The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden
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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).
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 bin Abdul Aziz, who died in 2011, was the father of longtime 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 Paladin-InVision, 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 & Glenda 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