Manhunt

by Peter L. Bergen

  20 Bin Laden’s first wife: Wisal al-Turabi, interview by Sam Dealey, Khartoum, Sudan, July 10, 2005.

  21 eventually agreed to her request: bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden, pp. 282 and 146.

  22 allowed her to take only three: Ibid., p. 282.

  23 “I will never divorce you”: Ibid.

  24 Najwa left Afghanistan on September 9, 2001: Ibid., p. 146.

  25 motivation to marry Khairiah: Wisal al-Turabi interview.

  26 a man she believed to be a true holy warrior: Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), p. 252.

  27 they had a boy: bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden, pp. 238–39.

  28 Khairiah fled Afghanistan for neighboring Iran: Mohammed Al Shafey, “Bin Laden’s Family Under House Arrest in Iran,” Asharq al-Awsat, December 23, 2009, www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=19259.

  29 not uncomfortable: Lara Setrakian, “Osama Bin Laden’s Teen Daughter Allowed to Leave Iran,” ABC News, March 22, 2010, abcnews.go.com/Blotter/International/iran-releases-osama-bin-ladens-teenage-daughter/story?id=10169432#.TsWKlF1AIj8.

  30 militants abducted Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki: “Iran Says Rescued Diplomat Kidnapped in Pakistan,” Reuters, March 30, 2010, uk.reuters.com/article/2010/03/30/uk-pakistan-iran-idUKTRE62T1FU20100330.

  31 This was part of a deal: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials, July 2011.

  32 Sometime during the blazing summer of 2010: Christina Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide to Bin Laden Lair,” Sunday Times, May 22, 2011, www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Asia/article631893.ece; author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  33 Her one disappointment was: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  34 Siham’s first son, Khalid: In the spring of 2011, bin Laden and Siham were planning Khalid’s marriage to the daughter of an al-Qaeda fighter who had been killed in Afghanistan a few years earlier. Siham also had two of her daughters living with her: Maryam, age twenty, and Sumaiyah, age sixteen. There had also been tragedies for bin Laden and Siham. Their third daughter, Khadija, had married an al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan in 1999 when she was only eleven, but had recently succumbed to an illness in Pakistan’s tribal regions, while Khadija’s husband had also died in an American drone strike. So now their four young children were living in the Abbottabad compound along with Grandpa Osama and Grandma Siham.

  35 Siham had been a student: Mustafa al-Ansari, “Bin Ladin’s Brother-in-Law to Al Hayah: ‘My Sister Holds PhD: She Differs with Husband Usama Ideologically,’ ” Al Hayat online, May 26, 2011.

  36 Siham’s parents opposed … went ahead: Ibid.

  37 donated it all: Ibid.

  38 often edit bin Laden’s writings: Ibid.

  39 “chained” to bin Laden: Ibid.

  40 “She had to be religious”: Hala Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife,” Sunday Times, January 24, 2010, www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/article195679.ece.

  41 “really believed that being a dutiful and obedient wife”: Ibid.

  42 couched as coming from a businessman: Mustafa al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse, ‘Amal,’ Will Not Remarry Even If Asked by President Ali Saleh!” Al Hayat, Arabic, June 13, 2011.

  43 “God has blessed it”: Ibid.

  44 a $5,000 dowry: Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  45 “We agreed that”: al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse.”

  46 The women had their own, more modest party: Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  47 Initially, bin Laden’s other wives: Nasser al-Bahri, Dans l’Ombre de Ben Laden: Révélations de son garde du corps repenti (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France: Éditions Michel Lafon, 2010), p. 201.

  48 traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan: al-Ansari, “Bin Laden’s Yemeni Spouse.”

  49 “Thank you for this great upbringing”: Ibid.

  50 “go down in history”: Ibid.

  51 named her after the Safia: Hamid Mir, interviews by author, Islamabad, Pakistan, May 11, 2002, and March 2005.

  52 another four children: “Yemen Family of bin Laden Widow Demands Her Return,” Agence France Presse, May 17, 2011, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011518story_18-5-2011_pg7_7.

  53 two while she: Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide.”

  54 “Marry and increase in number”: al-Ansari, “Bin Ladin’s Brother-in-Law.”

  55 “I don’t understand why”: Abdullah Anas, interview by author, London, June 15, 17, and 20, 2005.

