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figures are hard to credit, since there was no one doing the counting, but she writes, in personal communication, “The scale of Saudi atrocities in the name of unifying the country is massive.” She adds, “The ikhwan were nothing but a mercenary force mobilised by Ibn Saud to fight his own wars and to serve his own purposes. Once they did the job for him he massacred them using other mercenaries, this time the sedentary population of southern Najd, other tribes, and the British Royal Air force stationed in Kuwait and Iraq at the time.”

63 theological innovations: Schwartz, Two Faces of Islam, 69ff.

they could kill: Khaled Abou el Fadl, “The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly,” 33–77.

64 Karl Twitchell: Lacey, The Kingdom, 231ff; Lippman, Inside the Mirage, 15ff.

had begun as a dockworker: interview with Nawaf Obaid.

one glass eye: interview with anonymous bin Laden family spokesperson.

the result of a blow: interview with Jamal Khalifa. A bin Laden family spokesperson disputes the story about the teacher hitting Mohammed bin Laden; he says the eye was lost in an accident in Ethiopia. Before protective goggles were commonly used, bricklayers and stonecutters often were blinded by chips of rock or mortar. I rely on the schoolteacher story because Khalifa heard it from his wife, who was close to her father. Other bin Laden brothers I’ve spoken to admit they have no special knowledge about the loss of their father’s vision.

65 “his signature”: interview with Saleh M. Binladin.

“dark, friendly, and energetic”: interview with Michael M. Ameen, Jr.

Aramco began a program: Thomas C. Barger, “Birth of a Dream,” Saudi Aramco World 35, no. 3 (May/June 1984).

Aramco sponsorship: interview with Prince Turki al-Faisal. “Aramco was really the only institution that built things,” Prince Turki told me. “When King Abdul Aziz wanted something done he would ask Aramco to do it, or get their advice. That was how bin Laden came into the picture. He was recommended.”

“raised as a laborer”: Othman Milyabaree and Abdullah Hassanein, “Al-Isamee al-Kabeer Alathee Faqadathoo al-Bilad” [The Big Self-Made Man the Country Has Lost], Okaz, September 7, 1967.

unprofitable projects: interview with anonymous Saudi source.

They called him mu‘alim: interview with Jamal Khalifa.

renovating houses: interview with anonymous bin Laden family spokesperson.

minister of finance: Mohammed Besalama, “Al-Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden al-Mu‘alem” [Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden, the Teacher], Okaz, June 2, 1984.

65 Osama bin Laden would recall: interview with Ali Soufan.

drove the king’s car: interview with anonymous bin Laden family spokesman.

first concrete building: anonymous Saudi source.

minister of public works: Mohammed Besalama, “Al-Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden al-Mu‘alem” [Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden, the Teacher], Okaz, June 2, 1984; interview with anonymous bin Laden family spokesman.

pay the same fee: Mohammed Besalama, “Al-Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden al-Mu‘alem” [Sheikh Mohammed Awad bin Laden, the Teacher], Okaz, June 2, 1984.

one well-paved road: Mayer, “The House of bin Laden.”

66 largest customer: anonymous Saudi source. A spokesperson for the Caterpillar Corporation refused comment.

donated the asphalt: Lippman, Inside the Mirage, 49.

Umm Kalthoum: interview with Khaled Batarfi.

“We have to organize”: interview with Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz.

throwing money: Lacey, The Kingdom, 302.

67 Hotel al-Yamama: interview with Michael M. Ameen, Jr.

bin Laden began diversifying: Aramco, Binladen Brothers for Contracting and Industry (N.p., n.d.)

Grand Mosque: figures from Abbas, Story of the Great Expansion, 364ff., and a Saudi Binladin Group promotional film.

68 less than a hundred dollars: Lacey, The Kingdom, 323.

fronted the money: interview with anonymous Saudi source.

special permission: Lippman, Inside the Mirage, 127. At the time, the king also had to personally approve every takeoff and landing of flights in the Kingdom.

69 training Saudi forces in 1953: Rachel Bronson, personal communication. According to Bronson,