The Bin Ladens Read online

  15. “now, in effect…the princes”: Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., pp. 111–12. “disagreements”: Interview with Yeslam published in V.S.B. magazine, Geneva, December 2005, translated and filed in In Re Terrorist Attacks, op. cit.

  16. Majid: Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., p. 113; Mishal: Ibid., p. 187.

  17. Purchase price of Old Geneva building, including renovations: “Respondent’s statement of defense and pleas,” Court of First Instance, Geneva, translated and filed in Los Angeles C212648, op. cit. March 11 letter: Filed in Christine Binladin v. Ibrahim Binladin, Los Angeles County Superior Court, BD058156.

  18. “he went through…intolerant and dogmatic”: “Respondent’s statement of defense and pleas,” Court of First Instance, Geneva, translated and filed in Los Angeles C212648, op. cit. “taking him for a ride…any longer”: Yeslam’s “Divorce Application…As to Fact,” ibid.

  19. “They wanted…invest globally”: Telephone interview with Auguste George James Sauter, July 15, 2005.

  20. Moawalla, Falken Limited, computer system date: Regulatory filings of Russell Wood (Holdings) Limited and Russell Wood Limited, Companies House, London, 1987–1989.

  21. All quotations from “Divorce Application” and “Respondent’s statement of defense and pleas,” Court of First Instance, Geneva, translated and filed in Los Angeles C212648, op. cit.

  22. “burned all the hard disks”: Interview with Sauter, op. cit. He said the Bin Ladens ultimately sued some of the stockbrokers involved to recover lost client funds; British court records of this type are closed to the public, and it was not possible to locate files that would confirm his recollection. “a breakdown in accounting controls”: Russell Wood annual report, Companies House, London, 1988.

  19. THE GRINDER

  1. “Field Project Manager,” board seats: Who’s Who in Saudi Arabia, 1983–1984 edition. “who got…managed it”: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS).

  2. “Where Salem…process-oriented”: Interview with Francis Hunnewell, August 9, 2006. “a very…,” “Yes, Salem”: Interview with Michael Pochna, August 31, 2006.

  3. Vespa scooter, Miami-Dade, “What kind of…actually taste”: Interview with a person who witnessed the conversation and who asked to not be otherwise identified. Bakr declined comment.

  4. International students: Ibis, University of Miami yearbook, 1973 edition. Jewish students, pot survey, “Three things…and pot”: Ibis, 1972 edition.

  5. “We never talked…some money”: Telephone interview Joaquin Avino, February 14, 2006. “a relatively…university”: Telephone interview with John Hall, March 8, 2006. Silk shirts and Cadillac Seville: Telephone interview with Jorge Rodriguez, March 8, 2006.

  6. Suburban rambler, neighbors: Polk’s Miami South Suburban Directory, a telephone book, lists Bakr and Haifa in its 1973 edition at 9435 SW 79th Avenue. Bresser’s 1973 Cross-Index Directory lists that address as “Binladen Bakery,” an apparent typo. The house is still there. Omar listed in Polk’s in 1974 at 9143 SW 77th Avenue, Apartment B701; that building apparently has been torn down. Yahya also was listed at an address near the Miami-Dade North Campus in 1972, but the author could locate no one who remembered his time there. Haifa family background: Interviews with two people close to the family who asked to not be identified. “By no means”: Interview with Rodriguez, op. cit.

  7. “open minded…bathing suits”: Bin Ladin, Inside the Kingdom, pp. 80–81. “He is…not necessary”: Interview with a partner of the Bin Ladens who asked to not be identified.

  8. The partner, not the same one as cited in the previous note, asked to not be identified. Bakr accompanied Osama: Interview with a senior Saudi official who asked to not be identified. Bakr declined comment.

  9. Renovation details: Abbas, Story of the Great Expansion, pp. 3–9. “Many a time…open-ended account”: Ibid., in the foreword by Bakr Bin Laden.

  10. “Sort of realignment…wanted him gone”: Interview with the former senior American official, who asked to not be identified. “Salem told…his family”: Interview with a business partner who asked to not be identified.

  11. Azzam letter: “Rand: Early History of Al Qaeda Working Group, 2006.”

  20. THE ARMS BAZAAR

  1. Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. As indicated in the text, a second individual, a business partner of Salem’s, separately confirmed that Osama had sent out messages to Salem asking for missiles, and that Salem went forward with the transaction through Dietrich’s contacts.

