by Adrian Levy
74. Many mistook him for Abu Musab al-Suri, to whom he bore some resemblance.
75. Author interviews with Maqdisi and Qatada, Amman, Jordan, December 2016. The term “don” is borrowed from Will McCants in The ISIS Apocalypse.
76. Author interviews with Maqdisi and Qatada, Amman, December 2016.
77. This instruction was issued by Abu Bakr when he announced the formation of his Caliphate.
78. The secular Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had abolished the last real caliphate after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War One. After almost a century, Muslims could once again feel proud.
79. According to his close friend Abu Qatada; author interview, Amman, October 2014 and September and December 2016.
80. Michael Daly, “ISIS Leader: ‘See You in New York,’ ” Daily Beast, June 14, 2014. See also Paul Crompton, “The Rise of the New ISIS Chief: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” Al Arabiya English, June 30, 2014.
81. Speech written by Azzam the American for Osama in January 2011. ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in March 2016.
82. Qatada had spent many years in the United Kingdom after winning asylum there in 1994. He became a regular speaker at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque and acted as liaison for young British Muslims who wanted to train with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, sending them to Abu Zubaydah. In October 1999, he told his congregation that American citizens “should be attacked, wherever they were” and later he spoke in favor of the 9/11 attacks. Before his voluntary deportation to Amman in July 2013, he spent several years in Belmarsh prison in South London fighting the terrorism case against him. Author interviews with Qatada, Amman, October 2014 and September and December 2016. Also author interview with Maqdisi, Amman, December 2016.
83. Author interviews with Maqdisi and Qatada, Amman, December 2016. Also Malik, et al., “How ISIS Crippled Al Qaeda,” Guardian, June 10, 2015.
84. Author interviews with Maqdisi and Qatada, Amman, December 2016.
85. Shiv Malik, et al., “The Race to Save Peter Kassig,” Guardian, December 18, 2014. Also author interview with Dr. Moneef Samara, a well-placed doctor from Zarqa who made the initial connection between Stanley Cohen and Maqdisi, Zarqa, September 2016; author interviews with Abu Qatada, Zarqa, September 2016; author interview with Cohen, New York, October 2014 and author interview with Maqdisi, Amman, December 2016.
86. “IS Magazine Takes Aim at ‘Misleading’ Muslim Scholars,” Middle East Eye, December 31, 2014.
87. In a June 2010 e-mail to CAGE.
88. Ibid.
89. Claire Phipps, et al., “ ‘High Degree of Certainty’ That US Strike Killed Mohammed Emwazi,” Guardian, November 13, 2015; Martin Chulov, “Losing Ground, Fighters and Morale—Is It All Over for Isis?” Guardian, September 7, 2016.
90. Benjamin Weiser, “U.S. Seeks to Use Letters Found in Bin Laden Raid in Terrorism Trial,” New York Times, December 15, 2014.
91. Stephen F. Hayes, “Al Qaeda Wasn’t ‘On the Run,’ ” Weekly Standard, September 15, 2014.
92. Two months later, in March 2015, another Al Qaeda suspect came to trial in Brooklyn, Pakistani national Abid Naseer, who was charged with plotting to attack the New York City subway. More Abbottabad documents emerged. Among them were letters written by Atiyah to Osama bin Laden concerning the ISI’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal through Hamid Gul in 2010. The case, which resulted in Naseer’s conviction, embarrassed General Pasha, who had been named by Atiyah as a party to the discussions.
93. Author interviews with Maqdisi and Qatada, Amman, December 2016. Also Malik, et al., “The Race to Save Peter Kassig.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1. Atiyah to Osama, July 17, 2010. Recovered from Abbottabad, declassified and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [hereafter ODNI] in May 2015, www.dni.gov/index.php/resources/bin-laden-bookshelf.
2. “Kidnapped Iranian Diplomat Rescued in Yemen,” Al Jazeera, March 5, 2015.
