The Eleventh Day

U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui

, ABC News, 3/20/06;

4

Ashcroft turned down/not increased:

Staff Statement 9, CO,

Newsweek

, 5/27/02, Benjamin & Simon, 348;

5

“very docile”:

NYT

, 6/2/02.

6

“The Big Wedding”/“aircraft”:

John Cooley, a renowned Middle East specialist, reported in 2002 that the “Big Wedding” warning came in “late summer,” and referred to an attack within the United States involving airplanes. CNN, reporting earlier, referred to a Jordanian warning “a few days” before 9/11—but suggested that it related to a coming attack not in the United States but on resort hotels in Jordan. According to CIA director Tenet, “a source we were jointly running with a Middle Eastern country” went to his foreign handler on September 10 to say “something big” was about to happen. He was ignored (“Wedding”: Cooley, 229,

International Herald Tribune

, 5/21/02, CNN, 11/19/01; “something big”: Tenet, 160).

7

France passed:

Le Figaro

, 11/1/01;

8

Feinstein/“One of”/“Despite”:

Late Edition

, CNN, 7/1/01, Statement of Dianne Feinstein, 5/17/01, http://feinstein.senate.gov,

Newsweek

, 5/27/02, MSNBC, 9/28/06.

9

Massoud assassinated/?“journalists’ ”:

CR, 214,

Time

, 8/12/02, Burke,

Al-Qaeda

, 197. After 9/11, when U.S. strikes on Afghanistan had routed Taliban and al Qaeda forces,

Wall Street Journal

reporter Alan Cullison made remarkable discoveries on a computer that had belonged to the terrorists. The hard drive contained a letter, apparently crafted by Ayman al-Zawahiri, purporting to be the “journalists’ ” request for the Massoud interview (

WSJ

, 12/31/01);

10 widow: Bergen, OBL I Know, 297–;

11 O’Neill had warned/?frustrated/?resigned/?“We’re due”: Murray Weiss, The Man Who Warned America, NY: Regan, 2003, 180–, 320–, 362, 370–, Frontline: “The Man Who Knew,” PBS, 10/3/02.

12 Putin: int. of Putin for Iran & the West: Nuclear Confrontation, BBC, 2/7/09. While-Putin was to say clearly that he spoke with Bush the day before the attack, the former President referred in his 2010 memoir only to a conversation afterward (Bush, 369–);

13 Massoud assassination/analyzed implications: Coll, Holy War Inc., 582–, Tenet, 174;

14 memoir not refer: e.g. see Bush, 187, 196;

15 Deputies tinkered/eliminate OBL: CR, 206, Farmer, 68;

16 “literally headed”: CBS News, 9/11/02;

17 “eerie”: int. Rice by Bob Woodward, “Farmer Misc.,” B9, NYC files, CF;

18 PM of Australia: Sept. 10 entries, Public Papers of the Presidents, 2001, www.gpoaccess.gov;

19 helicopter: Goldberg et al., Ch. 4;

20 Bush at Colony: int. Katie Moulton, Sarasota Magazine, 11/01, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02;

21 “soft event”: WP, 1/27/02;

22 “Tomorrow”/“The match”: Report, JI, 32, 205, 375, Graham with Nussbaum, 138–, CBS News, 6/20/02, Bamford, Shadow Factory, 92.

23 Arabs gathered/“finally”: MFR 04017535, 11/18/03, MFR 04017537, 11/18/03, CR 249–;

24 Dulles/Boston/Newark hotels: “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE, Stipulation, U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui, 3/1/06.

25 drove Portland/Comfort Inn/ATM/Walmart/Pizza Hut/phone calls: What Atta bought at the Walmart, though, according to an FBI document, was a “6-volt battery converter”—a puzzling purchase for a would-be hijacker expecting to go to his death in the morning. “Chronology of Events for Hijackers, 8/16/01,” U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui, Exhibits OG00020.2, FO07011, FO07021, FO07022, FO07023, FO07024, “265D-NY-280350, TWINBOM-PENTTBOM, Biographical Report,” 11/26/01, National Drug Intelligence Center for the FBI, authors’ collection, FBI press release, 10/14/01, entries for 9/10/01 & 9/11/01, “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE, FBI 302 of [name redacted], 10/15/01, “FBI 302s of Interest,” B17, T7, CF, FBI Timeline of 9–11 Hijacker Activity & Movements, “Timelines 9–11, 2 of 2,” B20, T7, CF.

26 Kara: “Chaos and Ghosts,” www.oredigger61.org, corr. Miles Kara, 2010.

27 Rolince: “Staff Notes of Int. Michael Rolince, 6/9/04,” B70, T5, CF. The authors note that by an FBI account Caysan bin Don, the American Muslim who featured in an episode in January 2000—he was Bayoumi’s companion the day he and Bayoumi had their supposedly chance meeting with newly arrived Mihdhar and Hazmi—was in Portland on September 11. It is hard to imagine, though, why Atta could conceivably have needed to meet with bin Don just before 9/11. Other hypotheses to try to explain the Portland expedition include the suggestion (not dissimilar to Miles Kara’s) that Atta was worried lest the sight of as many as ten Arabs checking in at Boston for the two targeted flights to Los Angeles attract undue attention. The bottom line is that the trip remains unexplained. As the 9/11 Commission Report noted, “no physical, documentary, or analytical evidence” explains the Portland trip (location of bin Don: MFR 04018561, 11/20/03, MFR 04019254, 4/20/04, & see National Enquirer, 11/6/01; met bin Don: “Staff Notes of Int. Michael Rolince, 6/9/04,” B70, T5, CF; other hypotheses: AP, 10/4/01, NYT, 9/11/02; Commission: CR, 451n1).

28 ritual/“spiritual manual”: FBI report, “The 11 September Hijacker Cell Model,” Feb. 03, INTELWIRE. The “spiritual manual” and the ritual it called for is described at length on pp. 161–64;

29 “noticed large amounts”: MFR 04020636, 2/2/04, CF, “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE. Similar evidence had been found at locations used by the terrorists involved in the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Kenya in 1998 and of the USS Cole in 2000 (New Yorker, 7/10 & 7/17/06);

30 “the mutual pledge”: see sources for Ch. 14;

31 “God willing”: Fouda & Fielding, 109, translation of Binalshibh audiotape by Naouar Bioud, authors’ collection;