The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright [235]
“Somalis treated us”: al-Hammadi, “The Inside Story of al-Qa’ida,” part 2, March 24, 2005.
189 “Based on the reports”: Taysir Aluni interview with Osama bin Laden, al-Jazeera, October 2001.
Ali Mohammed, taught: interview with Jack Cloonan.
Qari el-Said: interview with Abdullah Anas.
190 two months of 1994: Wiktorowicz, “The New Global Threat.”
“Thank God”: interview with Abdullah Anas.
“better image”: Evan Kohlmann, “The Legacy of the Arab-Afghans: A Case Study” (international politics honors thesis, Georgetown University, 2001).
“too flexible”: interview with Abdullah Anas.
More than a hundred thousand: Kepel, Jihad, 254.
chemical agents…smuggling: testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
191 Jamal al-Fadl: interviews with Jack Cloonan and Mark Rossini.
The general wanted $1.5 million: testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al. Mohammed Loay Baizid (Abu Rida al-Suri), who allegedly purchased the “uranium” for bin Laden, claims that this entire episode never happened. His statement is supported by Hassabulla Omer, who was working in Sudanese intelligence at the time. Both men say there were similar rumors and scams operating in Khartoum that might have been the basis for Fadl’s testimony.
191 red mercury: personal correspondence with Roy Schwitters.
nuclear warheads: Anonymous, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, 125.
192 Ansar al-Sunnah Mosque: Details about the assassination attempt come from Mohammed Ibrahim Naqd, “The First Attempt to Assassinate bin Laden Was Attempted by a Libyan Who Was Trained in Lebanon,” Al-Hayat, November 18, 2001; and Ibrahim Hassan Ardi, “Al-Watan Places the Period the Head of al-Qaeda Spent in Sudan,” Al-Watan, October 25, 2001; “Ossama bin-Ladin: Muslims Who Live in Europe Are Kafirs,” Rose al-Yousef, December 9, 1996; al-Hammadi, “The Inside Story of al-Qa’ida,” part 3, March 21, 2005; and from interviews with Issam al-Turabi, Sadiq el-Mahdi, Hassabulla Omer, and Khaled Yusuf. A number of sources state that there were actually two assassination attempts on bin Laden, sometimes given as being several weeks apart, but those reports stem from bin Laden himself, who counts the shooting at the mosque the night before as an attempt on his life.
suffered from asthma: interview with Jamal Khalifa. Some of the details about bin Laden’s son Abdullah come from al-Hammadi, “The Inside Story of al-Qa’ida,” part 3, March 21, 2005.
“At that moment”: “Ossama bin-Ladin: Muslims Who Live in Europe Are Kafirs,” Rose al-Yousef, December 9, 1996.
193 “They had targeted”: ibid.
“regimes in our Arabic region”: Wright, “The Man Behind bin Laden.”
Egyptian intelligence: interview with Jamal Khashoggi.
CIA believed: interview with Michael Scheuer.
kept their university jobs: interview with anonymous Sudanese source.
194 “We have not been”: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
It was Egypt: ibid.
195 Fahd personally decided: interview with Saeed Badeeb.
“Take it,”: “Walidee Ramama al-Aqsa Bilkhasara” [My Father Renovated al-Aqsa Mosque, with a Loss], Al-Umma al-Islamiyya, October 18, 1991.
seeking asylum: Daniel McGrory, “The Day When Osama bin Laden Applied for Asylum—in Britain,” Times, September 29, 2005.
about $7 million: interview with bin Laden family spokesperson.
196 depended on the monthly stipend: interview with Jamal Khalifa.
spreading money around: interview with Hassabulla Omer.
rock-crushing machines: Benjamin Weiser, “Ex-Aide Tells of Plot to Kill bin Laden,” New York Times, February 21, 2001.
“Business is very bad”: testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al. Interview with Mohammed Loay Baizid.
197 “lost all my money”: testimony of L’Houssaine Kherchtou, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
a billionaire: testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
nearly $1 million: ibid. The actual amounts were