3. Author interview with Dr. Moneef Samara, Zarqa, September and December 2016.
4. An Arabic transcript posted with the message indicates his audio was recorded in May or June, although it was not released until August 2015. He said: “And from among my sheikhs through whose hands I was educated: Sheikh Ahmed Hassan Abu al-Khayr, Sheikh Abu Mohammed al-Masri, Sheikh Saif al-Adel, and Sheikh Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, may Allah release them all.” He also renewed the bayat to Mullah Omar even though the Taliban had by June confirmed that its leader had died in a Karachi hospital in April 2013. He also honored Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the AQAP leader and al-Zawahiri’s deputy, who had been killed in a drone strike in Yemen in June. The rest of his message concerned continuing his father’s war against the far enemy, America.
5. Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, said in an interview that this is what was hoped for when Hamzah was put forward. Adam Withnall, “Hamza bin Laden: Could Osama’s Son Be the Future Leader of al-Qaeda?” Independent, May 11, 2016.
6. Qatar has one of the smallest citizen populations in the Arab world (278,000) and the largest percentage of nonnationals in the world (88 percent).
7. James Risen and David Johnston, “Qaeda Aide Slipped Away Long Before September 11 Attack,” New York Times, March 8, 2003.
8. “Treasury Targets Key al-Qa’ida Funding and Support Network Using Iran as a Critical Transit Point,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, July 28, 2011, www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1261.aspx.
9. “Treasury Designates Financial Supporters of Al-Qaida and Al-Nusrah Front,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, August 5, 2015.
10. Bill Roggio, “Senior Al Qaeda Leader and Former US Detainee Killed in Drone Strike in 2012,” Long War Journal, October 17, 2013.
11. Hamzah to Osama, January 8, 2011. ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in March 2016.
12. David D. Kirkpatrick, “Qatar’s Support for Islamists Alienates Allies Near and Far,” New York Times, September 8, 2014.
13. Author interviews with bin Laden family members.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Osama to Hamzah, undated, but clearly written in early 2011. ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in March 2016.
18. Guy Lawson, “Osama’s Prodigal Son: The Dark Twisted Journey of Omar bin Laden,” Rolling Stone, January 20, 2010.
19. In a letter Hamzah wrote to his father in July 2009, he said his appearance had changed so much his father might not recognize him. ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in May 2015.
20. Ibid. Hamzah talked about Americans and taking revenge against them in the audio statement released in August 2015.
21. Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, “How America Was Misled on Al Qaeda’s Demise,” Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2015.
22. Stephen F. Hayes, “Al Qaeda Wasn’t ‘On the Run,’ ” Weekly Standard, September 15, 2014.
23. Joseph Braude, “Iran Was Al Qaeda’s ‘Main Artery for Funds, Personnel, Communication’: Bin Laden,” Ya Libnan (Lebanon), June 18, 2016.
24. Dr. Islam Sobhi al-Mazeny, “Is It the Heart You Are Asking?” ODNI documents, Abbottabad.
25. Letters from Atiyah to Osama, ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in May 2015 and March 2016.
26. Press release accompanying the announcement of the release of the final tranche of declassified material from the Abbottabad compound, a total of forty-nine documents out of a million-plus that will never see the light of day. Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, “Closing the Book on bin Laden: Intelligence Community Releases Final Abbottabad Documents,” January 19, 2017, www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/224-press-releases-2017/1474-closing-the-book-on-bin-laden-intelligence-community-releases-final-abbottabad-documents.
27. Mushreq Abbas, “Iran’s Man in Iraq and Syria,” Al-Monitor, March 13, 2013.
28. Ibid. See also Ali Alfoneh, “Iran’s Most Dangerous General,” Middle Eastern Outlook, July 13, 2011, retrieved September 14, 2016, from www.irantracker.org/analysis/alfoneh-iran-dangerous-general-suleimani-july-13-2011. Sanctions came in May 2011.
29. Ibid.
30. Joby Warrick, “Double Game? Even as It Battles ISIS, Turkey Gives Other Extremists Shelter,” Washington Post, July 10, 2016.
31. Thomas Joscelyn, “Senior Al Qaeda Leaders Reportedly Released from Custody in Iran,” Long War Journal, September 18, 2015.
