The Bin Ladens Read online

  5. Interview with Anwar Hassan, York International Corporation, October 13, 2005, and written briefing materials supplied to the author by Hassan and his colleagues.

  6. All quotations from Hassan interview, ibid.

  7. Angawi’s background and “to preserve…holy cities”: Interview with Sami Angawi, April 25, 2005.

  8. Ibid.

  9. “The largest…souls”: Caudill, “Twlight of the Hejaz” (manuscript), pp. 74–75.

  10. Story of the Great Expansion, op. cit., pp. 51–64.

  11. Interview with Angawi, op. cit.

  12. “This is where…heritage”: Interview with a Jeddah professional who asked to not be identified.

  13. Interview with Angawi, op. cit.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Story of the Great Expansion, op. cit., dedication by Bakr Bin Laden.

  16. All quotations from “The Saudi Regime and Repeated Tragedies of the Pilgrims,” Harmony AFGP 2002-003214, Statement 19.

  33. ONE PHONE, ONE WORLD

  1. Independent (London), May 18, 1998.

  2. Whalen, “Communications Satellites: Making the Global Village Possible,” www.hq.nasa.gov, examined and typed, July 17, 2006.

  3. Around 1987, about $5 billion: New York Times, April 11, 2000. Motorola’s fixed-price contract of about $3.5 billion: Securities and Exchange Commission, Iridium LLC, S-4 filing, July 21, 1997.

  4. Swiss conference, “drop down…”: Telephone interview with F. Thomas Tuttle, July 19, 2006.

  5. Trinford Investments: S-4 filing, op. cit., July 21, 1997. The two $40 million cash contributions are described in this document and by Tuttle, ibid., and a second former Iridium executive who asked to not be identified. Raised $3.46 billion: S-4, ibid. The final amount of equity investments may have been higher; it was supplemented by bank lending.

  6. Iridium Middle East in Washington, Hassan at board meetings: Interviews with four former executives, three at Iridium, including Tuttle, who were familiar with the operation.

  7. Johnny Walker sessions, and “has been ex-communicated”: Interview with a former Iridium executive. Hassan’s nocturnal habits were described in interviews by two former colleagues in the United States and several of his acquaintances in Beirut and Jeddah.

  8. Major shareholder in Hard Rock Middle East: E-mail communication from Hard Rock spokesman, January 23, 2006. Slang, every pinball machine: Interview with a colleague in Beirut who asked to not be identified. Youth in Beirut, Layla, lived in hotels: Telephone interview with Layla Moussa, April 24, 2006 (RS). Cars, Al-Ittihad, Umm Kulsum: Interview with the Beirut colleague, op. cit., and a second Beirut acquaintance.

  9. Opening night, list of paraphernalia: Interview with a colleague who attended; details posted on the restaurant’s Web site, examined and typed by R.S., April 2006; site visit by R.S., April 2006.

  10. Market size, 14 million wireless customers: S-4 filing, op. cit., July 21, 1997. Phones three thousand dollars, calls up to seven dollars per minute: New York Times, April 11, 2000.

  11. “complete the telephone…very proud”: Washington Post, August 21, 1999.

  12. “I had a Mongolian”: Interview with a former Iridium executive, who asked to not be identified. “What we had”: Interview with Tuttle, op. cit.

  13. S-4 filing, op. cit., July 21, 1997.

  14. Transcript of Khaled Batarfi interview with Osama’s mother, supplied to the author by Batarfi.

  15. “Bin Laden ‘Bodyguard’ Details Al Qaeda’s Time in Sudan, Move to Afghanistan,” Al-Quds Al-Arabi, March 28, 2005. FBIS translation.

  16. Public Broadcasting System translation. www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html, examined and typed, July 10, 2007.

  17. “Former Bin Laden ‘Bodyguard’ Discusses Al Qaeda Training Methods, ‘Libraries,’” Al-Quds Al-Arabi, March 26, 2005. FBIS translation.

  18. “What is…all and sundry”: ‘Bodyguard Interviewed on First Meeting With Bin Laden,” Al-Quds Al-Arabi, March 26, 2005. FBIS translation.

  19. Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 165.

