Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--From 9/11 to Abbottabad (39 page)

  
77
herbs or other natural sources:
Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  
78
about 12,000 rupees a month each:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence official.

  
79
bought and sold gold bangles and rings:
Shah, “At End, Bin Laden Wasn’t Running al-Qaeda”: author interview with jewelry store owner in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, July 19, 2011.

  
80
catch a glimpse:
Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  
81
instructed her never to talk about him:
Tariq Iqbal Chaudhry, “Abbottabad Commission Interviews al-Kuwaiti’s Wife,”
The News
, November 13, 2011,
www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=77219&Cat=2
.

  
82
religious practices:
bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson,
Growing Up bin Laden
, p. 17.

  
83
Al Jazeera television and BBC radio:
“Osama bin Laden Videos Released by Government,” ABC News, May 8, 2011,
abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-home-videos-released-pentagon/story?id=13552384
; Hamid Mir interview.

  
84
wrapped in a blanket:
“Osama bin Laden Videos Released by Government.”

  
85
publicly referred to Obama as a “house Negro”:
“Al Qaeda Leader Mocks Obama in Web Posting,” CNN, November 19, 2008,
articles.cnn.com/2008-11-19/us/obama.alqaeda_1_al-zawahiri-barack-obama-obama-smuslim/2?_s=PM:US
.

  
86
Palestine, but also the environment and the global economy:
Author interview with Pakistani officials.

  
87
And he voraciously read:
Statement transcript, ABC News, September 6, 2007, abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/transcript2.pdf. These books very likely came from the two excellent English-language bookstores, Saeed Book Bank and Mr. Books, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, two hours’ drive from Abbottabad.

    
1
“Our boys were shocked”:
From John Miller interview with Osama bin Laden for PBS
Frontline
, May 1998,
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html
.

    
2
loved like a father:
For description of the attitudes of bin Laden’s followers toward their leader, see JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Shalabi, ISN US9SA-000042DP, May 14, 2008.

    
3
boots on the ground:
In interviews with veteran
Al-Hayat
journalist Camille Tawil, former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
shura
member Noman Benotman repeatedly quotes bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders referring to U.S. troops as “cowards” and notes that bin Laden did not think the United States would send troops to Afghanistan in retaliation for an attack. Camille Tawil, “The Other Face of al-Qaeda,”
trans. Maryan El-Hajbi and Mustafa Abulhimal, Quilliam Foundation, November 2010, p. 15.

    
4
feeble as the former Soviet Union:
See bin Laden interview with Al Jazeera, 1998, available via
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1358734/Ever-since-I-can-recall-I-despised-and-felt-hatred-towards-Americans.html
.

    
5
some of al-Qaeda’s senior officials:
Saif al-Adel and Abu Hafs al-Mauritani in particular expressed reservations about the attacks, out of concern that they would bring a devastating American response and might not be religiously justified. See “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Final Report” (Washington, DC, 2004) (hereafter “9/11 Commission Report”), pp. 251–52.

    
6
inoculate himself against any anger:
Ibid., p. 252.

    
7
Tunisian Belgian al-Qaeda assassins:
Gary Schroen,
First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
(New York: Presidio Press, 2005), pp. 1–6.

    
8
on Thursday, September 6:
“Osama Bin Laden Video Excerpts,” BBC, December 14, 2001,
news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/1709425.stm
.

    
9
heard the welcome news:
Feroz Ali Abbasi, a British Ugandan militant living in an al-Qaeda camp, later wrote that he and others heard about the killing on September 9, while listening to the radio. Feroz Ali Abbasi, Guantánamo Bay Prison Memoirs, 2002–2004, author’s collection.

  
10
fervent hope and belief:
Based on author observations and study of bin Laden.

  
11
six days a week:
George Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 207.

  
12
the CIA’s assessment:
Ibid., p. 242.

  
13
planned to detonate:
Barbara Sude, interview by author, Washington, DC, December 16, 2009.

  
14
“preparations for hijackings”:
“Transcript: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,” CNN, April 10, 2004,
articles.cnn.com/2004-04-10/politics/august6.memo_1_bin-conduct-terrorist-attacks-abu-zubaydah?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
.

