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28 shopped knives/Stanley two-piece/​Leatherman/​Dollar House/folding knife: Staff Report, “Monograph on the Four Flights & Civil Aviation Security,” CF, “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE, witness list, “Hijacker Knife Purchases,” B18, T7, CF. The folding knife would be found later in Atta’s shipped baggage, which failed to make the transfer to American 11, the plane he hijacked on 9/11 (witness list, “Hijacker Knife Purchases,” B18, T7, CF).

29 Principals convened/draft NSPD: CR, 213–, Farmer, 65–, Richard Clarke, 26;

30 State had told: WP, 1/20/02;

31 debate re Predator/dueled: ibid., Benjamin & Simon, 345–, CR, 214, Tenet, 160, corr. Miles Kara;

32 “I just couldn’t”: Vanity Fair, 2/09;

33 reconnaissance: CR, 214;

34 “I didn’t really”: Testimony of Richard Clarke, 3/24/04, CO;

35 “grasp the enormity”: MFR 04018415, 12/16/03, CF;

36 “It sounds”: New Yorker, 8/4/03;

37 strongly worded note: Staff Statement 8, CO, CR 212–, 343–, 513n247–;

38 Directive approved: CR, 213–.

39 money left over/returned: Staff Report, Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” CO, PENTTBOM, Summary of Captioned Investigation,” 11/5/01, authors’ collection, Staff Statement 16, CO, Stipulation, U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui, 3/1/06. The return of funds notwithstanding, it has been alleged that Atta received $100,000 as late as August 2001. A story emerged in the Indian press soon after 9/11, supposedly citing sources in the FBI and Indian intelligence, claiming that the director of the Pakistani ISI, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmed, ordered the supposed wire transfer of the money in either the summer of 2001 or 2000. The FBI told 9/11 Commission staff that there was no evidence Atta received a payment from the Pakistani ISI. Nor, indeed, were there “any unexplained funds at all.” One would wonder—if such a payment was made in August 2001—why it was required so late in the operation. Given the long-running enmity between Pakistan and India, the allegation may merely have been Indian propaganda. That said, Pakistani intelligence has had a long involvement with the Taliban, and allegedly with bin Laden. The U.S. government, meanwhile, has never determined the original source of any of the money used in the attack, though the mechanics of how it reached the hijackers is known ($100,000: e.g., Times of India, 10/9/01, Press Trust of India, 10/8/01, 10/15/01, WSJ, 10/10/01; ISI/al Qaeda: e.g., AP, 2/21/02, Fox News, 10/8/01, Asia Times, 1/5/02; no evidence: MFR 04019767, CF, Staff Report, “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” CO).

40 “brothers”: Fouda & Fielding, 141;

41 Binalshibh flew/marathon/“The message”: ibid., MFR 04019351, 12/10–11/03, CF, Der Spiegel, 10/27/03, McDermott, 230.

42 “referred”: Sunday Times (London), 10/7/01;

43 “information about”: NYT, 6/4/02;

44 Gary Hart/​“preparedness”/​Rice “said”: Salon, 9/12/01, Columbia Journalism Review, Nov./Dec. 2001, Statement by the President, 5/8/01, http://usgovinfo.about.com, WP, 1/20/02, CR, 204;

45 Bush met Tenet: Salt Lake Tribune, 4/15/04.

46 agent getting started/​“security”/​tentative feelers/ChoicePoint: CR, 270–, FBI IG, Kevin Fenton, Disconnecting the Dots, Walterville, OR: TrineDay, forthcoming, 345–. Another New York FBI agent, who ran an Internet search on September 11 after the attacks, found Mihdhar’s San Diego address “within hours.” (JI, 43);

47 traffic policeman/Hazmi featured, etc.: “Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE. The previous occasions Hamzi had come to the notice of the police are reported on p. 324.

48 Shuckums: Time, 9/24/01, Hopsicker, 81–, Newsweek, 9/24/01, St. Petersburg Times, 9/1/02. FBI agents who looked into the Shuckums story evidently thought it occurred on September 6. Atta could not have been there on the 7th, as some press reports had it, as he flew from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore that day (“Hijackers Timeline [redacted],” 11/14/03, INTELWIRE).

49 Atta/Jarrah sold cars/headed north: ibid., Stipulation,