35. BIN LADEN ISLAND
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.
36. THE NAME
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.
10. Ibid.
11. The meeting, “solicitous and kind”: Interview with Chas Freeman, June 15, 2005.
12. Ibid.
13. Yeslam has given several similar interviews describing his experiences and thinking on September 11 and afterward. See, for example, Dateline NBC, broadcast July 9, 2004. The quotations here are from a published question-and-answer interview in VSB, Geneva, December 2005, translated and filed in In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 03 MDL 1570.
14. “Bin Laden’s half-brother condemns U.S. attacks,” Agence France Presse, September 12, 2001.
15. “the possibility…Saudi Arabia”: Dateline NBC, op. cit.
16. “The strong…Islamic faith”: Guardian (London) September 21, 2001. “This is a criminal act…who died”: Interview with Sabry Ghoneim, November 14, 2005 (RS). “bloody Arabs”: The author was present when the conversation occurred; the person who received the phone call relayed the language after hanging up.
17. “Even if I do not condone…deserve it”: Interview with Bassim Alim, February 21, 2005.
18. “a large amount…his family”: From FBI documents released by Judicial Watch, op. cit.
19. Interview with Blum, op. cit.
20. Ibid.
21. Redactions in the FBI documents released to Judicial Watch make it difficult to be certain about the identity of the Washington passenger who was not interviewed. There were only five Washington passengers, however; of these, two were Shafiq and Akber Moawalla, who were clearly interviewed. Two others were college age. The fifth was Omar, who was then thirty-one years old.
22. Interviews with Blum and Pascetta, op. cit.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. “Believe me…human being”: Boston Globe, October 7, 2001.
26. The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 27, 2001.
27. All quotations, ibid.
28. Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, pp. 111–12.
29. Ibid., pp. 117–22.
30. Ibid., pp. 124–25.
31. Hamud (ed.), Osama Bin Laden, pp. 75–79.
32. “a certain posture…corporation”: Interview with Andrew Hess, December 2005 (RS).
33. Sunday Telegraph (London), December 16, 2001.
34. All quotations, ibid.
37. PUBLIC RELATIONS
1. The account of the delegation’s trip and the exchange with Bakr Bin Laden is primarily from interviews with officials familiar with the Treasury Department’s work during this period. See also “Testimony of R. Richard Newcomb, Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of Treasury Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversights and Investigations,” June 16, 2004.