  
15
longest presidential vacation:
Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker, “Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record,”
Washington Post
, August 3, 2005,
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201703.html
.

  
16
Morell gave the President’s Daily Brief:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
17
Fleischer asked Morell:
Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
, pp. 253–54.

  
18
“smells like Osama bin Laden”:
Ari Fleischer, interview by author, New York, September 11, 2011.

  
19
“kick their ass”:
George W. Bush,
Decision Points
(New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), p. 128.

  
20
“see the news today”:
Proceedings of a military commission,
United States v. Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul
, May 7, 2008, www.defense.gov/news/01%/20%al%20Bahlul-trans-Pages%201to%20333-Redacted.pdf; also see Jason Burke,
The 9/11 Wars
(London: Penguin Books, 2011), p. 24.

  
21
bin Laden brushed aside Zawahiri’s obsessive focus:
Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, United Kingdom, August 30, 2005.

  
22
described his first meeting with bin Laden in 1997 as “beautiful”:
Khalid Al-Hammadi, “Bin Laden’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on Al Qaeda Strategies,”
Al Quds Al Arabi
, in Arabic, August 3, 2004, and March 20–April 4, 2005.

  
23
“a very charismatic person”:
Excerpts from Shadi Abdalla’s (alias Emad Abdulhadie) interviews with German authorities that took place between April 2002 (when he was arrested) and May 2003. Author’s collection.

  
24
tuned his radio to the BBC’s Arabic service:
Peter Bergen,
The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History
(New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 307; Burke,
The 9/11 Wars
, p. 24; also see Yosri Fouda and Nick Fielding,
Masterminds of Terror: The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Terrorist Attack the World Has Ever Seen
(New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003), p. 145.

  
25
“the brothers have struck”:
Fouda and Fielding,
Masterminds of Terror
, p. 144.

  
26
“Reports from the United States”:
Ibid.

  
27
“be patient”:
This is from a videotaped conversation between bin Laden and a Saudi supporter; see Bergen,
The Osama bin Laden I Know
, p. 283; “Bin Laden Rejoiced on Sept. 11,” ABC News, December 13, 2001.

  
28
“Patience! Patience!” … sadness for the brothers:
Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swann,
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2011), p. 362.

  
29
Bin Laden was confident:
Al-Qaeda military leader Mohammed Atef (known as Abu Hafs al-Masri) told Al Jazeera and
Al-Hayat
journalist Ahmad Zaidan in late 2000 that the kind of attack they expected after the USS
Cole
bombing would be similar to the American attacks on Kosovo and Serbia, U.S. air strikes from bases in Central Asia and maybe Pakistan; see Michael Scheuer,
Osama bin Laden
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 229; also see Ahmad Zaidan,
Usama Bin Ladin Without a Mask: Interviews Banned by the Taliban
(Lebanon: World Book Publishing Company, 2003).

  
30
Morell replied:
Author interview with senior U.S. intelligence official, Washington, DC; also Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
, p. 254.

  
31
Offutt Air Force Base:
“9/11 Commission Report,” p.325.

  
32
“We knew it was al-Qaeda”:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official, Washington, DC.

  
33
“looked, smelled, and tasted”:
Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
, p. 259.

  
34
as many as sixty:
Office of the Inspector General, “Report on CIA Accountability with Respect to the 9/11 Attacks,” August 21, 2007,
www.cia.gov/library/reports/Executive%20Summary_OIG%20Report.pdf
.

  
35
relied on only some:
Ambassador Hank Crumpton, “Remarks at CSIS Smart Power Series,” Washington, DC, January 14, 2008, csis.org/files/media/csis/press/080114_smart_crumpton.pdf.

  
36
on September 17, Bush signed:
“John Rizzo: The Lawyer Who Approved the CIA’s Most Controversial Program,” PBS
Frontline
, September 6, 2011

  
37
“I had never in my experience”:
Ibid.

  
38
“I want justice”:
“Bush: Bin Laden ‘Wanted Dead or Alive,’ ” CNN, September 17, 2001,
articles.cnn.com/2001-09-17/us/bush.powell.terrorism_1_bin-qaeda-terrorist-attacks?_s=PM:US
.