  20. “like sort…a fish”: Ibid., p. 181. “did not like…very late”: “Bin Laden’s Wife Interviewed…” Al-Majallah, March 10, 2002. FBIS translation.

  21. Testimony of Detective Inspector Noel Feeney, United States v. Usama Bin Laden et al., United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 98CR1023, March 27, 2001.

  22. The News (Islamabad), June 16, 1998. English original, FBIS transmission.

  23. Purchase November 1, 1996: Trial stipulations, U.S. v. Usama Bin Laden et al., op. cit., March 27, 2001. Inmarsat history, market position: Interviews with two former Iridium executives.

  24. Call records: Sunday Times (London), March 24, 2002, and Newsweek, February 25, 2002.

  25. Interview with Michael Scheuer, July 5, 2005.

  26. Scheure (as “Anonymous”), Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, pp. 22–23.

  27. Interview with Tuttle, op. cit. Statements to press: Daily News (New York), August 27, 1998. Interspace, September 9, 1998.

  28. Only fifty-five thousand subscribers, write-offs of more than $2.5 billion: New York Times, April 11, 2000.

  29. Department of Defense transcript, news briefing, December 8, 2000.

  34. LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY

  1. Interview with Daniel Coleman, August 31, 2005.

  2. That the Sudan files were very detailed: Interviews with two U.S. officials who read the files later. Two defectors in 1996, first introduction of the term “Al Qaeda”: Interview with Coleman, ibid.

  3. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” Staff Report to the Commission by John Roth, Douglas Greenburg, Serena Wille, August 2004, p. 35.

  4. Scheuer’s skepticism about money investigations: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” ibid., p. 36. Also, interview with Michael Scheuer, July 5, 2005, and interview with Coleman, op. cit.

  5. Interview with Coleman, op. cit. Griffin declined to comment.

  6. “proper conversation…talking about”: Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

  7. All quotations from interview with Coleman. Urowsky declined to comment.

  8. “at the senior…kind of trouble”: All quotations from interview with Scheuer. Freeh declined to comment.

  9. “They said…economic system”: Ibid.

  10. “Okay…establishments”: Ibid.

  11. Interviews with Wyche Fowler Jr., June 1, 2005, and John Brennan, September 13, 2006.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Investigators for the 9/11 Commission, after a thorough review of classified U.S. records, reported that neither the White House nor the intelligence community understood the details of Osama’s inheritance until 1999 or 2000. It is possible, however, that some of this information surfaced earlier, at least in outline form; for instance, as part of Dan Coleman’s early interviews with Osama’s half-brothers. If so, the information never reached the National Security Council.

  14. Interview with Brennan, op. cit.

  15. “a decided reluctance…his brothers”: Interview with Scheuer, op. cit.

  16. Interviews with Fowler and Brennan, op. cit. Fowler also said, “One will recall that all the members of the Bin Laden family in the U.S. were allowed to return to Saudi Arabia in the days after September 11, which is because the FBI and the White House had cleared them of any terroristic activities, and because of the complete cooperation of the Bin Laden family in the three or four years preceding 9/11.”

  17. Inventory of CIA concerns: Interviews with four former U.S. officials familiar with the CIA’s investigations, including Scheuer, op. cit. Khalfa used M.B.C. travel office: Affidavit of M.B.C. employee Eulalio Dela Pat. December 1, 2005, In Re Terrorist Attacks.

  18. “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 39.

  19. Interviews with three former U.S. officials involved in the discussions.

  20. That Abdullah Bin Awadh of WAM
Y is a nephew of Osama: Affidavit of Omar M. Bin Laden, In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 03 MDL 1570, January 25, 2006. The same information is also cited in “Supplemental Declaration In Support of Pre-Trial Detention,” an affidavit by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Special Agent David Kane, filed in U.S. v. Soliman S. Biheiri, September 11, 2003; Kane attributes the information to an interview with Biheiri, who said he managed investments from Abdullah. None of these documents identifies which of Osama’s half-brothers or half-sisters is Abdullah’s parent, however. Two of Osama’s half-sisters, Iman and Nur, are identified by Biheiri as investors in the same projects as Abdullah, according to Kane.