32. Author interviews with Abu Qatada, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and Huthaifa Azzam, Amman, Jordan, December 2016.
33. Joscelyn, “Senior Al Qaeda Leaders Reportedly Released from Custody in Iran.”
34. One of them was known as “Al Siyasi al Mutaqa’id.”
35. Rukmini Callimachi and Eric Schmitt, “Iran Released Top Members of Al Qaeda in a Trade,” New York Times, September 17, 2015.
36. Laila Bassam and Tom Perry, “How Iranian General Plotted Out Syrian Assault in Moscow,” Reuters, October 6, 2015.
37. Dexter Filkins, “The Shadow Commander,” New Yorker, September 30, 2013
38. In February 2013.
39. Author interviews with Qatada, Maqdisi, and Huthaifa Azzam, Amman, December 2016.
40. Michael Morell, The Great War of Our Time (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016).
41. Thomas Joscelyn, “Fifteen Years after the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda Fights On,” Long War Journal, September 11, 2016.
42. Huthaifa Azzam, who spent four years from 2012 to 2016 fighting with various factions of the Free Syrian Army, claimed to have seen evidence that al-Zawahiri had shifted to Iran. He also claimed that by 2016 both the Nusra Front and Islamic State were being armed and directed by Iran. Author interviews, Amman, December 2016.
43. Abu Faraj al-Masri was killed in Syria in October 2016.
44. Martin Chulov and Tom McCarthy, “US Drone Strike in Syria Kills Top al-Qaida Leader, Jihadis Say,” Guardian, February 27, 2017.
45. Martin Chulov, “Al-Nusra Front Cuts Ties with al-Qaida and Renames Itself,” Guardian, July 29, 2016.
46. Yaroslav Trofimov, “What Happens after ISIS Falls?” Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2016.
47. Thomas Joscelyn, “Hamza bin Laden Calls for Regime Change in Saudi Arabia,” Long War Journal, August 18, 2016.
48. U.S. Department of State, “State Department Terrorist Designation of Hamza bin Laden,” January 5, 2017, www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/266536.htm.
49. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), The Official Senate Report on CIA Torture (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015), 35.
50. Author interviews with Professor Mark Denbeaux, Newark, New Jersey, February 2017.
51. The full profile can be read here: www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN10016/20160331_U_ISN_10016_GOVERNMENTS_UNCLASSIFIED_SUMMARY_PUBLIC.pdf.
52. Scott Shane, “Abu Zubaydah, Tortured Guantánamo Detainee, Makes Case for Release,” New York Times, August 24, 2016.
53. George Edwards, “Saudi-born Palestinian Abu Zubaydah Asks Pentagon for Release from Guantánamo,” Gitmo Observer, August 23, 2016.
54. “ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value Detainees’ in CIA Custody,” International Committee of the Red Cross, February 14, 2007, confidential. Leaked and made available here: http://www.nybooks.com/media/doc/2010/04/22/icrc-report.pdf.
55. Author interview with Joseph Margulies, October 2016. See also Amanda L. Jacobsen and Joseph Margulies, “The ‘Guinea Pig’ for U.S. Torture Is Languishing at Guantánamo,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016.
56. Sheri Fink, “Where Even Nightmares Are Classified: Psychiatric Care at Guantánamo,” New York Times, November 12, 2016.
57. Connie Bruck, “The Guantánamo Failure,” New Yorker, August 1, 2016.
58. Carol Rosenberg, “ ‘Sodomized’ Guantánamo Captive to Undergo Rectal Surgery,” Miami Herald, October 13, 2016.
59. Adam Kredo, “KSM Lawyer Sacrifices Military Career to Stay on Case,” Washington Free Beacon, April 17, 2014.
60. Author interview with Joseph Margulies, December 2016.
61. Author interviews with Hesham Abu Zubaydah, Florida, February 2017.
62. Hina Shamsi, “Finally Free: Guantánamo Diary Author Released after 14 Years without Charge,” American Civil Liberties Union, October 17, 2016.
63. Martin Chulov, “Losing Ground, Fighters and Morale—Is It All Over for Isis?” Guardian, September 7, 2016.
64. “Islamic State: Abu Muhammad al-Adnani ‘Killed in Aleppo,’ ” BBC News Online, August 31, 2016.
