Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--From 9/11 to Abbottabad (38 page)

Abdullah Anas

Abdel Bari Atwan

Hutaifa Azzam

Jeremy Bash

Khaled Batarfi

Noman Benotman

Gary Berntsen

Tony Blinken

John Brennan

Robert Cardillo

Glenn Carle

James “Hoss” Cartwright

Shamila Chaudhary

James Clapper

Hillary Clinton

Henry A. Crumpton

Dell Dailey

Robert Dannenberg

Khaled al-Fawwaz

Ari Fleischer

Michèle Flournoy

Yosri Fouda

Tommy Franks

Dalton Fury

Brad Garrett

Susan Glasser

Eric Greitens

Robert Grenier

Jamal Ismail

Art Keller

Jamal Khalifa

Ihsan Mohammad Khan

Khalid Khawaja

Khalid Khan Kheshgi

David Kilcullen

Osama bin Laden

Michael Leiter

David Low

Stanley McChrystal

Denis McDonough

John McLaughlin

Hamid Mir

Vahid Mojdeh

Philip Mudd

Michael Mullen

Asad Munir

Arturo Munoz

Muhammad Musa

Vali Nasr

Leon Panetta

David Petraeus

Paul Pillar

Mohammed Asif Qazizanda

Nick Rasmussen

Ben Rhodes

Robert Richer

Bruce Riedel

Michael Scheuer

Shabbir (Bin Laden neighbor)

Ali Soufan

Cindy Storer

Barbara Sude

Abu Musab al-Suri

Camille Tawil

Frances Fragos Townsend

Wisal al-Turabi

Michael Vickers

Junaid Younis

Rahimullah Yusufzai

Mohammed Zahir

Ahmad Zaidan

Juan Zarate

    
1
Major Abbott was beloved:
For a description of Major James Abbott, see Charles Allen,
Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier
(London: Abacus, 2001), p. 205.

    
2
“I remember the day”:
Sebastian Abbot, “Pakistani Town Copes with Infamy After Bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 24, 2011,
www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9661254
.

    
3
“City of Schools”:
Khalid Khan Kheshgi, interview by author, Pakistan, July 2011.

    
4
U.S. Special Forces soldiers were posted there:
Cable from U.S. Secretary of State to U.S. embassy in Islamabad dated October 9, 2008, obtained from WikiLeaks.

    
5
The vacation high season begins:
Abbot, “Pakistani Town Copes with Infamy.”

    
6
Western adventurers:
Author’s own observations during visit to Abbottabad, July 2011.

    
7
wealthy Afghan refugees:
M Ilyas Khan, “Bin Laden Neighbours Describe Abbottabad Compound,” BBC, May 2, 2011,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257338
.

    
8
The Kuwaiti purchased the land:
“Pakistani Owner of Bin Laden’s Hideaway Aided Him,” Associated Press, May 4, 2011,
dailytimespakistan.com/pakistani-owner-of-bin-laden%E2%80%99s-hideaway-aided-him/
.

    
9
“very simple, modest, humble type of man”:
Ibid.

  
10
“One of my students could have”:
Junaid Younis, interview by author, Abbottabad, Pakistan, July 20, 2011.

  
11
Locals estimate that:
Saeed Shah, “At End, Bin Laden Wasn’t Running Al-Qaeda, Officials Say,”
McClatchy Newspapers
, June 28, 2011,
www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/28/v-print/116666/at-end-bin-laden-wasnt-running.html
.

  
12
No planning permission was sought for this addition:
Junaid Younis interview.

  
13
exclusive use:
Christina Lamb, “Bickering Widows Blame Young Wife for Alerting US,”
Sunday Times
, May 22, 2011,
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Asia/article631884.ece
.

  
14
rarely left the second and third floors:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials, July 2011.

  
15
only to take a walk:
Ibid.

  
16
A makeshift tarpaulin:
Ibid.

  
17
last for more than twelve hours:
Najwa bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, and Jean Sasson,
Growing Up bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009), p. 173.

