at Roche’s trial.
Page 330, ‘just sat there’: Author interview with Jack Roche, Perth, 24 November 2007.
Page 331, ‘media encounters’: Vahid Brown.
Page 332, Taliban who shifted him: Rashid, p. 139.
Page
332, They confiscated his satellite telephones: Bergen, p. 167.
Page 332, ‘null and void’: Bergen, p. 167.
Page 332, meeting between Mullah Omar: These meetings are also described in Rashid, p. 138; and Wright, pp. 267, 288–9.
Page 332, agreed to this in principle: Wright.
Page 332, pickup trucks: Rashid.
Page 333, ‘You must remember’: Wright.
Page 333, aid workers who had been arrested: Eberhard Muehlan and the Shelter Now team, Escape from Kabul, Strand Publishing, Sydney, 2003.
Page 334, contingency plan: ‘US Sought Attack on Al-Qaida: White House Given Plan Days Before September 11’, NBC News, 16 May 2002.
Page 334, ‘political course’: Vahid Brown.
Page 334, ‘the planes operation’: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), 9/11 Commission Report, July 2004,
Page 334, bin Laden formally notified the shura: Based on intelligence report of interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9 January 2004, 9/11 Commission Report.
Page 334, Mullah Omar was known to oppose: 9/11 Commission Report; ‘Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures’.
Page 335, a majority … opposed the attacks: Vahid Brown; ‘Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures’; 9/11 Commission Report; Fawaz A Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005.
Page 335, ‘I will make it happen’: Based on intelligence report of interrogation of detainee, 20 February 2004, 9/11 Commission Report.
Page 335, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said later: Based on intelligence report of interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9 January 2004, 9/11 Commission Report.
13 Fugitives
Page 338, bin Laden, who was still in Kandahar: Jason Burke, Al Qaeda, Penguin, London, 2003, p. xxiii.
Page 339, ‘prime suspect’: ‘Bush: bin Laden prime suspect’, CNN.com, 17 September 2001,
Page 339, ‘They will hand over’: Transcript of President Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress, 20 September 2001,
Page 339, packing up and leaving: Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda’s Road to 9/11, Penguin, London, 2006, p. 370.
Page 339, assassination of … Massoud: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), 9/11 Commission Report, July 2004,
Page 340, Afghani driver named Hamid: At Rabiah’s request I have disguised the identity of the man referred to as ‘Hamid’ who guided her and her family from their departure from Kandahar until after their arrival in Iran. She fears he may be punished if his identity is known.
Page 341, Dasht-e-Mango: Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Yale University Press, 2001.
Page 341, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan: Vahid Brown, Cracks in the Foundation: Leadership Schisms in Al-Qa’ida, 1989–2006, Combating Terrorism Center, US Military Academy, West Point, New York, September 2007.
Page 341, Anti-American demonstrators: Eberhard Muehlan and the Shelter Now team, Escape from Kabul, Strand Publishing, Sydney, 2003.
Page 342, Soviet-built airbase … was targeted: Rashid; additional information supplied by ABC correspondent Tim Palmer, who visited Herat in November 2001.
Page 342, 7 October 2001: ‘Afghanistan Attack Waves’, Reuters News Service, 8 October 2001; ‘Defense Officials: Air Operation to Last “Several Days”’, CNN.com, 7 October 2001,
Page 342, CIA and US Army Special Forces: Gary Schroen, First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 2005.
Page 343, ‘There was just a roaring’: Luke Harding and Paul Kelso, ‘Taliban Says 20 Civilians Killed in Kabul’, Guardian, 9 October 2001,
Page 343, ‘The street next to my home’: Voices from Afghanistan, BBC News, 25 October 2001,
Page 345, the Times of India: Siddarth Varadarajan, ‘An Ignoble War’, Times of India, 15 October 2001.
Page 345, mosque in Jalalabad: ‘Bunker busting bombs deployed in heavy raids’, BBC News, 10–11 October 2001,
Page 345, killing seventeen … another 120: ‘Daily Casualty Count of Afghan Civilians Killed in U.S. Bombing Attacks’, compiled by and excerpted from Marc W Herold, ‘A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting’, unpublished manuscript, Departments of Economics and Women’s Studies, University of New Hampshire, December 2001.
Page 346, ‘I brought my family’: Robert Nickelsberg and Jane Perlez, ‘Survivors Recount Fierce American Raid that Flattened a Village’, New York Times, 2 November 2001.
Page 346, ‘The most serious issue’: Mohammed Al Shafey, ‘The Story of Abu Walid al Masri: The Ideologue of the Afghan Arabs’, Asharq Alawsat, 11 February 2007.
