The Eleventh Day

68 “Abdul Majid”/met in Pakistan/electronics business/“must have”: FBI 302 of int. Abdul Hakim Ali Murad, 5/11/95, “Various Interrogation Reports,” B24, T1, CF, CR, 147;

69 “I was”: “Verbatim Transcript ISN 10024”;

70 “idea”: “Substitution for the Testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui; target CIA/WTC: CR, 153, 491n33.

71 “plan”: Philippines National Police, “After Debriefing Report,” 1/20/95. A 1995 FBI memo refers to Murad’s statement about attacking CIA HQ, but cites him as saying he would fly a plane filled with explosives into the building” (WP, 6/6/02, Coll, Ghost Wars, 278–, Lance, Triple Cross, 188, Appendix XI).

72 Mendoza: CNN, 9/18/01. Former CIA official and deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, Larry Johnson, has characterized Mendoza’s assertions as “bullshit.” Contemporary Philippines police reports on the Murad interrogation, Johnson asserted in 2006—publishing copies of some of them—do not reflect questioning of Murad by Mendoza. Nor, he said, do they contain any reference to talk of flying airliners into buildings other than the CIA. Johnson wrote that author Peter Lance, who gave credence to Mendoza’s account in his books on 9/11, had been “sold a bill of goods.” Johnson, however, is himself a controversial character, said to have been instrumental in spreading a smear story about President Obama’s wife, Michelle. He has been mocked for having written a New York Times piece stating that “terrorism is not the biggest security challenge confronting the United States”—two months before 9/11 (Larry Johnson, “Peter Lance’s Flawed Triple Cross,” 12/6/06, www.huffingtonpost.com, David Weigel, “Larry Johnson’s Strange Trip,” 6/24/08, www.prospect.org, Larry Johnson, “Whitey Tapes,” 10/21/08, www.noquarterusa.net, Time, 6/12/08).

73 “The targets”: “Investigating Terror,” CNN, 10/20/01, Ressa, 32—citing 9/16/01 int. of Tiglao.

74 Garcia/“selected targets”: Village Voice, 9/25/01, Rafael Garcia, “Decoding Bojinka,” Newsbreak (Philippines), 11/15/01, Fouda & Fielding, 99, Lance, Triple Cross, 185 & see “Authorities Told of Hijack Risks,” AP, 3/5/02. In other versions of his account, Garcia recalled that the computer file also named the Pentagon as a proposed target. “Murad,” Garcia wrote, “was to fly the plane that would be crashed into the CIA headquarters.” The subject of the computer, and other evidence on it, came up at Yousef’s trial in 1996. Defense attorneys sought unsuccessfully to challenge the evidence on the computer, alleging tampering (“Murad”: Rafael Garcia, “Decoding Bojinka,” Newsbreak [Philippines], 11/15/01, Village Voice, 9/25/01, Fouda & Fielding, 99; tampering?: NYT, 7/18/96, WP, 12/6/01).

75 “claims”: CR, 491n33;

76 FBI “effectively”: JI, Report, 9, 101–, 210;

77 “We shared”/“I believe”: Portsmouth Herald, 3/5/02, CNN, 3/14/02;

78 Mendoza insisted: Lance, 1000 Years, 282;

79 “We told”/“I still”: WP, 12/30/01.

80 Defense Dept. panel/?“Coming”/?“It was”: WP, 10/2/01 & see re not in published version “Terror 2000,” www.dod.gov.

CHAPTER 21

1

“You need”:

NYT

, 11/14/09—agent was Daniel Byman;

2

“manager”:

“Khalid Shaykh Muhammad: Preeminent Source on Al Qa’ida,” CIA, 7/13/04, released 2009;

3

“Khalid”/born Kuwait:

JI, Report, 30,

New Yorker

, 9/13/10;

4

imam/washed bodies:

Fox News, 3/14/07;

5

Palestinians:

McDermott, 109;

6

“so smart”/theater:

Financial Times

, 2/15/03,

New Yorker

, 9/13/10. KSM studied first at Chowan College, in Murfreesboro, then at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro. Also attending the latter college was Ramzi Yousef’s brother (New York to Counterterrorism, Charlotte, 6/10/02, FBI 265A-NY-252802, INTELWIRE, CR, 146);

7

Palestine/?prayers/?reproach:

New York to Counterterrorism, Charlotte, 6/10/02, FBI 265A-NY-252802, INTELWIRE, CR, 146, McDermott, 115–;

8

“racist”:

KSM, “Preeminent Source,” McDermott, 114–;

9

1987/Afghan conflict:

CR, 146. During the war, KSM became aide to Abdul Rasool Sayyaf, a former Kabul theology professor and an adherent to a form of Islam similar to the creed practiced in Saudi Arabia. Sayyaf, who lived for some time in Saudi Arabia, had links to bin Laden (Fouda & Fielding, 91);

10 one brother/two killed: CR, 488n5, Financial Times, 2/15/03;

11 KSM relatives: e.g. “KSM: Preeminent Source,” Staff Report, “9/11 and Terrorist Travel,” CO, Time, 5/1/03, Reuters, 2/1/08, WP, 4/13/07, across world/Bosnia: CR, 488n5, Fouda & Fielding, 97, Al Jazeera, 5/5/03, McDermott, 175;

12 short/balding: Fouda & Fielding, 88, Los Angeles Times, 9/1/02, “Khaled Shaikh Mohammad,” information sheet for Rewards for Justice program, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. Dept. of State;

13 employment: NY to National Security, Bangkok et al., FBI 265A-NY-252802, 7/8/99, INTELWIRE;

14 Thani: CR, 147–, 488n5;

15 indictment: ibid., 73.

16 tipped off/assisted flying out: The circumstances in which KSM was allowed to escape have been told in some detail by former CIA case officer Robert Baer, drawing on information given him in 1997 by former police chief Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Hamad al-Thani, then in exile in Syria. The Qatari fiasco has also been described by Richard Clarke, and—more circumspectly—by former FBI director Louis Freeh (Baer: Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil, NY: Three Rivers, 2003, 18, 190–, Robert Baer, See