Steve Coll - The Bin Ladens

8. Major shareholder in Hard Rock Middle East: E-mail communication from Hard Rock spokesman, January 23, 2006. Slang, every pinball machine: Interview with a colleague in Beirut who asked to not be identified. Youth in Beirut, Layla, lived in hotels: Telephone interview with Layla Moussa, April 24, 2006 (RS). Cars, Al-Ittihad, Umm Kulsum: Interview with the Beirut colleague, op. cit., and a second Beirut acquaintance.

9. Opening night, list of paraphernalia: Interview with a colleague who attended; details posted on the restaurant’s Web site, examined and typed by R.S., April 2006; site visit by R.S., April 2006.

10. Market size, 14 million wireless customers: S-4 filing, op. cit., July 21, 1997. Phones three thousand dollars, calls up to seven dollars per minute: New York Times , April 11, 2000.

11. “complete the telephone…very proud”: Washington Post , August 21, 1999.

12. “I had a Mongolian”: Interview with a former Iridium executive, who asked to not be identified. “What we had”: Interview with Tuttle, op. cit.

13. S-4 filing, op. cit., July 21, 1997.

14. Transcript of Khaled Batarfi interview with Osama’s mother, supplied to the author by Batarfi.

15. “Bin Laden ‘Bodyguard’ Details Al Qaeda’s Time in Sudan, Move to Afghanistan,” Al-Quds Al-Arabi , March 28, 2005. FBIS translation.

16. Public Broadcasting System translation. www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html, examined and typed, July 10, 2007.

17. “Former Bin Laden ‘Bodyguard’ Discusses Al Qaeda Training Methods, ‘Libraries,’” Al-Quds Al-Arabi , March 26, 2005. FBIS translation.

18. “What is…all and sundry”: ‘Bodyguard Interviewed on First Meeting With Bin Laden,” Al-Quds Al-Arabi , March 26, 2005. FBIS translation.

19. Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know , p. 165.

20. “like sort…a fish”: Ibid., p. 181. “did not like…very late”: “Bin Laden’s Wife Interviewed…” Al-Majallah , March 10, 2002. FBIS translation.

21. Testimony of Detective Inspector Noel Feeney, United States v. Usama Bin Laden et al ., United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 98CR1023, March 27, 2001.

22. The News (Islamabad), June 16, 1998. English original, FBIS transmission.

23. Purchase November 1, 1996: Trial stipulations, U.S. v. Usama Bin Laden et al., op. cit., March 27, 2001. Inmarsat history, market position: Interviews with two former Iridium executives.

24. Call records: Sunday Times (London), March 24, 2002, and Newsweek, February 25, 2002.

25. Interview with Michael Scheuer, July 5, 2005.

26. Scheure (as “Anonymous”), Through Our Enemies’ Eyes , pp. 22–23.

27. Interview with Tuttle, op. cit. Statements to press: Daily News (New York), August 27, 1998. Interspace , September 9, 1998.

28. Only fifty-five thousand subscribers, write-offs of more than $2.5 billion: New York Times , April 11, 2000.

29. Department of Defense transcript, news briefing, December 8, 2000.

1. Interview with Daniel Coleman, August 31, 2005.

2. That the Sudan files were very detailed: Interviews with two U.S. officials who read the files later. Two defectors in 1996, first introduction of the term “Al Qaeda”: Interview with Coleman, ibid.

3. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” Staff Report to the Commission by John Roth, Douglas Greenburg, Serena Wille, August 2004, p. 35.

4. Scheuer’s skepticism about money investigations: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” ibid., p. 36. Also, interview with Michael Scheuer, July 5, 2005, and interview with Coleman, op. cit.

5. Interview with Coleman, op. cit. Griffin declined to comment.

6. “proper conversation…talking about”: Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

7. All quotations from interview with Coleman. Urowsky declined to comment.

8. “at the senior…kind of trouble”: All quotations from interview with Scheuer. Freeh declined to comment.

9. “They said…economic system”: Ibid.

10. “Okay…establishments”: Ibid.

11. Interviews with Wyche Fowler Jr., June 1, 2005, and John Brennan, September 13, 2006.

12. Ibid.

13. Investigators for the 9/11 Commission, after a thorough review of classified U.S. records, reported that neither the White House nor the intelligence community understood the details of Osama’s inheritance until 1999 or 2000. It is possible, however, that some of this information surfaced earlier, at least in outline form; for instance, as part of Dan Coleman’s early interviews with Osama’s half-brothers. If so, the information never reached the National Security Council.

14. Interview with Brennan, op. cit.

15. “a decided reluctance…his brothers”: Interview with Scheuer, op. cit.

16. Interviews with Fowler and Brennan, op. cit. Fowler also said, “One will recall that all the members of the Bin Laden family in the U.S. were allowed to return to Saudi Arabia in the days after September 11, which is because the FBI and the White House had cleared them of any terroristic activities, and because of the complete cooperation of the Bin Laden family in the three or four years preceding 9/11.”

17. Inventory of CIA concerns: Interviews with four former U.S. officials familiar with the CIA’s investigations, including Scheuer, op. cit. Khalfa used M.B.C. travel office: Affidavit of M.B.C. employee Eulalio Dela Pat. December 1, 2005, In Re Terrorist Attacks.

18. “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 39.

19. Interviews with three former U.S. officials involved in the discussions.

20. That Abdullah Bin Awadh of WAMY is a nephew of Osama: Affidavit of Omar M. Bin Laden, In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001 , United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 03 MDL 1570, January 25, 2006. The same information is also cited in “Supplemental Declaration In Support of Pre-Trial Detention,” an affidavit by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Special Agent David Kane, filed in U.S. v. Soliman S. Biheiri , September 11, 2003; Kane attributes the information to an interview with Biheiri, who said he managed investments from Abdullah. None of these documents identifies which of Osama’s half-brothers or half-sisters is Abdullah’s parent, however. Two of Osama’s half-sisters, Iman and Nur, are identified by Biheiri as investors in the same projects as Abdullah, according to Kane.

21. More than fifty offices, five continents: Kane affidavit, ibid. Abdullah’s account of his activities, including all quotations from “the deliberate…” through “good word” are from “Saudi Arabia: Paper on Efforts to Promote Islam in U.S.,” Al-Sharq Al-Awsat , October 19, 1997, FBIS translation. The quotations appear to be the journalist’s paraphrase of Abdullah’s remarks.

22. Kane affidavit, op. cit.

23. Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

24. Kane affidavit, op. cit. Also, notes from a Biheiri interrogation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in June 2003, filed in Alexandria federal court: Notes from the transcript taken by Washington Post reporter Mary Beth Sheridan and generously shared with the author by her.

25. “has long acted”: “Declaration in Support of Pre-Trial Detention,” affidavit of David Kane, United States of America v. Soliman S. Biheiri, United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, 03-365-A. August 14, 2003. “indirect investment…on request”: Letter from George B. Wolfe, Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Treasury Department, to Claude Nicati, Office of the Swiss Prosecutor General, January 4, 2002. Ghalib’s account history and lawsuit: Documents submitted in In Re Terrorist Attacks , op. cit. “seeking to put the bank out of business”: “Defendant Saudi Bin Ladin Group’s Response to Plaintiffs’ Objections…Dated July 26, 2007,” ibid.