The Bin Ladens Read online

  9. Quoted in Bradley, Saudi Arabia Exposed, p. 215.

  10. Musaid: Interviews with two of his former Berkeley professors. LSD conviction: House of Saud, op. cit., p. 379.

  11. DOS 59/2584 Jeddah to Washington, September 26, 1973, “Prince Fahd, the King, and the Inner Circle”; Jeddah to Washington, April 18, 1973. Miss Arabia: Jeddah to Washington, November 5, 1970.

  12. Interview with a former senior diplomat in Riyadh who spoke on condition that he would not to be identified. Fahd had “a great sense of humor, loved jokes,” he said, “and he was a very self-indulgent and ill-disciplined man who never kept to the point. He had a bad habit of rambling on and on and on in meetings.”

  13. DOS 59/2585 Jeddah to Washington, August 29, 1972, “Discussion with Prince Fahd.”

  14. DOS 59/2472 Jeddah to Washington, June 12, 1968, “Biographical Sketch of Crown Prince Khalid.”

  12. THE RISING SON

  1. “I just farted…a kid”: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS).

  2. Interview with a friend and former employee of Salem who spoke on the condition that he would not be identified.

  3. All quotations are from Heckmann, Hai fressen kein Deutschen, translated for the author by Petra Krischok.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. This account of Fahd’s winter camps is drawn primarily from three former employees of Salem’s who attended or worked in the camps. Two of these people spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The third was Bengt Johansson, interviewed on October 3, 2006.

  7. The anecdote about what Salem told Fahd and all of the quotations are from a recorded interview with the person cited in note 2.

  8. The date of the MU-2 purchase is from interviews with Johansson, op. cit., and Gerald Auerbach, April 7, 2005. “You are crazy…these days”: Interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005.

  9. “The question was…do the job”: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006.

  10. “We’ve gotten paid”: Interview with Johansson, op. cit.

  11. Ibid.

  12. The description of the money runs is from flight records and interviews with Auerbach, op. cit.; David Grey, February 21, 2006; and two other former employees of the aviation department who spoke on the condition that they would not be identified.

  13. Interview with Ashmawi, op. cit.

  14. Interview with Terry Bennett, December 2005 (RS).

  15. “Don’t worry…immediate bond”: Interview with Gail Freeman, April 27, 2006. Less than comfortable circumstances: Interview with Auerbach, op. cit. Three-story town house: Interview with Sabry Ghoneim, November 14, 2005 (RS). Their relationship: Interviews with multiple friends and employees of Salem, including Johansson, who said: “It wasn’t sexual, but emotional, maybe. She had a very big influence on him, and she was giving him a lot of headache, too.” Peter Blum, who later served as Salem’s personal assistant, added in an interview, “She was one of the most important persons to Salem…like the father and daughter.”

  16. “He pushed Randa”: Interview with Ghoneim, op. cit.

  17. Skeletons from Saudi Arabia: Interview with Ashmawi, op. cit.

  18. Interviews with pilots Hinson, op. cit., and Grey, op. cit. “He was very protective of his sisters,” Gail Freeman said in an interview, op. cit.

  19. Interview with Ghoneim, op. cit.

  20. Interviews with Auerbach, Hinson, and Grey, op. cit.

  21. “pulling back…any time now”: Interview with Wayne Fagan, May 10, 2005.

  22. “When I saw…brother is a member”: Interview with Anwar Khan, May 6, 2006 (RS). Caroline was the passenger, promised to convert to Islam: Interview with a person close to the family who asked not to be identified.

  23. “People were forever…I’ll sign it!”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit.

  24. “the sensation…on the edge”: Interview with Don Sowell, June 2, 2005. “perfect approach”: Interview with Khan, op. cit.

  25. “That would be the end”: Interview with Robert Freeman, April 27, 2006.

  26. Piper, Medina accidents: Interviews with Bin Laden pilots. “I was telling God…one little engine”: Interview with Johansson, op. cit.

  27. Plane inventory: Interviews with several pilots who worked at Bin Laden Aviation or for Bin Mahfouz. “Salem believed”: Interview with a Lebanese friend who spoke on condition that he would not be identified.

  28. Interview with Johansson, op. cit.

  29. “loose ends…a family, together”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit.