65. Josie Ensor, “Islamic State Leader ‘in Charge of Gruesome Execution Videos’ Killed in US Airstrike,” Daily Telegraph, September 17, 2016.
66. “Caught: ISIS Jihadis Attempt to Flee in Women’s Clothing,” Clarion Project, July 25, 2016.
67. Trofimov, “What Happens after ISIS Falls?”
68. AFP, “Islamic State Has Lost Grip on 12% of Territory in Six Months—Study,” Guardian, July 11, 2016.
69. Carol E. Lee and Paul Sonne, “Barack Obama Says Islamic State Is Losing Ground Militarily, Turning More to Terrorism,” Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2016.
70. Author interview with Maqdisi, Amman, December 2016.
71. Thomas Joscelyn, “Fifteen Years after the 9/11 Attacks, Al Qaeda Fights On.”
72. Trofimov, “What Happens after ISIS Falls?”
73. The speech was recounted to the authors in Yemen in 2014 by several members of a Yemeni detachment that was there to guard him.
Index
Abbas, Athar, here, here, here
Abbottabad, Pakistan
overview, here
DNA samples from, here
earthquake on Oct. 8, 2005, here, here
Kayani addressing cadets in, here
Libi, Abu Faraj al-, relocating to, here
Abbottabad Commission, here, here, here, here, here
Abbottabad compound
CIA hires a security business for monitoring, here
Dr. Afridi recruited as spy, here
al-Kuwaiti brothers evicting OBL, here
land purchased and house built for bin Laden family, here, here, here
OBL at home in, here, here, here
OBL’s concerns about drones, here
Abbottabad raid
overview, here
CIA planning, here, here, here
conspiracy theories, here
departure, here
helicopters incoming, one goes down, here
house cleared, here
information leading to, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
movie and books about, here, here, here, here, here
Obama giving final approval, here
Obama observing raid from Situation Room, here, here
OBL killed, here
raid schematic, here
SEAL Team Six brought in, here
SEAL Team Six entering compound, here
See also Red Squadron, SEAL Team Six
Abdul Hadi. See Iraqi, Abdul
Hadi al-
Abdullah, Dr., here, here, here. See also Ibn El Waleed, Mahfouz
Abu Obaida training camp, Afghanistan, here, here
AC1. See Abbottabad compound
Adel, Saif al-
background, here, here
and bin Laden family in Iran, here, here
and decision to hide OBL’s family in Iran, here
evacuation from Kandahar to Pakistan, here, here
incarceration in Iran, here
in Iranian prison, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
leaving Iranian prison, here
and Mahfouz, here, here
and Mokhtar (Khalid Shaikh Mohammad), here
at Panjwai Bridge massacre, here, here
and Daniel Pearl, here
pursuing the fissile option, here
on Al Qaeda post-Abbottabad raid, here
and Al Qaeda security protocols, here
as refugee in Iran, here, here
on shoe bomber’s failure, here
and Zarqawi, here, here
Afghanistan
effects of U.S. bombing, here, here
Soviet invasion, here
Zawahiri’s offensive against NATO forces, here
See also Taliban; war in Afghanistan
Afridi, Shakil, here, here, here, here, here, here
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, here, here
Ahmad, Abrar Saeed (al-Kuwaiti’s brother)
accusation of complicity in Abbottabad raid, here
background, here
CIA dossier on, here
Ibrahim asks for help from, here
post-9/11 in Washington, D.C., here
purchasing land for Abbottabad compound, here
quitting his position with OBL, here, here
resignation from service to OBL, here
Ahmad, Ibrahim Saeed (Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti)
in Abbottabad, here, here, here, here, here, here
accusation of complicity in Abbottabad raid, here
Afridi’s call about hepatitis B vaccines, here
and arrest of Mokhtar, here, here
background, here, here
cancer diagnosis, here
CIA analysis of information on, here, here
CIA dossier on, here, here, here
CIA search for, here, here
death of, in Abbottabad raid, here