  2. “An increase…staff”: Quoted in Gunaratna, “Al Qaeda: Its Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2006. Jawr battle: “The Story of the Arab Afghans,” Anonymous, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, December 12, 2004.

  3. Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 150.

  4. All quotations, interview with Deitrich, op. cit.

  5. For one detailed account of this period of the war, see Coll, Ghost Wars, pp. 125–67.

  6. Pillsbury’s meetings and conclusions: Interview with Michael Pillsbury, May 2, 2006. In his memoir, From the Shadows, p. 349, former CIA director Robert Gates, referring to the Arab volunteers in the Afghan war, wrote that the CIA “examined ways to increase their participation, perhaps in the form of some sort of ‘international brigade,’ but nothing came of it.” No contemporary U.S. government documents describing this review have yet been declassified or otherwise published.

  7. Salem’s approaches to the Pentagon: Interviews with the business partner cited in note 1. “The problem…missiles”: Interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

  8. Ibid. A Heckler & Koch spokesman acknowledged that the firm had a department in the Middle East specializing in brokered arms sales, but declined any comment on the transactions reported in this book.

  9. All quotations in this passage are from the interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

  10. Simpson, The Prince, pp. 146–49.

  11. Badeeb acknowledged purchasing SA-7 missiles: Interview with Badeeb, February 1, 2002. The two individuals familiar with evidence about the South African transactions are not the same sources cited earlier in these notes. One of them, Michael Elsner, an attorney representing victims of the September 11 attacks, said that he had interviewed an individual who acted as a translator at a meeting in Peshawar, at the Pearl Continental Hotel, attended by two South African military officers, as well as Osama and Sayyaf; they discussed weapons purchases and training, by this account. The second individual, who asked not to be identified, said he attended separate meetings in Jeddah in which Salem negotiated with South African suppliers to purchase arms that would be shipped to Osama in Pakistan.

  12. “Americans…in Palestine”: Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, p. 115. “For God’s sake…issue here”: Palestinian journalist Jamal Ismail in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 60.

  13. This chronology and the numbers of followers at Lion’s Den during 1986 are drawn from “Rand: Early History of Al Qaeda Working Group, 2006,” and Gunaratna, op. cit.

  14. Gunaratna, op. cit.

  15. Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 48.

  16. “very professional”: Interview with Badeeb, op. cit. Contracts with Pakistani intelligence: Interview with a former U.S. official involved. Medina volunteers: “Early Al Qaeda Working Group,” op. cit. Cairo visas: Interview with Michael Scheuer, former head of the Bin Laden unit at the CIA, July 5, 2005. Also Al-Ahram (Egypt), January 1, 2001. Peshawar construction projects for charities by Bin Laden companies: Al-Ahram, ibid.

  17. Bearden: Quoted in Frontline, Hunting Bin Laden, 2001. “more practical”: Harmony AFGP-2002-600094.

  18. “History recounts…Russia”: Lawrence (ed.) Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 147. “It’s an attempt…tacit agreement”: Ibid., pp. 87–88.

  19. CIA logistics units provided cement and supplies: Interview with Peter Tomsen, former U.S. special envoy to the Afghan rebels, September 12, 2006. Haqqani was a unilateral: Interview with a former U.S. official involved. “hero…the Sovi
ets”: Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 151. For their part, CIA case officers recorded frequent accounts of the Arab volunteers who were increasingly active along the border, but they were not interested enough to accumulate lists of names or to track weapons shipments to them. They were much more focused on collecting intelligence about Spetsnaz assault tactics, information that might one day prove useful in a European war.

  20. Charities named in Al-Jihad of December 1986: “Early Al Qaeda Working Group 2006,” op. cit. “shy…pithy statements”: Turki has spoken publicly many times about his encounters with Osama in Pakistan during this period, but this quotation is from a question-and-answer interview with Der Spiegel, March 8, 2004, FBIS translation.

  21. “interesting figure”: Der Spiegel, ibid. “Abdullah Azzam…sixth place”: Letter from Turki to the author, April 22, 2005.

  22. “It is…Saudi Arabia”: Quoted in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 61, from an essay attributed to Al-Suri and published in 2004.