  56 For their meat consumption: Shopkeeper Mohammed Rashid told BBC Urdu’s Aijaz Mahar that two goats were delivered every week, presumably for slaughter and consumption. “What Was Life Like in the Bin Laden Compound?” BBC, May 9, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13266944.

  57 Milk came from: Saeed Shah, “Pakistani Officers’ Photos Show Blood, but Not Bin Laden,” McClatchy Newspapers, May 4, 2011, www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/04/113699/pakistani-officers-photos-show.html.

  58 If neighborhood kids accidentally: “Abbottabad Children Played by Bin Laden Compound,” CNN, May 9, 2011, articles.cnn.com/2011-05-09/world/pakistan.bin.laden.children_1_bin-terror-leader-compound?_s=PM:WORLD.

  59 knock for ten or twenty minutes: Ibid.

  60 would not give their names and were notably religious: Stan Grant, interview with local child, The Situation Room, CNN, aired May 30, 2011, transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/30/sitroom.02.html.

  61 electricity and gas bills: Ihsan Mohammad Khan, interview by author, Abbottabad, Pakistan, July 21, 2011; review of the electricity and gas bills by author.

  62 didn’t need air-conditioning: Khaled al-Fawwaz, interview by author, London, April 1, 1997.

  63 compound had no running water: Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, August 30, 2005.

  64 “You should learn to sacrifice everything”: Ibid.

  65 attended a madrassa: Lamb, “Revealed: SEALs’ Secret Guide.”

  66 did not go to school: Robert Booth, Saeed Shah, and Jason Burke, “Osama Bin Laden Death: How Family Scene in Compound Turned to Carnage,” Guardian, May 5, 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/05/bin-laden-death-family-compound.

  67 both academics: al-Hammadi, “Osama’s Former ‘Bodyguard.’ ”

  68 taught them poetry: Zaynab Khadr, interview by Terrence McKenna, Islamabad, Pakistan, “Al Qaeda Family,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “Maha Elsammah and Zaynab Khadr,” February 22, 2004. Transcript available at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/khadr/interviews/mahazaynab.html.

  69 delivered an address: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  70 bin Laden created a dedicated living space: Wright, The Looming Lower, p. 251; Abu Jundal, “His Three Wives Lived in One House That Had Only One Floor. They Lived in Perfect Harmony,”; Khalid al-Hammadi, “Bin Laden’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed, Al-Quds al-Arabi, March 20 to April 4, 2004.

  71 exhaust system that was nothing more: Author observations of Abbottabad compound.

  72 The third floor: Author interview with Pakistani officials.

  73 “Husband and wife”: al-Hammadi, “Osama’s Former ‘Bodyguard.’ ”

  74 never raised his voice in anger: bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden, p. 41.

  75 close relationship with his mother: Khaled Batarfi, interview by author, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 5 and 9, 2005.

  76 A clue as to how the fifty-four-year-old: JoNel Aleccia, “What Was in Medicine Chests at Bin Laden Compound?” MSNBC, May 6, 2011, sys12-today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42934673/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/.

  77 herbs or other natural sources: Jaber, “Finding Osama a Wife.”

  78 about 12,000 rupees a month each: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence official.

  79 bought and sold gold bangles and rings: Shah, “At End, Bin Laden Wasn’t Running al-Qaeda”: author in
terview with jewelry store owner in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, July 19, 2011.

  80 catch a glimpse: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials.

  81 instructed her never to talk about him: Tariq Iqbal Chaudhry, “Abbottabad Commission Interviews al-Kuwaiti’s Wife,” The News, November 13, 2011, www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=77219&Cat=2.

  82 religious practices: bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden, p. 17.

  83 Al Jazeera television and BBC radio: “Osama bin Laden Videos Released by Government,” ABC News, May 8, 2011, abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-home-videos-released-pentagon/story?id=13552384; Hamid Mir interview.

  84 wrapped in a blanket: “Osama bin Laden Videos Released by Government.”

  85 publicly referred to Obama as a “house Negro”: “Al Qaeda Leader Mocks Obama in Web Posting,” CNN, November 19, 2008, articles.cnn.com/2008-11-19/us/obama.alqaeda_1_al-zawahiri-barack-obama-obama-smuslim/2?_s=PM:US.

