The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright [225]
four or five hundred insurgents: al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia, 144; Lacey suggests 200, in The Kingdom, 484; Aburish estimates 300, in The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall, 108. Arab sources place the figure in the thousands. Captain Paul Barril says there were 1,500 insurgents, in Commando, October/November 2002.
some American Black Muslims: Holden and Johns, The House of Saud, 520.
armory of the National Guard: Mackey, The Saudis, 231.
on biers: Lacey, The Kingdom, 484.
91 Salem…arrived: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
92 jaw was blown away: Holden and Johns, The House of Saud, 525.
93 recommended gas: interview with Prince Turki al-Faisal.
they converted to Islam: The history of this event is full of contradictory claims. Da Lage cites Captain Paul Barril, who led three French policemen to Mecca, where they “converted” on the spot to Islam, so that they could direct the assault on the Grand Mosque. Olivier Da Lage, “Il y a quinze ans: La prise de la Grande Mosquée de La Mecque,” Le Monde, November 20–21, 1994. Aburish claims that the rebels were put down by French paratroopers, who actually did flood and electrify the chambers. Aburish, The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall, 108.
Turki denies that the French converted or entered Mecca. De Marenches also denies that the French entered Mecca. De Marenches and Ockrent, The Evil Empire, 112. I have chosen to credit the account of Captain Barril on the authority of an anonymous Saudi intelligence source.
94 more than 4,000: Theroux, Sandstorms, 90.
Osama bin Laden and his brother Mahrous: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
Oteibi and his followers were true Muslims: Burke, Al-Qaeda, 55.
“I was enraged”: Robert Fisk, “Anti-Soviet Warrior Puts His Army on the Road to Peace,” Independent, December 6, 1993.
“a big secret”: “Walidee Ramama al-Aqsa Bilkhasara” [My Father Renovated al-Aqsa Mosque, with a Loss], Al-Umma al-Islamiyya, October 18, 1991.
95 “hand over the money”: ibid.
his friend Omar Abdul Rahman: Weaver, A Portrait of Egypt, 180.
got him dismissed in 1980: Tahta al-Mijhar [Under the Microscope], al-Jazeera, February 20, 2003.
“Jihad and the rifle alone”: Abdullah bin Omar, “The Striving Sheik: Abdullah Azzam,” Nida‘ul Islam, trans. Mohammed Saeed, July–September 1996, www.islam.org.au/articles/14/AZZAM.HTM.
“Jihad for him”: Mohammed al-Shafey, “Al-Sharq al-Awsat Interviews Umm Mohammed,” Al-Sharq al-Aswat, April 30, 2006.
spotted an announcement: Tahta al-Mijhar [Under the Microscope], al-Jazeera, February 20, 2003.
arriving in November 1981: Mohammed, Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan, 37.
96 “I reached Afghanistan”: untitled Abdullah Azzam recruitment video, 1988.
birds functioned as an early-warning radar system: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
“He lives in his house”: Azzam, The Lofty Mountain, 150.
“If you have it”: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
97 Paid agents rounded up: Salah, Waqai‘ Sanawat al-Jihad.
office in Cairo: Dr. Gehad Auda and Dr. Ammar Ali Hasan, “Strategic Papers: The Globalization of the Radical Islamic Movement: The Case of Egypt,” www.ahram.org.eg/acpss/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/SPAP5.htm.
Bin Laden opened a halfway house: interview with Essam Deraz.
he ran special military camps: Mohammed Sadeeq, “The Story of Saudi Afghans: They Participated in Jihad and Violent Fighting,” Al-Majellah, May 11, 1996.
dozens of trucks: Shadid, Legacy of the Prophet, 83.
98 “The Saudi government asked me”: Osama bin Laden, interviewed by al-Jazeera, October 7, 2001. Bin Laden dates this conversation to 1979, which is when he says he first went to Afghanistan.
“won’t even get near”: interview with Khaled Batarfi.
5. The Miracles
99 “Now we can give the USSR”: Cooley, Unholy Wars, 19.
100 170 armed Afghan militias in the mid-1980s: ibid., 232.
800,000 people…under their authority: interview with Abdullah Anas.
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf: Jon Lee Anderson, “Letter from Kabul: The Assassins,” New Yorker, June 10, 2002.
lock them up in a jail: Coll, Ghost Wars, 83.
“Fear of bodily participation”: Mohammed, Al-Ansar al-Arab