  21. More than fifty offices, five continents: Kane affidavit, ibid. Abdullah’s account of his activities, including all quotations from “the deliberate…” through “good word” are from “Saudi Arabia: Paper on Efforts to Promote Islam in U.S.,” Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, October 19, 1997, FBIS translation. The quotations appear to be the journalist’s paraphrase of Abdullah’s remarks.

  22. Kane affidavit, op. cit.

  23. Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

  24. Kane affidavit, op. cit. Also, notes from a Biheiri interrogation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in June 2003, filed in Alexandria federal court: Notes from the transcript taken by Washington Post reporter Mary Beth Sheridan and generously shared with the author by her.

  25. “has long acted”: “Declaration in Support of Pre-Trial Detention,” affidavit of David Kane, United States of America v. Soliman S. Biheiri, United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, 03-365-A. August 14, 2003. “indirect investment…on request”: Letter from George B. Wolfe, Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Treasury Department, to Claude Nicati, Office of the Swiss Prosecutor General, January 4, 2002. Ghalib’s account history and lawsuit: Documents submitted in In Re Terrorist Attacks, op. cit. “seeking to put the bank out of business”: “Defendant Saudi Bin Ladin Group’s Response to Plaintiffs’ Objections…Dated July 26, 2007,” ibid.

  26. An offshore entity controlled by Saudi Bin Laden Group: Declaration of Johann DeVilliers, Global Diamond chairman, Mood v. Global Diamond Resources, United States District Court, Southern District of California, 99cv01565. DeVilliers referred to the controlling entity as “The Bin Laden Group.” He described Al-Qadi as a “principal of one of the Middle Eastern investors.” Al-Qadi designation: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/sdnlist.txt. Examined and typed, July 16, 2007. “front”: Citation quoted in Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2001. Al-Qadi denied, met Osama in 1980s: Chicago Tribune, ibid.; “Saudi Businessman on U.S. List…Dismisses Charge,” Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, October 14, 2001, FBIS translation.

  27. Scheuer, as “Anonymous,” Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, p. 34.

  28. “lots of talk…been named”: Interview with Dominic Simpson, May 17, 2002.

  29. “always got…for him”: Ibid. “generally turned away”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., pp. 17–18.

  30. November 1998 CIA report, “reasonable estimate”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 20. DIA report: Redacted and released, Judicial Watch, Inc.

  31. “This is insane…from daddy”: Clarke, Against All Enemies, p. 191.

  32. Interviews with former U.S. officials.

  33. The account of the meeting in Saudi Arabia is from several former U.S. officials. See also Clarke, op. cit., pp. 191–95, and “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., which provide similar accounts.

  34. Interviews with three U.S. officials and former officials familiar with the discussions.

  35. For the details of what the Bin Ladens finally disclosed to Treasury, see also “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 20. This otherwise admirable study, in seeking to debunk the $300 million myth publicly, contains one dubious assertion, referring to Osama’s forced sales of shares in 1994: “The Saudi freeze had the effect of divesting Bin Laden of what would otherwise have been a $300 million fortune.” This is a considerable overstatement: even today, after inflation and growth in the Bin Laden empire, ownership of between 1 and 2 percent of the Bin Laden companies, as Osama seems to have possessed in 1994, would almost certainly be worth much less.

  36. Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

  37. “We presently…his cause”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 18.

  38. Interviews with two individuals who reviewed the FBI’s pre-9/11 files on Bin Laden finances.

  39. Interview with Coleman, op. cit., and a second senior former FBI official.

  40. “hampered…disruption”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 6. Africa $10,000, 9/11 about $400,000: Ibid., pp. 27–28.

  41. Estimates of Al Qaeda budgeting, late 1990s: Ibid., pp. 18, 28. Omar’s palace, mosque, shopping market: Author’s visit to Kandahar, 2002. Even these Al Qaeda budget figures are at best approximations, little more than educated guesses. As the authors of the monograph, who systematically reviewed U.S. intelligence in this area, conceded, “There is much the U.S. government did not know (and still does not know) about Bin Laden’s resources and how Al Qaeda raises, moves, and spends its money.”

  35. BIN LADEN ISLAND

  1. “There’s only one sheikh…family”: Interview with an individual close to the Bin Laden family, who asked to not be identified. The portrait of Bakr that follows is drawn primarily from interviews with this person and three other people, who asked to not be identified, who interacted with Bakr during this period.

