Al-Qaeda (61 page)

14
. Al-Fadl testimony; Cooley,
Unholy Wars
, p. 122.

15
. Testimony of FBI Agent Anticev, Embassy Bombings trial, New York, 22 February 2001.

16
. Testimony of L’Hossaine Kertchou, USA
v
. Usama bin Laden, 26 February 2001.

17
. CNN interview, transcript available on CNN website.

18
. Scott Peterson of the
Christian Science Monitor
, private communication to the author, August 2002.

19
. Transcript of day 36, US Embassy trials, New York, 30 April 2001.

20
. Weaver, ‘The Real bin Laden’,
New Yorker
, 24 January 2000.

21
. Scott Peterson, private communication with the author; Mark Huband,
Warriors of the Prophet
, p. 41.

22
. Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p. 89.

23
. Al-Fadl testimony.

24
. Wright, ‘The Man Behind bin Laden’.

25
. Cooley,
Unholy Wars
, pp. 32, 43; Hiro,
War Without End
, p. 69, Montasser al-Zayat,
The Road to al-Qaeda
, Pluto, 2003, p. 34.

26
. Ibid., p. 75.

27
. ‘Da’wa’ means making bad Muslims better Muslims as well as converting those from other faiths.

28
. Hiro,
War Without End
, p. 91.

29
. Al-Fadl testimony.

30
. Al-Fadl testimony.

31
. The man in charge of the assassination attempt was Mustafa Hamza, an al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya senior operative who, though he was not a member of ‘al-Qaeda’, was working in one of bin Laden’s businesses in Khartoum. Al-Zayat,
The Road to al-Qaeda
, p. 62.

32
. Fandy,
Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent
, pp. 1–3; Hiro,
War Without End
, p. 173; Reuters, 25 October 1996.

33
. Indictment, United States District Court of Virginia, USA
v
. Ahmed al-Mughassil
et al
., June 2001. In December 2003 former FBI director Louis Freeh said in court that he believed there was ‘overwhelming’ evidence that senior Iranian government officials financed and directed the Khobar Towers bombing. Carol Leonnig, ‘Freeh Links Iran to Khobar Bombing’,
Washington Post
, 19 December 2003.

34
. CNN interview, 1997.

35
. Interview with Libyan activist in Sudan at the time, London, February 2003. For a full account of this incident see al-Zayat, p. 105.

36
. Hiro,
War Without End
, p. 174; Barton Gellman, ‘Sudan’s Offer to Arrest Militant Fell Through After Saudis Said No’,
Washington Post
, 3October 2001.

37
. Benjamin and Simon,
The Age of Sacred Terror
, p. 246.

11: Struggle

1
. Testimony of Agent Stephen Gaudin, USA
v
. Usama bin Laden, transcript day 14, 7 March 2001.

2
. Interviews with close associates of Mujahed and Saznoor, Peshawar, October 2001; interviews with Mohammed Said Pahlwan, former Sayyaf commander, Peshawar, November 2001.

3
. Interviews with Mohammed Said Pahlwan, Haji Din Mohammed, Peshawar, November 2001; neighbours of Bagh Zahera in Jalalabad, October 2002.

4
. CNN interview, 1997.

5
. Reuel Marc Gerecht, ‘The Gospel According to Osama bin Laden’,
Atlantic Monthly
, January 2002.

6
. A full translation of Abdul Bari Atwan’s interview with bin Laden, first published in December 1996, appeared in
The Guardian
, 21 November 2001.

7
. Rahimullah Yusufzai, ‘Exporting Jehad’,
Newsline
, September 1998; interviews with former Hizb-e-Islami activists, Peshawar, June 2001.

8
. Behroz Khan, ‘Afghanistan’s Nation of Islam’,
Newsline
, September 1998; interview with Behroz Khan, September 2001; interviews with police chief and other officials in Khost, November 2001.

9
. At least that is what people in Khost told me.