  
18
quite adept at volleyball:
Khalad al-Hammadi, “Bin Ladin’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on al Qaida Strategies,”
al-Quds al-Arabi
, in Arabic, August 3, 2004.

  
19
Nor was he suffering from debilitating kidney disease:
Ibid.

  
20
Bin Laden’s first wife:
Wisal al-Turabi, interview by Sam Dealey, Khartoum, Sudan, July 10, 2005.

  
21
eventually agreed to her request:
bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson,
Growing Up bin Laden
, pp. 282 and 146.

  
22
allowed her to take only three:
Ibid., p. 282.

  
23
“I will never divorce you”:
Ibid.

  
24
Najwa left Afghanistan on September 9, 2001:
Ibid., p. 146.

  
25
motivation to marry Khairiah:
Wisal al-Turabi interview.

  
26
a man she believed to be a true holy warrior:
Lawrence Wright,
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), p. 252.

  
27
they had a boy:
bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson,
Growing Up bin Laden
, pp. 238–39.

  
28
Khairiah fled Afghanistan for neighboring Iran:
Mohammed Al Shafey, “Bin Laden’s Family Under House Arrest in Iran,”
Asharq al-Awsat
, December 23, 2009,
www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=19259
.

  
29
not uncomfortable:
Lara Setrakian, “Osama Bin Laden’s Teen Daughter Allowed to Leave Iran,” ABC News, March 22, 2010,
abcnews.go.com/Blotter/International/iran-releases-osama-bin-ladens-teenage-daughter/story?id=10169432#.TsWKlF1AIj8
.

  
30
militants abducted Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki:
“Iran Says Rescued Diplomat Kidnapped in Pakistan,” Reuters, March 30, 2010,
uk.reuters.com/article/2010/03/30/uk-pakistan-iran-idUKTRE62T1FU20100330
.

  
31
This was part of a deal:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials, July 2011.

  
32
Sometime during the blazing summer of 2010:
Christina Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide to Bin Laden Lair,”
Sunday Times
, May 22, 2011,
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Asia/article631893.ece
; author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  
33
Her one disappointment was:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  
34
Siham’s first son, Khalid:
In the spring of 2011, bin Laden and Siham were planning Khalid’s marriage to the daughter of an al-Qaeda fighter who had been killed in Afghanistan a few years earlier. Siham also had two of her daughters living with her: Maryam, age twenty, and Sumaiyah, age sixteen. There had also been tragedies for bin Laden and Siham. Their third daughter, Khadija, had married an al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan in 1999 when she was only eleven, but had recently succumbed to an illness in Pakistan’s tribal regions, while Khadija’s husband had also died in an American drone strike. So now their four young children were living in the Abbottabad compound along with Grandpa Osama and Grandma Siham.

  
35
Siham had been a student:
Mustafa al-Ansari, “Bin Ladin’s Brother-in-Law to Al Hayah: ‘My Sister Holds PhD: She Differs with Husband Usama Ideologically,’ ”
Al Hayat
online, May 26, 2011.

  
36
Siham’s parents opposed … went ahead:
Ibid.

  
37
donated it all:
Ibid.

  
38
often edit bin Laden’s writings:
Ibid.

  
39
“chained” to bin Laden:
Ibid.

  
40
“She had to be religious”:
Hala Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife,”
Sunday Times
, January 24, 2010,
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/article195679.ece
.

  
41
“really believed that being a dutiful and obedient wife”:
Ibid.

  
42
couched as coming from a businessman:
Mustafa al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse, ‘Amal,’ Will Not Remarry Even If Asked by President Ali Saleh!”
Al Hayat
, Arabic, June 13, 2011.

  
43
“God has blessed it”:
Ibid.

  
44
a $5,000 dowry:
Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  
45
“We agreed that”:
al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse.”

  
46
The women had their own, more modest party:
Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  
47
Initially, bin Laden’s other wives:
Nasser al-Bahri,
Dans l’Ombre de Ben Laden: Révélations de son garde du corps repenti
(Neuilly-sur-Seine, France: Éditions Michel Lafon, 2010), p. 201.