  30. “very subservient…the king”: Interview with Hinson, op. cit. “No one did…time and time again”: Interview with Grey, op. cit. That Salem alone controlled salaries, allowances, and assignments is confirmed by another employee who asked not to be identified.

  31. Aramco report: Telephone interview with Mike Ameen, who has retained a copy of the report, March 1, 2006. “He was perfect”: Interview with Francis Hunnewell, August 9, 2006.

  32. Dates and places of Sara and Salman’s births: “Application For Appointment of Administrator,” from Ian Munro, April 4, 1991, probate filings of Salem Bin Laden, Bexar County, Texas, 91-PC-1012.

  33. Munro’s biography: Interview with a former Bin Laden business partner, and interview with Charles Schwartz, May 12, 2005. London companies, dates of formation, address: Filings with Companies House, London.

  34. That Salem did not see Offley Chase before he bought it: Interview with the former business partner, op. cit. The estate and village: Author’s visit, interviews with numerous other visitors.

  13. DISCOVERING AMERICA

  1. Interview with Don Sowell, June 2, 2005. Author’s visit to Panama City, Sowell Aviation, Bay Point.

  2. Ibid. Salem’s time in Panama City was also described by several other partners and pilots who visited him and Randa during this period, but the detailed account here is primarily from Sowell.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid. Jack Pizza declined to be interviewed. Anita Pizza spoke affectionately about Randa Bin Laden and other family members during several brief telephone conversations but ultimately declined to be interviewed.

  5. “not too bubbly, not too flat”: Interviews with two former employees of Salem and Khalid Bin Mahfouz who asked not to be further identified. “sent myself…flew it back”: Sowell interview, ibid.

  6. Academy Awards party: Interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005, and interview with Dave Whitney, February 20, 2006. Oktoberfest: Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. Wedding of Sadat’s daughter: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006.

  7. Armored Cadillacs: Interview with Robert and Gail Freeman, April 27, 2006. Lincolns, Tabasco sauce, Mello Yello, airplane toys: Interview with Sowell, op. cit. Cacti and other plants: Binladen BSB Landscaping v. M.V. Nedlloyd, 82 Civ. 1037. The case produced a significant federal court decision involving liability for shipping damages; until 1998, this was the most notable involvement of the Bin Laden family in the U.S. federal legal system.

  8. All quotations: Interview with Sowell, op. cit. Fifty thousand dollars: Interview with Freeman, op. cit.

  9. Bath’s background and appearance: Interviews with seven former business acquaintances or partners. Civil litigation files also provide a rich portrait of his life during these years, particularly Sandra C. Bath v. James R. Bath, Harris County Court, 85-046927, its successor, 89-07180, and the several lawsuits between Bath and White, lodged in Harris County, Texas, and in Houston’s federal court. “a lot of fun”: Quoted in the Wall Street Journal, September 28, 1999, citing a 1990 interview with the Houston Post. The best published accounts of this period in Texas business and politics are Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud; Phillips, American Dynasty, and Beaty and Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank.

  10. Fokker sale: Interview with Gerald Auerbach, April 7, 2005. “He talked”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit. “loved…that kind of stuff”: Interview with Charles Schwartz, May 12, 2005. Bath declined se
veral requests for an interview.

  11. MBO Investments, trust agreement: Web site of the Texas secretary of state, examined and typed, September 9, 2005. Revolving line of credit: Transcript of White’s interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program The Fifth Estate. White confirmed for the author the accuracy of the transcript and its assertions. White claims to have a large archive of confidential documents about Bath’s business activities, including deposition testimony that Bath provided in their civil case, but he declined to make these documents available. Some excerpts of Bath’s deposition testimony are in public court files, however.

  12. White transcript, op. cit. Skyway’s history is described in documents and affidavits filed by White and Bath in several lawsuits, but these documents do not make fully clear which Saudis owned the company. White has suggested that Salem Bin Laden may have an interest in Skyway. The Wall Street Journal, September 28, 1999, reported that Khalid Bin Mahfouz owned Skyway. Its assertion relied partially on a confidential court document originally cited by the Houston Chronicle in a published report. Unger, House of Bush, p. 34, also reports that Bin Mahfouz owned Skyway; Unger interviewed Bath, although it is not clear whether Bath was the source of his account.