  2. Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Amman Grand Hyatt: Saudi Bin Laden Group Web site pages printed by Peter Bergen in the summer of 2001 and shared with the author. United Medical Group: www.umgco.com, examined and typed, July 20, 2006.

  3. Badging policy, severance policy: Saudi Bin Laden Group employment policy documents filed in Mood v. Global Diamond Resources, et al., United States District Court, Southern District of California, 99cv01565.

  4. Interviews with individuals close to the family who asked to not be identified.

  5. Caudill, “Twilight in the Hejaz” (manuscript), pp. 138–39.

  6. Agence France Presse, February 18, 2001; Mail on Sunday (London), February 18, 2001; Observer (London), February 18, 2001; Press Association (London), February 17, 2001.

  7. Ibid. The exchange was reported in the same way by multiple British journalists, all of whom were traveling in Saudi Arabia with Prince Charles at the time and all of whom sourced the exchange to a person present at the event.

  8. Preferred the plural “Faiths”: Daily Telegraph (London), January 11, 2005. “misunderstandings…from Islam”: “Islam and the West,” Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, October 27, 1993.

  9. Press Association, February 17, 2001, op. cit.; www.shell-me.com examined and typed, September 6, 2006.

  10. Interviews with three individuals familiar with the contacts with State and Bush. Also Daniel Golden, James Bandler, Marcus Walker, Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2001.

  11. Meetings with Carter, donations: E-mail communication from Deanna Congileo, the Carter Center, October 12, 2005. One of only two trips to the U.S. since 1973: Affidavit of Bakr Bin Laden, In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 03 MDL 1570, January 25, 2006.

  12. “for as long…acts of violence”: Police report of Michele Smith filed in Franklin Frisaura v. Regina Frisaura, Orange County, Florida, DR97-3754. Examined and typed, January 24, 2006. Franklin Frisaura declined to comment.

  13. All documents and quotations, ibid.

  14. The Marina, Bin Laden Island: Interviews with visitors, including Yahia Agaty, November 19, 2005 (RS) and a second individual who asked to not be identified. Robin Shulman visited and photographed the resort.

  15. The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 154.

  16. “theater…superterrorist”: Ibid.

  17. Ibid., pp. 154–
55.

  18. Wedding video: Meeting Osama Bin Laden, Brook Lapping Productions, 2004. Four to five hundred guests, the scene: Zaidan in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, pp. 255–56.

  19. Ibid., p. 255.

  20. Ibid., p. 256.

  21. Ibid.

  36. THE NAME

  1. Interview with Jason Blum and Ricardo Pascetta, July 1, 2007 (KH). Interview with Ricardo Pascetta, June 2, 2007 (KH).

  2. Interview with Blum, ibid.

  3. “how horribile…at her”: Ibid. “violence…Islam”: Redacted FBI documents released and published by Judicial Watch as a result of its FOIA filings and lawsuit, Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security & Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States District Court, District of Columbia, 04-1643 (RWR). The document describing the interview with Najiah, and quoting her, has redacted her name, but the context makes clear that it is her.

  4. Interview with Blum, op. cit.

  5. “The guy turned…out of here”: All quotations from interview with Blum, ibid. The circumstances of the flight crew’s revolt were also described by Pascetta, op. cit.

  6. The other groups of Saudi royals: Judicial Watch documents, op. cit. That Bandar did not discuss the flights with Bush, and “Those people…no problem”: Simpson, The Prince, pp. 314–16.

  7. Interview with Fred Dutton, May 24, 2005. Dutton died about a month after this interview, on June 25, 2005, at the age of eighty-two.

  8. “what to do…bad apple”: Interview with Dutton, ibid.

  9. All quotations, ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. The meeting, “solicitous and kind”: Interview with Chas Freeman, June 15, 2005.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Yeslam has given several similar interviews describing his experiences and thinking on September 11 and afterward. See, for example, Dateline NBC, broadcast July 9, 2004. The quotations here are from a published question-and-answer interview in VSB, Geneva, December 2005, translated and filed in In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 03 MDL 1570.