The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright [240]
251 “This place is worse”: Alan Cullison and Andrew Higgins, “Strained Alliance: Inside al-Qaeda’s Afghan Turmoil,” Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2002.
254 play Nintendo: Abdel Bari Atwan, in Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, 170.
255 Azza: interview with Maha Elsamneh.
nonviolence initiative: interview with Montassir al-Zayyat.
256 twenty thousand Islamists: Weaver, A Portrait of Egypt, 264. Weaver estimates the number of Islamists slain to be between seven and eight thousand, 267.
released two thousand: Rubin, Islamic Fundamentalism, 161.
“The political translation”: Mohammed el-Shafey, “Al-Zawahiri’s Secret Papers,” part 5, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, December 17, 2002. Translated by FBIS.
bargaining chip: interview with Hisham Kassem.
257 three thousand security: Weaver, A Portrait of Egypt, 272.
red headbands: Douglas Jehl, “70 Die in Attack at Egypt Temple,” New York Times, November 18, 1997.
“No to tourists”: Weaver, A Portrait of Egypt, 259.
dead included: Alan Cowell, “At a Swiss Airport, 36 Dead, Home from Luxor,” New York Times, November 20, 1997; also, Douglas Jehl, “At Ancient Site Along the Nile, Modern Horror,” New York Times, November 19, 1997.
258 Rifai Taha said: Anonymous, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, 199.
bin Laden had financed: Jailan Halawi, “Bin Laden Behind Luxor Massacre?” Al-Ahram Weekly, May 20-26, 1999.
“The young men”: Lawrence Wright, “The Man Behind bin Laden,” New Yorker, September 16, 2002.
“We thought we’d never”: interview with Hisham Kassem.
259 The main point: Fu’ad Husayn, “Al-Zarqawi…The Second Generation of al-Qa’ida, Part Fourteen,” Al-Quds al-Arabi, July 13, 2005.
who was responsible: al-Zawahiri, “Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner,” part 11.
Zawahiri began writing: Kenneth M. Karas summation, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
260 lamely explaining: Zayyat, The Road to al-Qaeda, 89.
“dark past”: Mohammed el-Shafey, “Al-Zawahiri’s Secret Papers,” part 2, trans. FBIS, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, December 14, 2002.
“If the Contractor”: Mohammed el-Shafey, “Al-Qaeda’s Secret Emails,” part 2, trans. FBIS, June 13, 2005.
261 pledged to resign: al-Zayyat, The Road to al-Qaeda, 109.
Zawahiri’s own brother: interview with Hani al-Sibai.
“I myself heard”: confessions of Ahmed Ibrahim al-Sayed al-Najjar, “Returnees from Albania” case, September 1998.
16. “Now It Begins”
262 thirty Algerians…Young men from Yemen: Burke, Al-Qaeda, 186.
263 staged and cartoonish: interview with Ismail Khan.
“Let’s talk”: interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai.
“Terrorism can be commendable”: www.pbs.org/frontline.
he wouldn’t speak: al-Hammadi, “The Inside Story of al-Qa’ida,” part 6, March 24, 2005.
kidney disease: interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai.
264 ‘Owhali…Azzam: testimony of Stephen Gaudin, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
erased the Saudis’ faces: Miller, Stone, and Mitchell, The Cell, 192.
265 kidnap bin Laden: interviews with Michael Scheuer, Dale Watson, Mark Rossini, Daniel Coleman, and Richard A. Clarke.
267 “Finish this”: interview with Prince Turki al-Faisal.
left town: interview with Michael Scheuer.
268 “Are you agreed”: The meeting with Mullah Omar is largely Turki’s firsthand account. Michael Scheuer says, based on CIA coverage of the meeting, that Omar and Turki quarreled, with Omar reportedly saying, “Your highness, I have just one question: When did the royal family become lackeys of the Americans?”
four hundred four-wheel-drive…Mazar-e-Sharif: Rashid, Taliban, 72-73.
several hundred Arabs: ibid., 139.
Ahmed Salama Mabruk: interviews with Daniel Coleman, Mark Rossini, and Montassir al-Zayyat.
269 tortured: interview with Hafez Abu-Saada.
270 Saleh: His real name is Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammed el-Masri. He has never been captured. Interview with Ali Soufan; also, testimony of Stephen Gaudin, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al.
273 “Now it begins”: interview with Daniel Coleman.
274 Nairobi: interviews with Pascuale “Pat” D’Amuro, Stephen Gaudin, Mark Rossini, and Kenneth Maxwell.
passports: interview with Ali Soufan.
Stephen