Anthony Summers - The Eleventh Day

66 “pathetically”:Clarke, 204;

67 “authorized”:int. of Bill Clinton by Fox News, 9/24/06;

68 “kill authority”:Shenon, 357–;

69 “attacks”:CR, 120;

70 “My father”:bin Ladens & Sasson, 239;

71 went to ground:ibid.;

72 stopped using phone: Mail on Sunday (U.K.), 12/23/01, Kessler, 84–, Corbin, 88, JI, Report, 69;

73 “wished to send”:Atwan, 55–.

74 “But things”:Gaudin testimony. The bomber arrested after running away was Mohamed al-’Owhali (see above). The accomplice he named was Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (aka Saleh), who is still at large. FBI agent Stephen Gaudin, who questioned him in Nairobi, cited the passage quoted in federal court (Testimony of Stephen Gaudin, U.S. v. Usama Bin Laden et al. , U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY, S[7] 98-CR-1023, 1/8/01).

75 summoned/“could work”:KSM SUBST. KSM provided “inconsistent information” as to whether bin Laden approved the operation in late 1998 or in early 1999, according to CIA accounts of his various interrogation sessions (CR, 492n38);

76 Kenya/alias:JI, Report, 313.

77 decoy: Financial Times , 2/14/03. Another report, however, has it that—as of that same month—KSM was working as an “escort” for his longtime mentor Sheikh Abdul Sayyaf, leader of Ittehad-e-Islami, the Islamic Union Party (NY to Bangkok et al., FBI265A-NY-253802, 7/8/09, INTELWIRE, CR, 146–);

78 persuaded:CR, 149, 490n16.

79 “full support”/Atef:KSM SUBST, CR, 154. Al Qaeda suspects questioned in Jordan were to allege that Atef seized on the concept following the 1999 EgyptAir crash off the coast of Massachusetts, which was never satisfactorily explained. The NTSB found that the crash probably occurred “as a result of the relief first officer’s flight control inputs. The reason for the relief first officer’s actions was not determined.” The first officer’s exclamation was initially interpreted as “I place my fate in the hands of God,” and later revised to “I rely on God.” EgyptAir and Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority advised that the statement was “very often used by the Egyptian layman in day to day activities to ask God’s assistance for the task at hand.” The officer uttered the exclamation nine times while alone, twice more after the captain returned to the cockpit. Two hundred and seventeen people died in the crash (Aircraft Accident Brief, EgyptAir 990, NTSB, 3/13/02, www.ntsb.gov).

80 influenced: WP , 9/11/02.

81 targeting/operatives:KSM SUBST, CR, 154. The plan was adjusted according to the number of suitable operatives available. It would turn out early on that only two of four men originally selected to be pilot hijackers were able to obtain U.S. visas. The two who had no visas, it was then hoped, would explode planes in midair over Asia at the same time their accomplices were hitting targets in the United States. Thinking it too difficult to synchronize the operation, bin Laden would later cancel the Asia part of the operation (KSM SUBST);

82 “military committee”:Fouda & Fielding, 158;

83 two years:KSM SUBST;

84 “planes operation”:CR, 154;

85 Omar disillusioned:bin Ladens & Sasson, 201, 212–, 218–, 248–;

86 “I have heard”:ibid., 254;

87 “gigantic”:ibid., 277.

88 Noonan/“History”: Forbes , 11/30/98.

CHAPTER 24

1

“The mighty”/curbed:

bin Ladens & Sasson, 244, Bergen,

OBL I Know

, 321, 455n20;

2

candidates/two parts/too complicated:

KSM SUBST;

3

Yemenis’ visas/in vain:

Staff Report, “9/11 and Terrorist Travel,” CO, 13–. The Yemenis were Walid bin Attash—also known as Khallad—who had lost a leg on the Afghan battlefield, and Abu Bara al-Tai’zi, on whom there appears to be scant information. Bin Laden had known Attash in Saudi Arabia. He was to play a role at later points in the story (KSM SUBST, CR 155–)

two Saudis/aged 24/23:

National Drug Intelligence Center for the FBI, “265D-NY-280350, TWINBOM-PENTTBOM, Biographical Report,” 11/26/01, authors’ collection, Blair Oakley to Janice Kephart, 3/23/04, “Hijacker Primary Documents—AA77,” B50, T5, CF;

4

friends:

Testimony of George Tenet, 6/18/02, JI, Bamford,

Shadow Factory

, 9;

5

well-to-do/married Yemeni/veterans:

ibid., 9, Staff Statement 16, CO, Report, JI, 131, Wright, 309–. Mihdhar’s relations by marriage were the Hada family in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a—their connection to terrorism will be reported later. The future 9/11 conspirator to whom Mihdhar was linked by marriage was Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the Germany-based accomplices (marriage: Bamford,

Shadow Factory

, 7–, McDermott, 183 & see AP, 12/23/07; Binalshibh:

WP

, 9/11/02);

6

“Jihad Ali”/Inspired:

KSM SUBST, Testimony of Stephen Gaudin,

U.S. v. Usama Bin Laden et al.;

Saudi visas easy:

Staff Report, “9/11 and Terrorist Travel,” CO, 14–, 116–;

7

had sworn:

JI, Report, 131–, Testimony of George Tenet, JI, 6/18/02;

8

“I swear”

/“hijrah”:

KSM SUBST. In its literal sense, the word

hijrah

or

hegira

refers to the Prophet’s move from Mecca to what is now Medina in

A.D

.

622—the first year of the Muslim era. It has thus come to be synonymous with migration. In the context used here it appears to denote a spiritual “migration” or transformation of the self (corr. Hans Kippenberg, 2010);

9

“the joys”/“My father”:

bin Ladens & Sasson, 262–;

10 candidates in Gulf:KSM SUBST;

11 Italy:McDermott, 209, 299n65. The source cited on the reported KSM visit to Italy is a senior Italian investigator;

12 Germany:Leading U.S. news sources have cited “intelligence reports” indicating that KSM visited Hamburg in 1999. “We have indications from various sources,” Walter Wellinghausen, a senior official of the Hamburg Interior Ministry, told The New York Times , “that [KSM] was in Hamburg for a period, but we have not been able to definitively verify this” ( Newsweek , 9/9/02, NYT , 11/4/02, WP , 9/11/02).

13 Atta:Texas Service Center, 911 Terrorist Review, “Hijacker Primary Documents—AA11,” B51, T5, CF, McDermott, 10;

14 friends:int. Mounir Motassadeq;

15 1992/​architecture/​Cairo:McDermott, 18–;

16 father divorced:Timeline Pertaining to Hijackers in Florida, “Timelines 9/11, 2 of 2,” B20, T7, CF;

17 “never stopped”: NYT , 10/10/01;

18 mother’s lap: Sunday Times (London), 1/6/02;

19 “child feelings”: Frontline: “ Inside the Terror Network,” 1/17/02, www.pbs.org;

20 insect/“brainless”: Time , 9/30/01;

21 cardiologist/professor:McDermott, 14;