  86 Palestine, but also the environment and the global economy: Author interview with Pakistani officials.

  87 And he voraciously read: Statement transcript, ABC News, September 6, 2007, abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/transcript2.pdf. These books very likely came from the two excellent English-language bookstores, Saeed Book Bank and Mr. Books, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, two hours’ drive from Abbottabad.

  CHAPTER 1: 9/11 AND AFTER

  1 “Our boys were shocked”: From John Miller interview with Osama bin Laden for PBS Frontline, May 1998, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html.

  2 loved like a father: For description of the attitudes of bin Laden’s followers toward their leader, see JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Shalabi, ISN US9SA-000042DP, May 14, 2008.

  3 boots on the ground: In interviews with veteran Al-Hayat journalist Camille Tawil, former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group shura member Noman Benotman repeatedly quotes bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders referring to U.S. troops as “cowards” and notes that bin Laden did not think the United States would send troops to Afghanistan in retaliation for an attack. Camille Tawil, “The Other Face of al-Qaeda,” trans. Maryan El-Hajbi and Mustafa Abulhimal, Quilliam Foundation, November 2010, p. 15.

  4 feeble as the former Soviet Union: See bin Laden interview with Al Jazeera, 1998, available via www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1358734/Ever-since-I-can-recall-I-despised-and-felt-hatred-towards-Americans.html.

  5 some of al-Qaeda’s senior officials: Saif al-Adel and Abu Hafs al-Mauritani in particular expressed reservations about the attacks, out of concern that they would bring a devastating American response and might not be religiously justified. See “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Final Report” (Washington, DC, 2004) (hereafter “9/11 Commission Report”), pp. 251–52.

  6 inoculate himself against any anger: Ibid., p. 252.

  7 Tunisian Belgian al-Qaeda assassins: Gary Schroen, First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan (New York: Presidio Press, 2005), pp. 1–6.

  8 on Thursday, September 6: “Osama Bin Laden Video Excerpts,” BBC, December 14, 2001, news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/1709425.stm.

  9 heard the welcome news: Feroz Ali Abbasi, a British Ugandan militant living in an al-Qaeda camp, later wrote that he and others heard about the killing on September 9, while listening to the radio. Feroz Ali Abbasi, Guantánamo Bay Prison Memoirs, 2002–2004, author’s collection.

  10 fervent hope and belief: Based on author observations and study of bin Laden.

  11 six days a week: George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 207.

  12 the CIA’s assessment: Ibid., p. 242.

  13 planned to detonate: Barbara Sude, interview by author, Washington, DC, December 16, 2009.

  14 “preparations for hijackings”: “Transcript: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,” CNN, April 10, 2004, articles.cnn.com/2004-04-10/politics/august6.memo_1_bin-conduct-terrorist-attacks-abu-zubaydah?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS.

  15 longest presidential vacation: Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker, “Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record,” Washington Post, August 3, 2005, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201703.html.

  16 Morell gave the President’s Daily Brief: Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  17 Fleischer asked Morell: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, pp. 253–54.

  18 “smells like Osama bin Laden”: Ari Fleischer, interview by author, New York, September 11, 2011.

  19 “kick their ass”: George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), p. 128.

  20 “see the news today”: Proceedings of a military commission, United States v. Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul, May 7, 2008, www.defense.gov/news/01%/20%al%20Bahlul-trans-Pages%201to%20333-Redacted.pdf; also see Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars (London: Penguin Books, 2011), p. 24.

  21 bin Laden brushed aside Zawahiri’s obsessive focus: Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, United Kingdom, August 30, 2005.

  22 described his first meeting with bin Laden in 1997 as “beautiful”: Khalid Al-Hammadi, “Bin Laden’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on Al Qaeda Strategies,” Al Quds Al Arabi, in Arabic, August 3, 2004, and March 20–April 4, 2005.

  23 “a very charismatic person”: Excerpts from Shadi Abdalla’s (alias Emad Abdulhadie) interviews with German authorities that took place between April 2002 (when he was arrested) and May 2003. Author’s collection.

  24 tuned his radio to the BBC’s Arabic service: Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 307; Burke, The 9/11 Wars, p. 24; also see Yosri Fouda and Nick Fielding, Masterminds of Terror: The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Terrorist Attack the World Has Ever Seen (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003), p. 145.

  25 “the brothers have struck”: Fouda and Fielding, Masterminds of Terror, p. 144.

  26 “Reports from the United States”: Ibid.