Page 347, in two separate directions: Vahid Brown.
Page 347, ‘the opposition group’: Vahid Brown.
Page 348, safehouse in Paktia province: See account of Zawahiri’s wife’s death in Wright, p. 371.
Page 349, ‘The sound got closer’: From account supplied by Aminah.
Page 349, she too was dead: Wright, p. 371.
Page 349, ‘tasted the bitterness’ and ‘To this day’: Letter from Ayman al Zawahiri to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, dated 9 July 2005, obtained during counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on 11 October 2005,
Page 351, end of October: David Rohde, ‘Waging a Deadly Stalemate on Afghanistan’s Frontline’, New York Times, 28 October 2001. Also see Paul McGeough, Manhattan to Baghdad: Despatches from the Frontline in the War on Terror, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2003.
Page 351, thirty-five bombs on a village: ‘US Bomb Kills 10 Civilians in Opposition-held Afghanistan: Medic’, Hindustan Times, 28 October 2001.
Page 351, Britain’s Sky News: Marc W Herold, ‘A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting’, Departments of Economics and Women’s Studies, University of New Hampshire, December 2001.
Page 353, Mazar-e-Sharif: Muehlan.
Page 353, were massacred: ‘600 Bodies Found in Mazar-I-Sharif’, Telegraph, 22 November 2001,
Page 353, Kabul: Muehlan.
Page 354, Tora Bora cave complex: Burke.
Page 356, The battle of Tora Bora: Burke, Wright; Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and Its Fortune, Allen Lane, London, 2008; Matthew Forney, ‘Inside the Tora Bora Caves’, Time, 11 December 2001.
Pages 356–7, They too had been on the run: Wright, p. 370.
Page 359, Unexploded cluster bombs: Information from ABC correspondent Tim Palmer.
14 House Arrest
Page 363, hundreds of foreign fighters and families had fled: Robert Windrem, ‘Al-Qaeda Finds Safe Haven in Iran, but Former Leaders Reportedly under House Arrest’, NBC News, 24 June 2005.
Page 363, US media reports: Windrem; Peter Finn, ‘Al Qaeda Deputies Harbored by Iran: Pair Are Plotting Attacks, Sources Say’, Washington Post Foreign Service, 28 August 2002.
Page 363, study by the Combating Terrorism Center: Al-Qa’ida’s (mis) Adventures in the Horn of Africa, Report by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point, based on al Qaeda documents released by the US Department of Defence, May 2007.
Page 363, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures.
Page 363, ‘axis of evil’: President George W Bush, State of the Union Address, 29 January 2002.
Page 363, using their Iranian base: Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures.
Page 363, rounded up and placed under house arrest: Windrem.
Page 363, under the watchful eye: Al-Qa’ida’s (mis)Adventures.
Page 366, launched a new phase: ‘Operation Anaconda’, Global Security. org,
Page 366, estimated 400: ‘Operation Anaconda Entering 2nd week’, CNN.com, 3 August 2002.
Page 366, ‘It’s a great step’: ‘US Admits Killing Afghan Civilians in Operation Anaconda’, IslamOnline & News Agencies, Shahi Kot Valley, Afghanistan, 13 March 2002.
Page 366, slipped across the border: Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda’s Road to 9/11, Penguin, London, 2006.
Page 366, 3000 civilian lives: Marc W Herold, ‘A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting’, unpublished manuscript, Departments of Economics and Women’s Studies, University of New Hampshire, December 2001.
Page 366, ‘The personnel in this vehicle’: ‘US Admits Killing’.
Page 367, The Story of: The Story of the Afghan-Arabs from the Time of Their Arrival in Afghanistan until Their Departure with the Taliban, published in seven issues of Asharq Alawsat, December 2004; Vahid Brown, Cracks in the Foundation: Leadership Schisms in Al-Qa’ida, 1989–2006, Combating Terrorism Center, US Military Academy, West Point, New York, September 2007.
Pages 367–8, ‘Bin Laden left Tora Bora’ and ‘a tragic example’: Mohammed Al Shafey, ‘The Story of Abu Walid al Masri: The Ideologue of the Afghan Arabs’, Asharq Alawsat, 11 February 2007; Fawaz A Gerges, ‘Promising Heaven, Delivering Dust’, Foreign Affairs, September–October 2006; Lawrence Wright, ‘The Master Plan: For the New Theorists of Jihad, Al Qaeda Is Just the Beginning’, The New Yorker, 11 September 2006.