  13. Binco: Texas secretary of state, op. cit. Houston Gulf never generated significant profits: Interview with Schwartz, op. cit.

  14. Saudi Bank of Paris: Salem Bin Laden entry in Who’s Who in Saudi Arabia, 1976–77 edition, and 1978–79 edition, both of which identify Salem as a “founding member” of the bank. Main Bank: Unger, House of Bush, p. 34.

  15. Interview with Sheryl Johnson-Todd, former attorney for Sandra Bath, September 8, 2005. Interview with a pilot who traveled with Bath during this period and who asked not to be identified.

  16. Timothy J. Finn, a Bin Laden attorney, said that Ghalib earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, but a school spokesman was unable to locate the records of his attendance. Several people close to the family recalled that Ghalib studied at Berkeley, however. USF records: Telephone interviews with Gary McDonald, March 15 and 16, 2006. USC records: E-mail communication from James Grant, March 1, 2006.

  17. Yeslam’s time in Europe, his anxiety attacks: Affidavits and pleadings from Swiss divorce proceedings, Canton of Geneva, translated and filed in Carmen Bin Ladin v. Yeslam and Ibrahim Bin Ladin, Los Angeles County Superior Court, BC212648. “Carmen was…ambitions for him”: Telephone interview with Mary Martha Barkley, August 27, 2004.

  18. Court filings: Ibid. Pontiac Firebird: Bin Laden, Inside the Kingdom, p. 47. Khalif: Interview with Barkley, ibid.

  19. Caesars Palace: Interview with Carmen Bin Laden, August 6, 2004. Blackjack scene: Interview with Gerald Auerbach, op. cit.

  20. “No sin…punish him”: From Osama Bin Laden’s statement of December 16, 2004, as translated in Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, p. 262.

  21. “You never knew…embedded in them”: Interview with Carmen Bin Laden, op. cit.

  22. Khalil and alcohol: Interview with a businessman who asked not to be identified. Mahrouz: Interview with a different business partner who also asked not to be identified. “kind of a party animal”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit. Carmen Bin Laden recalled that Mahrouz’s French wife also became very religious. She had a daughter from a previous marriage, Bin Laden said, for whom Mahrouz arranged a marriage to a Saudi man when the girl was quite young.

  23. Theroux, Sandstorms, p. 72.

  24. Ibrahim Bin Laden married Christine Hartunian, an American. As a young man, Khaled married a Danish woman. In addition to these examples, Khalil married a Brazilian woman, Isabel Bayma.

  25. “It was just a really hard…always ringing” and “the family problems”: Interview with Gail Freeman, op. cit. “You have a wife…like a diplomat”: Interview with Peter Blum, May 5, 2006.

  26. Hunnewell quotation from Surtees, Pa Bell, p. 237. Several pilots interviewed by the author also described this incident; it became part of the indoctrination new pilots received.

  27. “He always said…wouldn’t marry him”: Interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005.

  28. All quotations: Interview with Gail Freeman, op. cit.

  29. “I really don’t…by herself”: Interview with Sowell, op. cit.

  30. “She’s gone off…She crashed!”: Interview with Freeman, op. cit. “Over my dead body…possibility”: Interview with Sowell, op. cit.

  31. All quotations: Interviews with Freeman and Sowell, op. cit.

  14. THE CONVERT’S ZEAL

  1. Transcript of Khaled Batarfi interview, published in Al-Madinah, late 2001, translated and supplied to the author by Batarfi.

  2. Interview with a friend of Salem Bin Laden who asked not to be further identified.

  3. “perfectly integrated”: Bin Laden, Inside the Kingdom, p. 70. Cars, desert weekends: Interview with Khaled Batarfi, February 19, 2005. Osama’s friend Jamal Khalifa, in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 17, recalled Osama as “a very good driver; together we go fast, mostly the two of us, so that made us very close.” “favorite hobby”: Transcript of Bin Laden’s December 1998 interview with Al-Jazeera, in Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, p. 71. Yellow boots and Swiss Army watch: Walid Al-Khatib, interview in Sunday Times (London), January 6, 2002.

