Steve Coll - The Bin Ladens

26. An offshore entity controlled by Saudi Bin Laden Group: Declaration of Johann DeVilliers, Global Diamond chairman, Mood v. Global Diamond Resources , United States District Court, Southern District of California, 99cv01565. DeVilliers referred to the controlling entity as “The Bin Laden Group.” He described Al-Qadi as a “principal of one of the Middle Eastern investors.” Al-Qadi designation: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/sdnlist.txt. Examined and typed, July 16, 2007. “front”: Citation quoted in Chicago Tribune , October 28, 2001. Al-Qadi denied, met Osama in 1980s: Chicago Tribune , ibid.; “Saudi Businessman on U.S. List…Dismisses Charge,” Al-Sharq Al-Awsat , October 14, 2001, FBIS translation.

27. Scheuer, as “Anonymous,” Through Our Enemies’ Eyes , p. 34.

28. “lots of talk…been named”: Interview with Dominic Simpson, May 17, 2002.

29. “always got…for him”: Ibid. “generally turned away”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., pp. 17–18.

30. November 1998 CIA report, “reasonable estimate”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 20. DIA report: Redacted and released, Judicial Watch, Inc.

31. “This is insane…from daddy”: Clarke, Against All Enemies , p. 191.

32. Interviews with former U.S. officials.

33. The account of the meeting in Saudi Arabia is from several former U.S. officials. See also Clarke, op. cit., pp. 191–95, and “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., which provide similar accounts.

34. Interviews with three U.S. officials and former officials familiar with the discussions.

35. For the details of what the Bin Ladens finally disclosed to Treasury, see also “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 20. This otherwise admirable study, in seeking to debunk the $300 million myth publicly, contains one dubious assertion, referring to Osama’s forced sales of shares in 1994: “The Saudi freeze had the effect of divesting Bin Laden of what would otherwise have been a $300 million fortune.” This is a considerable overstatement: even today, after inflation and growth in the Bin Laden empire, ownership of between 1 and 2 percent of the Bin Laden companies, as Osama seems to have possessed in 1994, would almost certainly be worth much less.

36. Interview with Coleman, op. cit.

37. “We presently…his cause”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 18.

38. Interviews with two individuals who reviewed the FBI’s pre-9/11 files on Bin Laden finances.

39. Interview with Coleman, op. cit., and a second senior former FBI official.

40. “hampered…disruption”: “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” op. cit., p. 6. Africa $10,000, 9/11 about $400,000: Ibid., pp. 27–28.

41. Estimates of Al Qaeda budgeting, late 1990s: Ibid., pp. 18, 28. Omar’s palace, mosque, shopping market: Author’s visit to Kandahar, 2002. Even these Al Qaeda budget figures are at best approximations, little more than educated guesses. As the authors of the monograph, who systematically reviewed U.S. intelligence in this area, conceded, “There is much the U.S. government did not know (and still does not know) about Bin Laden’s resources and how Al Qaeda raises, moves, and spends its money.”

1. “There’s only one sheikh…family”: Interview with an individual close to the Bin Laden family, who asked to not be identified. The portrait of Bakr that follows is drawn primarily from interviews with this person and three other people, who asked to not be identified, who interacted with Bakr during this period.

2. Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Amman Grand Hyatt: Saudi Bin Laden Group Web site pages printed by Peter Bergen in the summer of 2001 and shared with the author. United Medical Group: www.umgco.com, examined and typed, July 20, 2006.

3. Badging policy, severance policy: Saudi Bin Laden Group employment policy documents filed in Mood v. Global Diamond Resources, et al., United States District Court, Southern District of California, 99cv01565.

4. Interviews with individuals close to the family who asked to not be identified.

5. Caudill, “Twilight in the Hejaz” (manuscript), pp. 138–39.

6. Agence France Presse, February 18, 2001; Mail on Sunday (London), February 18, 2001; Observer (London), February 18, 2001; Press Association (London), February 17, 2001.

7. Ibid. The exchange was reported in the same way by multiple British journalists, all of whom were traveling in Saudi Arabia with Prince Charles at the time and all of whom sourced the exchange to a person present at the event.

8. Preferred the plural “Faiths”: Daily Telegraph (London), January 11, 2005. “misunderstandings…from Islam”: “Islam and the West,” Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, October 27, 1993.

9. Press Association, February 17, 2001, op. cit.; www.shell-me.com examined and typed, September 6, 2006.

10. Interviews with three individuals familiar with the contacts with State and Bush. Also Daniel Golden, James Bandler, Marcus Walker, Wall Street Journal , September 27, 2001.

11. Meetings with Carter, donations: E-mail communication from Deanna Congileo, the Carter Center, October 12, 2005. One of only two trips to the U.S. since 1973: Affidavit of Bakr 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.

12. “for as long…acts of violence”: Police report of Michele Smith filed in Franklin Frisaura v. Regina Frisaura , Orange County, Florida, DR97-3754. Examined and typed, January 24, 2006. Franklin Frisaura declined to comment.

13. All documents and quotations, ibid.

14. The Marina, Bin Laden Island: Interviews with visitors, including Yahia Agaty, November 19, 2005 (RS) and a second individual who asked to not be identified. Robin Shulman visited and photographed the resort.

15. The 9/11 Commission Report , p. 154.

16. “theater…superterrorist”: Ibid.

17. Ibid., pp. 154–55.

18. Wedding video: Meeting Osama Bin Laden , Brook Lapping Productions, 2004. Four to five hundred guests, the scene: Zaidan in Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know , pp. 255–56.

19. Ibid., p. 255.

20. Ibid., p. 256.

21. Ibid.

1. Interview with Jason Blum and Ricardo Pascetta, July 1, 2007 (KH). Interview with Ricardo Pascetta, June 2, 2007 (KH).

2. Interview with Blum, ibid.

3. “how horribile…at her”: Ibid. “violence…Islam”: Redacted FBI documents released and published by Judicial Watch as a result of its FOIA filings and lawsuit, Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security & Federal Bureau of Investigation , United States District Court, District of Columbia, 04-1643 (RWR). The document describing the interview with Najiah, and quoting her, has redacted her name, but the context makes clear that it is her.

4. Interview with Blum, op. cit.

5. “The guy turned…out of here”: All quotations from interview with Blum, ibid. The circumstances of the flight crew’s revolt were also described by Pascetta, op. cit.

6. The other groups of Saudi royals: Judicial Watch documents, op. cit. That Bandar did not discuss the flights with Bush, and “Those people…no problem”: Simpson, The Prince , pp. 314–16.

7. Interview with Fred Dutton, May 24, 2005. Dutton died about a month after this interview, on June 25, 2005, at the age of eighty-two.

8. “what to do…bad apple”: Interview with Dutton, ibid.

9. All quotations, ibid.