The Looming Tower (66 page)

86
average Saudi income:
Wright, “Kingdom of Silence.” It became equal to the United States in 1981.

87
30 or 40 percent:
Wright, “Kingdom of Silence”; interview with Berhan Hailu.

co-opt the ulema:
al-Rasheed,
A History of Saudi Arabia,
124; also, Teitelbaum,
Holier Than Thou,
17ff.

88
fifty thousand Muslims:
Lacey,
The Kingdom,
478. Much of this account comes from Lacey and from James Buchan, “The Return of the Ikhwan,” in Holden and Johns,
The House of Saud,
511–26.

“Your attention, O Muslims!”:
Heikal,
Iran,
197. Kechichian claims that none of the thousands of pilgrims in the mosque that day heard Qahtani, “or anyone else for that matter,” invoke the Mahdi. Kechichian, “Islamic Revivalism,” 15. I could find no other sources to support this assertion.

89
an employee of the bin Laden organization:
bin Ladin,
Inside the Kingdom,
123–24.

90
sun rotated:
AbuKhalil,
Bin Laden, Islam, and America’s New “War on Terrorism,”
64.

Oteibi had been his student:
Holden and Johns,
The House of Saud,
517.

four or five hundred insurgents:
al-Rasheed,
A History of Saudi Arabia,
144; Lacey suggests 200, in
The Kingdom,
484; Aburish estimates 300, in
The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall,
108. Arab sources place the figure in the thousands. Captain Paul Barril says there were 1,500 insurgents, in
Commando,
October/November 2002.

some American Black Muslims:
Holden and Johns,
The House of Saud,
520.

armory of the National Guard:
Mackey,
The Saudis,
231.

on biers:
Lacey,
The Kingdom,
484.

91
Salem…arrived:
interview with Jamal Khalifa.

92
jaw was blown away:
Holden and Johns,
The House of Saud,
525.

93
recommended gas:
interview with Prince Turki al-Faisal.

they converted to Islam:
The history of this event is full of contradictory claims. Da Lage cites Captain Paul Barril, who led three French policemen to Mecca, where they “converted” on the spot to Islam, so that they could direct the assault on the Grand Mosque. Olivier Da Lage, “Il y a quinze ans: La prise de la Grande Mosquée de La Mecque,”
Le Monde,
November 20–21, 1994. Aburish claims that the rebels were put down by French paratroopers, who actually did flood and electrify the chambers. Aburish,
The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall,
108.

Turki denies that the French converted or entered Mecca. De Marenches also denies that the French entered Mecca. De Marenches and Ockrent,
The Evil Empire,
112. I have chosen to credit the account of Captain Barril on the authority of an anonymous Saudi intelligence source.

94
more than 4,000:
Theroux,
Sandstorms,
90.

Osama bin Laden and his brother Mahrous:
interview with Jamal Khalifa.

Oteibi and his followers were true Muslims:
Burke,
Al-Qaeda,
55.

“I was enraged”:
Robert Fisk, “Anti-Soviet Warrior Puts His Army on the Road to Peace,”
Independent,
December
6, 1993.

“a big secret”:
“Walidee Ramama al-Aqsa Bilkhasara” [My Father Renovated al-Aqsa Mosque, with a Loss],
Al-Umma al-Islamiyya,
October 18, 1991.

95
“hand over the money”:
ibid.

his friend Omar Abdul Rahman:
Weaver,
A Portrait of Egypt,
180.

got him dismissed in 1980:
Tahta al-Mijhar
[Under the Microscope], al-Jazeera, February 20, 2003.

“Jihad and the rifle alone”:
Abdullah bin Omar, “The Striving Sheik: Abdullah Azzam,”
Nida
‘
ul Islam,
trans. Mohammed Saeed, July–September 1996, www.islam.org.au/articles/14/AZZAM.HTM.

“Jihad for him”:
Mohammed al-Shafey, “Al-Sharq al-Awsat Interviews Umm Mohammed,”
Al-Sharq al-Aswat
, April 30, 2006.

spotted an announcement:
Tahta al-Mijhar
[Under the Microscope], al-Jazeera, February 20, 2003.

arriving in November 1981:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
37.

96
“I reached Afghanistan”:
untitled Abdullah Azzam recruitment video, 1988.

birds functioned as an early-warning radar system:
interview with Jamal Khalifa.

“He lives in his house”:
Azzam,
The Lofty Mountain,
150.

“If you have it”:
interview with Jamal Khalifa.

97
Paid agents rounded up:
Salah,
Waqai
‘
Sanawat al-Jihad.

office in Cairo:
Dr. Gehad Auda and Dr. Ammar Ali Hasan, “Strategic Papers: The Globalization of the Radical Islamic Movement: The Case of Egypt,” www.ahram.org.eg/acpss/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/SPAP5.htm.

Bin Laden opened a halfway house:
interview with Essam Deraz.

he ran special military camps:
Mohammed Sadeeq, “The Story of Saudi Afghans: They Participated in Jihad and Violent Fighting,”
Al-Majellah,
May 11, 1996.

dozens of trucks:
Shadid,
Legacy of the Prophet,
83.

98
“The Saudi government asked me”:
Osama bin Laden, interviewed by al-Jazeera, October 7, 2001. Bin Laden dates this conversation to 1979, which is when he says he first went to Afghanistan.

“won’t even get near”:
interview with Khaled Batarfi.

5. The Miracles

99
“Now we can give the USSR”:
Cooley,
Unholy Wars,
19.

100
170 armed Afghan militias in the mid
-1980
s:
ibid., 232.

800,000 people…under their authority:
interview with Abdullah Anas.

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf:
Jon Lee Anderson, “Letter from Kabul: The Assassins,”
New Yorker,
June 10, 2002.

lock them up in a jail:
Coll,
Ghost Wars,
83.