  27 “be patient”: This is from a videotaped conversation between bin Laden and a Saudi supporter; see Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, p. 283; “Bin Laden Rejoiced on Sept. 11,” ABC News, December 13, 2001.

  28 “Patience! Patience!” … sadness for the brothers: Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swann, The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden (New York: Ballantine Books, 2011), p. 362.

  29 Bin Laden was confident: Al-Qaeda military leader Mohammed Atef (known as Abu Hafs al-Masri) told Al Jazeera and Al-Hayat journalist Ahmad Zaidan in late 2000 that the kind of attack they expected after the USS Cole bombing would be similar to the American attacks on Kosovo and Serbia, U.S. air strikes from bases in Central Asia and maybe Pakistan; see Michael Scheuer, Osama bin Laden (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 229; also see Ahmad Zaidan, Usama Bin Ladin Without a Mask: Interviews Banned by the Taliban (Lebanon: World Book Publishing Company, 2003).

  30 Morell replied: Author interview with senior U.S. intelligence official, Washington, DC; also Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 254.

  31 Offutt Air Force Base: “9/11 Commission Report,” p.325.

  32 “We knew it was al-Qaeda”: Author interview with U.S. intelligence official, Washington, DC.

  33 “looked, smelled, and tasted”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 259.

  34 as many as sixty: Office of the Inspector General, “Report on CIA Accountability with Respect to the 9/11 Attacks,” August 21, 2007, www.cia.gov/library/reports/Executive%20Summary_OIG%20Report.pdf.

  35 relied on only some: Ambassador Hank Crumpton, “Remarks at CSIS Smart Power Series,” Washington, DC, January 14, 2008, csis.org/files/media/csis/press/080114_smart_crumpton.pdf.

  36 on September 17, Bush signed: “John Rizzo: The Lawyer Who Approved the CIA’s Most Controversial Program,” PBS Frontline, September 6, 2011

  37 “I had never in my experience”: Ibid.

 
38 “I want justice”: “Bush: Bin Laden ‘Wanted Dead or Alive,’ ” CNN, September 17, 2001, articles.cnn.com/2001-09-17/us/bush.powell.terrorism_1_bin-qaeda-terrorist-attacks?_s=PM:US.

  39 received a messenger: Jamal Ismail, interview by the author, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 2005.

  40 decade and a half … aired on Al Jazeera: Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, pp. xxxiv and 2.

  41 “They have links”: Jamal Ismail interview.

  42 requested, to no avail: David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens, “Diplomats Met with Taliban on Bin Laden,” Washington Post, October 29, 2001, www.infowars.com/saved%20pages/Prior_Knowledge/US_met_taliban.htm.

  43 “I will not hand over a Muslim”: Abu Walid al-Misri, The History of the Arab Afghans from the Time of Their Arrival in Afghanistan Until Their Departure with the Taliban, serialized in Asharq Al-Awsat, December 8–14, 2004.

  44 “Islam says that when”: Vahid Mojdeh, former Taliban official, interview by author, Kabul, Afghanistan, January 2005.

  45 telling Yusufzai: Rahimullah Yusufzai, interview by author, Peshawar, Pakistan, September 1998 and June 29, 2003.

  46 Omar asked Yusufzai: Ibid.

  47 Mullah Omar naïvely believed: Abdul Salam Zaeef, My Life with the Taliban (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), p. 149.

  48 of Muslims everywhere: John F. Burns, “Afghanistan’s Professional Class Flees Rule by Ultra-Strict Clerics,” New York Times, October 7, 1996.

  49 hundreds of cheering Taliban: For an account of this event, see Norimitsu Onishi, “A Nation Challenged: A Shrine, a Tale of the Mullah, and Muhammad’s Amazing Cloak,” New York Times, December 19, 2001, www.nytimes.com/2001/12/19/world/a-nation-challenged-a-shrine-a-tale-of-the-mullah-and-muhammad-s-amazing-cloak.html.

  50 “a piece of red-hot coal”: Pamela Constable, “Tales of the Taliban: Part Tragedy, Part Farce,” Washington Post, February 28, 2004.

  51 two giant Buddhas: A description can be found in Carlotta Gall, “Afghans Consider Rebuilding Bamiyan Buddhas,” International Herald Tribune, November 5, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/world/asia/05iht-buddhas.3793036.html.