The Bin Ladens

18. Jer Docs Letter 1390, March 8, 1959.

19. “We learned…a bit of Arabic,” import details, and tipping: Interviews with Nadir Shtaye, October 31, 2005, and November 6, 2005 (RS). Other Palestinian Muslims who were in Jerusalem at the time confirm the presence of Christian workers on the job site. Late-1950s photograph: Story of the Great Expansion, op. cit. The book dates the photo to 1959 but the caption suggests it might have been taken in 1964. Photos from American pilot: Provided by Terri Daley, the pilot’s daughter. The aluminum cupola and joists Bin Laden installed on the Dome of the Rock would prove leaky and unreliable, and they were removed years later, but engineers and architects who later oversaw the mosque said the blame for this lay with the project’s oversight committee, which had been dazzled at the time of the original bidding by the promise of “modern” aluminum, about which they knew too little. A UNESCO report written in 1979 by European experts documents the problems in detail.

20. English translation: “Address on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Restored Dome of the Rock,” April 18, 1994, which includes excerpts from the earlier 1964 speech. Accessed at www.kinghussein.gov.jo/94_april18.html.

21. Text reprinted in Palestine, August 8, 1964, p. 5.

22. All quotations: Ibid.

23. This account of the house is primarily from an interview with its owner and a tour of the home (RS). Other residents of the area who knew of Bin Laden at this time confirmed that he stayed at the house when he was in town. Two acquaintances said he took a Palestinian wife; one thought the wife was from Gaza, another thought she was from Jenin. These specific accounts could not be confirmed, but they accord with the recollections of other family acquaintances and business partners that Bin Laden had at least one Palestinian wife. Interviews conducted for the author by Israeli journalist Samuel Sockol confirm that Bin Laden owned the house and was not merely a tenant. Sockol interviewed Yehuda Semberg, a retired Israeli naval officer who lived in the house for twenty-five years, and also Aharon Shakarji, a former official of Israel’s land authority.

6. THE BACKLASH

1. “This show is splendid…the Turks”: Mack, A Prince of Our Disorder, p. 151.

2. “only medium…will prevail”: DOS 59/7214, text of telegram, October 3, 1946. “much emotional appeal”: DOS 59/3100 Jeddah to Washington, September 28, 1960.

3. “Bin Laden’s for the asking”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, April 5, 1961.

4. “to show off…other projects”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, November 25, 1961. “extremely good connection…construction work”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, November 28, 1961. “opening the locked stable… appropriate pockets”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, October 20, 1960. “We have…strictly commercial”: FO 371/170324 FO minute, February 20, 1963. “King Saud…Bin Laden”: Ibid., Memorandum of telephone call, February 8, 1963.

5. “I spent…Bin Laden”: Ibid., Damascus to London, February 20, 1963.

6. “that Bin Laden…an enemy of him”: Ibid. “that Saudi support…a share in it”: FO 371/170190 Board of Trade to Jeddah, December 2, 1963.

7. “under severe reproaches”: Ger FO 350/217/63 Jeddah to Bonn, April 3, 1963.

8. “We read…asphalting operations”: Al-Nadwa, November 15, 1961, translated in DOS 59/3100 Jeddah to Washington, November 25, 1961.

9. All quotations: Ibid.

10. “One Roadblock”: DOS 59/3567 Jeddah to Washington, May 9, 1963. “problem was…done quickly”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, June 11, 1963.

11. “duty not to delay…shirked”: DOS 59/2810 Jeddah to Washington, August 1, 1962.

12. “dumping bids”: Ger FO 277/564-2912/56 Jeddah to Bonn, July 28, 1956.

13. Saudi Weekly, July 24, 1961, describes the Swiss TV crew visit and provides photographs of the construction site near Taif. The clipping is enclosed in DOS 59/2810 Jeddah to Washington, August 14, 1961.

14. That Faisal and Bin Laden argued: Interview with Khaled Batarfi, February 19, 2005. “the point was… doing it”: Interview with Hermann Eilts, March 29, 2006.

15. CIA report: Bronson, Thicker Than Oil, p. 83. That Mohamed Bin Laden had slaves, freed them, and was compensated: Interview with Carmen Bin Laden, August 6, 2004. Rally and “We are your brothers!”: DOS 59/4033-4 Jeddah to Washington, April 25, 1963.

16. “He is evil…closest friend”: Ibid., Jeddah to Washington, February 18, 1963. Faisal asked the American delegation pointedly, “What are you, our friends, going to do about this?…We adhered to your advice and fulfilled our promise to ‘fold our arms’…How long do you think we can go on like this…How long can I face my people with his kind of placidity and inactivity?”

17. “personally take care…royal intervention”: DOS 59/3567 Dhahran to Washington, September 10, 1963.

18. Ibid.

7. A MODERN MAN

1. Forklift: DOS 59/2810 Dhahran to Washington, December 5, 1962. Aramco paid $3.5 million: Holden and Johns, The House of Saud, p. 218.

2. Saud’s wealth in exile: DOS RG 59/2472 Jeddah to Washington, May 7, 1967.

3. “is not the case…whoever was king”: Interview with Turki Al-Faisal, August 2, 2002. “involved a surprisingly small…where necessary”: DOS 59/2642, “The Power Structure in Saudi Arabia,” Jeddah to Washington, March 23, 1965.

4. Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia, pp. 121–22. House of Saud, op. cit., pp. 257–58.

5. “formally inaugurated…considerable fanfare”: DOS 59/2642 Jeddah to Washington, August 31, 1965.

6. Interviews with several friends, employees, and business partners of the Bin Ladens in Lebanon and Egypt, including an interview with Nadim Bou Fakhreddine, former head of Upper Metn Secondary School, April 26, 2006 (RS).

7. From Yeslam’s interview to the Evening Standard of London, May 26, 2006.

8. “wanted someone…spoiled”: Interview with Fakhreddine, op. cit.

9. “Most of us were afraid…somebody up, maybe”: Evening Standard, op. cit.

10. From Abdullah’s interview published in Bahrain’s newspaper Alayam, December 21, 2001.

11. Ali’s appearance and role: From several interviews with friends and employees of the family, including an interview with an employee who met Ali in Taif with Mohamed on several occasions during this period.

12. There is some uncertainty about whether Salem attended Millfield before or after he attended Copford Glebe. Several former Copford classmates said in interviews that he attended Millfield earlier, and briefly, but one former business partner thought it was possible that he had attended Millfield later. It is clear, however, that Salem was at Copford for a prolonged period during the early to mid-1960s.

13. “amazing sort of pastiche…people there”: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006. The portrait of Salem’s life at Copford in this section is from Armitage and interviews with two other classmates who asked not to be identified.