  
48
traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan:
al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse.”

  
49
“Thank you for this great upbringing”:
Ibid.

  
50
“go down in history”:
Ibid.

  
51
named her after the Safia:
Hamid Mir, interviews by author, Islamabad, Pakistan, May 11, 2002, and March 2005.

  
52
another four children:
“Yemen Family of bin Laden Widow Demands Her Return,” Agence France Presse, May 17, 2011,
www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\05\18\story_18-5-2011_pg7_7
.

  
53
two while she:
Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide.”

  
54
“Marry and increase in number”:
al-Ansari, “Bin Ladin’s Brother-in-Law.”

  
55
“I don’t understand why”:
Abdullah Anas, interview by author, London, June 15, 17, and 20, 2005.

  
56
For their meat consumption:
Shopkeeper Mohammed Rashid told BBC Urdu’s Aijaz Mahar that two goats were delivered every week, presumably for slaughter and consumption. “What Was Life Like in the Bin Laden Compound?” BBC, May 9, 2011,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13266944
.

  
57
Milk came from:
Saeed Shah, “Pakistani Officers’ Photos Show Blood, but Not Bin Laden,”
McClatchy Newspapers
, May 4, 2011,
www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/04/113699/pakistani-officers-photos-show.html
.

  
58
If neighborhood kids accidentally:
“Abbottabad Children Played by Bin Laden Compound,” CNN, May 9, 2011,
articles.cnn.com/2011-05-09/world/pakistan.bin.laden.children_1_bin-terror-leader-compound?_s=PM:WORLD
.

  
59
knock for ten or twenty minutes:
Ibid.

  
60
would not give their names and were notably religious:
Stan Grant, interview with local child,
The Situation Room
, CNN, aired May 30, 2011,
transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/30/sitroom.02.html
.

  
61
electricity and gas bills:
Ihsan Mohammad Khan, interview by author, Abbottabad, Pakistan, July 21, 2011; review of the electricity and gas bills by author.

  
62
didn’t need air-conditioning:
Khaled al-Fawwaz, interview by author, London, April 1, 1997.

  
63
compound had no running water:
Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, August 30, 2005.

  
64
“You should learn to sacrifice everything”:
Ibid.

  
65
attended a madrassa:
Lamb, “Revealed: SEALs’ Secret Guide.”

  
66
did not go to school:
Robert Booth, Saeed Shah, and Jason Burke, “Osama Bin Laden Death: How Family Scene in Compound Turned to Carnage,”
Guardian
, May 5, 2011,
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/05/bin-laden-death-family-compound
.

  
67
both academics:
al-Hammadi, “Osama’s Former ‘Bodyguard.’ ”

  
68
taught them poetry:
Zaynab Khadr, interview by Terrence McKenna, Islamabad, Pakistan, “Al Qaeda Family,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “Maha Elsammah and Zaynab Khadr,” February 22, 2004. Transcript available at
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/khadr/interviews/mahazaynab.html
.

  
69
delivered an address:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  
70
bin Laden created a dedicated living space:
Wright,
The Looming Lower
, p. 251; Abu Jundal, “His Three Wives Lived in One House That Had Only One Floor. They Lived in Perfect Harmony,”; Khalid al-Hammadi, “Bin Laden’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed,
Al-Quds al-Arabi
, March 20 to April 4, 2004.

  
71
exhaust system that was nothing more:
Author observations of Abbottabad compound.

  
72
The third floor:
Author interview with Pakistani officials.

  
73
“Husband and wife”:
al-Hammadi, “Osama’s Former ‘Bodyguard.’ ”

  
74
never raised his voice in anger:
bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson,
Growing Up bin Laden
, p. 41.

  
75
close relationship with his mother:
Khaled Batarfi, interview by author, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 5 and 9, 2005.

  
76
A clue as to how the fifty-four-year-old:
JoNel Aleccia, “What Was in Medicine Chests at Bin Laden Compound?” MSNBC, May 6, 2011,
sys12-today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42934673/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/
.