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I’m grateful to Dr. Jeanne Ryan, who consulted with me on these matters and provided the diagnosis. Although the CIA, among others, has speculated that bin Laden suffers from kidney disease, he would probably have died by now without frequent dialysis, and the symptoms are not the same as the ones described here. Dr. Ryan points out that patients with kidney disease cannot tolerate extra salt. Everyone who knew bin Laden well was acquainted with his constant dipping into his salt supply. One of the key indicators of Addison’s is the eventual darkening of the skin, which has become apparent in bin Laden’s later video appearances.

140 Shafiq: interviews with Abdullah Anas and Jamal Khalifa.

141 Eighty other Arabs: interview with Abdullah Anas. Other accounts place the figure as high as five hundred. “The Story of the Arab Afghans from the Time of Arrival in Afghanistan Until Their Departure with the Taliban,” part 6, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, December 13, 2004.

Farouk was a takfir camp: interview with Abdullah Anas.

Those chosen: Hasin al-Banyan, “The Oldest Arab Afghan Talks to ‘Al-Sharq al-Awsat’ About His Career That Finally Landed Him in Prison in Saudi Arabia,” Al-Sharq al-Awsat, November 25, 2001.

in triplicate: Gunaratna, Inside al-Qaeda, 56.

142 $1,000 a month: interview with Jack Cloonan.

round-trip ticket home: Details of the al-Qaeda employment contract can be found in the Harmony Documents, drawn from a United States Department of Defense database. www.ctc.usma.edu/aq_harmonylist.asp.

constitution and by-laws: ibid.

143 “We are your soldiers”: interview with Abdullah Anas.

discovered and disarmed a powerful bomb: “Saudi ‘Afghan’ Talks About Involvement with al-Qa‘ida, bin Ladin,” Al-Sharq al-Awsat, November 25, 2001.

“It’s better to leave”: interview with Ahmed Badeeb.

They embraced for a long time: Tahta al-Mijhar [Under the Microscope], al-Jazeera, Feb. 20, 2003.

twenty kilograms of TNT: Gunaratna, Inside al-Qaeda, 23.

144 spreading rumors: interview with Usama Rushdi.

7. Return of the Hero

145 27 million Saudi riyals: interview with bin Laden family spokesperson. Jamal Khalifa, who is married to one of bin Laden’s half sisters, told me the annual share is “not even a million riyals”—$266,000, a figure that was confirmed by the bin Laden family spokesperson. That amount is considerably less than even the downsized figure given by the 9/11 Commission, which states: “from 1970 through 1994, bin Ladin received about $1 million per year—a significant sum, to be sure, but not a $300 million fortune that could be used to fund jihad.” National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, 170. Jamal Khashoggi told me that when bin Laden returned from Afghanistan, he informed his brothers that he had spent his share of his inheritance on the jihad, and that they made it up to him out of their own pockets; a bin Laden family spokesperson disputes this, however.

build roads in Taif and Abha: Robert Fisk, “The Saudi Businessman Who Recruited Mujahedin Now Uses Them for Large-Scale Building Projects in Sudan,” Independent, December 6, 1993.

146 “Othman of his age”: interview with Monsour al-Njadan.

482-foot yacht: Simons, Saudi Arabia, 28.

blackjack and roulette dealers: Marie Colvin, “The Squandering Sheikhs,” Sunday Times, August 29, 1993.

“whores, pornography”: David Leigh and David Pallister, “Murky Shadows Amid the Riviera Sunshine,” Guardian, March 5, 1999.

147 shooting at them: interview with Mohammed al-Rasheed.

modest, one-story house: interview with Frank Anderson.

raised ostriches: Jamal Khashoggi, personal communication.

White Knight: Petition by Despina Sahini v. Turki Saeed or Turki al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Court of First Instance, Athens, Greece, February 2, 2003.

banana daiquiri: Coll, Ghost Wars, 73.

148 “This man has defamed”: interview with Ahmed Badeeb.

149 ex-convicts: ibid.

taught and studied in Mecca: interview with Sami Angawi.

forbade the Shia: Simons, Saudi Arabia, 34.

1 percent of the world Muslim population: Yamani, To Be a