The Eleventh Day

bojinka was not a Serbo-Croatian word for “big bang,” as reported—just “a nonsense word he adopted after hearing it on the front lines in Afghanistan.” The authors have been unable to pin down a meaning for the word in Serbo-Croat, but there is a Croatian word bocnica, meaning “boom” (explosion: Time, 1/1/95; loud bang: WP, 5/19/02; big bang: www.FrontPageMagazine.com, 5/20/02; boom: www.eudict.com; “a nonsense”: CR, 488n7).

31 Yousef arrested: Katz, 162–, 186–, Reeve, 101;

32 cooperative Bhutto: John Esposito, Political Islam, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1997, 150;

33 face trial: Reeve, 237;

34 Found guilty/“I am”: ibid., 242, CNN, 9/5/96, 11/12/97;

35 240 years: NYT, 4/5/03.

36 helicopter/?“See”: Coll, Ghost Wars, 272. This exchange has been described several times, with varying details. They are summarized by author Peter Lance in his book 1000 Years for Revenge, 298, 482n13;

37 prostrate: Lance, 1000 Years, 9–;

38 mastermind: Coll, Ghost Wars, 273, NYT, 4/12/95—citing Al Hayat; leaders inspired: Coll, Ghost Wars, 272.

39 “substantial”: Staff Statement 15, CO, Peter Lance, Cover- Up, NY: Regan, 2004, 209—the staff member was Douglas MacEachin;

40 camp: Corbin, 46–, Reeve, 120, Benjamin & Simon, 8, 503n14, Los Angeles Times, 9/11/02 & see Evan Kohlmann, “Expert Report I: U.S. v. Oussama Kassir,” 3/09;

41 “emissary”: Abuza, “Balik Terrorism”;

42 separatist: Time, 6/17/02, Reeve, 136, 156–;

43 manual: NYT, 1/14/01, 6/9/02, Lance, 1000 Years, 110;

44 calls: Reeve, 47–, Lance, 1000 Years, 234;

45 Beit Ashuhada: “Summary of Captioned Investigation as of 11/4/01,” PENTTBOM, 11/5/01, authors’ collection, Cooley, 102, “State Dept. Fact Sheet on Bin Laden,” 8/14/96 reprinted in Brisard & Dasquie, 169.

46 “good friend”/“trenches”: transcript int. of OBL for ABC News, Frontline: “Hunting bin Laden,” www.pbs.org, Miller & Stone, 138–, 189. The separatist leader with whom Yousef had early contact in the Philippines was Abdurajak Janjalani, the founder of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group. As identified in a previous note, the companion refused admission was Ahmad Ajaj. The Yousef accomplice who had fought with bin Laden was Wali Kahn Amin Shah (Reeve, 136, 156–, CR, 59).

47 Shaikha/?“Imagine”: CNN, 11/24/04, 9/24/06, Bergen, OBL I Know, 46–, Wright, 97–;

48 “missionary”: “Mohammad Khalifa’s Network in the Philippines,” in ed. J. M. Berger, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Vol. 1, INTELWIRE, 2007;

49 “philanthropist”: The Inquirer (Philippines), 1/22/07, Vitug & Gloria, 208, 213, 235–;

50 OBL Philippines: Ressa, 16;

51 spreading money: ibid., 27, 73, 107, 227n22, Christian Science Monitor, 2/1/02;

52 introduced Yousef: Ressa, 108;

53 left country/police report: Ressa, 10–, 16;

54 arrested: “Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support for Motion re Return of Property,” Mohammad Jamal Khalifa v. U.S., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Cr 95–, in ed. Berger;

55 phone book: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation, Inc. et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 02 CR 0414, 4/29/02, in ed. Berger;

56 bomb factory: J. M. Berger, “Mohammad Jamal Khalifa: Life and Death Secrets,” 1/31/07, INTELWIRE;

57 explosives/weaponry: “In the Matter of Mohammad J. Khalifah, Respondent,” U.S. Dept. of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, A29–457–661, 3/10/95, in ed. Berger; Khalifa, entry for OBL: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation, Inc., et al.; card in suitcase/Khalifa alias: U.S. v. Benevolence International Foundation Inc., et al.; co-conspirator: ed. Berger, Khalifa, iii.

58 “alleged financier”: JI, Report, 128. The “alleged financier” reference also appears in a post-9/11 FBI report. A CIA investigation, the BBC was reportedly told by an agency interviewee in 1998, indicated that bin Laden was “Yousef’s principal financial backer.” The overall story of the way Khalifa was handled by U.S. authorities in 1995 remains complex and unsatisfactorily explained. His U.S. visa had been withdrawn on the ground that he had “engaged in terrorist activity,” not in the United States but in Jordan, where he had been convicted in absentia in connection with a bombing campaign. Khalifa was subsequently deported to Jordan, retried, and acquitted—though he admitted that he had known the bombers and sent them funds. Khalifa was then allowed to leave for Saudi Arabia. He claimed in interviews after 9/11, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that he and bin Laden had been estranged since the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Khalifa was killed by unknown assailants in Madagascar in 2007—days after Interpol had forwarded a bulletin on him to U.S. agencies. Relevant Interpol documents are heavily redacted. (“alleged financier”: “Summary of Captioned Investigation as of 11/4/01,” PENTTBOM, 11/5/01, authors’ collection; “Yousef’s principal”: Vitug & Gloria, 234; “engaged”: Mohammad Jamal Khalifah v. U.S., Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Motion for Return of Property, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, CR 95–, 3/6/95; in absentia/?retried/?acquitted: ed. Berger, Khalifa, ii–; admitted: John Doe v. Al Baraka Investment & Development Corporation et al., Complaint, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; estranged: e.g. CNN, 9/2/07, Wright, 113; killed/Interpol: J. M. Berger, “U.S., Interpol Tracking Khalifa in Days Before Madagascar Murder,” 2/16/07, INTELWIRE).

59 never charged: ed. Berger, i.

60 clues/“Zahid”: Miller & Stone, 137, McDermott, 162.

61 Zahid uncle: Reeve, 48. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has long been described as Ramzi Yousef’s uncle. The most informative account, by journalist Terry McDermott and colleagues at the Los Angeles Times, concludes that he is the brother of Yousef’s mother, Hameda. Author Steve Coll writes that the CIA concluded that Mohammed is not only Yousef’s uncle, but that the two men’s wives are sisters. Absent documentation, the exact nature of their relationship remains elusive—Arabs sometimes use the word “uncle” loosely. Both men were apparently born in Kuwait to immigrant families from the Baluchistan region of southwest Pakistan. “I am Palestinian on my mother’s side,” Yousef told an Arab newspaper in 1995. “My grandmother is Palestinian” (uncle: e.g. Corbin, 47, Reeve, 91, Time, 6/17/02; informative: McDermott, 107–, 128, & see Fouda & Fielding, 88–; wives: Coll, Ghost Wars, 326; “I am Palestinian”: int. Yousef by Raghida Dergham, Al Hayat, 4/12/95 & see NYT, 4/12/95).

62 photos of OBL: Financial Times, 2/15/03.

63 no sign of either brother: KSM’s brother Zahid spent much of the 1990s in the United Arab Emirates, until being deported in 1998 for involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was working as a business executive in Bahrain as of 2010 (New Yorker, 9/13/10).

64 Yousef many calls: Miller & Stone, 137, NBC News, 10/18/00;

65 call to KSM: CR, 147, 488n6;

66 Tiffany Mansions: McDermott, 144;

67 bar girls/phone: Ressa, 18–;