  23. Badeeb’s interview with Orbit Television, late 2001, tape supplied by Badeeb to the author and translated by The Language Doctors, Inc.

  21. OFF THE BOOKS

  1. Bath’s guns, car, plane, investments: Property partition agreement, Sandra C. Bath v. James R. Bath, Harris County Court, 89-07180. In an affidavit of September 29, 1989, Bath affirmed that he was “President and sole director of Skyways, a company wholly owed by foreign nationals.” He declined to identify the owners of Skyway; published media reports have identified Khalid Bin Mahfouz or his family as the controlling investors. Attorneys for Bin Mahfouz declined to comment.

  2. How Bath met Lewis: Interview with Sheryl Johnson, September 8, 2005. Cadillac, money: Sandra Bath”s Fourth Amended Petition, Bath v. Bath, ibid. In an affidavit of September 5, 1991, Bath acknowledged “my affair with Mary Ellen Lewis” and that he had financed a company that she operated. In a court filing in that case, Bath’s attorneys wrote that Bath “has agreed [to] assume that he is the biological father” of the Lewis child. The cards comparing their marriage to Dallas: Deposition testimony of Sandra Bath, ibid. How Sandra learned of the child: Interview with Johnson, op. cit. Drug allegations and denials: Bath’s Second Amended Answer, ibid. “made threats…kill me”: Bath’s affidavit of April 20, 1990, ibid.

  3. “indicated that…business associates”: White pleadings, Charles W. White v. NCNB Texas National Bank, Harris County Court, 90-053147. White did not mention either Osama or Afghanistan in this earliest of his known accounts of Bath’s alleged statements about CIA activities. Expanded comments to describe Bath’s alleged air operations: Undated transcript of White’s interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, circa 2006; White confirmed the accuracy of the transcript and reaffirmed his comments in a telephone interview with the author.

  4. “paranoia…against him”: Bath petition, James R. Bath v. Charles W. White, Harris County Court, 86-42551. “fantasy…agency”: Time, October 28, 1991. “There”s all…participation”: Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, p. 34. Houston station: Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 314.

  5. Interview with Sheryl Johnson, op. cit., and with a second individual who worked with Bath on aviation matters during this time.

  6. McDonald flew from Jeddah to Riyadh aboard one of Salem’s private jets on March 1, 1983, according to flight logs reviewed by the author. The log entry, in full, read: “Salem, Pizza, Congressman Larry McDonald, Georgia, plus two, plus money—Freeman.” Jack and Anita Pizza and Robert and Gail Freeman were frequent fliers on Salem’s planes; they were friends and business partners. “Plus two” refers to two unidentified passengers who were probably traveling with McDonald. The origins of the money referred to and the purpose of McDonald’s travel are unknown. Vinson and Elkins represented Salem: Interview with Charles Schwartz, May 12, 2005.

  7. Certificate of Deposit, contact by Houston Police: White’s pleadings in Charles W. White v. NCNB Texas National Bank, op. cit. Randa’s estrangement: Interview with Gail Freeman, April 27, 2006.

  8. “We have plenty…hereafter”: Quoted in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, pp. 51–52.

  9. “Rand: Early History of Al Qaeda Working Group, 2006.” Also, Bergen and Cruickshank, “How the Idea of Al Qaeda Was Conceived,” 2006. Earliest known published account: Kim Cragin, “Early Al Qaeda Working Group.”

  10. “It was obvious…that party”: Interview with Jamal Khashoggi, February 2, 2002.

  11. The Osama Bin Laden I Know, op. cit. pp. 58–59.

  12. Meeting Osama Bin Laden, Brook Lapping Productions, 2004.

  13. Interview by Mohammed Al-Shafey, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, April 30, 2006.

  14. “was approached…other countries”: E-mail statement from Bin Mahfouz attorneys at Kendall Freeman, London, to author, August 2007. At the time of the contribution, Al Qaeda had not yet been formed. The statement added: “For the avoidance of any doubt, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz has never made any donation to Al Qaeda or any organization or person that he knew to be acting on behalf of Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization.” “with the intention…U.S. Government”: Second e-mail statement from Bin Mahfouz attorney Laurence Harris, managing partner, Kendall Freeman, London, to author, August 2007.

  15. “I think Osama”: The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 48.