  
39
received a messenger:
Jamal Ismail, interview by the author, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 2005.

  
40
decade and a half … aired on Al Jazeera:
Bergen,
The Osama bin Laden I Know
, pp. xxxiv and 2.

  
41
“They have links”:
Jamal Ismail interview.

  
42
requested, to no avail:
David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens, “Diplomats Met with Taliban on Bin Laden,”
Washington Post
, October 29, 2001,
www.infowars.com/saved%20pages/Prior_Knowledge/US_met_taliban.htm
.

  
43
“I will not hand over a Muslim”:
Abu Walid al-Misri,
The History of the Arab Afghans from the Time of Their Arrival in Afghanistan Until Their Departure with the Taliban
, serialized in
Asharq Al-Awsat
, December 8–14, 2004.

  
44
“Islam says that when”:
Vahid Mojdeh, former Taliban official, interview by author, Kabul, Afghanistan, January 2005.

  
45
telling Yusufzai:
Rahimullah Yusufzai, interview by author, Peshawar, Pakistan, September 1998 and June 29, 2003.

  
46
Omar asked Yusufzai:
Ibid.

  
47
Mullah Omar naïvely believed:
Abdul Salam Zaeef,
My Life with the Taliban
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), p. 149.

  
48
of Muslims everywhere:
John F. Burns, “Afghanistan’s Professional Class Flees Rule by Ultra-Strict Clerics,”
New York Times
, October 7, 1996.

  
49
hundreds of cheering Taliban:
For an account of this event, see Norimitsu Onishi, “A Nation Challenged: A Shrine, a Tale of the Mullah, and Muhammad’s Amazing Cloak,”
New York Times
, December 19, 2001,
www.nytimes.com/2001/12/19/world/a-nation-challenged-a-shrine-a-tale-of-the-mullah-and-muhammad-s-amazing-cloak.html
.

  
50
“a piece of red-hot coal”:
Pamela Constable, “Tales of the Taliban: Part Tragedy, Part Farce,”
Washington Post
, February 28, 2004.

  
51
two giant Buddhas:
A description can be found in Carlotta Gall, “Afghans Consider Rebuilding Bamiyan Buddhas,”
International Herald Tribune
, November 5, 2006,
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/world/asia/05iht-buddhas.3793036.html
.

  
52
planned to destroy the Buddhas:
The Taliban also secretly destroyed all the statues in the Kabul Museum, smashing some 2,500 artifacts using sledgehammers. See Peter Bergen, “Taliban-Destroyed Buddhas May Never Be Restored,”
CNN.com
, May 11, 2007,
edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/afghan.buddhas/index.html
.

  
53
told a visiting delegation of Pakistani officials:
Pervez Musharraf,
In the Line of Fire: A Memoir
(New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 215.

  
54
helping to wreck the statues:
Incident described during interrogation of al-Qaeda recruit Nizar Trabelsi, who was questioned in French in June 2002. The text of his interrogation was later provided in Italian to prosecutors in Milan investigating one of Trabelsi’s associates. Documents acquired and translated by investigative journalist Leo Sisti of
L’Espresso
, author’s collection. Alan Cullison, “Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive,”
The Atlantic
, September 2004,
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/09/inside-al-qaeda-rsquo-s-hard-drive/3428/
.

  
55
called on bin Laden to leave:
John F. Burns, “Afghan Clerics Urge Bin Laden to Leave; White House Says Unacceptable,”
New York Times
, September 20, 2001,
www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/international/20CND-PAK.html?pagewanted=all
.

  
56
“informed interrogator” approach:
Ali Soufan interview.

  
57
The FBI 302s, the official summaries of these interrogations:
Abu Jandal, FD-302, Federal Bureau of Investigation, pp. 59–63 and 74–81. Author’s collection.

  
58
“dozens and dozens of people”:
Ibid.

  
59
picked out eight:
Ali Soufan, interview by author, New York, December 17, 2009.

  
60
“how deeply resented the Arabs were”:
Robert Grenier, interview by the author, Washington, DC, January 19, 2010.

  
61
“The Americans are coming” … “I will go back”:
Ibid.