The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright [216]
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf: Afghan warlord who trained as a cleric at Cairo’s al-Azhar university. Was bin Laden’s Afghan sponsor and the Saudis’ favored commander. He is currently a political leader in Afghanistan.
Michael Scheuer: CIA veteran who opened Alec Station in 1996 and ran it until he was relieved of duty in 1999. Writing anonymously after his retirement, he penned the exposés Through Our Enemies’ Eyes and Imperial Hubris.
Shafiq: Teenage mujahid who saved bin Laden’s life in the battle of Jalalabad.
Ali Soufan: Lebanese American FBI agent who was the case agent on the USS Cole bombing. His interrogation of Abu Jandal in Yemen after 9/11 led to the identification of the hijackers. Now working as a security consultant for Giuliani Partners in New York.
Mary Lynn Stevens: Former girlfriend of John O’Neill, she is now the vice president of the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation, an organization that assists soldiers and marines who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yazid Sufaat: Malaysian businessman who worked with Zawahiri in Afghanistan to propagate anthrax spores. The January 2000 meeting between the USS Cole bombers and the 9/11 hijackers took place in his condominium in Kuala Lumpur. He also wrote a letter of recommendation for Zacarias Moussaoui. He is in Malaysian custody.
Medani al-Tayeb: Former treasurer of al-Qaeda. He married bin Laden’s niece; lost a leg in Afghanistan; quit al-Qaeda in the early nineties and returned to live in Jeddah.
Hassan al-Turabi: Ideological leader of the 1989 Islamic revolution in Sudan. In and out of confinement since then, he now lives at home in Khartoum.
Issam Eldin al-Turabi: Son of Hassan al-Turabi, and bin Laden’s friend during his stay in Sudan, Issam is a businessman and well-known horse breeder in Khartoum.
Umm Abdullah: Osama bin Laden’s first wife, whom he married in 1974 when she was fourteen. She is from Syria, the daughter of bin Laden’s mother’s first cousin. She is the mother of eleven of his children. Her given name is Najwa Ghanem. She now lives in Syria.
Umm Ali: Osama’s wife from the Gilaini family in Mecca. She bore him three children. She asked for a divorce in 1996 and now lives in Saudi Arabia.
Umm Hamza: Married Osama in 1982 and bore him one child. She is from a distinguished family in Jeddah and has a Ph.D. in child psychology. She is thought to be with Osama.
Umm Khaled: From the Sharif family in Medina, she holds a Ph.D. in Arabic grammar and taught at the city’s Education College. She and Osama have three daughters and a son. She is thought to be with Osama.
Dr. Ahmed el-Wed: Takfiri Algerian doctor who worked in the Kuwaiti Red Crescent hospital in Peshawar with Zawahiri and Dr. Fadl; went back to Algeria after the jihad to become one of the founders of GIA.
Mary Jo White: Former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Ramzi Yousef: Mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The nephew of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef was born in Kuwait in 1968; studied electrical engineering in Wales. Created elaborate plots to assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton and to blow up eleven American airliners simultaneously. Finally captured in Pakistan in 1995, he is in an American prison serving a life sentence plus 240 years.
Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri: Leader of al-Jihad and the ideological leader of al-Qaeda. Born in Cairo on June 19, 1951, Zawahiri started a cell to overthrow the Egyptian government when he was fifteen years old. Imprisoned after Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and convicted of dealing in weapons, he was released three years later. He fled to Saudi Arabia in 1985, and the following year moved to Peshawar, where he and Dr. Fadl rebuilt al-Jihad. After the end of the war against the Soviet occupation, Zawahiri relocated his movement to Sudan, where he waged a campaign against the Egyptian government, resulting in the near total destruction of his organization. In 1996 he moved to Afghanistan and engineered a merger of al-Jihad with