10
. Qutb developed this with his radical ‘Takfiri’ doctrine. Combining Qutb with the practical experience of insurrection and resistance gained in their own country and in Afghanistan, the al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya in Egypt in the late 1980s and early 1990s made securing control of areas of territory a key part of their insurrectional strategy. Such captured or ‘liberated’ zones could be Islamicized.

11
. Testimony of Agent Gaudin.

12
. Letter in author collection.

13
. Various letters; letter dated 24 April 1998, all author collection.

14
. Letter in author collection.

15
. Testimony of Agent Gaudin, USA
v
. Usama bin Laden, New York, 2001.

16
. Letter obtained in Peshawar, September 1998, author collection.

17
. Communiqué, 21 May 1998, author collection.

18
. Benjamin Orbach, ‘Usama bin Ladin and al-Qaida: Origins and Doctrines’,
Middle East Review of International Affairs
, vol. 5, no. 4, December 2001.

19
. Rahimullah Yusufzai, ‘Myth and Man’,
Newsline
, September 1998.

20
. John Miller interview, May 1998, abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/miller–binladen–980609.html.

21
. Interview with Alex Yearsley of
Global Witness
, London, June 2002.

22
. David Pallister, ‘Fax to Newspaper Warned of Threat to Great Satan’,
The Guardian
, 12 August 1998.

23
. Testimony of Agent Gaudin, USA
v
. Usama bin Laden, New York, 2001.

12: Global Jihad

1
. ‘Bin Laden Getting Support’,
Associated Press
, 29 October 1999.

2
. In his book,
Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet
, al-Zawahiri explains: ‘The problem of finding a secure base for jihad activity in Egypt used to occupy me a lot, in view of the pursuits to which we were subjected by the security forces and because of Egypt’s flat terrain which made government control easy, for the River Nile runs in its narrow valley between two deserts that have no vegetation or water. Such a terrain made guerrilla warfare in Egypt impossible and, as a result, forced the inhabitants of this valley to submit to the central government and be exploited as workers and compelled them to be recruited in its army.’

3
. Alan Cullison and Andrew Higgins, ‘Computer in Kabul Holds Chilling Memos’,
Wall Street Journal
, 31 December 2001.

4
. Multiple interviews with senior Taliban officials, Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Jalalabad, 1998–9.

5
. Interview with senior Taliban official present at meeting, Peshawar, October 2001.

6
. Interview with former Taliban official, Peshawar, October 2002.

7
. Quoted in Roy,
The Failure of Political Islam
, p. 208.

8
. Ibid., p. 36.

9
. Abu Qutada fatwa, author collection, obtained in Peshawar, September 2001.

10
. Lecture by Dr Xavier Raufer, Research Director, Institute of Criminology, University of Paris, 21 November 2002, RUSI, London.

11
. Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p. 209.

12
. Cullison and Higgins, ‘Computer in Kabul Holds Chilling Memos’.

13
. Cullison and Higgins, ‘A Once-Stormy Terror Alliance Was Solidified by Cruise Missiles’,
Wall Street Journal
, 2 August 2002.

14
. Interview with Saudi intelligence officer, Peshawar, August 1998.

15
. Multiple interviews with senior Taliban and Pakistani officials, Islamabad, Peshawar and Kabul, 1999–2000, 2001.

16
.
Nida-ul-Momineen
, October 1998, author collection.

17
. Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p.179.

18
. Burke, ‘Revealed: Secret Hideout of World’s Most Feared Terrorist’,
The Observer
, 4 July 1999.

19
. Amir Mir, ‘Faith that Kills’,
Newsline
, October 1998; interview with Pakistani government minister, Lahore, Islamabad, December 1998; multiple interviews with senior police officers, Lahore, February 1999.

20
. Azmat Abbas, ‘Tentacles of Hatred’,
Herald
, September 2001.

21
. Ismail Khan, ‘Taliban Close Down Three Camps’,
News
, 19 June 2000.

22
. Ansar Abassi, ‘Taliban Close Down Training Camp’,
Dawn
, 6 September 2000.