  4. “I remember…bloody signature”: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006. “just another kid brother”: Interview with Bengt Johansson, October 3, 2006.

  5. “interaction” began in 1973: Biography supplied by Bin Laden or his aides to Nida’ul Islam, a magazine based in Australia that published an interview with Bin Laden in late 1996, in Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 31. “As is known…wage jihad”: 1998 Al-Jazeera transcript in Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 91.

  6. Transcript of interview with Nasir Al-Bahri, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, March 20, 2005, FBIS translation.

  7. “minor figure”: Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., p. 70. “more literal”: The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 21. Soccer shorts: Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. “He often…about religion”: Interview published in Al-Qabas (Kuwait), November 14, 2001. Translated for the author by Hatem Y. Mohammed.

  8. “Every Muslim…for Americans”: 1998 Al-Jazeera transcript in Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 87. “incapable…past decades”: Statement of January 4, 2004, ibid., p. 229.

  9. Ibid., p. 126.

  10. Al-Din, Bin Laden, pp. 79–82.

  11. Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. Al-Qabas interviews with Syrian relatives, op. cit.

  12. Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 16. Also, interview with Khashoggi, op. cit.; The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 21; Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., pp. 70–71.

  13. Class photo: A schoolmate of Osama’s showed a copy of the class picture to the author. Jamal Khalifa, who met Osama the year he graduated from high school, and who would marry one of his half-sisters, said that their beliefs meant “no photographs. That’s why I don’t have any pictures with Osama. I was photographed in high school, but when I became religious, I threw everything away.” Quoted in The Osama Bin Laden I Know, op. cit.

  14. “not the Islamic…for her”: Ibid.

  15. “He did talk…hunting and shooting”: Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. “simply awed…into silence”: Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., p. 87.

  16. Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. Al-Khatib: Sunday Times, op. cit.

  17. All quotations: Interview with Batarfi, op. cit. Also, Coll, “Young Osama,” New Yorker, December 12, 2005. Wright, The Looming Tower, reports that it was not Abdullah, but rather Osama’s second son, Abdul Rahman, who suffered from a birth defect called hydrocephalus and sought treatment in Britain, pp. 80–81.

  18. Sunday Times, op. cit.

  19. University land donated from Suleiman, background of its founding: DOS 59/2643 Jeddah to Washington, August 31, 1965; and 59/2471 Jeddah to Washington, November 6, 1967. Mohamed Bin Laden’s contributions: Telephone
interview with Brian Fyfield-Shayler, February 23, 2007 (RS).

  20. The interview was published in 1991 in Al-Umma Al-Islamiyya and is cited in Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 78. “I recall, with pride, that I was the only family member who succeeded in combining work and doing excellently in school,” Bin Laden said. “I decided to drop out of school to achieve my goals and dreams. I was surprised at the major opposition to this idea, especially from my mother, who cried and begged me to change my mind. In the end, there was no way out. I couldn’t resist my mother’s tears. I had to go back and finish my education.” The 1996 résumé was published in connection with his interview with Nida’ul Islam, op. cit.

  21. Mecca project work: Abbas, Story of the Great Expansion, pp. 262–63. “He liked…by himself”: Sunday Times, op. cit.

  15. WIRED

  1. Interview with Francis Hunnewell, August 9, 2006. Interview with Michael Pochna, August 31, 2006.

  2. Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.

  3. All quotations: Interview with Pochna, op. cit.

  4. “Do you see me?”: Interview with Dave Whitney, February 20, 2006. “Randa!…Do you believe this?”: Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. Also, interview with Peter Blum, May 5, 2006; interview with George Harrington, February 23, 2006.

  5. All quotations: Interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

  6. Rome nightclub, son of Lord Carrington: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006. Also, interviews with Hunnewell and Pochna, op. cit.

  7. All quotations: Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.

  8. “There must have…by tomorrow”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit.

  9. All quotations: Ibid.

  10. “They found…opened”: Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.

  11. “one of the…pilots”: Interview with Pochna, op. cit.

  12. Ibid.

  13. The initial $6.7 billion contract, Fahd’s commission, European consultants’ estimate: Surtees, Pa Bell, pp. 218–38; Holden and Johns, The House of Saud, p. 412. Salem’s flight logs examined by the author.