The Bin Ladens

2005.

20. Moawalla, Falken Limited, computer system date: Regulatory filings of Russell Wood (Holdings) Limited and Russell Wood Limited, Companies House, London, 1987–1989.

21. All quotations from “Divorce Application” and “Respondent’s statement of defense and pleas,” Court of First Instance, Geneva, translated and filed in Los Angeles C212648, op. cit.

22. “burned all the hard disks”: Interview with Sauter, op. cit. He said the Bin Ladens ultimately sued some of the stockbrokers involved to recover lost client funds; British court records of this type are closed to the public, and it was not possible to locate files that would confirm his recollection. “a breakdown in accounting controls”: Russell Wood annual report, Companies House, London, 1988.

19. THE GRINDER

1. “Field Project Manager,” board seats: Who’s Who in Saudi Arabia, 1983–1984 edition. “who got…managed it”: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS).

2. “Where Salem…process-oriented”: Interview with Francis Hunnewell, August 9, 2006. “a very…,” “Yes, Salem”: Interview with Michael Pochna, August 31, 2006.

3. Vespa scooter, Miami-Dade, “What kind of…actually taste”: Interview with a person who witnessed the conversation and who asked to not be otherwise identified. Bakr declined comment.

4. International students: Ibis, University of Miami yearbook, 1973 edition. Jewish students, pot survey, “Three things…and pot”: Ibis, 1972 edition.

5. “We never talked…some money”: Telephone interview Joaquin Avino, February 14, 2006. “a relatively… university”: Telephone interview with John Hall, March 8, 2006. Silk shirts and Cadillac Seville: Telephone interview with Jorge Rodriguez, March 8, 2006.

6. Suburban rambler, neighbors: Polk’s Miami South Suburban Directory, a telephone book, lists Bakr and Haifa in its 1973 edition at 9435 SW 79th Avenue. Bresser’s 1973 Cross-Index Directory lists that address as “Binladen Bakery,” an apparent typo. The house is still there. Omar listed in Polk’s in 1974 at 9143 SW 77^th Avenue, Apartment B701; that building apparently has been torn down. Yahya also was listed at an address near the Miami-Dade North Campus in 1972, but the author could locate no one who remembered his time there. Haifa family background: Interviews with two people close to the family who asked to not be identified. “By no means”: Interview with Rodriguez, op. cit.

7. “open minded…bathing suits”: Bin Ladin, Inside the Kingdom, pp. 80–81. “He is…not necessary”: Interview with a partner of the Bin Ladens who asked to not be identified.

8. The partner, not the same one as cited in the previous note, asked to not be identified. Bakr accompanied Osama: Interview with a senior Saudi official who asked to not be identified. Bakr declined comment.

9. Renovation details: Abbas, Story of the Great Expansion, pp. 3–9. “Many a time…open-ended account”: Ibid., in the foreword by Bakr Bin Laden.

10. “Sort of realignment…wanted him gone”: Interview with the former senior American official, who asked to not be identified. “Salem told…his family”: Interview with a business partner who asked to not be identified.

11. Azzam letter: “Rand: Early History of Al Qaeda Working Group, 2006.”

20. THE ARMS BAZAAR

1. Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. As indicated in the text, a second individual, a business partner of Salem’s, separately confirmed that Osama had sent out messages to Salem asking for missiles, and that Salem went forward with the transaction through Dietrich’s contacts.

2. “An increase…staff”: Quoted in Gunaratna, “Al Qaeda: Its Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2006. Jawr battle: “The Story of the Arab Afghans,” Anonymous, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, December 12, 2004.

3. Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 150.

4. All quotations, interview with Deitrich, op. cit.

5. For one detailed account of this period of the war, see Coll, Ghost Wars, pp. 125–67.

6. Pillsbury’s meetings and conclusions: Interview with Michael Pillsbury, May 2, 2006. In his memoir, From the Shadows, p. 349, former CIA director Robert Gates, referring to the Arab volunteers in the Afghan war, wrote that the CIA “examined ways to increase their participation, perhaps in the form of some sort of ‘international brigade,’ but nothing came of it.” No contemporary U.S. government documents describing this review have yet been declassified or otherwise published.

7. Salem’s approaches to the Pentagon: Interviews with the business partner cited in note 1. “The problem…missiles”: Interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

8. Ibid. A Heckler & Koch spokesman acknowledged that the firm had a department in the Middle East specializing in brokered arms sales, but declined any comment on the transactions reported in this book.

9. All quotations in this passage are from the interview with Dietrich, op. cit.

10. Simpson, The Prince, pp. 146–49.

11. Badeeb acknowledged purchasing SA-7 missiles: Interview with Badeeb, February 1, 2002. The two individuals familiar with evidence about the South African transactions are not the same sources cited earlier in these notes. One of them, Michael Elsner, an attorney representing victims of the September 11 attacks, said that he had interviewed an individual who acted as a translator at a meeting in Peshawar, at the Pearl Continental Hotel, attended by two South African military officers, as well as Osama and Sayyaf; they discussed weapons purchases and training, by this account. The second individual, who asked not to be identified, said he attended separate meetings in Jeddah in which Salem negotiated with South African suppliers to purchase arms that would be shipped to Osama in Pakistan.

12. “Americans…in Palestine”: Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, p. 115. “For God’s sake…issue here”: Palestinian journalist Jamal Ismail in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 60.

13. This chronology and the numbers of followers at Lion’s Den during 1986 are drawn from “Rand: Early History of Al Qaeda Working Group, 2006,” and Gunaratna, op. cit.

14. Gunaratna, op. cit.

15. Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 48.

16. “very professional”: Interview with Badeeb, op. cit. Contracts with Pakistani intelligence: Interview with a former U.S. official involved. Medina volunteers: “Early Al Qaeda Working Group,” op. cit. Cairo visas: Interview with Michael Scheuer, former head of the Bin Laden unit at the CIA, July 5, 2005. Also Al- Ahram (Egypt), January 1, 2001. Peshawar construction projects for charities by Bin Laden companies: Al-Ahram, ibid.

17. Bearden: Quoted in Frontline, Hunting Bin Laden, 2001. “more practical”: Harmony AFGP-2002-600094.

18. “History recounts…Russia”: Lawrence (ed.) Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 147. “It’s an attempt…tacit agreement”: Ibid., pp. 87–88.

19. CIA logistics units provided cement and supplies: Interview with Peter Tomsen, former U.S. special envoy to the Afghan rebels, September 12, 2006. Haqqani was a unilateral: Interview with a former U.S. official involved. “hero…the Soviets”: Messages to the World, op. cit., p. 151. For their part, CIA case officers recorded frequent accounts of the Arab volunteers who were increasingly active along the border, but they were not interested enough to accumulate lists of names or to track weapons shipments to them. They were much more focused on collecting intelligence about Spetsnaz assault tactics, information that might one day prove useful in a European war.

20. Charities named in Al-Jihad of December 1986: “Early Al Qaeda Working Group