“Fear of bodily participation”:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
85.101

he forfeited his share of the profit:
Azzam,
The Lofty Mountain,
150.

“surprised by the sad state”:
ibid.

“mountains were shaking”:
ibid.

“between five and ten million dollars”:
ibid., 88. 102

three hundred dollars per month:
Bergen,
Holy War,
56.

103
house bin Laden was renting:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
119.

twenty-five thousand dollars a month:
Anonymous,
Through Our Enemies’ Eyes,
99; Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
198.

“this heaven-sent man”:
Bernstein,
Out of the Blue,
45.

104
to deliver cash:
interview with Ahmed Badeeb and Sayeed Badeeb. According to Sayeed Badeeb, the Saudi government continued its support until bin Laden left Afghanistan in 1989.

$350 to $500 million per year:
private communication with Marc Sageman, who was a CIA case officer in Afghanistan at the time.

he first met bin Laden in
1985: Elsewhere, he says, “Our first meeting must have taken place around 1984.” “And then Mullah Omar Screamed at Me,”
Der Spiegel,
November 2004.

Turki could recruit:
Clarke,
Against All Enemies,
52.

cashews and chocolate:
Jason Burke, “The Making of bin Laden: Part 2,”
Observer,
October 28, 2001.

He built a theological library:
Anonymous,
Through Our Enemies’ Eyes,
98.

tutored at least one young Afghan warrior:
Jason Burke, “The Making of bin Laden: Part 2,”
Observer,
October 28, 2001.

University of Dawa al-Jihad:
Fouda and Fielding,
Masterminds of Terror,
91; Cooley,
Unholy Wars,
238.

pitched in at
Jihad
, the Arabic-language magazine:
Burke,
Al-Qaeda,
56.

105
“small smile”:
interview with Khaled Khawaja.

“November 1985”:
interview with anonymous al-Qaeda source.

“Brigade of the Strangers”:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
177.

modern conveniences:
interview with Zaynab Abdul Khadr.

never more than three thousand:
interview with Abdullah Anas. Milt Bear-den, who was the CIA chief of station in Afghanistan at the time, says, “We figured there were about two thousand Arab Afghans at any one time, plus a couple thousand Arab Afghans who treated it as a Club Med”—i.e., they came for brief holidays. “This compares with about a quarter million full- or part-time Afghans, and 125,000 Soviets,” Bearden says.

106
father’s real identity:
interview with Zayneb Ahmed Khadr.

“I traveled to acquaint people”:
untitled Abdullah Azzam recruitment video, 1988.

stories of the mujahideen:
For instance, see Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, “The Signs of ar-Rahmaan in the Jihad of the Afghan,” www.islamicawakening.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=877&.

When one beloved mujahid expired:
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, “Abul-Mundhir ash-Shareef,” www.islamicawakening.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=30&.

was paying for mujahids:
interview with Mohammed Loay Baizid.

107
if one subtracted the oil revenue:
James R. Woolsey, “Defeating the Oil Weapon,”
Commentary,
Sept. 2002. The figure is for the mid-1990s. Other statistics have been extrapolated from the authoritative Arab Human Development Report 2002.

108
“raid and be slain”:
Osama bin Laden, “Message to the Iraqi People,” al-Jazeera, October 18, 2003.

“He who dies,”
Mitchell,
Society of the Muslim Brothers,
207.

“Islam is not merely ‘belief’”:
Qutb,
Milestones,
58ff.; includes other Qutb quotes that follow.

life without Islam is slavery:
This argument is more fully developed in Roxanne L. Euben, “Comparative Political Theory: An Islamic Fundamentalist Critique of Rationalism,”
Journal of Politics
59, no. 1 (February 1997): 28–55.

109
Muslim Brotherhood refuted:
interview with Jamal Khashoggi.
concerned Saudi fathers:
interview with Mohammed al-Hulwah.

110
“Your presence is no longer needed”:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
178.

In 1986 bin Laden brought his wives and children:
This is according to Essam Deraz, although Mohammed Loay Baizid places the date of the move in 1988.

111
Bin Laden expanded the caverns:
interview with Marc Sageman.

“God is great! God is great!”:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
185.

bin Laden financed:
Jamal Ismail, “Usama bin Laden, the Destruction of the Base,” al-Jazeera, June 10, 1999.

112
inspired by the lines:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
241.

Soviet base:
ibid., 233.

single car:
ibid., 216.

114
“I began thinking”:
“Walidee Ramama al-Aqsa Bilkhasara” [My Father Renovated al-Aqsa Mosque, with a Loss],
Al-Umma al-Islamiyya,
October 18, 1991.

skilled engineers:
interview with anonymous bin Laden family spokesman.

seven man-made caverns:
interview with Essam Deraz.

114
Sheikh Tameem:
interviews with Bassim A. Alim and Mohammed Loay Baizid.

not over eighteen years old:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
211.

115
“Tell him that I will not return”:
Azzam,
The Lofty Mountain,
23. Sheikh Tameem never did find his martyrdom. He died the following year of a heart attack while on a speaking tour in Orlando, Florida.

“afraid that some of the brothers”:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
261.

force of 120
: Abu Muhammed in Azzam,
The Lofty Mountain,
97.

He chose to attack on a Friday:
Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
265.

116
closing down the Arab guesthouses:
interview with Mohammed Loay Baizid.

“There were nine”:
Azzam,
The Lofty Mountain,
109.

nine or ten thousand troops:
ibid., 100ff., which is the source for much of this account, along with Mohammed,
Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan,
310ff., and “Walidee Ramama al-Aqsa Bilkhasara” [My Father Renovated al-Aqsa Mosque, with a Loss],
Al-Umma al-Islamiyya,
October 18, 1991.