  22. THE PROPOSAL

  1. “normal family…doing it”: Interview with Bengt Johansson, October 3, 2006. Other friends, employees, and partners who described Salem”s girlfriends and marriage proposal in on-the-record interviews included Mohamed Ashmawi, Sabry Ghoneim, Thomas Dietrich, Anwar Khan, and Robert and Gail Freeman.

  2. All quotations, including the note from “S,” from an interview with Lynn Peghiny, February 7, 2006.

  3. Carey family: Interview with a person close to the family, as well as biographical information from a family Web site, www.careyroots.com, examined and typed, May 9, 2007.

  4. Interview with Peghiny, op. cit.

  5. Ibid.

  6. All quotations, ibid.

  7. Interview with Gerald Auerbach, April 7, 2005.

  8. All quotations, interview with Peghiny, op. cit.

  9. Sheikha and Rafah on birthdays: Bin Laden, Inside the Kingdom, p. 104. Mona, Huda, and Randa in Europe: Flight logs and interviews with several people who went on the trips, including Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006.

  10. “village idiot”: Inside the Kingdom, p. 88. Los Angeles: Property records in Los Angeles County. Her fast driving: Interviews with two friends of Najiah who asked to not be identified.

  11. Interviews with Robert and Gail Freeman, April 27, 2006.

  12. All quotations, ibid.

  13. “I paid you to smile!”: Interview with Johansson, op. cit. “They were bitching…would say”: Interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

  14. Peter Theroux, Sandstorms, p. 114.

  15. Strip mall, mining deal, cowboy movie: Interview with Wayne Fagan, May 10, 2005. London apartment with Muhammad Ali: Interview with Don Sowell, June 2, 2005.

  16. All quotations, interview with Johansson, op. cit.

  17. Interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005.

  18. Interview with Dietrich, op. cit., and with Salem’s German assistant, Peter Blum, May 5, 2006.

  19. All quotations, interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS).

  20. His temper: Interview with Ashmawi, ibid., as well as many other employees, partners, and friends. The Dubai episode: Interview with two people who were present.

  21. All quotations, interview with Fagan, op. cit.

  23. KITTY HAWK FIELD OF DREAMS

  1. All quotations from an interview with a person familiar with the conversations, who asked to not be identified.

  2. Wedding description and guests from interviews with eight people who attended, as well as photographs of the event.

  3. Interview with Bengt Johansson, October 3, 2006. Swiss accounts: Interview with a friend of Salem who asked to not be identified.

  4. Interview with the
person cited, ibid., and with a second business partner of Salem’s who asked to not be identified.

  5. Flight logs reviewed by the author.

  6. All quotations from an interview with Lynn Peghiny, February 7, 2006.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Interview with Gerald Auerbach, April 9, 2005.

  9. All quotations from an interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005.

  10. History of Kitty Hawk: Interview with Earl Mayfield, April 9, 2005.

  11. All quotations, interview with Hinson, op. cit.

  12. The sequence of events before his flight: Interviews with Hinson and Mayfield, op. cit., and a third individual present. Salem’s eyes teared: Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. In addition to Dietrich, two other people who were particularly close to Salem said they believed that blurred vision caused by tears from the wind was the most likely cause of what unfolded at Kitty Hawk. There is no evidence to support alternative theories of either suicide or a disabling health event such as a heart attack or stroke. Wind speed: Written report of May 29, 1988, by Schertz Police Officer Lori Harris, who arrived at Kitty Hawk in a police patrol car at 3:34 P.M. Interview with Lori Harris, March 16, 2005.

  13. Salem’s flight trajectory: Interviews with Hinson, Mayfield, and the third individual, op. cit. A fourth individual who viewed the videotape described the same sequence. The author was unable to locate a copy of the video, but several people who saw it all described the same sequence.

  14. Notes from the ambulance run report provided to the author by Schertz Police Chief Steve Starr, examined and typed, April 8, 2005. The run report and the Harris police report describe witness accounts of how Salem was lifted from the ultralight by those who initially arrived and was given CPR.

  24. WRITER-DIRECTOR-PRODUCER

  1. “Mickey Mouse plane”: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS). Particular acuteness: Interview with a business partner who asked to not be identified. “family tragedy”: Interview with ABC’s 20/20, broadcast March 29, 2002. Barbara Walters asked Abdullah what he recalled of Osama at the funeral. “I don’t recall things because it was a family tragedy,” he replied.